MIKE McGoldrick believes his contest with Callum Ide will prove beneficial later in his career.

McGoldrick scored a points victory over the durable journeyman in his second professional outing.

The Barrow ABC product triumphed 40-36 on the referee's scorecard in the clash with Ide at Bolton Whites Hotel, which posed him several challenges he had not faced before.

Chief among those was having to deal with Ide's height and range, but McGoldrick successfully navigated that to make it two wins from two after turning professional, and he is in no doubt it provided him with some invaluable experience.

“I've been chatting to Liam (Conroy) about the fight because he was ringside with me and I was saying how it's much better to be in a fight like this where you are getting hit at this stage of your career against a tricky opponent,”said McGoldrick.

“If I was to get a 6ft 2ins or 6ft 3ins opponent at a higher level later on in my career and hadn't been through this experience, I might be in trouble.

“But now I know I've got things to improve on when I'm fighting taller opponents, so hopefully we can get some taller opponents down the gym for sparring and hopefully I can work on getting in range and nullifying the advantages they have.”

McGoldrick was unhappy with his performance in the immediate aftermath of the contest, feeling Ide had done enough to earn a draw, but his opinion has somewhat mellowed since having the chance to watch the fight back.

The 33-year-old still felt there was room for improvement in his performance, but was pleased to see some elements of his strategy have an effect – particularly trying to apply pressure by going on the attack early on.

“It's something we've been working on in the gym, pressure, but with a tall boxer you can't really afford to stand in the centre of the ring and let them pick you off at their range,” said McGoldrick.

“You've got to try to close them down and once, in my head, I'd given him a share of the first few rounds, I knew if I was going to beat him I wanted to make sure by upping the work rate.

“I do like to fight inside as well, particularly with someone taller, so once you get past the range it's difficult for them to scoop down and hit the body, so they just go to your head and if you keep bobbing and weaving, it makes it difficult for them.

“Next time, I'll try to keep a cooler head and a more calculated approach, especially with a taller opponent. There are more ways to put pressure on people than just coming forward in straight lines, which is what I feel I was doing sometimes.”

No date or opponent has yet been set for McGoldrick's next contest, although he is hopeful of getting at least one more in before the end of the year with a view to building up the number of rounds soon after.

“I think the plan for MTK is to get me out several times a year, build on these victories, build up to six rounds within the next few fights – maybe next year – and your titles come at eight and 10 rounds,” said McGoldrick.

“So the plan is to build up to that length of a fight, and get used to the fitness and pace of those fights, and once I get to that level hopefully challenge for a title.”