Darren Sutherland. Introducin myself to the boxing fans.

[Darren Sutherland]

Im really enjoying the experience of working with Brian Lawrence so far. Its a different set up to the amateurs as the training is more one on one. As an amateur on the national team, its a squad environment so its hard for the coach to give you enough individual training. Brian has a reputation of being quite a traditionalist when it comes to his methods which i like. He also likes to really work you hard and i have a great work ethic so its a good combination. Im very open to learning new things and am aware that its gonna be a tough. But i love to fight and hope i can be an entertaining fighter. The next two weeks they have arranged some good sparring which is what i need to get the rounds in. Im really looking forward to my debut and beyond.

How you finding training in London?
Looking forward to the 18th, see you there

[Darren Sutherland]

Hi im not really into making things personal as thats not me. I just wanna be winner and beat whos put in front of me. This is a subject that im sure wil pop up again but as i have said before i do not intend to base my career on James Degale. Im setting out to be the best i can be and have set myself a goal of winning a reputable world title. If James is someone i have to box along the way, then i will get in and do what i have to do to win.

I'm English but I'd love for you to get revenge over DeGale sometime in the pro's - I really don't like him, perhaps it's his arrogance and his need for attention. Can I ask you if you would love revenge or doesn't it bother you, Darren?

[Dioufy]

Nice answer, mate. I was kinda hoping for something along the lines of that. Good luck on the 18th.

[03mcgs0]

That a boy Darren, must say it was shrewd move by Mr. Maloney and co. to have a show in DCU, it’ll sure be a sell out and looks a cracking bill. I’d say you’ll be doing most of your fighting in the UK? But still very important to have a strong fan base in Ireland. Also good to see you on the forum, a lot of people will look out for you. So you still going to train in Saviours when ur back home or is it not a done thing to train back in your amateur home effectively?

Before you’ve even had a pro fight your getting your name out there and I really think you’ll be suited to Friday Fight night on Sky,

I’ll be sure to be there. Cant wait, should be good.

All the best to ya.

[djmartymac]

Best of luck Darren!

[BigEars]

Before you’ve even had a pro fight your getting your name out there and I really think you’ll be suited to Friday Fight night on Sky,

While I'm sure Darren will mainly be fighting on Friday Fight Night, the 18th is actually a Thursday.

I've my tickets booked anyway, and I've managed to convince the old lad to come along too

[DavidPayne]

Best wishes Darren. Your style looked more easily aligned to the pros than DeGale anyhow.

I also enjoy the fact you've turned over so decisively, I'm tired of hearing the British team moan about the colour of their tracksuits or whether they've been respected enough or had their MacDonalds expenses covered.

I'm sure its all worthy stuff but its tiring. Just turn over and get on with it you winging fkkers. We all know you ALL will.

Maloney is a good promoter to go with. Fiesty bills.

[Chambers2]

Good luck Darren!
Stylistically you're more suited to the pro ranks than the ams imo. I can see your Heavy hands producing some spectacular results

[forcefraser]

Well in Darren. Knockout action is what we want. Best of luck to you.

[johnswan1]

Hi Darren,

Great to see you on here & looking forward to your debut. Just wondering, are you planning on having the majority of your first 10-15 fights over in Ireland? I can see why you would want to do that in terms of gathering support and popularity, particularly when you see how well things worked out for Dunne. If so, hopefully one of the TV channels over here (Setanta?) would pick it up too rather than being restricted to RTE. Also, seeing as though you're training over here, it would be great to do the odd show at the York Hall. There are a lot of Irish over here who would come out to support you.

In terms of career direction, are you expecting to go down the Irish title route, with the aim of eventually moving on towards a European title, or are you thinking about going after the British titles? There are probably a lot of Irish people who would prefer to see you do it all domestically, but surely the British option (assuming it's available) would provide a much sterner test that would stand better to you further down the line? Personally I would like to see an Irish fighter clear out his British rivals (which would hopefully include DeGale) before moving on to bigger things. Would be interested to hear your thoughts on this and I assume it's something you would have already discussed in depth with Frank Maloney prior to signing with him.

Anyway, best of luck on your debut & hope it all works out for you.

[Captain Hook]

Good luck in your career Darren..

