Irish boxing is enjoying a resurgence and is looking ahead to one of its brightest spells in years.
On August 1, Pierce O’Leary headlines a Queensberry Promotions show in Dublin against Mark Chamberlain. A week later, Callum Walsh and Aaron McKenna box in showpiece fights and, of course, Katie Taylor finally headlines in Croke Park in front of a sold out 80,000 crowd.
Taylor is set to bow out after the event at the national stadium, and that will leave a vacancy at the top for a standout Irish star, although Paddy Donovan and Lewis Crocker have both shown their class.
O’Leary thinks he’s the next one.
“A hundred per cent, without a doubt,” he said. “I think with Katie retiring and [Irish great] Steve Collins backing me, I think I’m the next one. Especially being from the inner-city of Dublin, homegrown, centred, I have the backing of everyone around, I have the talent, I put the work in, I think I’m Ireland’s next big star.”
O’Leary is a 19-0 (11 KOs) junior welterweight, and further down the line than 2-0 (1 KO) Bobbi Flood, who believes he will lead the charge in the years that follow.
“Personally, I think myself and [heavyweight] Adam Olaniyan are the future of Irish boxing,” said Flood.
“Don’t get me wrong, all the other lads are top, top-quality lads but I just think me and Adam have that something special to go right to the very top. He has some serious strength.”
Olaniyan, like O’Leary and the great Taylor, are all managed by Brian Peters and Flood believes they are helping bring Ireland out the fighting shadows cast by the presence of alleged crime boss Daniel Kinahan, who is now being held by authorities in Dubai.
Kinahan was supposedly the target for an assassin at the Regency Hotel in February 2016 when the sound of bullets sent those at a boxing weigh-in scampering for cover.
“Ever since that thing happened with the Regency Hotel and stuff like that, there hasn’t been much boxing at all in Ireland,” Flood said.
“And then obviously Jay Byrne, JB Promotions came in and started running the shows and now he’s flowing now. He’s got Irish boxing off the ground to where now more people are interested in and want to get involved in this. And now thanks to Jay, you have Queensberry wanting to get in, getting big shows and now Zuffa are in and now Matchroom. But, personally, I don’t think any of this would have happened without the small hall shows for the likes of Jay Byrne. I think he really done a great job of bringing it all back to Irish boxing and getting it up off the ground level.”
Another on the rise is the Dave Coldwell-trained and also Brian Peters-managed Steven Cairns, who is 14-0 (9 KOs), has a social media following of over 100,000 and who left Ireland to focus on his career when he was just 18.
Now 24, “The Irish Takeover” is convinced he, too, will get to the top.
“I fell more in love with the process at the start of my boxing career,” he explained. “All you’re thinking is big fights, titles, money, this, that. But you realise that it’s more about the process of the person you’re becoming, to get to that point, because it’s like being a world champion, you can’t just skip from being a novice or being a young pro to bang, world title because you don’t know every step in between. So it’s the steps in between that make you the world champion. You can’t sprint before you can jog and you have to learn as you go. And by the time I get there, I’m going to know that I’ve ticked every box. I know I’m going to be 100 per cent ready. And when I get my time, when the time does come, I’m going to take it with both hands and smash it.”
That is what the great Katie Taylor has done. And while the youngsters coming through behind her are jostling to become the nation’s top dog, it’s clear Ireland now has almost an embarrassment of riches. For that, the 20-year-old heavyweight Olaniyan is grateful.
“She’s an icon. I wouldn’t say she’s an icon, I’d say she’s the icon,” said the big man from Cork. “She’s the sportsperson of Ireland, and to be sharing a card [at Croke Park, and Olaniyan also boxes in Dublin on August 1] with her is also a pinch me moment. I’ve watched her in the Olympics, twice. I’ve watched her in the World Championships. I’ve seen her at the stadium loads of times when she was an amateur and now, to be sharing a card with her, to be fighting on the same card as her and be managed by the same manager [Peters] as her, it’s a proper full circle moment.”
