Tales from the Ring

Ruadhan Farrell is the current BUI Celtic Super-Bantamweight champion. He talks about growing up in North Belfast and his journey into boxing. Ruadhan talks about his amateur career and how it came about that he turned professional in 2022. He has boxed in Estonia, Spain and had domestic matchups against Colm Murphy, Gerard Hughes and Conor Kerr in such a short space of time. He is now about to ha...

Mick Kelleher is a former 4 x Irish amateur champion from county Cork. He chats about his early days as a boxer and how he progressed to represent Ireland. We chat about how his career progressed and the ups and downs along the way. Mick is the son of Tommy Kelleher who has been a very influential coach in Cork and Ireland for many years. Mick talks about his dad’s experiences coaching Irish teams...

Paul Quinn and I look back at an action packed month of boxing in May. We focus on the recent heavyweight undisputed contest between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk. Will we agree on who we thought won the fight and who do we fancy for the rematch? We also look back at the amazing performance from Anthony Cacace to rip the IBF World title from Joe Cordina. The much anticipated rematch between Josh T...

Padraig McCrory grew up in St. James' in West Belfast. After starting boxing around 15 years of age, he would have success winning various Antrim and Ulster titles before taking a gap in his 20's of 4 years. After deciding one Christmas to give boxing another go at the upcoming Ulster Senior championships, he would go on to win that title a month later. After missing out on the Commonwealth Games...

Owen O’Neill is currently undefeated in 13 professional contests. He had a relatively short amateur career contesting 18 fights in total. Owen talks about the highs of his short amateur career, representing Antrim in various countries and the lows of losing close finals and failing to win an amateur title. He turned professional in 2019 under the radar and soon racked up early wins in front of his...

Paul Quinn and I debate the top 10 boxers of the modern era (1990-present). We cover a range of fighters from different countries, divisions and decades. It's fair to say this list will be one that all boxing fan's will have their own opinion on. Do you agree with our selections? Have a listen and let us know.

Brandon McCarthy is a Kilkenny boxer that had a fantastic amateur career. He won an amazing 16 Irish national titles from Boy 1 all the way to Elite level. He also represented Ireland at multiple European and World championships and won a silver medal at the European schoolboy championships in Russia. His aim was to reach this years Olympic Games in Paris, but an eye injury ended this dream. He ha...

Resident guest, Paul Quinn and I chat about some of the big boxing stories from April. We discuss the recent Ryan Garcia v Devin Haney fight as well as the outrageuos Sean McComb points defeat on the same bill. We recap the amazing contest between Fabio Wardley and Frazer Clarke. Finally, we preview some massive fights coming up including Taylor v Serrano, Fury v Usyk, Bivol v Beterbiev and the Ma...

Tommy Hyde is currently undefeated in 8 professional contests. He was a very successful amateur boxer, winning 3 Irish titles. He is also the son of Gary Hyde who famously managed the great Guillermo Rigondeaux amongst many other champions. Tommy has been present at massive world title fights since a young age with his father and met some of the greats of the sport. The Cork native turned professi...

Paul Quinn and I debate our Top 10 British boxers of the modern era. We have focused on the last 30 years when we have been watching boxing. We cover fighters from different decades, weight divisions and debate just who is the greatest British boxer we have seen in our lifetime. Do you agree with our list? Let us know.

Current Celtic and Commonwealth Silver Flyweight champion, Conor Quinn chats to me about his boxing journey to date. The former Clonard ABC boxer won 7 Irish titles as an amateur and represented Ireland around the world at senior level. Conor decided to move across the world to Australia in 2019 to turn professional and would win his first 2 pro contests before COVID struck. A move back home was s...

Paul Quinn and I discuss some of the main talking points from Irish and world boxing over the past couple of months. We review the big Saudi card which included AJ knocking out Francis Ngannou, Joseph Parker defeating Zhang as well as the Nick Ball controversial decision. We also go over some of the recent Irish success over St. Patrick's day weekend. We have to talk about the Jake Paul v Mike...

Kaci Rock chats to me about how she got started in boxing at only 6 years of age. Kaci is the daughter of Irish boxing legend, Jim Rock and its fair to say he was not all for her getting into boxing initially. When it was clear boxing was not just a faze and she had the minerals to become a fighter, he is now of course her biggest supporter. Kaci also chats about the early days as an amateur and h...

