Naas boxer Cully reflects on breakout year and looks ahead to 2018 high on confidence

42 seconds is all it lasted. An event that Gary Cully admitted he dreamt of from when he was a child was over with the blink of an eye and the throwing of a few punches, but, thankfully, it was the Naas man who ended it that way. It was Cully’s professional debut at the Devenish Complex in Belfast where he immediately made a name for himself on the pro circuit, delivering a couple of bodyshots that shook his experienced opponent, Gyula Tallosi, to the core and forced him into retiring from the bout early. It wasn’t the way that Cully had pictured the fight going, but he was happy that he was able to settle into the pro game. “It was madness,” Cully told KildareNow when asked about that fight. “I was actually raging after it. I hadn’t fought in a year and I was after doing an eight-week camp, and all my friends and family were there. 80 people or something coming from Kildare to Belfast, and it was over after 42 seconds. They were expecting a bit more as well. “I thought at the start he went down a bit easy, but then when I watched the video back he went down heavy, and I heard the next day that he had a broken rib. That was my first time ever putting on eight ounce gloves in the changing room, because it’s different from the amateurs, but even though it’s only two ounces all the weight is in the wrist. There’s nothing in the knuckles at all – I could feel my knuckles through the gloves.” https://twitter.com/BoxerCully/status/909390132511375368 Cully is an outlier in the professional game, standing at a massive 6’2 despite boxing at lightweight, meaning each time he steps into a ring he is almost guaranteed to have at least a couple of inches advantage when it comes to height and reach. He is aware of how much of an advantage he has thanks to a body composition that has him weighing in at around 61kg despite being so tall. Due to this, Cully’s frame looks slightly skinnier than many of his opponents, but he has not been lacking in the power department in his three fights so far. Cully, who doesn’t lack for confidence but couldn’t be described as cocky, knows that he has plenty of power from the end of his amateur days, and he even enjoys the fact that opponents might consider him as ‘weak’ due to his tall frame. Knockout wins in his first two professional fights showcased his power, while a dominant and classy performance in his third bout against the previously undefeated Kane Barker showcased the more cultured side of Cully’s game. “A lot of lads come in and say ‘oh, I’ll work the body’ and ‘this lad will be weak’ and stuff,” he said of his height advantage. “A lot of lads are surprised at how much I can fight, because I like a fight just as much as I like to box. Sometimes it gets me into trouble, but I like a good war now as well. I noticed coming toward the end of the amateur days when they took the headgear out I started knocking a few guys out, so I realised my power then.” Cully wouldn’t be where he is today without taking the decisive step to turn professional, something that he had dreamed of since being a child, but not many would have expected the 21-year-old to turn away from the amateur game so early in his career. Having won gold at the European Youth Championships in 2013, Cully was an outside contender to go to the Olympic Games in Rio and considered a near certainty to go to Tokyo 2020, where he would be a cultured and experienced 24-year-old and primed to challenge for top honours. Many boxers have made the mistake of waiting around for that opportunity to come for them without ever getting to box on the pinnacle stage of the amateur pro game – looking down the road at Athy’s Eric Donovan shows the harsh side of it – and Cully wasn’t prepared to wait for a chance that may never come. Citing the cruel refereeing decision that befell Michael Conlan at the Rio Olympics, Cully holds no regrets over his move to the professional ranks. He also notes that it is much easier to promote yourself as a young boxer, and had he been coming out in three years’ time as a novice professional he would be struggling to get on high profile undercards. “Since I joined boxing, growing up I always watched the likes of Mayweather and Prince Naseem and stuff,” quipped Cully when asked what made him turn professional at such a young age. “I just liked how they entertained, and it was always my dream to be a professional under the big lights. I joined boxing at a young age and I realised that I had the talent to go to the Olympic Games, and I realised that it was a possibility to go to the Olympics and that became an incentive. But the number one thing was always to be a professional anyways. A couple of things didn’t go my way in the amateurs; I thought I’d be at the 2016 Olympics. “I was obviously going to be young – I was only going to be 20 at the time – but a couple of decisions didn’t go my way and I thought I should have been there. I was training with Michael Conlan the whole way up to the Olympic Games, seeing how hard he trained, and he went out then and just got a medal robbed off him. It was a big risk to stay [amateur]. Four years is a long time and it was a big risk if something like that happened to me then, and then to be starting out where I am now at 24. Whereas I’m started now, where could I be in four years?” Cully had the opportunity to turn professional six months before he did, but, as was quite normal, he had some hesitancy about making the move at the age of 20. He eventually bided