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Daniel Geale is convinced he still has the hunger and desire to win another boxing world title next year, but considers himself fortunate not to have got a slap from his coach for a rare show of arrogance.
Geale bounced back from his third round stoppage by Gennady Golovkin, with a unanimous 12-round points win over Australian compatriot, Jarrod Fletcher on Wednesday in Sydney.
The former WBA Super and IBF middleweight world champion was a comfortable 119-108 winner on all three judges cards.
“I had to prove to myself that I’ve still got that hunger, I still want it badly,” Geale told AAP.
“I was happy after I got the first and second rounds out of the way, it was there, I felt that fire burning, deep down and I knew I wasn’t going anywhere.”
Geale was winning so comfortably, he indulged in some uncharacteristic showboating in the final stages.
“My coach probably should have slapped me one at the end of the round, because I don’t do that (normally),” he said.
“He said to me `you don’t don’t do it in sparring, you don’t do it anywhere, so why are you doing it in the ring? That’s the most dangerous place to do it’.”
Geale’s decisive victory over his friend and former Australian amateur team colleague earned him the IBF Pan Pacific and interim WBO Asia Pacific middleweight titles.
They could lead to him getting ranked by those organisations in addition to he WBA.
“I’d love to be back (in the ring) by March or April next year,” Geale said.
“Hopefully if not fighting for a title fight, (then) for a number one position.
“But I’m not holding my hopes up too high, that it’s definitely going to be then.
“There may be another fight in between.”
While the possibility of successive losses and a third defeat in his past four fights could have had serious repercussions for Geale, he refused to dwell on the negatives.
“I’ve kept the negative thoughts out of it as much as possible, I was just focusing on what I needed to do, not so much the outcome,” Geale said.
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