By Terence Dooley

Northern Ireland’s Conrad Cummings (13-2-1, 6 KOs) has been handed a quickfire shot at redemption following his defeat against Luke Keeler at The SSE Arena, Belfast in April. 

The 27-year-old lost by unanimous decision to the Dubliner yet has a chance to get back on the winning trail when he meets Nicky Jenman at Belfast’s Windsor Park venue this Saturday night on the undercard of best friend Carl Frampton’s WBO interim featherweight title defence against Australia’s Luke Jackson.

Rather than trying to place the blame elsewhere, "Dynamite" has admitted that it was his responsibility and has vowed to make the necessary adjustments to ensure that he can get into title contention.  “There were a lot of factors that contributed to that performance,” he said when speaking to David Kelly of the Belfast Telegraph.

“I just felt there was nothing there and I take full responsibility.  I had to take a good look at things and see where it went wrong.  I believe that whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger.  I'm a very determined person and I will persevere until I achieve my goals.”

He added: “I love to train and sometimes I want it too much and I've had to learn the hard way that I need to know when to take a rest.  Leading up to that last fight I probably hadn't given myself any sort of worthwhile break and it caught up with me.

“I had been a consummate professional leading up to the fight and then in those 24 hours I was stupid—I just thought I'm ready to go in and win the fight no problem.  It was the weirdest feeling I've ever had in a fight because I couldn't get going and it's a feeling that I never want to experience again.”

Cummings trains alongside Frampton at Jamie Moore’s gym; he insists that his fans have yet to see the best of him, but has vowed to put that right this weekend and moving forward.  “[P]eople still haven't seen the best of me,” he said.

“I've shown it in the gym and now it's time to start doing it under the lights.  To have the chance to box on this card at Windsor Park is just fantastic.  I can't wait to get in there and do the business.”

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