Martin Lindsay hopes that this will be the best week of his life as he prepares to become a Dad and then rip the British and Commonwealth featherweight titles away from Lee Selby on Betfair’s ‘Judgement Day’ bill live on Sky Sports on Saturday night.
Lindsay’s wife went into hospital yesterday (Wednesday) expecting the birth of their first child today and the 30 year old says victory on Saturday against Selby would put the seal on the best week of his life.
“It could be fate the way all this has worked out but I’m on cloud nine already,” said Lindsay. “I’m so excited about becoming a Dad and starting a family, and what better way to mark the new arrival with a win on Saturday.
“Preparing for the baby and the fight has been a fine, a really welcome distraction in fact. You can get too wrapped up in a fight and go a bit mad so to have the birth to focus on too has been really helpful.”
Selby travels over to Lindsay’s hometown as a 2-7 favourite with Betfair to retain his belts, almost a year to the day after ripping them from Liverpool’s Stephen Smith in style on Merseyside. The Belfast man acknowledges that the Welshman is on top of his game but he is confident he will be walking out of the Odyssey Arena with the titles.
“I’ve had great preparation and I genuinely feel in the shape of my life,” said Lindsay, 9-4 with Betfair to take the titles. “Lee is a good fighter and is bound to be full of confidence. He’s had a great year since beating Smith and I am sure he thinks that I am going to be another win for him on Saturday, but this is going to be an all out war for him and he will have to do something very special to knock me down.
“Lee came from nowhere really and he’s been very impressive to get to this point. But I never get put down and I have a pretty good KO ratio myself so if he thinks he’s going to stop me he is in for a nasty surprise as I have the power to hurt him, no question about that.
“I wear my heart on my sleeve when I fight and I have a lot of fans coming to support me on Saturday and I have no intention of letting them down. They’ll be behind me all the way and it’s a massive night for us here as if I win, Carl Frampton wins and Paul McCloskey wins, then Sky Sports and Matchroom will be back here again in an even bigger night, and that’s what the fans want to see and what we want to deliver for them.”
Lindsay’s title clash with Selby is part of a bumper Belfast bill topped by Frampton’s Commonwealth and IBF Inter-Continental super bantamweight title defence against two-time World champion Steve Molitor, with McCloskey aiming to get back into the title mix against American lightweight contender Manuel Perez.
McCloskey’s fellow Dungiven fighter Eamonn O’Kane also in action along with Belfast fighters Jamie Conlan and Dee Walsh will also be in action, and Team GB stars Scotty Cardle, Kal Yafai and Martin Ward all continue their pro education in Belfast.
Tickets are on sale from the Odyssey Arena box office on 028 9073 9074 and at www.odysseyarena.com – tickets are priced at £30, £40, £60 and £100.
Ringside VIPs tickets priced at £150 are exclusively available from Matchroom Sport on 01277 359900 and at www.matchroomboxing.com.
McCloskey and O’Kane’s fans can also buy their tickets at the prices above from Eurospar Dungiven and any EuroXchange outlet.
