Lee McGregor hopes to make up for lost time by fighting Isaac Lowe in the rematch between unified heavyweight champions Alexander Usyk and Tyson Fury.
In December last year, due to McGregor’s arm injury, the game plan with Lowe (25 wins, 2 draws, 3 losses, 8 KOs) fell through. McGregor (14 wins, 1 draw, 1 loss, 11 KOs) has been waiting for a comeback ever since.
The 27-year-old featherweight from Scotland finally got his chance on December 21st. Although the last 12 months have been frustrating, McGregor is no stranger.
“It had to do with me winning the European title against Karim Guelfi,” McGregor told BoxingScene, recalling the circumstances of their 2021 bantamweight bout. “I had three or four dates canceled, I got COVID, and I was away from my family. I was away from home for so long that I almost lost all hope of competing, and then it finally happened and it was done in one round .Six months of preparation in less than three minutes.
“Hopefully it’s a bit of déjà vu, next week, the same thing happens, the same thing happens. It takes a lot of work, a lot of grit, determination and discipline to then be able to do it as quickly as this. Even though you put in so much , but I will bite off your hand for this result, but be prepared for everything.”
For a while, McGregor was seen as one of British boxing’s brightest hopes. He became the fastest boxer ever to hold the British, Commonwealth and European titles and seemed poised for great things.
The intensity of the Kash Farooq fight meant McGregor never got the credit he deserved for defeating Farooq in a superb British title fight in 2019. For some reason, McGregor’s stunning victory over Gurfi didn’t quite finish him off as high as he should have.
Since then, McGregor has won four times but also suffered a draw with Argentina’s Diego Ruiz and lost a 12-round decision against Eric Robles Ayala.
McGregor agrees that his biggest achievement to date has been overlooked, but he also knows that beating Law on such a huge platform could elevate him to a whole new level.
“For example, you mentioned Gurfi. Look what he did after I did [to him]. Even just last week, he still knocked out Terry LeCouverre, so he’s still going forward and doing well,” McGregor said. “But I don’t know. I just sometimes feel like you don’t get the credit you deserve, but it’s not difficult for me.
“The same thing will probably happen next week. I want to come in here, I want to do a job, I want to make a statement. I want to prove that I’m at a higher level than Isaac and doing that will definitely give me a chance in Fighting for the world title next year, so it’s a huge fight, the biggest fight of my life on the biggest stage.”
