BOXING: Johnny Wattersonhears Bernard Dunne explain how he has learned from his defeat to Kiko Martinez ahead of his bout with Ricardo Cordoba

TWO WEEKS to go now. The longest two, he says. Bernard Dunne skips up onto the ring in the National Stadium and talks of what it means.

“Buzzing,” is how he describes himself, but he’s also more artfully picking his way though the minefield of questions. He knows from experience that predicting what shape his world title fight on March 21st against Ricardo Cordoba will take is a guesser’s game.

One thing he understands is not to take him on in a first-round war. Dunne’s last bad thought in the ring was when Kiko Martinez came out. The father of two brought home a savage lesson that night and sees Cordoba as the chance he’s always chased. The wanting of it has been painful and now more fundamentally important and less personal than it has ever been.

“Kids change your life and perspective,” he says. “Having a young family now . . . Kids are the most important thing in my life and then it’s boxing. Boxing is what’s supplementing them and what’s supporting me. Winning this fight can make huge improvements in my life.”

More grunt, science and thought process has gone into this one than any other. Every sparring partner Dunne has had has been a south paw like Cordoba. Every fitness session with former Irish rugby trainer Mike McGurn has had him questioning his limits for pain.

Dunne goes in as the underdog against a 24-year-old who he describes as a “beautiful fighter”, but he will step through the ropes well armed. He raises his hand to explain. “You do somehow push yourself,” he says, one hand above his head. “It’s like when someone asks you to reach as high as you can and you reach and then they say reach another 10 per cent. You always find a little bit more. We’ve pushed ourselves that wee bit more than we’ve ever pushed ourselves before. I got to the stage in the session where I was saying I can’t do any more.

“I want to say after this fight that I’ve given myself every possible opportunity going in there. I don’t want to be sitting here in two weeks’ time saying I should have done this or that.

“I have had great sparring. I’ve had an Italian kid and Williams Gonzalez has fought Cordoba. Both guys are contenders themselves. They’re not here to tip around to earn a few quid. They’re here to work hard and to work me hard. William is a tall south paw, good mover. He’s good at talking as well and he’s telling us what he thought he should have done better and what he thinks we should do. Little pointers.

“He felt he could put Cordoba under a bit more pressure. He felt he maybe boxed too much with him. But it’s kind of different for me because I’m an orthodox fighter. Those two were south paws fighting. You can watch these guys on DVD all you bleedin’ want but until you get into that ring and watch the first three rounds . . .”

One chink in the Panamanian’s record is his away form. Despite his beautiful game, he has drawn two fights in Germany and suffered a controversial defeat in Thailand. The talk is the decisions stank and even the Irish camp don’t disagree. On such nights nagging anxieties can be everything.

“Maybe it plays on his mind a wee bit and that’s a good thing,” says Dunne. “I tend not to read too much into it but I’m pretty sure it will be in the back of his mind that every time he’s left home he’s had a bad decision. Has he ever walked into an atmosphere that he’s going to walk into at the O2 arena? With the Kiko thing I was like an animal trapped in a corner. I was coming out fighting and that was it. I should have covered and let it blow over. Once I tried to exchange with him I was opening myself for more shots.”

Not since his bout with Britain’s Esham Pickering in 2006, which launched him as a contender, has Dunne been anything but the hot prospect. Technically excellent and with fast hands, some observers said the Martinez defeat was a physical issue for the Dubliner. Dunne believes it was part tactical and a lot mental. Still nothing is being left to chance.

“Technically I think I’m as good as anybody,” he says. “But maybe I’ll have to mix it up with Cordoba. And is he going to be this guy I expect when we get into the ring? One thing we’ve definitely learned from the Kiko fight is to make sure we’re focused. This guy may come out and say this kid starts slow, let’s get out and get into him. We’ve got to be ready for that. Mix it up, mix it up.”

Just two weeks now. The longest by far.