A month after losing a world title fight to Gennady Golovkin, Geale welcomed the opportunity to swap the hype of New York’s Madison Square Garden for the happiness of his parents’ home in Rocherlea.

His mum Michelle is facing her own fight against cancer which he said gives him a stark reality check.

‘‘She’s keeping her spirits up,’’ Geale said.

‘‘She’s a fighter and will push through it.

‘‘She wants to see her grandkids grow up so is really motivated.’’

The 33-year-old former Rocherlea Primary and Brooks High student left wife Sheena looking after their children Bailey, Ariyelle and Lilyarna in Sydney for the three-day visit to see Michelle and father Wayne.

‘‘I thought I’d sneak down and surprise them and it worked,’’ he said.

‘‘I’m pretty sneaky. Mum was very surprised but very happy. She had a big smile when I showed up.’’

Geale said his three-round loss to Kazakhstan’s Golovkin, who put both his WBA and IBO middleweight belts on the line, was a steep learning curve.

‘‘I definitely learned lessons from it and if I got the opportunity again I would approach it differently.

‘‘It’s frustrating when things don’t go your way, it was not my night.

‘‘In the first round I tripped on a camera cord and the round ended up going for four minutes which was interesting.

‘‘In that last minute I got headbutted and cut above my eye and I also got a couple of shots to the back of the head.

‘‘All those things make it harder, but that’s the way it goes. There were a few issues with that fight.

‘‘My team know I would fight better if I got the chance again and they will definitely be working on that.’’

The former IBF and WBA world champion said his priority was lining up a rematch with Golovkin.

‘‘If he asked I’d say yes for sure. I’d love the opportunity and would fight a lot better.

‘‘If he did want to fight me, we’d take it, if not, we need to put me in a position where he’s got to.’’

Geale said his management team is working on his next fight which he expects will be in Australia before the end of the year.

‘‘Things are still in the pipeline but I’ve no idea of either venue or opponent.

‘‘It won’t be a world title fight, it’s just a matter of keeping my ranking high enough to be able to challenge.’’