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data-style-wrap="nowrap"><a class="c-link" href="/your-money" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1">Your Money</a><button aria-expanded="false" aria-controls="header_sub_section_your-money" aria-label="Show Your Money sub sections" class="c-button c-button--medium c-button--default submenu-caret" type="button"><span><svg class="c-icon" width="20" height="20" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 512 512" fill="currentColor" aria-hidden="true" focusable="false"><path d="M256 416C247.812 416 239.62 412.875 233.38 406.625L41.38 214.625C28.88 202.125 28.88 181.875 41.38 169.375C53.88 156.875 74.13 156.875 86.63 169.375L256 338.8L425.4 169.4C437.9 156.9 458.15 156.9 470.65 169.4C483.15 181.9 483.15 202.15 470.65 214.65L278.65 406.65C272.4 412.9 264.2 416 256 416Z"></path></svg></span></button></div><div class="b-header-nav-chain__subsection-container "><ul class="b-header-nav-chain__subsection-menu" id="header_sub_section_your-money"><li class="subsection-item" 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data-style-justification="start" data-style-alignment="center" data-style-inline="false" data-style-wrap="nowrap"><a class="c-link" href="/property" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1">Property</a><button aria-expanded="false" aria-controls="header_sub_section_property" aria-label="Show Property sub sections" class="c-button c-button--medium c-button--default submenu-caret" type="button"><span><svg class="c-icon" width="20" height="20" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 512 512" fill="currentColor" aria-hidden="true" focusable="false"><path d="M256 416C247.812 416 239.62 412.875 233.38 406.625L41.38 214.625C28.88 202.125 28.88 181.875 41.38 169.375C53.88 156.875 74.13 156.875 86.63 169.375L256 338.8L425.4 169.4C437.9 156.9 458.15 156.9 470.65 169.4C483.15 181.9 483.15 202.15 470.65 214.65L278.65 406.65C272.4 412.9 264.2 416 256 416Z"></path></svg></span></button></div><div class="b-header-nav-chain__subsection-container "><ul class="b-header-nav-chain__subsection-menu" id="header_sub_section_property"><li class="subsection-item" data-testid="nav-chain-subsection-item"><a class="c-link" href="/property/residential" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1">Residential</a></li><li class="subsection-item" data-testid="nav-chain-subsection-item"><a class="c-link" href="/property/commercial-property" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1">Commercial Property</a></li><li class="subsection-item" data-testid="nav-chain-subsection-item"><a class="c-link" href="/property/interiors" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1">Interiors</a></li></ul></div></li><li class="section-item" data-testid="nav-chain-section-item"><div data-testid="nav-chain-section-item-subsection" class="c-stack b-header-nav-chain__subsection-anchor subsection-anchor " data-style-direction="horizontal" data-style-justification="start" data-style-alignment="center" data-style-inline="false" data-style-wrap="nowrap"><a class="c-link" href="/food" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1">Food</a><button aria-expanded="false" aria-controls="header_sub_section_food" aria-label="Show Food sub sections" class="c-button c-button--medium c-button--default submenu-caret" type="button"><span><svg class="c-icon" width="20" height="20" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 512 512" fill="currentColor" aria-hidden="true" focusable="false"><path d="M256 416C247.812 416 239.62 412.875 233.38 406.625L41.38 214.625C28.88 202.125 28.88 181.875 41.38 169.375C53.88 156.875 74.13 156.875 86.63 169.375L256 338.8L425.4 169.4C437.9 156.9 458.15 156.9 470.65 169.4C483.15 181.9 483.15 202.15 470.65 214.65L278.65 406.65C272.4 412.9 264.2 416 256 416Z"></path></svg></span></button></div><div class="b-header-nav-chain__subsection-container "><ul class="b-header-nav-chain__subsection-menu" id="header_sub_section_food"><li class="subsection-item" data-testid="nav-chain-subsection-item"><a class="c-link" href="/food/drink" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1">Drink</a></li><li class="subsection-item" 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viewBox="0 0 512 512" fill="currentColor" aria-hidden="true" focusable="false"><path d="M256 416C247.812 416 239.62 412.875 233.38 406.625L41.38 214.625C28.88 