“Irish” Cam O’Connell Eyes Comeback After Serving Time On Drug Trafficking Charge

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Cam O'Connell

Cam O'Connell 2“Irish” Cam O’Connell has been one of Canada’s brightest up and coming lightweight fighters but his career hit a speed bump during his rise in the rankings back in 2014 when he was sentenced to serve time from a previous drug trafficking charge from a couple years ago.

People make mistakes; it’s human nature, and he has learned from it. O’Connell was recently released after serving nine months in the penitentiary and is preparing for a June 12th ring return and says the time off did not slow him down, and he will continue pushing forward.

“I’m open about everything that has happened to me because I have nothing to hide from anyone,” said O’Connell. “Years ago I made a very bad choice. I broke the law, but in saying this I’m not a broken man, and I paid the consequences for my actions. I went away for nine months, but I stayed in shape and I’m very ready to fight and I’m hungrier than ever to get a title. It was hard for me to be away from my family, friends, team and fans for this long and it was extremely hard for me to stay away from the ring. It played a big role in my career but my team and I are back on track, and we aren’t going to let it stop the progress we have made this far. We haven’t got this far without perseverance, so we will keep pushing through.”

O’Connell has had difficulty in securing fights in the past. Opponents would often pull out of the fight with one to two days notice leaving O’Connell’s promoter KO Boxing scrambling to find a replacement in such a short amount of time. With his absence from the ring for over a year, it may be a bit easier to find someone willing to take him on but his physical appearance may make them think twice. O’Connell has built his body to look more cut and muscular which would make you think he weighs a lot more but making the lightweight limit doesn’t seem to be an issue for him.

“It’s weird but I didn’t gain much weight even though I look much bigger. I am still able to cut down to lightweight and that’s where I’ll be competing at if there is an opponent who feels like taking me on. It was hard enough to find opponents to fight and now that I look bigger it’s probably not going to help, I just hope people feel this is the time to fight me, since I have been gone for so long. I have been watching people sneak past me in the ratings and this drives me for now because I feel that I should be higher then where I stand. I’m being patient at this time though and I am listening to Coach Doug Bolianatz and trainer Roman Rzepkowski as they are helping me get ready for anything that comes our way.”

Everyone has their own way to keep themselves occupied while serving time and for O’Connell he continued training himself and other inmates.

“I boxed and boxed and I boxed. [Laughs]I love it, and I couldn’t stop. I have to work on some stuff technically with coach but like I said I should be good to go at the first call to fight. I also trained and coached a bunch of people who were interested in learning from me. We would go for runs and do wind sprints in the yard, foot work drills and bag work everyday.”

Putting on a show has never been an issue and O’Connell always gives boxing fans their money’s worth. He wants to continue his career moving up the ladder and taking on the biggest challenge possible and fight as often as possible. Time slows down for no man, and that is something that he is fully aware of.

“I expect to give everyone their money’s worth and put on entertaining, intense fights. I want the toughest opponents I can get because I’m getting older, I want to get to the top fast by earning it and deserving to be there.”