Cathal Crowley takes on Kerry's Kevin Cronin for theIBU Light Heavyweight title at the National Stadium

Cork professional boxer Cathal Crowley will get his dream fight when he takes on Kerry native Kevin Cronin for the IBU Light Heavyweight title at the JB Promotion boxing event in the National Stadium in Dublin on Friday night.

The card is stacked with some really exciting fights and will have another Cork man Gary Spike O’Sullivan fighting Mateusz Pawlowski from Poland and Cork woman Christina Desmond making her professional debut against Polish fighter Joanna Frasczal.

Both these fighters normally fight at Super Middleweight, but when the title became vacant at Light Heavyweight they both decided to move up weight to contest for the belt.

Crowley is unbeaten in his seven professional fights to date with three of them coming by knockout. His last fight he beat English man Grant Dennis at the National Arena last April and his previous fight he put in his best performance of his career when he stopped Mikolaj Rabczak from Poland at the Europa Point Sports Complex in Gibraltar.

However, this definitely will be his biggest test of his career to date, as Cronin is a very tough and good opponent and he will need to be at his best of he wants to bring the title back to Leeside.

“I am really looking forward to this fight as I was looking for fight Kevin for the last two years,” Cathal said.

“My last fight was also in the National Arena where I beat Grant Dennis on points, so I will be familiar with the venue.

“My training camp has gone great as I’m in Dublin with working hard my trainer Pascal Collins for the last ten weeks during plenty of pad work and getting some good sparring with Podge Collins, French man Pierre Dibombe, Daniel O’Sullivan, Sean O’Dowd and Spike. 

"I also spent two and a half weeks in Los Angles in the Wild Card gym at the start of June getting ready for what is my biggest fight of my career to date."

Kevin Cronin certainly won’t be any push over for Crowley as he has bags of experience in boxing in big title nights.

His last fight he beat Grant Dennis at the 3Arena last month, however he lost to Dublin’s Emmet Brennan twice for the IBU Celtic Super Middleweight title. 

He lost to a controversial decision in the first fight in the 3Arena, but Brennan deservingly beat him on point at Madison Square Garden Theatre in New York.

“I’m really expecting a a very tough fight, because Cronin has a lot more experience than me of big nights. 

"He has had four title fights so far in his career and this will be his fifth and it will be only mine first fight of this magnitude. 

"He has a great engine and his style is keep pushing forward to apply the pressure and pace of the fight.

“My plan is to cut the size of the ring from the very first bell and don’t let him into any rhythm. 

"I will work behind by jab to keep him at bay and I’m very confident that I can get the job done by emphatic knockout by the way my sparring sessions have gone in training camp.

“My plan after this fight is to have another bout in Ireland before I move on to challenge for bigger belts in Europe,” Crowley added.