CAOIMHÍN AGYARKO IS back in his element: punching things.
For a man of his occupation, it’s like scratching an itch that has lasted the bones of nine months.
Agyarko has wielded sore hands since the backend of his amateur career but the latest injury to his primary weapon became a figurative pain in the arse.
He hurt his left hand fighting on the undercard of Michael Conlan’s 2022 Fight of the Year with Leigh Wood last March. He presumed it to be the usual aches and pains and, unbeknown to himself, carried into his next bout in July a fracture and a detached ligament in his left thumb.
Agyarko won both bouts — one at middleweight, and one in his first outing down at light-middle — on virtual shutouts, improving his record to 12-0(7KOs). But there would be no further additions to his CV in 2022.
The Belfast man swapped London for Liverpool as his long-term training base in August and he had scarcely unzipped his gearbag by the time his new trainer, Joe McNally, proved his worth — by insisting that Agyarko withdraw from his upcoming contest with unbeaten American Peter Dobson rather than half-arse it or, in this case, half-hand it.
“As much as he thought I’d beat Dobson [16-0, 9KOs]“, Agyarko recalls, “it was the case where, one, if I went in and my hand went in the first round, it’d make it worse, or two, if my hand goes and I scrape a win, I’m getting slated on social media for not putting in a good performance when I’ve stepped up.
“Listen, I was heartbroken. I pleaded with Joe, argued with him to let me fight and that I’d beat this guy no matter what. But ultimately what he said was, ‘Listen, I wouldn’t put my own son in there and I’m not letting you fight. Feel free to get another coach but I’ll not be doing your corner if you fight injured.’
“I understand where he was coming from, now.
He said, ‘Listen, Christmas is around the corner; if I was a c*** of a coach I’d let you fight because it’s a payday for me.’ I respect Joe for that. He knew I’d come through the fight but he was thinking of the bigger picture, longer-term, and sometimes your coach has to step in to protect you from yourself.
“I’d not produced the performances that I probably should have in the previous two fights, and we made the right call to pull out of the last one: just to see what could be done with my hand.”
Agyarko now wears a crescent-shaped scar where his hand was repaired by a surgeon following a consultation with a specialist in Manchester.
Aside from the enforced period of inactivity, among his primary concerns was that he might miss the chance to fight on the undercard of his Matchroom stablemate Katie Taylor’s long-awaited Dublin homecoming.
It would make for only his second professional bout in his own country and, now back rumbling in the gym, ‘Black Thunder’ is forecast for the 3Arena on 20 May, formal confirmation pending.
Agyarko, 26, will prepare for his comeback at his new training base in Liverpool, a city with which he remains besotted even since addressing the elephant in the gym: he’s a lifelong Manchester United fan.
Liverpool and its people remind Agyarko of Belfast, he says, but Rotunda ABC boasts within its walls a level of healthy competition that dictates there is no comfort zone.
“Listen, when you’ve got an undisputed world champion, a former unified world champion and a former world champion all training with you in the gym, it’s unbelievable to see how they’ve gotten to that level, their work ethic and what they put into their sessions,” Agyarko says, referring to Scotland’s Josh Taylor and Liverpudlian brothers Callum and Liam Smith respectively.
“I’m like a student. It’s insane. I’m somebody who wants to learn about boxing every day, and that’s one of the reasons I moved gyms: ultimately, I wasn’t happy anymore in London but I just felt like I’d stopped learning. Whereas with Joe and Declan O’Rourke, I’m learning again every day. What they’re teaching me, I can see how it’s improving me as a fighter and how it’ll benefit me in the big fights.
“I’m somebody who’s always open to criticism in the gym. I’ll seek advice. I’ll observe a lot: I’ll watch Josh, Liam, Callum shadow-boxing, I’ll watch them when they’re on the bags. When they’re sparring, I’ll look out for the little things that they do that separate them from the rest. I won’t necessarily try to copy them but I’ll absorb what they do and try to add my own style to it. Or if I’m sparring them, if they don’t offer their own advice I’ll definitely ask them if there’s something I could be doing more of, or what I should be working on, and things like that.
“I’m all ears. Even if I’ve won a spar or I’ve made something look easy, I’m always open to hearing how I can better myself; the one per cents that you can add to your game that make the difference.”