202.125 28.88 181.875 41.38 169.375C53.88 156.875 74.13 156.875 86.63 169.375L256 338.8L425.4 169.4C437.9 156.9 458.15 156.9 470.65 169.4C483.15 181.9 483.15 202.15 470.65 214.65L278.65 406.65C272.4 412.9 264.2 416 256 416Z"></path></svg></span></button></div><div class="b-header-nav-chain__subsection-container "><ul class="b-header-nav-chain__subsection-menu" id="header_sub_section_health"><li class="subsection-item" data-testid="nav-chain-subsection-item"><a class="c-link" href="/health/your-family" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1">Your Family</a></li><li class="subsection-item" data-testid="nav-chain-subsection-item"><a class="c-link" href="/health/your-fitness" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1">Your Fitness</a></li><li class="subsection-item" data-testid="nav-chain-subsection-item"><a class="c-link" href="/health/your-wellness" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1">Your Wellness</a></li><li class="subsection-item" data-testid="nav-chain-subsection-item"><a class="c-link" href="/health/your-fitness/get-running" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1">Get Running</a></li></ul></div></li><li class="section-item" data-testid="nav-chain-section-item"><div data-testid="nav-chain-section-item-subsection" class="c-stack b-header-nav-chain__subsection-anchor subsection-anchor " data-style-direction="horizontal" data-style-justification="start" data-style-alignment="center" data-style-inline="false" data-style-wrap="nowrap"><a class="c-link" href="/life-style" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1">Life & Style</a><button aria-expanded="false" aria-controls="header_sub_section_life-style" aria-label="Show Life & Style sub sections" class="c-button c-button--medium c-button--default submenu-caret" type="button"><span><svg class="c-icon" width="20" height="20" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 512 512" fill="currentColor" aria-hidden="true" focusable="false"><path d="M256 416C247.812 416 239.62 412.875 233.38 406.625L41.38 214.625C28.88 202.125 28.88 181.875 41.38 169.375C53.88 156.875 74.13 156.875 86.63 169.375L256 338.8L425.4 169.4C437.9 156.9 458.15 156.9 470.65 169.4C483.15 181.9 483.15 202.15 470.65 214.65L278.65 406.65C272.4 412.9 264.2 416 256 416Z"></path></svg></span></button></div><div class="b-header-nav-chain__subsection-container "><ul class="b-header-nav-chain__subsection-menu" id="header_sub_section_life-style"><li class="subsection-item" data-testid="nav-chain-subsection-item"><a class="c-link" href="/life-style/fashion" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1">Fashion</a></li><li class="subsection-item" data-testid="nav-chain-subsection-item"><a class="c-link" href="/tags/beauty/" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1">Beauty</a></li><li class="subsection-item" data-testid="nav-chain-subsection-item"><a class="c-link" href="/life-style/fine-art-antiques" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1">Fine Art & Antiques</a></li><li class="subsection-item" data-testid="nav-chain-subsection-item"><a class="c-link" href="/life-style/gardening" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1">Gardening</a></li><li class="subsection-item" data-testid="nav-chain-subsection-item"><a class="c-link" href="/life-style/people" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1">People</a></li><li class="subsection-item" data-testid="nav-chain-subsection-item"><a class="c-link" href="/life-style/travel" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1">Travel</a></li></ul></div></li><li class="section-item" data-testid="nav-chain-section-item"><div data-testid="nav-chain-section-item-subsection" class="c-stack b-header-nav-chain__subsection-anchor subsection-anchor " data-style-direction="horizontal" data-style-justification="start" data-style-alignment="center" data-style-inline="false" data-style-wrap="nowrap"><a class="c-link" href="/culture" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1">Culture</a><button aria-expanded="false" aria-controls="header_sub_section_culture" aria-label="Show Culture sub sections" class="c-button c-button--medium c-button--default submenu-caret" type="button"><span><svg class="c-icon" width="20" height="20" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 512 512" fill="currentColor" aria-hidden="true" focusable="false"><path d="M256 416C247.812 