Pierce O’Leary knows exactly what’s at stake this weekend — and it’s far bigger than another tick on the record.
The Dubliner fights in Nottingham on Saturday night in what is, for all intents and purposes, a keep busy bout.
However, it’s much bigger than that for Ireland’s only reigning EBU European Champion.
The Sheriff Street native’s long-promised, long-delayed Dublin return — finally looks set for March. But only if he wins.
Lose, and the dream collapses again.
“I think it’s going to happen. It is going to happen — I’m going to make it happen,” he said when speaking to Boxing Tickets NI. “It’s going to be tremendous. A massive big fight, hopefully a big title on the line. We’re all working extremely hard to make it happen.”
O’Leary hasn’t been shy about admitting how much the Dublin homecoming means to him. It is the thing that has driven him through camps, setbacks, false dawns and broken promises. He also knows one wrong step destroys everything.
“This weekend is my homecoming fight,” he insisted. “In your eyes, it might not be — but in my eyes, it’s the world for me. Because if you overlook somebody, if you slip, everything goes badly wrong. That’s his golden ticket. He beats me and he gets more work, more opportunities. I can’t let that happen.”
For ‘Big Bang’, the pressure comes not only from ambition, but from years of being teased with the dream. Twice in the past year he was scheduled to box in Dublin. Twice it collapsed. First with the abandoned August homecoming. Then, with the European title fight, a bout he boxed cautiously in June because he didn’t want an injury to ruin his chance.
“I had the fear of getting injured or cut and missing the biggest dream of my life,” he said. “That would have killed me. You could have offered me 200 grand to go sit at the show — I wouldn’t want to be in the arena. It wouldn’t sit right.”
“If I knew before the fight that Dublin wasn’t happening, I probably would have stopped him,” he admitted. “But mentally, I couldn’t break that barrier. I just stuck to the game plan and got the win.”
Now, with Queensberry quietly preparing a March return to the capital, O’Leary says the picture is finally clear. He believes the announcement is imminent — but only if he does his part in Nottingham.
“I’m the only Irish fighter from Ireland that hasn’t fought in Dublin,” he said. “And the venue is 200 metres from my home. That’s insane. Even when I went to Katie Taylor’s fights, I couldn’t enjoy it because everyone was hounding me — ‘When are you here? When are you fighting?’ I didn’t have the answer. That’s why I didn’t go to Mick Conlan’s fight. I would have been hounded.”
He laughs telling the story, but there’s real pain underneath. For O’Leary, this isn’t just another date. It’s vindication. It’s belonging. It’s the night he finally walks out in Dublin as a hometown pro, after years of being the only one who never got the chance.
Saturday, then, is more than a tune-up. It’s a gatekeeper to his entire future.
And he knows it.
“I never overlook anybody,” he said. “I treat everyone the same. This fight means the world. I need to get the performance, get the win, stay injury free and then we crack on for the big one.”
For the first time, the date feels real. The venue feels real. The dream feels real.