Peter
McGrail

Liverpool amateur sensation turned 7-0 Super-Bantamweight prospect Peter McGrail signed a long-term promotional deal with Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing in February 2023.

One of this country's most decorated amateur boxers, McGrail first broke through with bronze medals at the Youth Olympics and World Youth Championships back in 2014. The gifted southpaw then won gold at the European Championships in Kharkiv in 2017 before winning Commonwealth gold a year later in Australia.

The 26-year-old, who trains out of the renowned Everton Red Triangle Gym on Albion Street under Paul Stevenson, was hotly-tipped for a Featherweight medal at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games but succumbed to a premature defeat against Thai fighter Chatchai-decha Butdee in the opening round.

McGrail made his highly anticipated professional debut on Matchroom’s sold-out Liam Smith vs. Anthony Fowler show at the M&S Bank Arena Liverpool back in October 2021, comfortably outpointing Ed Harrison over six rounds to kick off life in the paid ranks with a win.

He returned to the arena two months later for his second fight on the undercard of the sold-out Conor Benn vs. Chris Algieri and Katie Taylor vs. Firuza Sharipova double-header, earning his first stoppage win without a vest by halting Nicaragua’s Engel Gomez in just two rounds.

McGrail racked up four wins from four fights in 2022 – all inside the distance – to further establish himself as one of the exciting talents in the 122lbs division. He started the year by taking out Alexandru Ionita in Dubai before returning to Liverpool to score stoppages over Uriel Lopez Juarez and Alexander Espinoza. In his last outing McGrail stopped Hironori Miyake on the Naoya Inoue vs. Paul Butler undercard in Japan.

McGrail made his official Matchroom debut on the undercard of Diego Pacheco-Jack Cullen a few weeks after inking on the dotted line and decisioned Nicolas Nahuel Botelli over 10 rounds, before defeating 17-0 Fran Mendoza in October to land the WBA Continental Super Bantamweight Title - the first strap of his pro career.

McGrail made his US debut on the undercard of Jesse Rodriguez-Sunny Edwards in December and suffered a stunning KO defeat to Ja'Rico O'Quinn despite winning every second of the fight until getting caught by a right hand from the gods in the fifth round.

An immediate rematch was scheduled for the end of April before Ja'Rico O'Quinn was forced to pull out due to personal reasons and former British champion Marc Leach was drafted in as a late replacement. McGrail put in a largely dominant display to capture the WBA International Super Bantamweight Title.