Macklin set for December Dublin defence
Wednesday, 4 November 2009 15:30Matthew Macklin v Rafa Sosa Pintos will be shown live on RTÉ Two and online at www.rte.ie/sport.
European Middleweight Champion Matthew Macklin will fight Uruguayan Champion Rafa Sosa Pintos at the National Stadium, Dublin on 5 December.
The Birmingham based Irishman has had less than 10 minutes of competitive action this year but what an explosive ten minutes they've been.
In March he ended Birmingham rival Wayne Elcock's British title reign with a third round KO and then in September he followed that up with a sensational first round destruction of former European champ Amin Asikainen to claim the continental crown.
The impressive double has seen Macklin shoot up the World rankings and he is now rated fourth with the WBO, fifth with the IBF and eighth with the WBC. Clearly the future looks bright for the one time law student and underage Tipperary hurler.
Pintos has an excellent record of 34 wins from his 38 professional contests and having fought in Australia and Germany previously the South American is no stranger to fighting on the road.
'It's been a fantastic year but I have to put those wins behind me now and make sure I keep producing those kind of performances,' said Macklin.
'People are talking about world title shots but for me it's pretty simple, I know that as long as I keep winning those chances will
come my way but I just have to focus on one fight at a time.
'Obviously the world ratings show that I must be doing something right. The Ring magazine has me at number 6 in the world now at Middleweight and every time I see that I nearly have to pinch myself because I remember as a kid I used to be able to rattle off the Ring's ratings almost by heart.
'You knew if a fighter was ranked by the Ring then they had to be a really, good fighter so even getting in to the Ring ratings is a little milestone in itself for me.'