his time and decided in the middle of 2017 to get back in contact with MTK Global and see if the offer was still on the table, and they were quite happy to sign up one of the most exciting prospects in Irish boxing. One of the attractions in turning pro was the opportunity to work with Pete Taylor, the father of World Champion Katie Taylor and a renowned coach throughout the Bray woman’s career. There was already one familiar face working away at the gym in Bray; former St Michael’s Athy boxer David Oliver Joyce was there for two months by the time Cully arrived. The 30-year-old is also a lightweight, and he has a record of four wins from four professional bouts following his move to the professional trade after a disappointing showing at the Rio Olympics, making the Mullingar native an ideal training partner for Cully in the build-up to fights. They have trained with each other in all of Cully’s camps to date, something that has been of huge benefit when the going gets tough and there is ever a temptation to slack off. “He was already with Pete two months before I joined,” said Cully of Joyce. “It took us a while to gel, but I knew from the off that it was going to work because of the experience Davy has. Even sparring together, we’re both at a high level. With Pete’s experience as well obviously, he’s an Olympic winning coach. He’s only new to the pro game as well, so he’s still learning.” https://twitter.com/BoxerCully/status/889805991709216768 “Every camp I feel like we’re getting stronger. We’re gelling more as a team, we’re getting used to each other and it’s going to be a good partnership. “Running sessions are hard by yourself if I’m on a bill on my own and I have to do a running session by myself, at least you have someone pushing you all the time. Or if you’re on a bag session and you want to give up, you look across and see Davy working hard, it just pushes you on that extra bit. For my first three camps it has all been me and Davy. Obviously I’m going to have camps by myself when it comes to those bigger fights where I’m going to need to be training by myself. But it’s working well at the minute and myself and Davy are pushing each other on and getting good spars out of each other.” Ahead of his last fight, Cully confidently enticed promoter Frank Warren to ‘get to me before Eddie[Hearn] gets there first’, and while it was said in a joking manner, Cully knows right now that he has the potential to be a promoter’s dream. Young, confident and with plenty of ability, there is plenty of marketing potential that will have been noted by the game’s top promoters, with Hearn even saying that he was most impressed by the Naas man following his win over Josh Thorne in Belfast in September. There are advantages to not being signed up to a promotions company however, with Cully’s fights on the undercards of Ryan Burnett and Carl Frampton a testament to that he says. “These guys are big in the UK and Europe so obviously you want to be impressing these guys, but my time will come. I’m not worried about it. At the moment I have no promoter and it’s working for me because I’m getting on every show. If you have a certain promotion company you can’t get on certain shows, you can only fight on their shows, so it’s working well for me at the minute.” While he was fighting at 4.30pm ahead of Carl Frampton’s massive fight with Horacio Garcia last month, meaning the arena was not anywhere near full, boxing in the SSE Odyssey Arena on one of the biggest nights that Irish boxing has seen in many years was an experience that will be something that he’ll never forget. “I couldn’t believe the crowd even at the weigh in,” he notes of the whole experience. “It was massive. The big arenas, I have experience of because being at World and European Championships in the amatuers you’re fighting in big arenas. A lot of guys coming from an amateur background and haven’t fought at a high level, they might shy away a bit. For me, the more lights, the more cameras, the bigger the shows, that’s what I love. That’s where I feel I perform best. I was the first in the two shows, so I had my friends and family there.” https://twitter.com/BoxerCully/status/931953719457001472 Looking ahead to 2018, there are a lot of potential avenues that could open up for Cully. He won’t be in action again in 2017 unless something out of the blue happens, but even so he is dedicated to remaining in peak condition. He is continuing to travel in and out to Bray from his home in Naas to train in Pete Taylor’s gym, and, as he says, is always ready to fight. “I want to be as active as I can,” remarks Cully on his plans for next year. “I’m always in the gym, like I said, I fought Saturday and I was back in the gym on Wednesday, so I live the life. I’m always fit, I’m always ready to fight. It’s just about what opportunities come up. I feel like I’m at Irish level already – it’s just making a fight [happen]. I want to be in domestic clashes to win Irish titles, but obviously in the professional game it’s hard to make these fights.” “It’s more business than just boxing. There are two management teams and money involved. I want Irish titles and I want to start climbing European rankings. As well as that, I want to learn next year as well because next year will be a big learning year for me. I’m only moving onto six rounders now, so I want to get a few six rounders in and maybe an eight rounder.” He has made giant strides in the infancy of his professional career thus far, and 2018 looks set to be another big year for the rangey southpaw.