416 239.62 412.875 233.38 406.625L41.38 214.625C28.88 202.125 28.88 181.875 41.38 169.375C53.88 156.875 74.13 156.875 86.63 169.375L256 338.8L425.4 169.4C437.9 156.9 458.15 156.9 470.65 169.4C483.15 181.9 483.15 202.15 470.65 214.65L278.65 406.65C272.4 412.9 264.2 416 256 416Z"></path></svg></span></button></div><div class="b-header-nav-chain__subsection-container "><ul class="b-header-nav-chain__subsection-menu" id="header_sub_section_culture"><li class="subsection-item" data-testid="nav-chain-subsection-item"><a class="c-link" href="/culture/art" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1">Art</a></li><li class="subsection-item" data-testid="nav-chain-subsection-item"><a class="c-link" href="/culture/books" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1">Books</a></li><li class="subsection-item" data-testid="nav-chain-subsection-item"><a class="c-link" href="/culture/film" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1">Film</a></li><li class="subsection-item" data-testid="nav-chain-subsection-item"><a class="c-link" href="/culture/music" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1">Music</a></li><li class="subsection-item" data-testid="nav-chain-subsection-item"><a class="c-link" href="/culture/stage" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1">Stage</a></li><li class="subsection-item" data-testid="nav-chain-subsection-item"><a class="c-link" href="/culture/tv-radio" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1">TV & Radio</a></li></ul></div></li><li class="section-item" data-testid="nav-chain-section-item"><div data-testid="nav-chain-section-item-subsection" class="c-stack b-header-nav-chain__subsection-anchor subsection-anchor " data-style-direction="horizontal" data-style-justification="start" data-style-alignment="center" data-style-inline="false" data-style-wrap="nowrap"><a class="c-link" href="/environment" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1">Environment</a><button aria-expanded="false" aria-controls="header_sub_section_environment" aria-label="Show Environment sub sections" class="c-button c-button--medium c-button--default submenu-caret" type="button"><span><svg class="c-icon" width="20" height="20" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 512 512" fill="currentColor" aria-hidden="true" focusable="false"><path d="M256 416C247.812 416 239.62 412.875 233.38 406.625L41.38 214.625C28.88 202.125 28.88 181.875 41.38 169.375C53.88 156.875 74.13 156.875 86.63 169.375L256 338.8L425.4 169.4C437.9 156.9 458.15 156.9 470.65 169.4C483.15 181.9 483.15 202.15 470.65 214.65L278.65 406.65C272.4 412.9 264.2 416 256 416Z"></path></svg></span></button></div><div class="b-header-nav-chain__subsection-container "><ul class="b-header-nav-chain__subsection-menu" id="header_sub_section_environment"><li class="subsection-item" data-testid="nav-chain-subsection-item"><a class="c-link" href="/environment/climate-crisis" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1">Climate Crisis</a></li></ul></div></li><li class="section-item" data-testid="nav-chain-section-item"><div data-testid="nav-chain-section-item-subsection" class="c-stack b-header-nav-chain__subsection-anchor subsection-anchor " data-style-direction="horizontal" data-style-justification="start" data-style-alignment="center" data-style-inline="false" data-style-wrap="nowrap"><a class="c-link" href="/technology" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1">Technology</a><button aria-expanded="false" aria-controls="header_sub_section_technology" aria-label="Show Technology sub sections" class="c-button c-button--medium c-button--default submenu-caret" type="button"><span><svg class="c-icon" width="20" height="20" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 512 512" fill="currentColor" aria-hidden="true" focusable="false"><path d="M256 416C247.812 416 239.62 412.875 233.38 406.625L41.38 214.625C28.88 202.125 28.88 181.875 41.38 169.375C53.88 156.875 74.13 156.875 86.63 169.375L256 338.8L425.4 169.4C437.9 156.9 458.15 156.9 470.65 169.4C483.15 181.9 483.15 202.15 470.65 214.65L278.65 406.65C272.4 412.9 264.2 416 256 416Z"></path></svg></span></button></div><div class="b-header-nav-chain__subsection-container "><ul class="b-header-nav-chain__subsection-menu" id="header_sub_section_technology"><li class="subsection-item" data-testid="nav-chain-subsection-item"><a