\n The 23-year-old squares up with Dorian Darch with his heavyweight WBL hybrid boxing world title on the line at Warrington Wolves\u2019 Halliwell Jones Stadium in his home town but rugby league was his first sporting focus.\n<\/p>\n
\n That team sport is in his blood, and is one in which his father Mike ‘Gus’ O’Rourke \u2013 Cheshire\u2019s former assistant chief fire officer but now retired – represented England at under 19s level and went on to play rugby league professionally.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cI played rugby when I was younger. I\u2019m a twin, so me and my brother played on the same Woolston Rovers team but it was never for me really,\u201d said the 23-year-old who grew up in the Padgate area.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThe latest we got to was under 13s, but we started about seven. I was a good player, Nathan was much better though. I just wanted to branch off and do my own thing, be good at something on my own.\n<\/p>\n
\n Conor O’Rourke in the Warrington Wolves changing rooms at The Halliwell Jones Stadium (Image: Lloyd Groarke)\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cI think there\u2019s also an element of wanting to carry it all on my shoulders. On a rugby team, you can pass blame between every other player like \u2018why didn\u2019t you pass me the ball because I\u2019d have scored?\u2019\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cBut with this there\u2019s no excuses, it\u2019s all on you, you can\u2019t turn to anyone and point any fingers. There\u2019s nowhere to hide, you can\u2019t hide behind the bigger players, it\u2019s all on me.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n There is a little bit of boxing in the family background, but the Warrington Bus Station security officer is a trailblazer for the O\u2019Rourkes in hybrid – a version the same as regular boxing except the fighters wear smaller MMA-style gloves.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cMy dad and a few of his brothers tried boxing when they were younger,\u201d revealed the former King’s Leadership Academy student and then continued with a cheeky smile.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cMy dad thinks he knows about boxing because he hit a few bags when he was a kid, but he doesn\u2019t have a clue.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cHe was a really good sportsman back in the day and I feel we\u2019ve got some good genes in the family for it.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cHe still thinks he\u2019s a sportsman at the age of 65. He was recently in the Alps, skiing. He phoned me to tell me he\u2019d fallen over about 30 times. And I said \u2018you think you can give me any advice on boxing?\u2019\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cBut he\u2019s always been good for giving me advice. All the advice that a dad should give his son, he\u2019s been really good for and we get along well.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n O\u2019Rourke said he is proud to be representing the town in Wolves\u2019 den, where he has watched The Wire play as a fan.\n<\/p>\n
\n Last night he led out the Warrington Wolves team for their friendly against Leigh Leopards before facing off with his fight opponent Darch on the pitch, a moment that will long live with him.\n<\/p>\n
\n Conor O’Rourke and Dorian Darch facing off at The Halliwell Jones Stadium during the interval of the Warrington Wolves versus Leigh Leopards friendly (Image: Richard Walker)\n<\/p>\n
\n Conor O’Rourke at the end of the face-off with Dorian Darch in the middle of The Halliwell Jones Stadium pitch, having took off his coat to reveal his Wire colours (Image: Richard Walker)\n<\/p>\n
\n Conor O’Rourke’s world title belt that will be on the line on Saturday night (Image: Richard Walker)\n<\/p>\n
\n But eyes all turn to the 40\/Twenty Lounge in the East Stand tonight as O\u2019Rourke bids to retain his title in a battle expected to last longer than the one in which he won the crown.\n<\/p>\n
\n Welshman Darch got in the ring with global boxing stars Anthony Joshua and Daniel Dubois earlier in his career before switching to the bareknuckle arena and O\u2019Rourke has described the 41-year-old as an \u2018animal\u2019 in the ring.\n<\/p>\n
\n Former Hook & Jab amateur O\u2019Rourke got the opportunity to fight for the vacant world title out of the blue, stepping up from the undercard after nine potential opponents for Brendon Moore withdrew from the show in Torquay in October.\n<\/p>\n
\n He knocked out the Chard-based fighter in 36 seconds and now he has promised Darch he will be the first to \u2018spark him out\u2019.\n<\/p>\n
\n O\u2019Rourke has a record of 18 fights unbeaten, including three at amateur and 14 on the unlicensed scene before that first professional success on The English Riviera.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 23-year-old squares up with Dorian Darch with his heavyweight WBL hybrid boxing world title on the line…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":401304,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-401303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=401303"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401303\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/401304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=401303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=401303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=401303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}