[03mcgs0]

Before you’ve even had a pro fight your getting your name out there and I really think you’ll be suited to Friday Fight night on Sky,

While I'm sure Darren will mainly be fighting on Friday Fight Night, the 18th is actually a Thursday.

I've my tickets booked anyway, and I've managed to convince the old lad to come along too

Apologies there Big Ears but you know what I mean!

[BigEars]

Hi Darren,

Great to see you on here & looking forward to your debut. Just wondering, are you planning on having the majority of your first 10-15 fights over in Ireland? I can see why you would want to do that in terms of gathering support and popularity, particularly when you see how well things worked out for Dunne. If so, hopefully one of the TV channels over here (Setanta?) would pick it up too rather than being restricted to RTE. Also, seeing as though you're training over here, it would be great to do the odd show at the York Hall. There are a lot of Irish over here who would come out to support you.

In terms of career direction, are you expecting to go down the Irish title route, with the aim of eventually moving on towards a European title, or are you thinking about going after the British titles? There are probably a lot of Irish people who would prefer to see you do it all domestically, but surely the British option (assuming it's available) would provide a much sterner test that would stand better to you further down the line? Personally I would like to see an Irish fighter clear out his British rivals (which would hopefully include DeGale) before moving on to bigger things. Would be interested to hear your thoughts on this and I assume it's something you would have already discussed in depth with Frank Maloney prior to signing with him.

Anyway, best of luck on your debut & hope it all works out for you.

Seeing as he is signed with Frank Maloney the question is will any Irish television station have the rights to Darren's fights at all.
If so they'd have to do a deal with Sky who currently show all Maloney promoted stuff.
It will definitely be more difficult to build support in Ireland(and Britain) through fighting on Sky but it's not impossible.

Darren will obviously be able to answer this fully himself but from what I've heard he'll be going down the Commonwealth(being eligible due to his father) and European route but not the British title route.

[Boxingmad]

Hopefully he will be able to get some exposure in the US at a later stage - NY, Boston & Chicago have a strong Irish contingent and you only have to look at the popularity of John Duddy to see that the Irish-Americans love their sports heroes.

I think that Darren would do well over there - his strong big punching style is made for TV.

But let's get his pro debut out of the way first!!

[Londonirish]

Im really enjoying the experience of working with Brian Lawrence so far. Its a different set up to the amateurs as the training is more one on one. As an amateur on the national team, its a squad environment so its hard for the coach to give you enough individual training. Brian has a reputation of being quite a traditionalist when it comes to his methods which i like. He also likes to really work you hard and i have a great work ethic so its a good combination. Im very open to learning new things and am aware that its gonna be a tough. But i love to fight and hope i can be an entertaining fighter. The next two weeks they have arranged some good sparring which is what i need to get the rounds in. Im really looking forward to my debut and beyond.

How you finding training in London?
Looking forward to the 18th, see you there

Done a great job with Napa, Give him Talent and he will get the Best out of them and from what iv seen you aint short of it.. Not to take it lightly, you've been fighting at a high level the opponents you'l face for the next year or so will be alot easier then what you've been facing lately as a AM...

3 Title fights on the one night Not bad going
Got to be the Best bill FM has done with his own fighter's for god knows how long!!

[Darren Sutherland]

Hey,

Thank you for the well wishes. To answer ya questions firstly, majority of my fights for the first 2 years anyway, will be in UK and all will be covered exclusively by Sky.. But i do hope to have a few fights in Ireland each year so that i get to box in front of my home crowd.
In relation to the route i hope to take? Well i have said that i will fight for the Irish title as soon as my team think im ready. I will not be able to box for the British title as im from the republic of ireland. But i may qualify to box for the common wealth title due to fact i have dual nationality ( my father is from st. vincent in caribbean -commonwealth country).. I would then like to box for a european title before stepping up to world honours. Everyone wants to be the best at what they do so i hope that i will be able to fight the best fighters at domestic level before moving to world level when the time is right. Obviously i still have not had my first fight so these are big ambitions but ya have to have a plan and that mine.

If i didnt truely believe i could go all the way then i wouldnt have turned pro as im an ambitious person and have belief in my abilities. What i do know is that its gonna be very tough!! And i will have to work very hard to get there but im will to put in the work.

