A professional debut is always special — regardless of event, opponent or venue.
But for 18-year-old junior featherweight Adam Maca, announcing himself at New York‘s Madison Square Garden was literally contractual.
“[Manager] Sam [Jones], he was like: ‘We’ll get the MSG debut,’ Maca told ESPN ahead of his fight against Rafael Castillo on the undercard of Richardson Hitchins’ IBF junior welterweight title defence against George Kambosos Jr.
“And then we got it in our contract as well with Matchroom. When they posted on Instagram, the poster for the fight, then it become a bit real and obviously when we had our flights booked.
“That’s when it properly become like, yeah, this is happening.”
Various promoters approached the highly touted Maca, but it was Matchroom’s ability to get him to the Big Apple on debut that sealed the deal.
To say it has been a whirlwind week is an understatement.
“Around the arena, it’s not just boxing things, it’s all sports and it’s [the] quotes of what people are saying about the arena: ‘The world’s most famous, the best arena in the world.’
“So to be boxing there on my debut is massive,” Maca said.
After winning various domestic titles, Maca — born in Brighton with Albanian and Yemenis heritage — had no doubt that he wanted to turn pro as soon as possible.
“Since I was younger I wanted to be a pro boxer and then when I was getting closer to 18, I just kept thinking, I can’t wait to turn pro, can’t wait to be 18 so I can turn pro,” he said.
“So there was sort of never any thought in my mind that I was going to do anything else.”
Source: espn.com