Macklin has bagged a diamond in Cory!

Cory O’Regan with Birmingham manager Matt Macklin. Pic: Facebook

BIRMINGHAM fight legend Matt Macklin has signed a very, very good prospect in Cory O’Regan.

The 29-year-old is from Leeds, but I’m happy for the West Midlands to claim a talent like that. His last three fights have been in the region and that’s sufficient grounds for a boxing adoption.

Former world title challenger Macklin was present at the Hangar, Wolverhampton, on Saturday to witness O’Regan take part in his first eight rounder and peel off his 14th straight win.

On the BCB bill, he dominated Bulgarian Georgi Velichkov from first bell to last for a landslide 80-72 decision on referee Peter McCormack’s card.

It was more a systematic beating up than a bout – and Velichkov’s features showed it, with his right eye badly swollen and an egg-shaped lump on his forehead.

Deadpan throughout the painful encounter, the East European showed remarkable toughness and resilience. Others would have wilted, Velichkov continued to trudge forward into a thunderstorm of leather.

His will and heart were admirable, but he lacked the speed, skill and savvy to trouble the former fine amateur. Velichkov was continuously speared by southpaw jabs to head and body, nailed by looping lefts and endured withering blows to the ribs.

Surprisingly, O’Regan ended the contest with a slight graze under his right eye. I didn’t see him ship a shot strong enough to inflict damage.

He is a man destined for much bigger things – sooner rather than later.

“There’s big news to come,” he said afterwards, “but I can’t say anything at the moment.”

Of the fight, O’Regan said: “It was fine, I’m happy in the sense that the main thing was to get some rounds in.”

By as early as the second, Cory (10st 1lbs) was letting both hands go and those precise punches raised an ugly welt under Velichkov’s eye which worsened with each round.

With gloves high, he attempted to block the stream of head shots, only to be worked over to the body. In the fifth, O’Regan grunted as he drove rights to the ribs, then pivoted to work the other side of the ribcage.

There was no let-up for Velichkov (10st), also a southpaw. O’Regan pot-shotted in the seventh, unleashed with venom during the final session.

Cory commented: “He took some punishment, he’s a very tough man.”

That he most certainly is.