Seanie Monaghan is ready to impress against Dion Stanley at Radio City Music Hall

Light heavyweight Seanie Monaghan (17-0, 10 KOs) fights Dion Stanley (11-4) in a contest scheduled for eight rounds this Saturday night at Radio City Music Hall on the undercard of the Nonito Donaire/Guillermo Rigondeaux fight.

The Irish Voice caught up with the 31-year-old Monaghan to see how his preparations are going for his second fight of 2013.

“I am in great shape and I have never felt better. I want to put on a good performance, and I want to prove that I am a level above this guy,” said Monaghan on Monday.

Stanley is a journeyman 36-year-old veteran from Kansas City who last fought in May 2011. Monaghan was last in action on January 19 when he won a unanimous decision over Roger Cantrell, but he came out of that fight hurt. 

“I came out of that fight with a hand injury – I tore a ligament between my knuckles,” said Monaghan.

Doctors initially thought it might take some months to heal, but Monaghan recuperated ahead of schedule. He credits the injury with giving him more time to work on the technical side of his game and to improve his physical conditioning.

Monaghan, who is trained by Joe Higgins, took five weeks off from contact work and then got the go ahead to start using the hand again.  He now says the injury has fully healed and that he has come through all his heavy bag work and sparring with no ill effects.

To prepare for this fight Monaghan sparred with light heavyweight contender Isaac Chilemba, who recently fought to a draw with Tony Bellew (another man that Monaghan has sparred in recent times) in a WBC light heavyweight title eliminator.

“I sparred with him [Chilemba] couple of times, so I got some good work with him.  If I can spar with him then I am ready for this guy,” said Monaghan.

Monaghan’s confidence is such that he said he would be willing to fight either Bellew or Chilemba at this stage of his career, as he is ready to make some major moves.  However, to make these moves, he will need to sign with a promoter.

”To get where I am with no promoter is doing well, but to go to the next level I will need a promoter,” said Monaghan, who added that Top Rank and Lou DiBella are the front-runners to get his signature.

Tickets are available for Saturday’s fight online at Ticketmaster and from the box offices at Radio City Music Hall and MSG.