Terry Flanagan: "I Will Be Stronger at Junior Welterweight"

[Ruthless-RKO]

In a statement, he has said,

My days in recent months have consisted of ticking over really, staying in the gym and waiting on a date.

I’ve spoken with Frank and he is close to doing a deal for me to fight Maurice Hooker for the vacant WBO super lightweight world title and hopefully we can get the fight over here.

It has been a frustrating time waiting to make my next move, with certain fights having fallen through. Then we got offered the chance to step up and become a two-weight world champion, so obviously I was always going to jump at the chance.

I have been looking to step up for about a year now and, as soon as Terence Crawford vacated, I saw the chance to become a two-weight champion.

Other champions saying they would fight me at lightweight never turned out to be any more than talk. People still go on about the Crolla fight, but that never materialised and, personally, I don’t think they ever wanted it.

With me moving up they are all probably happy now.

I got tired of talking about it all in the end and now I can just say they are too small for me and not at my weight.

I will be a stronger fighter at 140lbs and I think it has shown since the Derry Mathews fight that I have not reproduced the spark that I showed in beating Diego Magdaleno.

The new poundage will get more out of me. Before the last few weeks were just about making weight and I wasn’t getting anything out of myself in the gym.

I will be able to spar a bit heavier now and when I am in the gym I am probably at my best at around 10st 7lbs.
Getting down to spar at 10st 2lbs takes that little bit more out of you.

Hopefully I will be a better fighter at the new weight and it will prove to be a good decision.

I don’t actually believe I have missed out on fights against the other lightweight champions because I think they will move up themselves soon enough anyway.

I will have a title already and if people like Mikey Garcia and Jorge Linares want a shot I will be there waiting.

Even though Christmas is looming, I am in the gym waiting for my title shot to be signed. I have seen bits of Hooker and Steve (trainer, Maylett) thinks I beat him and is confident.

Steve is not daft and is a clever judge. I won’t give anything away tactics-wise, but we know how to beat him.
It will be a good fight and, unlike against Petr Petrov in April, he will get me out of first gear.

I need a little bit of fear and I think that is just the way I am. In camp I leave no stone unturned and work as hard as anyone.

I can imagine the feeling of losing when you shouldn’t. I saw James DeGale the other week when he could have won the fight easily by stringing two or three rounds together and stopped him. He couldn’t do that and you could see he was devastated at the end.

I don’t want that feeling.

[jamamb]

flangan

[Ruthless-RKO]

flangan

I want to support him, he's a fellow Mancunian, but I struggle to get behind him. His opposition has been piss-poor.. They claim no one wants to fight him, he's not actually avoided, he's not that dangerous. Pack of lies if you ask me..

[bigjack]

flangan

God have you listened to his interviews,like Huey Fury on tranquilisers

[Ruthless-RKO]

flangan

God have you listened to his interviews,like Huey Fury on tranquilisers

He does sound like he didn't go to school.

[Stuarty]

Haven't been in the least bit impressed with Flanagan since he walked through Magdaleno. He's been pretty poor against mediocre opposition.

[bigjack]

Haven't been in the least bit impressed with Flanagan since he walked through Magdaleno. He's been pretty poor against mediocre opposition.

Yeh,i thought we were going to see something after that,sadly not and now i have zero interest in him.

[jameswilson]

The threads where wes and expe used to argue that if you don't count Crolla's 4 best wins then Flanagan has the best win out of the two do seem to have gone quiet lately which I think speaks for a lot.

[Stuarty]

Terry 'Nytol' Flanagan

[KiwiRider]

He might be stronger at Jr Welter, but so is everyone else.
Taylor, Davis, Nurse, Catteral..
Tough journey to be the top UK JW let alone stepping into the world stage...

[gilgamesh]

The Jr. Welterweight division isn't all that threatening at the moment. I figure Flanagan will hold his own there.

[KiwiRider]

The Jr. Welterweight division isn't all that threatening at the moment. I figure Flanagan will hold his own there.

You don't think Taylor or Davies pose a threat?
I had a look back over Terry's recent opponents and think maybe he hasn't tasted the power the above mentioned guys bring. And again, that's within the UK only.

[jamamb]

davies still getting overrated then? hes not even worth mentoning until he beats someone decent. derry was old small and shot. daves was clueless and gave taylor no more than his 3rd toughest fght. maybe 4th toughest. the south afrcan landed more. vasquez won maybe 3 rounds and the guy jt fought in the us prob won a couple. daves on the otherhand was useless. why do ppl rate this guy? maybe hes better than he showed but based on what?

and a guy such as nurse flanagan would beat easy. get real. nurses on joe hughes level. the domestc 140 talent doesnt impress me at all outside taylor. no clue why ppl would beleve its duanting.

