Karl McConway Vs Keith Keogh | Cage Conflict Bantamweight Title | Energized's "The Face Off"

Summary

What is up and welcome to Energized's "The Face Off" Show! On this episode Karl McConway (SBG Charlestown) & Keith Keogh (C-MAC MMA) join us to discuss the Countdown to their Cage Conflict Bantamweight Title Fight on Saturday the 23rd of July in The Devenish, Belfast. We…

Transcript (youtube_captions)

[Music] [Applause] okay what's going on guys and welcome to a brand new episode of energize the face off russ introduce a guest man today we have champion versus champion cage conflict july 23rd it's going to be an epic one the most experienced featherweight in the country in carl mcconway versus one of the most hyped featherweights in the country keith kyo but this one's that phantom way it is gonna be an epic clash and carl how do you feel about cutting back down to bantamweight and how do you feel about fighting kikio who's 10-0 um the cup makes no difference the featherweight one was same they weigh in like so i was going around at the same weight um and then keep kills a good opponent 10 and 0 now so type of light i want to be fighting and then keith obviously you're on the feed in your career but you haven't i'd say if you add up all your other foyers fights together they might not have made as many points as carl mcconway how do you feel about stepping in there against him is this a step up in competition for you yeah yeah definitely like charles has his [ __ ] said look he's active he's fighting every week and they're just like before he don't want to be taken like you you're in amateur like you want to be taking flights that heart against tougher pounding score opponents that are baldy and there's no better man to do it to be to be fair and comes from a great gym and stuff so yeah that's these are type of points i want especially getting to this stage in my career where you're kind of thinking about that prowl stage you don't want to be like not bombs or whatever you want to be fighting good good fellas and go get good experience in people i have kids to him and this is the fight yeah it's going to be a cracker yeah yeah yourself what's up ross i always say there's no occurred in ireland oh and there's no mma card in arled on without carl mcconway's name on it was that one cage legacy oh either gold one gary rooney and jamie have a visit didn't make it to that one but yeah look like if i'm if i'm able to cover from the fights like i may as well take as much as i can it's just best way to go it definitely is i just want to say actually yeah well done to keaton or the ima team over in the uk representing ireland the four nations and that was epic and uh congrats to yourself and jordan for splitting splitting the gold again you know i mean there's never been as much split goal it was not my life but uh you know i i love the two lads so i'm happy enough for them to do it um keith did you get to see carl's fault down in premiere and watch it what did you make of it to be very light so he didn't actually get to see it because i think the [ __ ] i think the time he was pointing was the time he was pointing over in england and live up here let's find nice and so we didn't get to see to be fair so uh i didn't have i can't comment on it i can't really say much about that one fair enough and uh carl uh obviously you weren't successful in your uh in your opportunity for gold uh premier fc what mistakes did you learn from that that you're gonna carry forward into this fight and be better well i gotta work on my defense of wrestling and not get caught on the back foot i think if if i got someone trying to take my back and take me down like that i can't just be trying to just defend and escape maybe roll up on top uh sometimes i escape the back get on to top top full guard like as kind of a it's a handy way to get on top of your person doing all the work can't rely on that need to need to get out of position turn them and go attack myself because i'm i'm a better offensive wrestler than a defensive wrestler so i need to be uh putting people on the back foot instead of being put on the back foot yeah fair enough and carl tell us this obviously you're 12 and 10 at the moment that's 22 amateur fights uh what stage do you think you'll look at uh changing into the pro ranks uh this is this my last year at amateur now this is my last year in amateur so i have this fight and then i'm going to take um august and september off fights that's the plan and just work on uh work on one weekend because when i'm just doing fight after fight after fight i'm just working on my strengths so i need to just take the time off uh round out my game and then whack out a few fights between october and december and then uh looking to go pro then 2023. and then i'll obviously yourself keith what about yourself because uh you're 10 no at this stage um you're you've you've breathed through a lot of the people you fall what about yourself what do you think going pro soon yeah well no i'm not it's not this year anyway like this year for me coming into this year i was going to think you know omash really and obviously winning the national it's going to give me that opportunity to do that so right now the order still hasn't happened yet in the worlds haven't happened and i still yet to be announced dates and venues so the minute there that is that's going to me goal for this year and was to get an image especially for one problem it was like you know getting rematched all the lies in the gym like alex jordo trev everybody they've all have void maps experience so for me coming up trail like they're like as even lives obviously a lot younger than them like a couple years younger seeing them there was always going to look yes let's get in and do the omas you know so i want to get in get the imax experience first and or like maybe next year like listen if i'm good enough next year then i'm like well let's go for it if i'm not good enough look if i feel like i still have stuff to walk on and stay an amateur like i'm only 21 like still so it's just kind of a waiting game as well looking i'm not rushing anything and as well like bantamweight this year kind of wanted a test today like i'm i'm fairly like i walk around very late like you know when i'm pointing out that away and weighing in at 64 and stuff so this year was going to be like let's get the weight right for 61. the y maps are 66. i'm just going to kick off from there get the experience and get as many good fights as i can and there yeah so it's for me it's the only maps after this and that's really what i had my heart set on and then we'll see where i go from there you know brilliant love the haircut this fight here goes down cage conflict seven on july 23rd if you are looking to get tickets make sure to jump on the carl's instagram and if you're looking for tickets make sure to jump on the key to instagram uh carl like you're obviously with spg charlestown right now can you tell us how much your game has developed ever since joining on roddy and the team well yeah definitely um i feel i feel like i've gotten i'm getting on getting sharper with the striking like obviously i still got a ways to go to like but they're improving me with that a whole actor like um like i'm saying i still got