Young Sports Star of the Year Finalist: A knock-out year for McCabe

“I just love the whole thrill of it, it's a crazy game to be involved in, like the whole fighting part, but the one thing I love about it is hitting people.” That is the honest assessment of Cavan kickboxer Cian McCabe, who, back in March, picked up the Celtic title with a brilliant win in Glasgow which has catapulted him up the rankings.

The Killygarry man has been competing for a few years now, having dabbled in boxing as a child, and is making rapid strides. “I love the training. The training is the hardest part of it, the fight is the easy part,” he explained. “That's where you make a man of yourself. You literally train to go to hell so when you go and fight, it's not as bad. You get used to it. “I train five days a week, twice a day.

On a Monday I train in the morning at 10 o'clock. I do a lot of cardio in the morning. And then after that I go and I do a 5k run and then in the evening times I train with the whole gym, they're doing their strategies and technique for the fight, going through everything that you have to do.

“It depends on the person we’re fighting, so we watch a video of him and then we go in and we mimic what we're going to do in the fight, if that makes sense. “I train Monday to Friday, twice a day, sometimes three times a day if I get the chance. Just basically going through everything, just putting myself through hell basically. And enjoying every bit of it.”

Cian’s upward trajectory is such that he has designs on a European and even a world title down the line as he continues to make progress. “I need to win the Irish title anyway and if I win that I’ll go on to the European title and if I win the European title, I go on to the world title,” he said. “What I want to do this year is win the Irish title and then hopefully get a shot at the European title and then go pro after that. I’d be looking to go pro at the end of the year.”