class="c-link" href="/technology/big-tech" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1">Big Tech</a></li><li class="subsection-item" data-testid="nav-chain-subsection-item"><a class="c-link" href="/technology/consumer-tech" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1">Consumer Tech</a></li><li class="subsection-item" data-testid="nav-chain-subsection-item"><a class="c-link" href="/technology/data-security" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1">Data & Security</a></li><li class="subsection-item" data-testid="nav-chain-subsection-item"><a class="c-link" href="/technology/gaming" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1">Gaming</a></li></ul></div></li><li class="section-item" data-testid="nav-chain-section-item"><div data-testid="nav-chain-section-item-subsection" class="c-stack b-header-nav-chain__subsection-anchor subsection-anchor " data-style-direction="horizontal" data-style-justification="start" data-style-alignment="center" data-style-inline="false" data-style-wrap="nowrap"><a class="c-link" href="/science" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1">Science</a><button aria-expanded="false" aria-controls="header_sub_section_science" aria-label="Show Science sub sections" class="c-button c-button--medium c-button--default submenu-caret" type="button"><span><svg class="c-icon" width="20" height="20" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 512 512" fill="currentColor" aria-hidden="true" focusable="false"><path d="M256 416C247.812 416 239.62 412.875 233.38 406.625L41.38 214.625C28.88 202.125 28.88 181.875 41.38 169.375C53.88 156.875 74.13 156.875 86.63 169.375L256 338.8L425.4 169.4C437.9 156.9 458.15 156.9 470.65 169.4C483.15 181.9 483.15 202.15 470.65 214.65L278.65 406.65C272.4 412.9 264.2 416 256 416Z"></path></svg></span></button></div><div class="b-header-nav-chain__subsection-container "><ul class="b-header-nav-chain__subsection-menu" id="header_sub_section_science"><li class="subsection-item" data-testid="nav-chain-subsection-item"><a class="c-link" href="/science/space" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1">Space</a></li></ul></div></li><li class="section-item" data-testid="nav-chain-section-item"><a class="c-link" href="/media" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1">Media</a></li><li class="section-item" data-testid="nav-chain-section-item"><a class="c-link" href="/abroad" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1">Abroad</a></li><li class="section-item" data-testid="nav-chain-section-item"><a class="c-link" href="/obituaries" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1">Obituaries</a></li><li class="section-item" data-testid="nav-chain-section-item"><a class="c-link" href="/transport" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1">Transport</a></li><li class="section-item" data-testid="nav-chain-section-item"><div data-testid="nav-chain-section-item-subsection" class="c-stack b-header-nav-chain__subsection-anchor subsection-anchor " data-style-direction="horizontal" data-style-justification="start" data-style-alignment="center" data-style-inline="false" data-style-wrap="nowrap"><a class="c-link" href="/motors" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1">Motors</a><button aria-expanded="false" aria-controls="header_sub_section_motors" aria-label="Show Motors sub sections" class="c-button c-button--medium c-button--default submenu-caret" type="button"><span><svg class="c-icon" width="20" height="20" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 512 512" fill="currentColor" aria-hidden="true" focusable="false"><path d="M256 416C247.812 416 239.62 412.875 233.38 406.625L41.38 214.625C28.88 202.125 28.88 181.875 41.38 169.375C53.88 156.875 74.13 156.875 86.63 169.375L256 338.8L425.4 169.4C437.9 156.9 458.15 156.9 470.65 169.4C483.15 181.9 483.15 202.15 470.65 214.65L278.65 406.65C272.4 412.9 264.2 416 256 416Z"></path></svg></span></button></div><div class="b-header-nav-chain__subsection-container "><ul class="b-header-nav-chain__subsection-menu" id="header_sub_section_motors"><li class="subsection-item" data-testid="nav-chain-subsection-item"><a class="c-link" href="/motors/car-reviews/" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1">Car Reviews</a></li></ul></div></li><li class="section-item" data-testid="nav-chain-section-item"><a class="c-link" href="/listen/" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1">Listen</a></li><li