Sports Journalist · 257 articles
Decked out in emerald green, Cheyanne O’Neill (0-0-1, 0KOs) sits still enough to talk. Just. The Athlone debutant is smiling from ear-to-ear, proud of herself. She didn’t win – but she’s here, and she’ll come again. After some years of inactivity, O’Neill finally heard Sinead O’Connor & The Chieftains ‘Foggy Dew’ and she finally made […]
I’m not sure it happens often, maybe once or twice while covering a sport with such fine margins and struggle for success, but a fighter that has worked with Boxing Social since her early days in a Gym Box general fitness complex – struggling to be taken seriously as a prospect fighting on hotel shows or early […]
“They always say, ‘What age do you reckon you could take your old man?’ I don’t think I’ve got there yet; he’s 71 and he still has a bit of a rumble in the car park is somebody looks at him the wrong way…” Swindon’s Fight Town supremo promoter, Mark Neilson, continued: “First pro fight I […]
“I love the idea of boxing, it’s two people with the same beliefs. They’ve got one heart, one head, two hands, and it’s really down to who’s going to give the most of themselves to win. I’d just want to have absolutely no regrets and make sure I gave everything to the sport. Then, I […]
WATCHING old, grainy family footage of an infant Giovanni Marquez, strapped into a baby’s highchair, you can immediately recognise the restless hands that have been passed down from father to son. They’re moving non-stop, active, and chaotic. Like father, like son. Former US Olympian and professional world champion, Raul Marquez, Giovanni’s father, spoke of his own […]
… The door slammed shut. And in Jack Catterall’s dressing room, the crestfallen Chorley-man sunk into a cold, uncomfortable, steel folding chair. This wasn’t the same fighter that was hoisted above trainer Jamie Moore’s shoulders just minutes before, a couple of hundred yards away; flexing, tensing, smiling with an undisguisable sense of pride. It couldn’t […]
It would be easy to focus on the stunning surroundings of Trump Turnberry when assessing the quality of Kynoch Boxing and Dennis Hobson’s ‘Fight Academy’ show from this past Friday. You’d struggle to arrive at the hotel and pretend it was your run of the mill venue, but for the show headlined by David Jamieson’s IBO International […]
When the lights went out in Manchester’s AO Arena – before the fighters made their walks – there was an eerie sense of uncertainty. In that darkness, spectators wondered which of their favourite fighters would prevail; they questioned whether either man had enough left in the tank to command their hard-earned cash anymore; they hoped […]
Former unified welterweight champion, Keith Thurman (29-1, 22KOs) will be hoping that ancient tales of all-powerful men losing strength when losing hair are merely things of folklore. While Samson, the fabled biblical warrior, was able to successfully battle his enemies for decades, aided by virtue of his uncut mane, a freshly chopped Thurman is ready to eventually […]
You get the sense that Glasgow’s Regan Glackin (6-0, 2KOs) just understands boxing. His social media accounts, his dedication to remaining in shape, and his search for opponents who are similarly willing to put it all on the line, scream of genuine ambition. And his dream of chasing titles as a young, hungry professional fighter, has just closed […]
La Joya, La Joya…” The cries ring out, whether in the crowded, tiered seating of Havana’s amateur boxing venues, or now, in American venues while fans sip drinks and wave Cuban flags. This jewel is really starting to shine after dusting itself off from a torrid time in Nicaragua and Guatemala, and when talking to Boxing […]
As Camaguey’s most prominent boxer of recent years warms up in the changing room, stretching, having his ever-dangerous hands wrapped, the new kid on the block is testing himself under the bright lights… Lenier Pero (6-0, 3KOs), another heavyweight graduate of Cuba’s stellar amateur boxing academy, enjoyed a successful US debut, fighting talented countrymen Geovany Bruzon […]