a lot to work on but they're but they're improving my footwork they're giving me way more weapons on the feet and there's way more wrestling sequences now so like i'm getting more and more options from the clinch and um yeah i feel like i feel like that's a that's that's some of some of the main main things i'm improving on now there's also real real good jiu-jitsu like i'm getting a lot of like really good roles since coming to dublin like like there's loads loads of loads of really good jiu jitsu practitioners all over all over the country like you know so i like i'm improving a lot but i think mainly from charlestown and like my wrestling and my striking is getting out is getting a lot better i think nice one carl and keith like obviously c-mac are blowing up over the last year like yourself like like what's in the water in cmac and like like what's the sort of like like um ethos behind the team to like be pushing yourself out your likes of jordan your likes of ross like what's going on in the water at cmac yeah i think it's always just i think it's always been there like glad you know i think like we've always been a top team i think it's just going to the results i started showing now and i think the way that we go about things as in getting experience and proven force and that's kind of why i think now all of that dog that's paying off obviously about winning you know all the time and stuff so it's good to see now but i think we walk as a team a lot more you know it's only touching this the other day like we we're all very close in the gym you know so like when the lads see me doing something that they don't think like as in fighting boys like they spot like a mistake in the game they say it's me or vice versa like you know so i think the way that we're all so close we're all like more on teammates we're all friends so the way that we're all really close with i think that's how we develop much quicker you know i think it's just it's a great james great environment i've always been there i started there and just trusting our codes and then we hold deal we all have and i think it's just really really starting to pay off and i think the next couple of years again you're going to really start to see the benefits when we go pro and stuff like that i love the way you took a moment there about and said if they see me doing something wrong in the cage they didn't talk about them doing anything wrong outside the cage you know like wearing that liverpool jersey [Laughter] it this one is definitely going to be unmissable ladders champ versus champ carl's defender's toilet keep the look and become the cage conflicts champ champ like this is going to be an absolute cracker us yeah really is uh carl tell us this no one's been able to solve the keithkill puzzle yeah what makes you think you're the man to do it um well i see like he's he's got a lot of volume in his strikes he throws a lot of volume backs people up i think um i think i can i can handle volume land some good shots in the feet i think the if i get if we get the position down to the ground where it's full guide keith's one one fights off his back which is something not many people do and you're talking about his high guard i said he puts them in that and like he's put a guy out from there and he's out landed on the ground and pound from there i'm strong from that position so i i do i do back my guard game against that bottom guard and i think i can win that position and and then keith this is by far like you said your most experienced opponent what makes you think you're going to stay on the field and get your hand raised and uh add another belt to the collection i just think it's i'm all around the lads you know i just want to kind of come in here shout out my around and so like i can walk with wrestling i can walk with me again i can walk i'm off me back on top i just think i'm very well around it and that's what i tried to incorporate in the game a lot lately i tried to mix it all together this is mma like i'm trying not to be one dimensional i'm trying not to be just go drop me back just go down on top just go to shogun i'm trying to just mix it all up and i feel like that's from going forward like you know you'll start to say that a lot more and i'll be starting from next week and then uh i'm just going to ask you one last question each uh carl you said you want to get one or two more in this year is there anyone across the bantamweight or featherweight division in ireland who you'd like to test yourself with obviously not named kikio right i think i think before going pro um elvis luco will be a good one to go against because he's doing the best right now i think uh that that'd be a fight to make from from october november december some sometime like that i think that would be a good fight to do and what about yourself keith is there any featherweights or bantamweight so you're like you know what i'd love to test myself against them i'm not particularly lads like for me it's getting the experience getting the hard voids of names that's what i mean i'm just trying to be like you know when we just oh it's it's amazing for me you'll not want to start and i'm dropping that damage i like you know we'll keep that for pro just purse that's just me personally so i'm just here getting the experience good guys are getting thrown at me i hate the good guys and i'm just here to get better this is what the amateur game is about so i'm here to just really try to [ __ ] improve my game all around keep winning and keep going forward and no matter who's trying to be put in front of me now we love the honesty lads so we like we say we we think you're two of the best in the country and we're just looking for uh to see especially amateur see the best fight the best and when you turn pro like we're less we're less uh all for the irish domestic fights uh we'd rather cheer harlem versus someone else but um you are you are two of the absolute best and carl anything say before we head i'm just going to thank all my training partners and spg charlestown anyone i train with at all um thanks for training thanks for helping me improve all the time that's uh that's all i want to say and what about you though yeah same again said thanks follow me sponsors as well after watching and wouldn't be able to do four nations without them and yet same against all the sema that's you know with the [ __ ] day in dale making me better each and every day so yeah thanks a lot [Laughter] jumping on this is definitely one bunch of ways not to be missed uh as i said if you want to get tickets make sure you jump in the car instagram make sure to jump with the key to instagram the the pay-per-view link will be on cage conflicts instagram as well so make sure to tune in july 23rd ross take us away but times million for all watching at home if you haven't watched this and have enjoyed it make sure to subscribe really helps us really helps a lot it helps all the voice mma make sure to like share and drop a comment on who you think is going to win this fight and as always stay stay energized energize up the irish been sussing you guys a couple of times i've seen a couple of clips i think you're doing some interviews with dylan moore and then that i i saw so keep going keep up the good workers