The Rocky Road

The Rocky Road paid a visit to Moate, Co Westmeath for a conversation we've been waiting a few years to have. Joe Ward is one of the finest boxers ever to come out of Ireland and why wouldn't he be, when he comes from fighting stock? After all, his grandfather is no other than 'Big' Joe Joyce, AKA The Hulk, AKA The King of the Travellers. He made his name as the bareknuckle champion of these islan...

This week The Rocky Road returns to Naas and we’re putting our money where our mouth is. We know Gary Cully and Co train hard but it’s time to see just how far they’ll go in the pursuit of their boxing dreams. So, under the supervision of UNIT 3 head coach Niall Barrett, we’re put through our paces in his conditioning session alongside Cully, Kelsey Leonard, Paul Loonam, Jamie Morrissey and Cian R...

This week on The Rocky Road we sat down for a chat with rising stars Paul Loonam and Brandon McCarthy at UNIT 3 in Naas. Friends since their early days in Ireland camps, they’ve gone pro and represent the new batch of Irish talent in the paid ranks. Both had to face up to their disappointment at not making it to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games - with that hitting them in slightly different ways - but...

John Joe Nevin is on the comeback trail. Out of the ring since 2019, he’s signed a new management deal with a Las Vegas-based fight fixer and is ready to dream of world titles again. But he knows, as he approaches his 35th birthday, that time is not on his side. Nevin won the lot as an amateur - World, European and Olympic medals - and is clearly one of the GOATs in that code. But it’s ten years s...

Gary Cully knows all about The Rocky Road at this stage. With massive momentum at his back, he went into 2023 certain that he was on the fast track to world title glory. And things got even better when he secured a co-headline slot on the Katie Taylor homecoming bill last May. But he watched Taylor’s fight with Chantelle Cameron from the back of an ambulance following a shock stoppage defeat to Me...

The Rocky Road paid a visit to Moate, Co Westmeath for a conversation we've been waiting a few years to have. Joe Ward is one of the finest boxers ever to come out of Ireland and why wouldn't he be, when he comes from fighting stock? After all, his grandfather is no other than 'Big' Joe Joyce, AKA The Hulk, AKA The King of the Travellers, AKA - The Boss of All Men. He made his name as the bar...

The Rocky Road paid a visit to Moate, Co Westmeath for a conversation we've been waiting a few years to have. Joe Ward is one of the finest boxers ever to come out of Ireland and why wouldn't he be, when he comes from fighting stock? After all, his grandfather is no other than 'Big' Joe Joyce, AKA The Hulk, AKA The King of the Travellers, AKA - The Boss of All Men. He made his name as the bar...

Happy St Patrick's Day from The Rocky Road - and from Kevin McBride. The Clones Colossus is someone we've wanted to have on since the start and we finally made it happen in time for the annual wearing of the green. The man who finished Mike Tyson talks about the return of The Baddest Man on the Planet for his July 20 showdown with Jake Paul at Cowboys Stadium and their 2005 scrap that made McBride...

Kerry boxer Kevin Cronin, AKA The Kingdom Warrior, is feeling excited ahead of a double debut on Paddy's weekend. He's off to Dorchester, Mass, for his US bow, which is also the first outing of a deal he's signed with new promoters Conlan Boxing. Here, Kevin talks about his GAA background, working as a firefighter and The Rocky Road he's navigated through Irish boxing to get to this point. What wa...

Spike O'Sullivan drops by the pod this week ahead of March madness. St Paddy's weekend is looking like one of Irish boxing's busiest ever with fighters in action from Boston to Brisbane via New York, San Francisco, Birmingham, Galway and Castlebar. That's where Spike will be taking part in his comeback bout as he kicks off The Last Dance chapter of his storied career. Here, he talks about the...

Eight Irish boxers are gearing up for a tournament that could be life-changing: Martin McDonagh, Kelyn Cassidy, Aidan Walsh, Jude Gallagher, Sean Mari, Grainne Walsh, Jennifer Lehane and Daina Moorehouse are primed and ready to go in Italy for the first Olympic World Qualifier which begins on Monday, March 3 and runs over 16 boxing sessions for one week. London 2012 Olympian Adam Nolan - who quali...

Today’s guest, Luke Keeler, feels he has unfinished business in the ring - so last year he decided to embark on a comeback. From Ballyfermot in Dublin, he came up in one of the most competitive eras of Irish middleweight boxing in the amateurs. And he’s been a pro since 2013, culminating in a world title shot against Demetrious Andrade in 2020 – with a certain Jake Paul boxing on his und...

