European Champion Christina Desmond

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

The Big Red Bench. Saturday and Sunday from 6pm, Cork's RedFM.

Ruairí (0:08)

Delighted to be joined on the line by, I'm very happy to say, European Champion, Christina Desmond. Christina, how are you?

Christina Desmond (0:15)

Good Ruairí, how are you? Thanks for having me on.

Ruairí (0:17)

Thanks a million for coming. Has that title sunken yet? European Champion?

Christina Desmond (0:22)

No, I don't think it has. It's been a hectic month, and I'm just privileged and honored that I got this opportunity, and I'm just going to roll with it for now. And yeah, I do think in time to come, it's something that I'm going to look back on, and it's going to be incredible. So yeah, but for now I'm enjoying it.

Ruairí (0:43)

100% yet. Look, it's been a hectic, record-breaking, history-making month for you. Started the Parochial Hall, obviously, without an Irish title win, an incredible performance yourself that night against a very, very tough opponent.

Christina Desmond (0:59)

Yeah, so Louise was an incredible opponent. We both had history on the, well, we both made history, but we both had a lot on the line. It was her first time home in Ireland to fight, and it was the first time this had ever been done in Ireland. I did imagine she was going to bring a fight, and she was going to be ready, and that's what she did do.

It was cracking from start to finish. There wasn't one round that we stood and looked at each other, to be fair, and I loved that fight. It was just, like I was comfortable, I was happy, if anyone would be happy inside in the ring, but I really enjoyed it, and I think she did as well, and I was fighting well, everything had just been so well, and yeah, to have won that was just fantastic, and then I knew if I won that fight that I had this opportunity to go and try and win the European title two weeks later, it was a big ask. Looking back, it was absolutely crazy what I did, agreeing to the fight, but look, we rolled a dice, myself and my manager, he said to me, look, I believe you can beat both these girls and you're well capable of doing so if you're at your best, so we rolled a dice and it worked, and here I am, now European and Irish champion all in the one month.

Ruairí (2:14)

Yeah, it's some achievements, I'm actually beaming here just talking to you about it, but look, I'm not a professional boxer, I raised an eyebrow when I saw you on a European title fight just two weeks later. As you said, it was a gamble, it was a big risk.

So after that Irish title win, how quickly do you have to come back down to earth and then refocus on this European title vote?

Christina Desmond (2:38)

I didn't have long, to be fair, that was my first time making super lightweight, 63.5 kilo.

I normally boxed at welterweight for the last few fights professional, but I knew that that European title shot was at super lightweight. So I made that weight and I did it right for the first fight, but then I had the task of holding it and maintaining it for the two weeks before the next fight again.

Now, I thought I would be fine, and I believed in myself and everything was fine and I did it right, but just looking back in it now, it was crazy what I did, but just the body to come up and get prepped for a fight, do the fight, and then they come down after is just unbelievable, and it takes a lot out of you, and I had to do that twice within two weeks. So that was a hard task in itself, but it paid off. I maybe showed a little bit of tardiness in the second fight in Spain, but she was an incredible opponent as well as strong opponent. So, yeah, it was very hard to try and come up, come down, keep it level, and then come back up again. And I took two days off. So I fought on Friday night, the 9th of October, and then I took the Saturday and Sunday kind of off. I didn't train. I just let my body recover, and I kind of ate very well, like, you know, at my carbs and at my meat. I had a roast dinner on the Saturday. It was gorgeous. And, you know, I just had normal food, but gave my body back some bit of nutrition and proper nutrition and good solid food. So I might have a little bit of a cake on the Saturday night. That was about it. And then I watched J that whole weekend. All my friends that had come to see me and my family, my brother was playing the following day. They lost, flipping, he just, but anyway, they played and they lost. And then I watched more J the Sunday. So then it was just, my focus wasn't on boxing. And then the Monday I got back into it and I knew I had two weeks then until the next fight. But like again, I was traveling Wednesday week after the fight. So I didn't have much time at home. So I think I worked two days in as a guard in the garden. And then I, you know, that was a break. It was away from boxing and it was a whole different life. And went out then to Spain and I had that second fight with Clara Lopez on the 24th of October. And so, yeah, it was, I still can't believe that I did that.