Stephen Haughian chats to me about growing up in Lurgan and his start in amatuer boxing. We discuss his early days at the famous John Breen gym in Belfast training along side the many champions in the gym including Neil Sinclair, Eamonn Magee, Jim Rock and Paul McCloskey. We focus on some of his title fights including the very controversial points defeat to Giammario Grassellini for the IBF Intern...

Luke chats to me about growing up in Dublin and how he got started in boxing. We talk about his amateur days mixing with some great boxers from that era in the Irish Middleweight division. Luke was able to balance his boxing career with his education as he would go to university and become a qualified engineer. He would later turn professional at 26 and after winning fights early on, would have a...

Ray Moylette chats to me about his start in boxing growing up in County Mayo. We go through his illustrious amateur career which included countless Irish titles at various levels. We chat about the massive highs points of claiming gold medals at the World Youth and European senior championships. We also talk about some of the difficult times that followed these successes. Ray has boxed professiona...

Donagh Keary chats to me about his boxing journey to date. The Rathfriland ABC boxer has won 3 Irish titles including the Irish senior and U-22 titles in 2023. He is fresh off representing Ireland at the European championships in Montenegro and has his sights set on major medals in the future. We chat about sparring professional world champions at the Wildcard gym in America as well as which fight...

Paul Griffin is one of Ireland’s greatest amateur boxers ever. The former European senior champion talks me through his boxing journey. We chat about his early days at Drimnagh ABC and how he progressed to win an unbelievable 12 Irish national titles at every level. We focus on his success at the European championships in 1991 and 1993 where he would win gold and bronze medals respectively. Paul a...

Niall Kennedy is a former amateur and professional boxer from County Wexford. He had a very successful amateur career winning countless Leinster titles as well as the Irish Intermediate title. He was also an Irish elite finalist in 2013 and boxed in a great era of super-heavyweights in Ireland. Niall has worked as a police officer in the Garda for many years and won gold medals in tournaments arou...

Paul Quinn joins me to chat about some of the big stories from this month in boxing. We review this past weekend's Matchroom card at the Ulster Hall which included Paddy Donovan, Tommy McCarthy and Lewis Crocker. We analysis the recent big world title fights between Natasha Jonas and Mikeala Mayer as well as Arthur Beterbiev and Callum Smith. Finally we debate the question "Is AJ v Francis Ngannou...

Sean Magee chats to me about his boxing career. Sean boxed for 20 years as an amateur at Ligoniel ABC and had great success in Antrim and Ulster picking up multiple titles at various levels. Sean also boxed some great fighters who went on to win big titles at amateur and professional level such as, Tyrone McKenna, Paddy Gallagher, Paul Hyland and Sean Duffy. Sean speaks about his decision to turn...

In this episode, we cover the many title fights of Jim's professional career. From winning 4 Irish professional titles at 4 different weights, challenging for the WBU world title in a great fight against Takaloo in Belfast to winning the IBC version of the world title that was once held by the great, Sugar Ray Leonard. Jim also talks about helping Hollywood superstar, Matthew McConaughey prepare f...

“Fearless” Feargal McCrory chats to me this week about his boxing career to date. As an amateur he won 4 Irish titles with Clonoe ABC under head coach, Frank Gervin and represented Ireland at the European schoolboy championships in Ukraine. Feargal explains how professional boxing was always his main goal and how John Breen and Eamonn Magee have been huge influences in his career. The professional...

In part 1, Jim talks to me about his upbringing and his amateur boxing journey. Jim was never shy in turning down a ‘straightener’ on the streets growing up and this soon transcended into a very successful amateur career in which he won 5 Irish titles. We chat about some of the troubles he had outside of the ring as a young man including spending some time in prison, being stabbed and even shot tw...

In this episode, Oisin Fagan tells his very unique boxing story. After having a successful amateur football career in Ireland, he would be offered the opportunity to move to Oklahoma, USA on a soccer scholarship. After getting his degree he would fall on some hard times which included having to sleep in the back of his car. He would then turn to professional boxing at 30 years of age to make some...