[gilgamesh]

The Jr. Welterweight division isn't all that threatening at the moment. I figure Flanagan will hold his own there.

You don't think Taylor or Davies pose a threat?
I had a look back over Terry's recent opponents and think maybe he hasn't tasted the power the above mentioned guys bring. And again, that's within the UK only.

I didn't say they don't pose a threat, but I don't think it's an especially threatening division at the moment. I doubt Flanagan is losing any sleep over Taylor, and I know he's not losing any over Davies.

[jamamb]

the 140 talents nothing impressive outsde taylor. its obvously stretching when a poster mentons a guy who couldnt even beat joe hughes.

[gilgamesh]

the 140 talents nothing impressive outsde taylor

Mikey Garcia is gonna be the boss at 140 next year. Taylor might wind up cracking the Top 5 by the end of the year. It's not an especially deep division right now. Probably the weakest division from Heavyweight on down to Featherweight at the moment.

Wouldn't be hard at all for Flanagan to hang with some of the best this division has to offer. Garcia is the only one he'd be a definite underdog against I'd say, and that's again a statement on how weak the division is because Flanagan isn't especially impressive to me either. I don't know that Flanagan ever clearly established himself as one of the Top 4 guys at Lightweight even, and Lightweight isn't exactly a deep field at the moment either.

[markinmidd]

Cant be doing with pisstaking on here, he’s a world champion ffs. His statement rings true, does struggle to boil down. Be stronger moving up, fact. Lot of short memories on here, reminds me why I don’t bother on here. Use to have some insightful threads, now just lads slagging off world champion simply coz he not laugh a minute on camera. Jesus

[dirk2686]

Cant be doing with pisstaking on here, he’s a world champion ffs. His statement rings true, does struggle to boil down. Be stronger moving up, fact. Lot of short memories on here, reminds me why I don’t bother on here. Use to have some insightful threads, now just lads slagging off world champion simply coz he not laugh a minute on camera. Jesus

You have to concede that Flanagan has been a frustrating guy to follow recently. It's hard not to be a bit disappointed when you have the likes of Garcia and Linares being mooted for a fight with him, plus a big domestic scrap against Crolla, and instead we get none of them.

He may not be Oliver Reed out of the ring and he doesn't need to be, but does anyone get that excited about fights against the likes of Petrov and Cruz?

[jamamb]

he doesnt get deluxe fawning treatment just for being a champ. yes hes a good boxer and way better than the posters on here, etc. but its just a fact that his career has gotten boring with the opponents and the upcoming opponent, that hes not too exciting in the ring, that hes not very entertaining outside. thats all relevant to my interest as a fan and also his drawing power and ability to get matches with bigger names.

[markinmidd]

Points taken and well made pal as is dirks above

[markinmidd]

Like most fighters I’m sure Terry wants to fight the top lads but as we all know, down to money, promoter, not many want to fight such big lad at the weight

[dirk2686]

Like most fighters I’m sure Terry wants to fight the top lads but as we all know, down to money, promoter, not many want to fight such big lad at the weight

Oh I agree with this - I don't think Terry is thinking to himself 'I'd love to carry on being largely unknown and avoiding the biggest fights out there for me.' I don't think for a second he'd rather be stood in front of a few thousand against Petrov watching the arena empty around him than earning loads more in front of loads more and getting the recognition that would come with beating someone like Crolla.

But at some point you'd like to think he'd have a word with someone about his career. The Crolla fight should have happened and it's not like Crolla was being kept on a run of safety first nobodies.

[mickey1975]

Crolla didn't want the fight. Not bullshit, this is straight from Crolla.

[dirk2686]

Crolla didn't want the fight. Not bullshit, this is straight from Crolla.

Why?

Scared of losing? He's lost enough times before.

Scared of getting hurt? Unlikely - Flanagan isn't some monster is he.

Wanted an easier fight? The guy has taken on Linares in back to backs who's clearly a harder prospect than Flanagan.

Money? Even with it being an in house fight surely he could do more against Flanagan than Burns?

[Ruthless-RKO]

Crolla didn't want the fight. Not bullshit, this is straight from Crolla.

Why?

Scared of losing? He's lost enough times before.

Scared of getting hurt? Unlikely - Flanagan isn't some monster is he.

Wanted an easier fight? The guy has taken on Linares in back to backs who's clearly a harder prospect than Flanagan.

Money? Even with it being an in house fight surely he could do more against Flanagan than Burns?

Crolla wanted to fight Linares instead, which was also for the vacant Ring Magazine title.

Then obviously the rematch too.