EAST Timor born, Tyrone bred super-featherweight Teo Alin impressed on his professional debut in August and now the ambitious Pody McCrory-managed stylist is looking forward to a second outing at the SSE Arena on November 1.
McCrory headlines the bill against Leonard Carrilo while his Cookstown-based protégé is also up against a Columbian in experienced journeyman Joshua Ocampo who will push him hard over four rounds.
Well-schooled, light on his feet and a bag of tricks, Alin has the experience of appearing in two Ulster Elite finals behind him. He spent his first 11 years at Cookstown ABC before moving up to Holy Trinity in Belfast and has returned to his former coaches Adrian ‘Chalky’ Kelly and Fred Hampsey to begin his pro career.
“I’ve been with them from the start and they know me well,” explained Alin who works as a personal trainer and boxing coach.
“To be honest, turning pro wasn’t something I dreamt of or thought that much about until a couple of years ago.
“Over lockdown I started watching a lot more boxing and I was watching lads that I had seen as amateurs turn over and I just thought: ‘I could do that too!’ I had sparred a few pros in the past as well and I thought the pace and the style would suit me a lot better than the amateurs because you have more time to think, more time to plan, you can sit down on your shots…
“I thought the pro game would suit me and I was happy with my debut. I sold over 200 tickets and it was a good performance against a strong opponent who was durable and had been in there with a lot of good guys.
“A lot of those guys didn’t face him until they had a few fights under their belt but I just took him first fight. I handled him well and looked good doing it, so I was happy enough.
“I don’t really model my style on anybody, I just try to mix it up and how I fight usually depends on what the other guy does. I can go on the front foot and back foot and I can stand there and trade too if I want to but it’s a hit-and-not-get-hit game!”
Alin came through his debut against Engel Gomez with flying colours and hopes to “make a statement” in his second outing against Ocampo. Now 28, he had his first amateur fight just before he turned 18 and has packed a fair amount of action in over the last 10 years.
“I was a late starter to the boxing,” he explains.
“The club in Cookstown didn’t open until I was about 16. I joined it straight away and I trained for about a year and-a-half before I got a fight and it all went from there.
“I want to see how far I can go. Everybody’s goal in this game is to land themselves a good opportunity – a good fight to get good money. That’s my goal.
“You never know what opportunities can come up with boxing. Look at Anto Cacace, he was close to retiring. The (Joe) Cordina fight was meant to be his last fight and then he went out and knocked Cordina out and changed his life forever.
“I’m working hard, training twice-a-day and it’s a struggle sometimes but you just have to do it and hopefully it will pay off. You can’t be in this game and not put the work in.”
Alin’s life changed forever when he arrived in Ireland from East Timor aged eight. His father had come over to work in the Tyrone area and the rest of the family joined him when he was settled.
“Things weren’t good back home so my da came over to search for a better life,” he says.
“He came over before us to look for work and then we followed him. At the start it was strange growing up in a totally different culture but I made a lot of friends straight away so it wasn’t too bad.
“East Timor has never had a world champion boxer before. If I’m the first, that’ll be class.”
A BELFAST clash with either IBF world title mandatory Eduardo Nunez or a potentially lucrative match-up against Leigh Wood is looking increasingly likely after it emerged that Anthony Cacace is unlikely to appear in Saudi Arabia on February 22.
Cacace won the IBF title in Saudi Arabia earlier this year by dethroning defending champion Joe Cordina and then secured his right to defend it by beating Josh Warrington at Wembley Stadium last month.
Nunez has already called for the fight to be made but the Cacace team were not impressed by the business aspect of the deal which has opened the door for a clash with hammer-handed Nottingham native Wood.
It is understood that if Wood is Cacace’s next opponent the fight will take place in Belfast or Nottingham early next year.
Meanwhile, if a title defence against Nunez is the option that fight would take place in Belfast or potentially Saudi Arabia. Belfast would be favourite since, with a bill already planned for February 22, another in the Kingdom would be unlikely before the end of March, the cut-off date for Cacace to defend the IBF title. Failure to defend the belt before the end of March would see Cacace stripped of the hard-earned title.
Cacace has fought in his native Belfast only five times during his 12 years as a professional including two of his first three contests. Since then the Andersonstown native has been a road warrior and, although he did defend his IBO belt at the SSE Arena in May last year, he has never headlined a show on home turf.
His 2024 renaissance means he is undoubtedly the biggest draw in Irish boxing at the minute and a title defence – or a showdown with Wood – would seem appropriate and make business sense at this stage.