All of which colours the extent to which boxing pervades the life of Caoimhín Agyarko: “There is no separation at all.”
Even during the long months back home in Belfast in which he couldn’t throw a meaningful punch with his left hand, Agyarko hit the roads most mornings. He spent two or three nights a week in his amateur club, Holy Trinity, either training one-handed or helping the kids who might one day adorn his own undercards.
There was no ‘mental break’, either. Indeed, Agyarko scoffs at the notion and explains that, instead, he used a large portion of his enforced hiatus to microscopically review footage of the dozens of boxers he admires; not only the greats of golden generations past but his modern-day contemporaries.
“I’m talking about guys like Gervonta Davis,” Agyarko says. “I was watching him recently and I was thinking I need to rebuild that aggression that I once had. I feel like that’s dropped off a bit. And maybe that’s just because I’ve had to compensate with my hand and box a bit more, but I watch fighters like Gervonta and I think, ‘Right, how do I implement that in my game?’
Normally, I wake up in the mornings and I’ll give myself an hour, an hour and a half before I go to the gym. And while I’m lying there, I’ll stick YouTube on on my PlayStation and I’ll stick a fight on. Or, if I come across a clip on Twitter, I’ll go and watch that fight or I’ll save it and watch it later when I’ve time. I’ll take an hour or an hour and a half out of most days to watch a certain fight.
“It’s the small things I’m looking for, the small patterns in fights. Say, with Gervonta Davis, as much as he looks like an aggressor, it’s how he sets everything up. He commits with everything: even if it’s just a small jab to the body, he commits, and when he commits with a small jab to the body, he brings his feet into a position where he’s then ready to let off that killer right hook or left uppercut. He’ll jab to the body, feint to the body and then throw that big right hook.
“And d’you know what, as much as I watch so many other fighters from all eras”, Agyarko adds, “I probably watch myself more than I watch anybody else. I’ll watch my own fights countless times and then look to implement improvements in the gym. I’ve been doing that a lot with Joe: working on things like my hand positioning both before and after my attacks.
“Sometimes when I’m attacking, I’m thinking so much about defending afterwards that I’m no longer in a position — or at a distance — to go for a second phase of attack. It’s just small things like that.
I always think I’m a fighter where you may be physically better than me; you may be stronger or faster or fitter. But you’ll never outthink me in that ring — and that’s what separates me from the rest of the fighters, as I see it.
“…So, yeah, I like to study boxing!” Agyarko laughs, eventually coming up for air. “A lot of boxers say they live, breathe and sleep boxing but I actually do, d’you know what I mean? It’s who I am. There’s no Caoimhín Agyarko without boxing. And I wouldn’t want it any other way.”
Boxing, however, has ostensibly been without Caoimhín Agyarko since last summer.
Should he fight in May, it will be his first outing in 10 months, a period of time in which other Irish fighters — such as his friend and promotional stablemate, unbeaten Kildare lightweight Gary Cully [16-0, 10KOs] — have generated plenty of justified hype with high-profile victories.
Attention is currency in pro boxing and Agyarko, unable to even twiddle both of his thumbs in the meantime, has sensed himself slipping out of conversations in which his name would previously have been one of the first on Irish boxing fans’ lips.
But with four fights planned between May and the end of the year, he reckons he won’t be long reminding people of why it used to be there in the first place.
“Irish boxing is booming and I’m not jealous because I support every Irish boxer, whether I have a relationship with them or not.
“I just felt that, towards the end of last year, I’d become a bit of a forgotten man.
“I’d fought co-main event on the Conlan card (v Wood) and then I moved down in weight and picked up another title (WBA International light-middleweight belt). But I didn’t have the big signature fight, or the signature knockout in the second half of the year.
“I haven’t fought since July so I’ve just felt like the forgotten Irishman,” Agyarko laughs. “Everyone else is getting their props, I’m seeing all these interviews with everybody else… And I’m happy for them, but I’m still here!
“Once you’re injured or removed from the scene for a little while, the media don’t really care about you — and listen, that’s just the way the world goes. I understand that and I don’t take it personally.
“But I’m looking forward to showing people that I haven’t gone anywhere. I’m going to be making a lot of noise again very soon, believe me.”
