SATURDAY IS A chance for Caoimhín Agyarko [9-0, 6KOs] not only to ignite his still-fledgling professional career but to formally introduce himself to the previously unacquainted back home in Ireland.
After a year in which he found himself mostly at a standstill under Frank Warren’s promotional banner, the 25-year-old Belfast middleweight will make his Matchroom debut in Liverpool tomorrow with a rankings belt on the line.
The former Irish Elite champion is these days guided by Eddie Hearn’s former matchmaker, Paul Ready, and his STN management outfit. The only obstacles in the way of Agyarko’s progression, now, should be the men seeking to take his head off in the ring, beginning with Californian Noe Larios Jr [14-0, 6KOs] on Merseyside.
Heralded since his 2018 debut live on BT Sport as one of Ireland’s brightest pro prospects, Agyarko hopes to rubber-stamp those credentials on DAZN at six o’clock tomorrow evening on the undercard of Hearn’s Conor Benn and Katie Taylor-co-headlined show.
Moreover, ‘Black Thunder’ spies a chance to start staking his claim as one of the big dogs on the Irish combat-sports scene, believing there to be a vacancy alongside Taylor in the country’s pantheon of popular professional fighters.
“I feel like there’s a great opportunity there — there’s a gap in the market, kind of,” says Agyarko, who has 150 fans travelling over from Belfast alone. “Even in combat sports generally, Conor McGregor has kind of fallen off, Carl Frampton has retired… Katie is there but there’s no male fighter that has taken that position. I definitely think it’s there to be taken.
“As long as I keep winning and keep improving, I’ve got a fan-friendly style so hopefully the Irish people will get behind me, support me. There’s definitely a chance for me to become Ireland’s next star.”
Agyarko with a chuckle describes himself as “an aggressive counter-puncher”, aware that it’s ostensibly an oxymoron. When you watch him slip shots and time his own off the front foot, however, it holds water.
“I can punch; fast hands, fast feet,” Agyarko says, giving fans a sense of what they might see from him on DAZN tomorrow. “I can box off the back foot or move from side to side. I can do a bit of everything: on the night, I’ll decide what I want to do. Whatever my opponent brings, I’ll adapt to that. I’m a fighter that likes to hurt people but at the same time, I can make you look silly.”
After fighting just once — and against a limited opponent — in the last 13 months, Agyarko describes the feeling of committing his future to Matchroom and securing tomorrow night’s fight date as a “weight off my shoulders”.
There is an added significance to his appearing on this Liverpool card, however: the fact that he is fighting on the same bill as a true Irish boxing great, something which he couldn’t have envisaged when they first crossed paths as amateurs five or six years ago.
“I remember watching Katie at the London Olympics,” Agyarko says. “I was in London — I was over in my dad’s, staying. We were cheering her on in his house. And then fast forward a couple of years, I was at a couple of training camps with her; training down in Dublin, up in Belfast, in Jordanstown, and just getting to know her.
To be on her undercard three, four years later: it’s unbelievable for me. Listen, I rate Katie Taylor so highly not just as a boxer, but as a person. I feel like she’s not just the greatest woman of all time but one of the greatest athletes of all time. She’s a credit to the sport, a credit to her family. So, to be boxing on her undercard, it means so much to me. I’m a huge fan of hers and this is a moment I’ll cherish for the rest of my life.
Asked what he believes separates Taylor from her contemporaries from his first-hand experience, Agyarko replies: “Just her mindset, how she conducts herself. She trains hard, she’s never let her success get the better of her. She’s the humblest person I’ve ever met in my life.”
He smiles:
I text her after one of her fights and said, ‘Congratulations, Katie. So happy for you.’ And she messaged me back and she was like: ‘Thank you so much, Caoimhín — that means a lot coming from you.’ And I’m thinking: ‘From me? I’m nobody compared to who you are, Katie.’ That just speaks volumes of who Katie is as a person.
Agyarko and Taylor have caught up on a couple of occasions this week and, speaking to The42 at Thursday’s press conference, their shared promoter revealed that in late 2016, he consulted with his new Irish recruit Taylor when it was suggested to him that he sign Agyarko to a professional deal. At the time, Eddie Hearn passed on Agyarko who instead penned with Warren, under whom he won his first nine professional fights.
When it became apparent that Agyarko was set to part ways with Warren a few months ago, however, Hearn swooped without thinking twice.
“I looked at his name [in 2016] — ‘Caoimhín Agya– who’s that?!’” Hearn laughs. “And we were signing all the Olympians. Then, I saw him fight and I thought, ‘Shit, this kid can really fight.’
I actually spoke to Katie about him. ‘Oh, this guy was trying to sign with us, Caoimh–’ and she was like, ‘Oh, he’s really good.’ She thinks he’s a really good fighter. And then I’ve seen him come on and I’ve just thought, ‘Bloody hell, we could’ve got that kid.’
“And then we got the call [recently] and we signed him within 24 hours.
“He looks good, he has a really exciting style,” Hearn adds. “You should never say, ‘He reminds me of Canelo,’ but he boxes in that same kind of style and manner. I think Saturday’s going to be interesting because I think he’s going to be quite nervous. He’s fighting a 14-0 kid who’s a kind of circuit fighter in the U.S. — but still an undefeated, decent fighter. So, he’s just got to be careful, relax, and he’ll look really good.
“He keeps talking about going back to Belfast and fighting over there and stuff like that. But it all depends. It’s like Conor Benn: you can look a million dollars but then step up a level and you can get found out. I don’t think that’ll happen with Conor but that’s where we’ll get to with Caoimhín in two or three fights’ time.”
Agyarko will seek to make a statement on his Matchroom debut but he insists that “there is no pressure. None at all.”
“This is boxing,” he says.
This is what I do. I’ve done this since I was seven years old. I felt real pressure when I got stabbed in 2017 and I pulled myself out of a dark hole. I hit rock bottom. That’s real pressure. I’ve felt real pressure in life. This is just sport.
“Maybe expectation: a lot of people expect a lot of me. I expect a lot of myself — no one else’s expectations will outweigh my own.
“My phone’s been going crazy. The last couple of weeks, since I signed with Matchroom, my phone’s been going crazy. It always goes crazy with the support from back home but the last couple of days it’s been going crazy.
Saturday night’s going to be mayhem. 150 crazy Irish fans. Fair play to them, two weeks before Christmas, coming over to Liverpool — and it’s expensive with flights, hotel… It’s unbelievable. I can’t thank them enough. It’s going to be a noisy night. It’s going to sound like Belfast.