Loughran ready to make his dreams come true

KILDRESS native Caolan Loughran believes his dreams will come true at the 02 in London tomorrow (Friday) night when he takes on Luke ‘The Apocalypse’ Shanks during the latest Cage Warriors show.

‘The Don’ may be going into the bout as an underdog on paper but with so much at stake, Loughran hasn’t left anything to chance and he’s determined to achieve his goal of victory, which should then yield a Cage Warriors world title fight and then the door to the UFC may open wide.

“This fight will get me a Cage Warriors world title fight, everyone thinks the winner is fighting for the belt, which would be quite literally a dream come true,” he beamed.

“This win is a huge moment for my career because being a Cage Warriors champion has been my dream for 10 years and I’m one fight away from that fight. It’s basically every thing I’ve worked for my entire life.”

After easing to an eye-catching victory over Festus Ahorlu in front of a partisan crowd at the SSE Arena in Belfast in June, Loughran feels the experience of fighting in front of a huge gallery will stand in his stead on Friday.

“It’s been four and a half months since my last fight and I’m over here in the best gym in the UK and Ireland [Team Kaobon] and I just feel my level has jumped every time I compete,” Loughran explained.

“Having the experience in Belfast in front of 4,500 people, I know there is a massive contingent of Irish people coming over so there will be a wee cauldron so it will feel like more than 4,500 people this time and I think that experience in Belfast will stand to me whereas I think he will be a wee bit taken aback by the whole thing.”

Since he was lined up to take on the UK and Ireland’s number one ranked bantamweight, Shanks, the Liverpool-based bantamweight has tailored his training regime in order to be in top shape for the clash.

And he believes that dedicated preparation will allow him to prove that he is too strong, too fit and that he has worked too hard to achieve anything other than a win against an opponent he feels doesn’t have the right level of discipline to reach the top.

“Training has gone very well, I’m very well prepared for this lad. I’ve known about it for two or three months, so I’ve done a lot of specific training for him, a lot of rounds, so I’m well prepared for him,” Loughran added.

“I’m just eager to compete, I feel so well prepared and I just want to be under the lights again. I’m fighting the so-called number one in the UK and Ireland, a former Cage Warriors champion who was all but in the UFC and I want to compete against him.

“I don’t think he has been forced to move up in weight, it’s laziness in my opinion. He doesn’t have the discipline to maintain his weight. It’s not easy, but I get it done but he’s opting out of that commitment, that discipline and that 11 weeks of training and dieting and I think that will pay dividends in the cage.

“There isn’t any way he will be able to keep up with me physically, cardio, any way. I think after six or seven minutes his legs will be gone.”