CONOR Quinn has been keen to fight for his first professional title for a little while, but it has been worth the wait as two belts are on the line at Girdwood Community Hub on Saturday for the Clonard man when he faces Scotland’s Chris Liddell (5-1) for the vacant Celtic and Commonwealth Silver flyweight titles.

The 25-year-old will get this opportunity in just his ninth professional outing, having won seven and drawn one to date.

He was initially due to have a strap on the line at the SSE Arena back in May against former European champion Juan Hinostroza, but due to time limits, the bout was dropped back to eight rounds and therefore the title opportunity was lost.

That was a disappointment, but coming through eight tough rounds against the Spanish resident was the shot in the arm he needed as there was now proof to back up the belief.

Moving forward also means that standards must be raised accordingly, and he feels that he has ticked all the boxes ahead of this weekend’s bill that will be broadcast live on TG4’s YouTube channel.

“I’ve been calling for title fights from the day and hour I turned professional,” said Quinn.

“I understand you can’t just jump into those fights, but I feel now is the best time for me as I’m firing on all cylinders. The fact it’s for the two belts gives you an extra push.

“You treat every fight like a world title fight, but it’s not until you get these incentives with belts on the line that you see there are more gears to go through.”

The flyweight division in the UK is a small pool, so finding a willing dance partner to battle it out for domestic honours was going to be a challenge.

Liddell answered the call and it is a measure of his own ambition to push on in his career that he is happy to travel away from home for a fight that ought to see liftoff in the career of the victor.

“It was initially just going to be for the Commonwealth ‘Silver’ but with Chris being from Scotland, Mark (Dunlop, manager) toyed with the idea of getting the Celtic on the line. We weren’t sure it was going to come through, but thankfully it did.

“At flyweight in Scotland, there’s only him (Liddell) and one other lad, so the fact he took this fight gives me a big opportunity as there wouldn’t have been anyone else to fight for the Celtic title.

“All respect to him as he is willing to come out of his comfort zone and come to Belfast to put it all on the line. That tells me he is confident and has been preparing well.”

The Scot will arrive with ambitions of his own and has bounced back from defeat in his second pro bout to win the next four including a points win over Bryan Castro - whom Quinn also went to the cards against at the Falls Park in August.

He will not be in town to roll over, but seize his chance to score a huge domestic win that ought to act as a form of lift-off for the victor.

Quinn has not watched a lot of his opponent, but knows what to expect from a Celtic derby and that means he is ready to dig in and battle.

“I don’t watch a lot of my opponents, maybe one or two rounds I’d look at,” he explained.

“From what I’ve seen, he is strong, tough and drives forward. It’s what you’d expect from a Scottish fighter.

“He’s going to keep coming but that’s what I want as I think in the flyweight division, I punch hard and anyone I land a shot on tends to cover up, meaning there isn’t a lot coming back.

“That means I won’t be able to land anything too clean, so this guy will come and tat means I can find room for my shots and capitalise on his mistakes.”

Preparations could not have gone better for the former Clonard amateur standout as camp involved a spell in Tenerife, acting as a sparring partner for IBF champion Sunny Edwards who is preparing for a unification showdown with Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez in December.

It’s not the first time the Belfast man has been invited into camp with Edwards, so that he was invited back highlights the esteem Quinn is held in.

“I came home from that flying - the time out there brought be a couple of leaps forward,” he confirmed.

“I feel great for it and in sparring, I just feel I’m a lot sharper and fitter than I usually am at this stage, so I can’t wait to get going now.

“The fact he (Edwards) is calling me over for sparring shows what they think of me, but it’s also good for me to be around that environment of a huge fight and seeing how they approach it is great.

“This is also the biggest fight of my career so far, so I’m approaching it a bit different. I like to prepare for every scenario and being around them means I’ve done that.”

O'Neill-Geraghty off

The planned Irish welterweight title clash between Owen O'Neill and Declan Geraghty will no longer go ahead as O'Neill failed to make weight.

The North Belfast man came in over 10lbs beyond the championship limit of 147, leaving the Boxing Union of Ireland with no option but to step in and call it off.

Elsewhere, South Belfast’s Colm Murphy will face Colombia’s Joshua Ocampo over six rounds.

Murphy claimed the Irish super-featherweight title last time out, winning on a technical decision against Liam Gaynor in their rematch as he had to dig deep when a head clash opened a gruesome gash over his eye, but battled through.

The six-fight card will also see Conor Kerr face Luke fashion at featherweight, John Cooney in eight-round super-featherweight action against Louis Norman, while Dominic Donegan is back in a middleweight bout.