After his shock defeat to DeMarcus Corley in May, former jr welterweight world title challenger Paul McCloskey (23-2, 12 KOs) is aiming to get back to winning ways against Denver’s Manny Perez (18-7-1, 4 KOs) at the Odyssey Arena in Belfast, Northern Ireland on September 22. “Defeat isn’t an option here – I have to win this fight,” said McCloskey. “I want to win and I want to win the fight well but if I win ugly I don’t really care because I want to get up those WBC rankings as soon as the fight is over. I have seen him fight and he is a tough customer, and he comes into this fight off the back of a good result beating Jose Miguel Cotto in his last fight. If I am not at my best this could be a hard night’s work because he is there all the time, he works all the time and he is in your face, so I need to be at my best to put him off his game.”
No stranger to big upsets, Perez fought Brandon Rios to a ten round draw in October 2008 and also derailed Edgar Santana in February before shocking Cotto in July.