This week’s guest Dee Walsh shocked the Irish boxing scene when he hung up his gloves aged just 26 back in 2015. At that stage he looked like a possible contender for world titles down the line. But don’t rule him out of the running for major championships – because Dee is proving to be an even better trainer than he was a fighter. It’s a huge month for his boxers as Conor Quinn, Padraig McCrory a...

Today’s guest, Anthony Cacace, fights champ Joe Cordina for the IBF world super-featherweight title in Saudi Arabia on February 17 as part of the Oleksandr Usyk v Tyson Fury undisputed heavyweight championship card. Cacace, dubbed Ireland’s most talented fighter by fans - and our unluckiest by a few - has experienced many of the highs and lows the sport has to offer since he last joined us on the...

Welcome to the 150th episode of The Rocky Road boxing pod! Today's guest has been on the hitlist since we began. Thomas O’Toole is following in Seán Mannion’s footsteps as a Connemara man looking to make his way as a professional boxer in Boston. And the 6ft 3in southpaw puncher even had Rocky Ros Muc helping out in the corner when he made his pro debut back in 2021. Since then, the former Ir...

In Part 2 of our interview with Seamus McDonagh, he talks about one of the biggest nights of his life - when he fought Evander Holyfield in Atlantic City. The terror he suddenly encountered. The regrets he suddenly came face to face with. The demons he had to overcome. McDonagh also reflects on his career outside the ring - from the silver screen to his business interests. Hosted on Acast. See aca...

Seamus McDonagh is the special guest for this week's epsiode. In Part 1, Seamus talks about learning to fight in Co Meath, boxing Barry McGuigan as a kid and moving across the pond to seek out the American Dream. While rising the ranks in boxing, Seamus was also finding time to further his education, work with the horses of Central Park and establish himself as a regular at one-too-many watering h...

Rising star Tommy Hyde and boxing comedian/actor Terry O'Neill join host Kevin Byrne to look back at an epic 2023 for Irish boxing. We name our Fighter, Fight, Comeback, Gutpunch, Trainer, Breakthrough and Knockout of the Year, and look ahead to what's coming up in 2024. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tony Bates is a professional boxer from Dublin. Unbeaten since his debut in 2011, he last fought in 2018. Nicknamed ‘Irish Psycho’, he could just as easily have borrowed the moniker ‘Mi Vida Loca’ from the legendary hellraiser Johnny Tapia, because life’s been crazy up to this point. Growing up in Clondalkin, he gained a fondness for gambling, alcohol and drugs at an early age – ‘the party life’ –...

Tony Bates is a professional boxer from Dublin. Unbeaten since his debut in 2011, he last fought in 2018. Nicknamed ‘Irish Psycho’, he could just as easily have borrowed the moniker ‘Mi Vida Loca’ from the legendary hellraiser Johnny Tapia, because life’s been crazy up to this point. Growing up in Clondalkin, he gained a fondness for gambling, alcohol and drugs at an early age – ‘the party life’ –...

Joseph Parker will have his hands full when he meets Deontay Wilder in Saudi Arabia on December 23. But anyone who’s willing to brave the Forty Foot in Dublin at this time of year is clearly capable of anything. That’s been a daily habit of the New Zealander’s since he rocked up here with trainer Andy Lee. The pair have struck up a fruitful relationship over the past few years, ever since Tyson Fu...

What a night in Dublin. Katie Taylor emulated boxing legends such as Muhammad Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard by avenging her first loss and then targeting a trilogy fight with the same opponent. Ali had Frazier, Leonard had Duran – and now Taylor has Chantelle Cameron, having beaten the Englishwoman at the second attempt to become a two-weight undisputed world champion. RTE Sport’s Siobh...

This week’s guests are 2023 Irish Elite champ, Shauna O’Keeffe, who makes her pro debut at London’s York Hall on December 8, and her trainer/co-manager Kevin Mitchell. ‘The Hammer’ was one of Britain’s most popular boxers in the last two decades, racking up 39 wins and taking part in famous showdowns against the likes of John Murray, Michael Katsidis, Ricky Burns and Jorge Linares. He's been there...

Kevin Byrne and Simon Maguire reflect on a busy period in Irish boxing along with interviews from Alan Donnellan, John Joe Joyce and Eric Donovan after a stacked night of fights from the Elite Finals at the weekend. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This a man who’s living his dream before our very eyes. Emmet Brennan fought for Ireland at the Olympics Games in Tokyo during the summer of 2021. After that he chose to turn pro, but opportunities were few and far between as he moved to America to make his name. That led to a spell in the doldrums, to say the least, but Brennan has come home and put his days of drinking and gambling in the rear-v...