THE boxing game has always been the one thing I give hard work, dedication, services and 100 per cent to. It is one of the hardest and toughest jobs a person could ever have. When I was about seven years old I followed my two older brothers to the local gym. I had always loved playing football and thought about, one day, playing in the English league – for Liverpool of course! But I knew I wasn’t good enough to make a career of it. I did cross country running, played field hockey and even rugby, but it was boxing that I was better at and I felt as though it came naturally to me.
I trained for about six months and watched the other fighters in the gym, trying to pick something up from them, before I had my first fight at the age of eight. I fought a guy who had about 50 fights, and I stopped him in the second round. The rest is history!
From about the age of 15 I wanted to be a professional fighter but I knew winning a major medal would enable me to get a contract where I could be a full time pro and not have to hold down a 9-5 job as well.
I went on to fight in the 1988 Seoul Olympics at just 18 years old. I didn?t medal there but I did win Gold at the Commonwealth Games in 1990, Bronze at the World Cup in 1990 and Silver at the Olympic Games in 1992. I fought 319 amateur fights and won 308 of them knocking out over 100 of my opponents.
I had a lot of success as an amateur, saw the highs and the lows.
The silver medal guaranteed me a good professional boxing contract in the States even though I had never imagined I would ever leave Belfast.
My professional trainer in Las Vegas was the late, great Eddie Futch. I trained alongside heavyweight champion Riddick Bowe and three-division champion Mike McCallum, trying to pick up as much from them as I could. Along with Eddie?s tutelage I won the WBC world title in the champion?s backyard of Nagoya, Japan, in my 17th pro fight in 1995, only two years, five months and seven days after my pro debut.
I am, to date, the only Irish fighter to win the WBC title and found out in 2010, when Rendall Monroe challenged for a title in Japan, that I am the only British or Irish fighter to ever successfully win a title in Japan. It?s shocking that it took over 15 years for me to find that out!
I haven?t fought in almost five years. Could I still do it? Yes! But unfortunately promoters don?t want to promote you when you?re older unless you?re a big name like Bernard Hopkins. It was great to see him, at 48 years old, win another world title and beat his own record to become the oldest champion in history.
I?m only 42 years old. I?m not intending to fight again. I have had a great career, made good friends and found out the hard way that boxing has a dirty side. My old manager, who became my promoter at the end of our working relationship, owes me money. I fought long and hard for my retirement fund but that?s long gone, and so is he.
One regret I have from boxing is being na?ve and allowing people to take advantage of me when I was only starting out. Most of the time I didn?t know what was going on or how much was being made.
My purses were cut on a couple of occasions while I sat in the dressing room right before the fight when the fans were in the arena. I would not let them down but I sometimes fought for a quarter of what was on my contract.
Big purses sound fantastic for fighters who, like me, come from working class areas but when I fought in Japan I got my biggest purse of $585,000 and brought home about $150,000. Little did I know all of the expenses ? for everyone in my team to fly and stay first class – were coming from my purse and on top of that I had to pay my manager, trainers, sanctioning fees and taxes.
Another regret is taking fights that I shouldn?t have. Either I was injured, sick or being paid less than my contracted amount. I went ahead with them because I?d made a commitment and I never wanted to let anyone down ? even though I was the one who was let down in the end.
I had always wanted to fight Orlando Canizales but he was nearing the end of his career as I was beginning mine. Nowadays if I were still boxing, I?d love to get a fight with Nonito Donaire or Guillermo Rigondeaux, two great fighters who can punch, but we all know I don?t mind getting hit ? hard!
All in all I?m not bitter towards boxing. It has been my life since an early age and I got to travel the world. There are a lot of good people in boxing but sometimes it seems that they are far outweighed by the bad promoters, bad managers, back stabbers, bad trainers, unloyal fighters and journalists who are yes men or want to knock you down ? pardon the pun.
I will stay in boxing and become a trainer. I would love to take a young fighter to the top and help him become a world champion because I want to be able to pass on the knowledge that Eddie Futch gave me.
