THE man known as 'The Beast' in boxing circles has promised to inflict a painful defeat on unbeaten Scottish heavyweight, Gary Cornish, on Saturday evening.
Croatian knock-out specialist, Marino Goles, has no qualms in asserting that Cornish will become the 16th victim of his vicious punching to fail to last the distance.
Despite the fact that the Scot will have the backing of a vociferous 300-strong Highland army, who look set to make the Saltire Promotions' show at the Paisley Lagoon Centre both a sell-out and a seething cauldron of hate, Goles claims he will knock Cornish out in round four, ending the Scot's hopes of a projected meeting with either Anthony Joshua or David Price.
"I have not come to Scotland to box 10 rounds and there is no way that Cornish will still be standing at the end of this fight," said Goles. "He will go like the 15 others before him: early."
He continued: "Yes, I will have a look at Cornish to start with, maybe for the first three rounds, but after that I will go to work on him and I believe he will be sleeping before round four is finished.
"You say he is big (Cornish is six foot seven inches), yes he is bigger than me (Goles is six foot one inch), but he likes to fight on the outside and I fight on the inside. I will walk through anything Cornish has to throw my way to say hello with my bombs.
"Cornish has not been in with a fighter who hits as hard as I do. So he is unbeaten, he has never been knocked-out before, too, but by end of Saturday night he will have two new experiences and it will be painful for him."
As a teenager growing up in Split, Goles experienced the horrors of the Balkan War, thus, the 34-year-old says a night in the Paisley Lagoon holds no fears for him.
Goles said: "I like the Scottish people, they seem friendly to me, but maybe on Saturday when I am hurting Cornish that will not be so.
"I know the Scots are passionate, but I have the power in my hands to make them quiet.
"In January I won the WBU title with a one-round knock-out and tomorrow night Cornish will go the same way."
Meanwhile British light-welterweight champion, Willie Limond, believes that challenger, Chris Jenkins, has shown a sign of experience ahead of their clash for the Lonsdale Belt at the First Direct Arena, Leeds, on April 11.
The duo met for the first time at a press conference yesterday and Limond liked what he saw: "For me, Jenkins looked right down at almost fight-weight and that is way too early.
"Maybe he is excited about getting his big chance and has over-trained, I don't know, but to be as gaunt as he was six weeks before we fight is way too early.
"No offence to him, he is a nice lad, but you don't want to leave it all in the gym."
A few Tickets for the Cornish versus Goles bill at the Paisley Lagoon are still available on 0141 810 5700 priced £40, £50, and £75 VIP.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article