Packing a punch at the Turnpike

FORMER world featherweight champion, Barry McGuigan, feels more young people should consider boxing as a sport.

This year, he is opening four boxing academies attached to universities in the UK and plans to roll out more across the country in the coming years. “We will start with 16 to 18-year-olds. We will be focusing on NEET kids, which is an acronym for youths who are not in education, employment or training. This will present an opportunity to get them back into some form of education, while training them to box also,” McGuigan explained during his visit to Ennis this week for the first anniversary of Muhammad Ali’s visit last September.
“Some of these would be young adults who are on the cusp of criminality and need discipline and a focus in their lives and we believe that boxing can help to provide that,” he continued. “There’s a number of reasons why boxing can draw this group in. There is a group in and around Limerick, which Andy Lee is involved in that is working with younger lads from some of the socially disadvantaged areas and helping them through the medium of boxing and as in other places, it seems to be working. Boxing can break down so many barriers.”
McGuigan says what initially draws teenagers to boxing is “a bit of kudos”, a sign of physical strength for someone who maybe doesn’t feel that strong in other ways.
“Initially they get drawn in so they’ll be able to handle themselves. But once we’ve grabbed their attention and their interest, we can teach them different things – discipline, focus, teamwork, dedication to rules. All the pearls of wisdom that we need in life can be got through boxing,” the boxing legend added.
He is delighted that women’s boxing has been made an official sport of the Olympics, which will allow the likes of Katie Taylor to compete in 2012. “There are some phenomenal competitors there in ladies’ boxing including our own Katie Taylor. I honestly think that she is a magnificent boxer and a tremendous sportsperson. She was also the captain of the Irish ladies soccer team. I truly hope that she gets her Olympic medal in 2012 because if anyone deserves it, it’s Katie. There has been much said about girls boxing in the past but I think people are getting past those old traditional views now. If girls want to box, they should be allowed to, like boys can too. I’m well behind any developments in ladies boxing and the boxing academies I’m starting in the UK will be for girls as much as for boys,” he remarked.
He added that, in these times where obesity is becoming an increasing reality, “any sport that any boy or girls wants to try should be encouraged”.
While it was unfortunate he couldn’t make it to Muhammad Ali’s visit to Ennis last year as he was away, McGuigan said he was honoured to be asked to mark the first anniversary of his visit this year. “I’m delighted to be here to celebrate the occasion when the greatest fighter there’s ever been came to Ennis. He was voted in 2000 as the most popular sportsman of all time. He is a remarkable individual and someone I hugely admire. He has a fascinating story and remarkable that he has Irish and Clare ancestors. I’ve been a massive fan of his over the years. I watched all of his big fights. He was absolutely an inspiration to me when I was a young boxer,” he commented.
He labelled the documentary When We were Kings as amazing. “Almost everyone thought that Ali was going to get annihilated in that fight. George Foreman at that stage was awe-inspiring as a boxer. He’d knocked out other great fighters seven times and more. Ali had at that stage diminished somewhat as a boxer and had almost been wiped out by Joe Frazier. The Rumble in the Jungle was in 1974. Ali against all the odds won the fight, showing his strength of character,” McGuigan recalls.
Even for people who aren’t in to boxing, he says there’s the human story which revolves around Muhammad Ali. “He transcended the sport because he had a life outside of boxing. If you look at the civil rights movement and what he did for coloured people, he almost became hostile to white people because he wasn’t sure that he could be seen to be with them as friends. He wanted to get the message across very strongly that what had happened to people down through the ages was wrong. He was also very vocal about the Vietnam War too and made his objection to it clear and simply would not agree to go. His life is a social history in itself. I have taken a big interest in his life. He firstly struck me of course as a boxer, but then, as a big strong man, with a strong personality and drive, a big inspiring man. He relied on dexterity and pure raw talent for his boxing, more so than brute force. He lit up so many people’s lives. He was simply remarkable – a fascinating character,” he adds.
Asked about any possible Clare connections, McGuigan says that his closest connection with Clare was through his nanny who looked after his children for a number of years in England. “She was a lovely girl from Lahinch called Selina O’Sullivan, whose father I believe is a well-known character there called Tomsie. She was fabulous with our kids and was part of our family for those years. I am meeting her while I’m here in Clare again and it will be great to catch up with her. We would have been in Clare with her a couple of times over the years and I love the place,” he said.