Sligo’s Jimmy Sweeney will defend his world title against Venezuelan Jean Carlos Prada at the O2 Indigo in London, this Saturday.
Sweeney, a three-weight world champion in the sport, has won 22 of his 23 bare-knuckle boxing (BKB) bouts and is widely regarded as the best bare-knuckle boxer on the planet.
The Sligo southpaw’s sole loss in BKB came against American Julian Lane and was avenged by Sweeney in his next fight.
His opponent, Prada, will be making his BKB debut on Saturday night but brings a wealth of experience from the amateur and professional gloved game.
The Venezuelan represented his country in the 2004 Olympics in Greece and holds a professional boxing record of 37-10-1.
Jimmy spoke to Ocean FM sports Gary Feeney about his preparations for his world title bout:
This Saturday was set to be ‘The Celtic Warriors’ last BKB bout before he retired.
However, a conversation in his hotel room with BKB owners Jim Freeman and Joe Brown, prior to his last fight against former gloved pro and world-title challenger Edgar Puerto, convinced the Sligo man to continue on in the sport.
BKB ‘Prizefighter’ winner Ricardo Franco was set to be Sweeney’s opponent this Saturday but after back to back training camps Franco decided to opt-out of the fight to allow himself to rest and recover, he now wants to fight Sweeney on the next BKB card which is scheduled for November 16th.
The Celtic Warrior didn’t mind the change of opponent. Since reversing his decision to retire he welcomes all challengers from featherweight to middleweight: “After beating Prada and Franco that’s it, I’ve decided there are a lot of people getting a bit big for their boots, I will be taking out every fighter from featherweight to lightweight to middleweight that thinks he’s big enough to fight me.”
Sweeney vs Prada is the headline bout on Saturday’s pay-per-view BKB 18 card and is available to watch online here.
Listen back to Niall Delaney’s interview with Jimmy on the sport of bare-knuckle boxing here.
