Cork’s Gary ‘Spike’ O’Sullivan was a VIP guest of honour for heavyweight legend Mike Tyson’s visit to Thomond Park in Limerick last night, and took the opportunity to announce that he will be defending his WBO International Middleweight title at London’s ExCeL Arena on December 15th.
O’Sullivan was interviewed onstage by RTÉ’s Darragh Maloney and told the 700-strong crowd packed into the arena’s Thomond Suite “I can confirm that I will be defending my WBO title at London’s ExCeL Arena – and I’ll be defending it successfully. I’ll be fighting in the same arena as Katie Taylor when she won her Olympic gold medal for Ireland, and I’ll be coming home to Cork for Christmas with my WBO belt and my 16th career win.”
O’Sullivan thanked the organisers of the Thomond Park event for bringing Mike Tyson to Ireland and said of the ex-world champion “I was fortunate enough to spend some time with Mike earlier this evening and he was an absolute gentleman. We had a good chat and he is still passionate about the sport. He’s a true legend in the heavyweight division and it was great to hear him talking about his career and his life. He was an extraordinary athlete in his day.”
The WBO title defence in December will be O’Sullivan’s 4th with Frank Warren Promotions and when asked about his relationship with the UK promoter he said “Frank is one of the biggest boxing promoters in the world and he’s always been very decent to me whenever I’ve dealt with him. Obviously I’d like to fight more often but that’s the same for every boxer and the fact is I’m up to number 9 in the WBO’s world rankings now and at 28 I’m still young, so I’m obviously heading in the right direction.”
O’Sullivan currently holds the Irish BUI Middleweight and WBO International Middleweight titles with an unblemished record of 15 fights and 15 wins, with 9 of those victories coming by way of knockout.
