Feargal McCrory took time out from preparations for his upcoming fight with Keenan Carbajal, 25-4-1 (17 KOs) to watch last weekend’s fight between WBA lightweight champion, Gervonta Davis, and his former opponent, Lamont Roach, on Saturday night.

The 32 year-old - who is from Coalisland in County Tyrone - faces Carbajal at The Theatre at Madison Square Garden on March 16th.

McCrory, 16-1 (8 KOs), started his career in Belfast but has trained for his fights in New York since 2022. He racked up five straight wins after crossing the Atlantic, a run of form which earned him a shot at Roach’s WBA super featherweight title last June.

The southpaw was unfazed by the occasion and pressed forward in his usual aggressive manner but was eventually worn down by Roach’s smart counter punching and was stopped in the eighth round.

Roach’s performance on Saturday night took many by surprise but having had first hand experience of the the 29 year-old’s abilities, McCrory wasn’t amongst that number.

“I obviously know first hand how good he is. He showed up on Saturday night and - maybe I'm looking at it through tinted glasses - but I believe he won the fight and it was taken from him. So I applaud him. Congratulations to him,” he told VIP’s Bell 2 Bell podcast.

“I hope he stays at that level of performance now in whatever is next for him because whatever is next, there's a lot of expectation on his shoulders.”

Having shared the ring with Roach, McCrory is uniquely placed to describe what makes him so effective.

“His defence is incredible. He's got a really, really, really, really good defence but I expected him to do very well against Tank,” he said. “I expected him to get taken out late but the reason that Tank got slated so much for fighting Lamont was simply because Lamont isn't as famous as Gervonta, as Shakur Stevenson, or Teofimo Lopez, or Ryan Garcia and the likes.

“But in terms of amateur career and pedigree, he is. He's very, very good as everyone else saw on Saturday night. He does a lot of things good and everyone knows that.

“I was talking to his father on Saturday afternoon. I coincidentally bumped into him and they were very confident.”

As for the now infamous sequence in the ninth round of the fight where referee, Steve Willis, decided against calling a knockdown despite Davis voluntarily taking a knee and making his way to his corner to have hair grease wiped from his eye, McCrory believes that Roach wouldn’t have received such favourable treatment had he acted in the same manner.

Had Willis called a knockdown, Roach would currently be celebrating a famous victory rather than a disappointing majority draw.

“I think it's ludicrous, to be honest. It should have been a count. When can a fighter, mid-fight, call timeout? I've never saw it,” he said.

“And again, if the shoe had been on the other foot - had Lamont Roach done that - what would have been the result? What would have been the outcome? I don't believe it would have been the same.”