While photographing a fashion shoot, my model mentioned that she was going to see a boxing match that evening. Thinking it would be interesting to photograph, I went with her and organised a press pass very quickly. The ‘Battle on Leeside’ was held in the City Hall, Cork, Ireland and the two boxers seen here were from Latvia and Ireland. It was the first boxing match I had ever seen and I found it very emotional. I wanted to capture the atmosphere of the sport and believe this picture achieves that.

Miki Barlok was born in Slovakia, where he worked as an architect following a Master Degree in Architecture. During this time, his love of photography grew into a passion and he began undertaking photography and video work for bands. In 2006 he moved to Ireland and continued to work as an architect, but in September 2007 he decided to turn his passion into his career, quit his job as an architect to work at being a full time pro photographer. He currently works as a freelance photographer specialising in fashion photography.

Photographer since 2007, EPUK member since 2007.