THE speed and manner of Gary Cornish’s weekend defeat at the hands of Anthony Joshua may, at first glance, suggest that the 28-year-old Highlander is destined not to fulfil the promise bestowed on him by his manager, Tommy Gilmour.
Gilmour was quick to concede that the previously undefeated Inverness boxer was caught cold by the Olympic champion at the O2 Arena, to the extent that he was “frozen out” in the space of just 97 seconds.
But the veteran Glasgow promoter has not given up hope that his 6’7” charge may ultimately become the first-ever Scot to achieve the status of British or Commonwealth champion at the weight.
“We have not given up on the idea of Gary winning titles,” Gilmour declared yesterday. “Joshua will move on beyond British, Commonwealth and maybe even European titles and Gary has to put his name back in the mix.
“He may not go on to win a world title, but he can try to become the best of the rest and challenge for British and Commonwealth titles in time.”
Cornish must serve an automatic British Boxing Board of Control suspension as a consequence of being stopped, but once he has done so, Gilmour plans to bring him back early in the New Year, very possibly in his home city.
Meanwhile, he reflected: “When he was floored the first time after being hit square on, instead of staying down longer and then trying to grab and hold on until he regained his composure, he tried to immediately fight back and then got done a second time.
“It was a peach of a punch and the referee was correct to stop the fight. Stevie McGuire, who was working in Gary’s corner, told me afterwards that his (Cornish’s) eyes were rolling, so Victor Loughlin did the right thing, without a shadow of a doubt.
“If Gary had been caught by another couple of big punches he could have been badly hurt. But I believe Joshua said in a post-fight interview that Gary’s jab is harder than anything he had felt before, which is encouraging.”
Of Joshua, he added: “He possesses phenomenal power and is probably only two or three fights away from a world title shot.
“The only thing that still has to be tested is Joshua’s chin. If he can withstand a heavy dunt by being hit the way he hits others and remains standing, I suggest the others take up running!”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here