While students were sitting their final day of the leaving cert and looking forward to a bit of relaxation following their exams, this was not the case for one determined young Kilkenny Man.
Brandon McCarthy, who is from the village of Clogh in North Kilkenny, heads off to Cuba last night to take part in a 10 day boxing training camp, which he was invited to attend. With one eye on Cuba, he finished the last of his Leaving Certificate exams on Monday afternoon this week.
The 17 year old Kilkenny man, who boxes with St. Michael’s Athy, has 11 National Titles under his belt. He has also represented Ireland in the European Championships and departs for Havana, Cuba, on Tuesday evening joining other boxers from around the world.
McCarthy was recently selected to the Irish team to box in Hungary at this August’s World Championships.
“There were two scholarships offered to go to Cuba. The funding was arranged for it and we’re going over to train with the National Youth Team in Cuba”, he outlined on KCLR’s Monday Night Sport.
“They’re the best in the world (the Cubans). With the world championships coming up in August, you’ll be competing with them, so you can learn a lot from them. It will be a bit of everything (over the ten days), more the fitness and the technical work, that’s what they’re good for.”
“We fly to Amsterdam, then Paris, then on to Cuba on Tuesday. It’s a ten hour flight, then straight into training the following day. Training at 10am, training at 4pm every day. ”
“I’m more of a counter puncher. I like to stay long, make lads miss, I wouldn’t be a brawler or anything like that”, says McCarthy of his own style.
We look forward to seeing the results of of the camp and keeping track of McCarthy at the Worlds later this summer.
