Light heavyweight Seanie Monaghan (15-0,10 KOs) has a new opponent for his October 24 fight at the Roseland Ballroom in New York City. The 31-year-old will defend his WBC Continental Americas light heavyweight title against Rayco "War" Saunders (22-17-2, 9KOs) in a contest scheduled for 10 rounds.

The Irish American fighter was originally meant to fight Daniel Adotey Allotey, but the Ghanaian only qualified for an eight-round fight which meant that Monaghan would not have been able to defend his title. With that in mind, a new opponent was found in the shape of the 38-year-old veteran from Pittsburgh.

The Irish Voice caught up with Monaghan on Monday to find out how his preparations have been going.

"Everything has been going great, and I feel as strong as a bull," he said. Monaghan was originally preparing for another veteran, Danny Santiago, before he fell through and southpaw Adotey Allotey entered the fray as a potential opponent.  When his ineligibility to fight a 10-rounder ruled him out, Sanders got the chance to come to the Big Apple to fight Monaghan.

"I've got my hands full with this guy; this is going to be a real fight," added Monaghan, who went on to say that the challenge presented by Saunders is far more motivating that the one the Adotey Allotey would have tabled.

"I've been watching a few videos of him.  He has a good defense and keeps his hands up.  I believe he has only been stopped once in his career."

Saunders is a durable fighter who has been a professional since 2002. He is coming off three losses, but he went the distance in all three against fighters with good records.

Saunders was last in action on September 29 when he lost a unanimous decision to South African prospect Isaac Chilemba. The other notable name on Saunders' resume is Edson Miranda, who beat the Pennsylvanian by unanimous decision in June 2011 in Atlantic City. 

Monaghan has been working with regular sparring partners Will Rosinksy and Olympian Marcus Browne, as well doing some work with middleweight Daniel Jacobs ahead of the fight.  The Long Beach, Long Island native was slated to spar with English light heavyweight Tony Bellew at Gleason's Gym on Tuesday.  Bellew is a serious contender in the 175-pound division and is in the Big Apple training in preparation for his own fight on November 17 in England.

Tickets for the October 24 installment of Broadway boxing are available by visiting Ticketmaster, or by calling DiBella Entertainment at 212-947-2577.   

In other news, several reports have linked featherweight Patrick Hyland (27-0) to a fight with Javier Fortuna (20-0) on the undercard of the Manny Pacquiao/Juan Manuel Marquez fight on December 8 in Las Vegas. It is expected that Team Hyland will make an announcement in the coming days about the next assignment for the Dubliner.

Finally, welterweight John O’Donnell (26-2, 10 KOs) got the Canadian chapter of his career off to a winning start when he defeated Tomas Mendez (15-3, 9 KOs) by unanimous decision at the Bell Center in Montreal on Friday night.