I hope that has answered your queries:)

Thanks again for the support

Hi Darren,

Great to see you on here & looking forward to your debut. Just wondering, are you planning on having the majority of your first 10-15 fights over in Ireland? I can see why you would want to do that in terms of gathering support and popularity, particularly when you see how well things worked out for Dunne. If so, hopefully one of the TV channels over here (Setanta?) would pick it up too rather than being restricted to RTE. Also, seeing as though you're training over here, it would be great to do the odd show at the York Hall. There are a lot of Irish over here who would come out to support you.

In terms of career direction, are you expecting to go down the Irish title route, with the aim of eventually moving on towards a European title, or are you thinking about going after the British titles? There are probably a lot of Irish people who would prefer to see you do it all domestically, but surely the British option (assuming it's available) would provide a much sterner test that would stand better to you further down the line? Personally I would like to see an Irish fighter clear out his British rivals (which would hopefully include DeGale) before moving on to bigger things. Would be interested to hear your thoughts on this and I assume it's something you would have already discussed in depth with Frank Maloney prior to signing with him.

Anyway, best of luck on your debut & hope it all works out for you.

[Asterix]

I'm looking forward to watching your fights on Sky then. That's excellent news.

[johnswan1]

Hey,

Thank you for the well wishes. To answer ya questions firstly, majority of my fights for the first 2 years anyway, will be in UK and all will be covered exclusively by Sky.. But i do hope to have a few fights in Ireland each year so that i get to box in front of my home crowd.
In relation to the route i hope to take? Well i have said that i will fight for the Irish title as soon as my team think im ready. I will not be able to box for the British title as im from the republic of ireland. But i may qualify to box for the common wealth title due to fact i have dual nationality ( my father is from st. vincent in caribbean -commonwealth country).. I would then like to box for a european title before stepping up to world honours. Everyone wants to be the best at what they do so i hope that i will be able to fight the best fighters at domestic level before moving to world level when the time is right. Obviously i still have not had my first fight so these are big ambitions but ya have to have a plan and that mine.

If i didnt truely believe i could go all the way then i wouldnt have turned pro as im an ambitious person and have belief in my abilities. What i do know is that its gonna be very tough!! And i will have to work very hard to get there but im will to put in the work.

I hope that has answered your queries:)

Thanks again for the support

Hi Darren,

Great to see you on here & looking forward to your debut. Just wondering, are you planning on having the majority of your first 10-15 fights over in Ireland? I can see why you would want to do that in terms of gathering support and popularity, particularly when you see how well things worked out for Dunne. If so, hopefully one of the TV channels over here (Setanta?) would pick it up too rather than being restricted to RTE. Also, seeing as though you're training over here, it would be great to do the odd show at the York Hall. There are a lot of Irish over here who would come out to support you.

In terms of career direction, are you expecting to go down the Irish title route, with the aim of eventually moving on towards a European title, or are you thinking about going after the British titles? There are probably a lot of Irish people who would prefer to see you do it all domestically, but surely the British option (assuming it's available) would provide a much sterner test that would stand better to you further down the line? Personally I would like to see an Irish fighter clear out his British rivals (which would hopefully include DeGale) before moving on to bigger things. Would be interested to hear your thoughts on this and I assume it's something you would have already discussed in depth with Frank Maloney prior to signing with him.

Anyway, best of luck on your debut & hope it all works out for you.

RIP Darren. Ireland and boxing have lost a star and a gentleman.

[winkveron]

Even sadder when you read those posts from him. Very grounded and ambitious lad. What a shame!

[jBacca]

It's really hard to read all these posts about him. He seemed such a genuine guy and everyone wanted him to go as far as possible.

Such a shame, can't help but well up.

[steve689]

Makes it even more of a shock after reading those posts. It's sad to see them now.

[dondada]

i think everything happens for a reason and even tho it was a very low point in my life, i feel it has made me stronger mentally and more determined than ever to succeed.

Just so numbing to read these. What a bloody shame. :(

[WildWaylon]

Lost for words, hard to believe.

[gasman]

It is good to read this thread for the first time, everyone was so respectful and encouraging to Darren on this thread. That is the way it should be, too often I read [on other sites] very reckless comments at boxers, particularly young prospects, but you folks showed a bit of class here.

[fatman]

i'm devastated by this news, tragic.