As he enters his tenth year in the fight game, Dublin’s Neil Seery is preparing for a “war” when he meets Chris Beal in Stockholm. He spoke to SportsJOE about his disappointment after being forced to withdraw from his last fight with an injury but insists he’s back to his best.
“I couldn’t be more ready to go,” Seery said as he prepared for the 25th fight of his pro career.
“I made it here this time and it’s just one day to go so we’re pretty much ready to rock.”
By “made it,” the Dubliner was referring to the fact that a rib injury forced him out of a November fight with Richie Vaculik in Australia and Seery made his disappointment about that withdrawal abundantly clear.
“I was really gutted,” he said. “I was supposed to fly out on Sunday and I was sparring on the Thursday beforehand. I ended up fracturing my rib.
“I went down to Beaumont and one of the girls down there told me ‘You can’t fly because you could end up puncturing your lung’ so that just put an end to it straight away.”
Seery (14-10) has been fighting since 2005 and he is experienced enough to know that fighting with a serious injury is not smart, regardless of the money involved.
“Its never a wise move to fight injured. Money definitely plays a big part for guys and some fighters just go in there to get paid rather than to win.
“That’s not my thing. It was as simple as the doctor telling me that I couldn’t fight and it didn’t cross my mind to think ‘I’ll go over and have two weeks to recover’.
“I couldn’t risk permanent injury.”
But the Irishman, who made his UFC debut last March, is now solely focused on his upcoming opponent, Chris Beal (10-0).
“I’m just going to go in to do what I always do. My only gameplan is to go in there and try to take his head off.
“Beal is no different to any other opponent that I prepare for. I intend to outstrike him from the word ‘go’ and test that chin of his. My plan for everyone is to put them on their back and it’s exactly the same for this fight.”
Seery, 35, already had 11 professional MMA fights to his name before Beal had made his debut but the Dublin flyweight made it clear that he doesn’t expect experience to be a factor.
He said: “I don’t put a lot of importance on that to be honest. I think the atmosphere of the stadium, with 30,000 fans, will be far more important than the fact that I have more fights than Chris.
“What it will come down to on the night is who has the better hands and who has the stronger chin.
“I’ve only watched the one fight from him. To be fair that was the fight where he won with a flying knee and it was an absolutely beautiful shot but, other than that, I’ve not seen much of him at all.”
Seery’s last bout came at UFC Dublin where he dominated Phil Harris en route to a unanimous decision win. We asked him how different he expected the atmosphere to be in Stockholm compared to that of the O2 Arena last July.
“I don’t think it’s going to be too different. It’s true that the Irish fans are the best in the world and the support that I got in Dublin was amazing.
“Obviously I’m the first fighter up on Saturday night so won’t get to experience a full house but hopefully I can get the crowd going and they’ll liven up from there. I’m sure they’ll be pretty close to being as loud as Dublin by the time that Gustafsson comes out.”
Chris Beal drops down a weight class for this bout and he is undoubtedly Seery’s toughest task to date. With an undefeated record, the American could be set to break into the top 15 in the coming year but the Team Ryano fighter has different plans.
“I’m just going to stop him right in his tracks,” he said. “I’m going to stall his rise.
“He’s coming down to flyweight to fight me and I don’t think he realises that we’re a little bit quicker than the bantamweights and I plan on showing him that come Saturday night.”
One aspect of Seery’s fight style that causes bother for his opponents is the relentless pace and pressure he keeps for the three rounds, something that he attributes to the training at Team Ryano.
“It all comes down to cardio. In our camps we really focus on our gas-tanks to make sure that we can keep going no matter what happens.
“Our coach, Andy Ryan, might not be as big a name as [SBG head coach] John Kavanagh right now but I think that’ll definitely change in the coming years.
“You can see how good our gym is just based on the increase in numbers in recent times. We were down in Baldoyle before we had to switch to a bigger gym in Finglas and now we actually need an even bigger gym again because the place is packed lately.”
At last week’s UFC event in Boston, the SBG contingent went 3-0 on the night but “2 Tap” doesn’t feel any pressure to continue the amazing record that the Irish fighters have had since their “invasion” of the UFC roster.
“I wouldn’t call it pressure or anything and I try not to think too much about what anyone else is doing. But obviously the lads did really well last week and I’m going to do my best to keep that train rolling.”
At 35 years of age, Seery is under no illusions about the need for shorter term goals in terms of his fight plans and he knows that it all starts with Chris Beal.
“At this stage in my career it’s a case of taking every fight as it comes. I’d never look past anybody in this division, you’d be stupid to overlook anyone at this level.
“I’m well aware that we both have 4 oz. gloves and that it can all finish with just one strike.
“I’m not going to offer any predictions against Chris Beal other than the fact that the fans can expect a war.”
