Oisin Fagan: “I think Spadafora is over looking me, and that is a big mistake!”
 INTERVIEW By Benny Henderson Jr, AKA Big Dog (March 9, 2007) Doghouse Boxing
Coming up this Friday night March 9th at the Soaring Eagle Casino in Mount Pleasant, MI, “Gael Force” takes center stage in the biggest step up in his career when the fighting Irishman Oisin Fagan 17-3 (10) takes on the unbeaten former world champion Paul Spadafora 39-0-1 (16) in a light welterweight showdown.
Fagan, born in Dublin, Ireland who now resides in Oklahoma City, OK working as an elementary school teacher made his successful debut in February of ’03 registering a third round knockout over his fellow Oklahoman Sheldon Mosley. Fagan had a see saw career his first year and a half as a professional winning a few, losing out one winning here and there, one bout was against Julio Chavez Jr. a about where Fagan felt he got the bad end of a decision.
Since his last L on his record that came in December of 2004 Oisin has banged out eleven consecutive victories stopping five of his foe via knock out. This past summer Fagan traveled back to his motherland of Ireland to battle the Englishman Jeff Thomas. Fagan earned himself the Irish Lightweight title but putting Thomas to sleep in the seventh round. And in his first bout of ’07 Fagan made short work of the twenty fight veteran Brian Paul ending the night for the “Bean City Boy” in the second round via knock out.
Fagan now is set to face the former Lightweight champion Paul Spadafora, who in his forty bouts has never tasted defeat. Fagan wants to be the first to put a blemish on the record of “The Pittsburgh Kid”. All though the Irishman will have his hands full in this bout he feels confident that his heart, grit, determination along with his fast fists will rule the night and gain the thirty-three year old his biggest victory to date.
Read on to see what Fagan had to say on his upcoming match-up, enjoy.
Benny Henderson Jr.: Here it is just a few days away from the biggest fight of your career, give us your thoughts going into this one against Paul Spadafora.
Oisin Fagan: I think this fight has the potential to be a life changing event for me, it is of huge importance and I have great faith in God and have been waiting for a chance like this for a long time and now that I have been given the opportunity I have the chance to capitalize on it. I am going to go in there and give him my best shot, I am not the type of guy that goes around talking smack about other fighters because any man that gets into the ring has my respect, especially Spadafora he has never been beaten in this sport. I just feel that my time has come and I am not leaving that ring on Friday night without expending every ounce of energy that I have, I am going to keep on going and fight through the pain and hope that I come out with the big upset of the night.
BH: This is by far one of the toughest tests in your career, how are you handling the pressure?
OF: Normally I would be a bit nervous and anxious, but he is the one who should be a little bit anxious and nervous because all the pressure is on him because he has never lost, so I think he has all the pressure. He is probably looking at me as a stepping-stone to a world title fight later on this year and that is kind of suites me to be honest because it takes all the pressure of me. He probably is not expecting a lot from me but I am expecting a lot from myself and that is the main thing. I am quite confident and not too worried about the pressure.
BH: Do you see this as a win/win situation for yourself? I mean you win you defeated a former world champion, if you lose you were defeated by a former world champion.
OF: It can be looked upon as a win/win situation but I would not feel like I have won if I lost. (Laughs) I feel like this fight can only push my career forward especially if I put on a good performance. I am going to try to go in there and make it a very crowd pleasing fight, and hopefully my toughness and grit will show through, I think he is over looking me and that is a big mistake.
BH: How much do you feel you have matured as a fighter this past year or so?
OF: A huge amount, my fight in Dublin really got my confidence going. I have never fully been a real confident fighter because I have always had something in the back on my mind saying that I had only three amateur fights. I have fought some tough fights and one being against Chavez Jr. whom I felt got away with a gift decision. I definitely feel that I have matured as a fighter. My last eleven fights have been all wins; I kind of treated my first ten fights as my amateur career, where all the other professionals had a huge amateur career. My first few fights were a learning experience for me, now I feel better about myself and feel confident and I actually feel like I can box, I used to feel like a good fighter but not a good boxer, now I think I am better.
BH: What do you see as Spadafora’s strengths that could give you trouble and what weaknesses do you see in him that you feel like you can feed on?
OF: He is very slick, a very slick southpaw who is very accurate who throws multiple combinations. I just feel like this is my time, I have put a lot of sacrifice in getting this far. He has excellent skills but I just feel that I am tougher, I feel like I can out tough him and I think he is looking at me as an easy fight but I have been preparing to be anything but that. I feel his weakness is that he is over looking me.
BH: If you could send out a message to your opponent what would it be?
OF: I feel that my heart is second to none, I am going to come at him all night and fight him all night and fight till the very end, I hope that he is ready for a tough fight.
BH: Is there anything you would like to add or say in closing of this interview?
OF: Thank you for the interview and hopefully after Friday night we can have a Rocky type of story to tell. (Laughs)
I would like to thank Oisin Fagan for his time and thoughts.
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