class="section-item" data-testid="nav-chain-section-item"><div data-testid="nav-chain-section-item-subsection" class="c-stack 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Forecast</a></li><li class="section-menu--bottom-placeholder"></li></ul></div></div></div></nav></header><section role="main" class="b-it-right-rail-advanced__main" id="main"><div class="c-stack b-it-right-rail-advanced__full-width-1" data-style-direction="vertical" data-style-justification="start" data-style-alignment="unset" data-style-inline="false" data-style-wrap="nowrap"><div id="arcad-feature-f0fJKL80l2wX2PY-1b271330202ea3" class="default__StyledAdUnit-sc-1moicrg-0 gKEhzJ arcad-feature" style="min-height:107px;--mobile-display:none;--tablet-display:block;--desktop-display:block"><div class="arcad-container width_100" style="max-width:970px"><div id="arcad_f0fJKL80l2wX2PY-1b271330202ea3" class="arcad ad-970x90"></div></div></div><div class="c-stack b-section-title" data-style-direction="vertical" data-style-justification="start" data-style-alignment="unset" data-style-inline="false" data-style-wrap="nowrap"><h1 class="c-heading">Boxing</h1></div><hr class="c-divider b-it-divider-block"/><div id="lazy_69297" class="lazy_container"><div class="b-flex-chain"><div class="b-flex-chain__grid-container b-flex-chain__grid-container__444 has-divider gap-divider"><div class="c-stack grid-item " data-style-direction="vertical" data-style-justification="start" data-style-alignment="unset" data-style-inline="false" data-style-wrap="nowrap"><div class="c-stack b-flex-promo-list-block" data-style-direction="vertical" data-style-justification="start" data-style-alignment="unset" data-style-inline="false" data-style-wrap="nowrap" style="--c-stack-gap:1rem"><article class="b-flex-promo-card b-flex-promo-card__top c-it-border__bottom c-it-border--mobile c-it-border--tablet"><figure class="c-media-item"><a class="c-link b-flex-promo-card__link" href="/culture/books/2025/03/23/when-muhammad-ali-came-to-ireland-how-a-splendid-spoofer-from-kerry-planned-to-lure-the-boxer-to-dublin/" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"><img fetchpriority="low" data-chromatic="ignore" alt="When Muhammad Ali came to Ireland: how a ‘splendid spoofer’ from Kerry planned to lure the boxer to Dublin" class="c-image b-flex-promo-card__mobile-image-3-2 b-flex-promo-card__desktop-image-16-9" loading="lazy" src="https://www.irishtimes.com/resizer/v2/NO3K35LUNWTQILKWHOYBC3SXWE.jpg?focal=1150%2C196&auth=2e580b7e77a20913f9df76263274ad6cb08c813a1b0138ff1f5642eb5fc05127&width=800&height=450" srcSet="https://www.irishtimes.com/resizer/v2/NO3K35LUNWTQILKWHOYBC3SXWE.jpg?focal=1150%2C196&auth=2e580b7e77a20913f9df76263274ad6cb08c813a1b0138ff1f5642eb5fc05127&width=200&height=112 200w, https://www.irishtimes.com/resizer/v2/NO3K35LUNWTQILKWHOYBC3SXWE.jpg?focal=1150%2C196&auth=2e580b7e77a20913f9df76263274ad6cb08c813a1b0138ff1f5642eb5fc05127&width=400&height=225 400w, https://www.irishtimes.com/resizer/v2/NO3K35LUNWTQILKWHOYBC3SXWE.jpg?focal=1150%2C196&auth=2e580b7e77a20913f9df76263274ad6cb08c813a1b0138ff1f5642eb5fc05127&width=600&height=337 600w, 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href="/culture/books/2025/03/23/when-muhammad-ali-came-to-ireland-how-a-splendid-spoofer-from-kerry-planned-to-lure-the-boxer-to-dublin/">Kerryman Michael ‘Butty’ Sugrue was known as ‘the splendid spoofer’, so few believed he’d convince the most famous athlete in the world to fight in Croke Park</a></p><div class="b-flex-promo-card__metadata"><span class="c-it-byline c-it-byline--list"><span>By</span><span> Dave Hannigan</span><span class="c-separator"></span></span><time class="c-it-promo-date" dateTime="2025-03-23T06:00:00Z">Sun Mar 23 2025 - 06:00</time></div></div></div></article></div></div><div class="c-stack grid-item " data-style-direction="vertical" data-style-justification="start" data-style-alignment="unset" data-style-inline="false" data-style-wrap="nowrap"><div class="c-stack b-flex-promo-list-block" data-style-direction="vertical" data-style-justification="start" data-style-alignment="unset" data-style-inline="false" data-style-wrap="nowrap" 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500px, 250px" width="500" height="333"/></a></figure><h3 class="c-heading"><a class="c-link" href="/sport/boxing/2025/02/03/boxer-john-cooney-in-intensive-care-after-title-fight-defeat-in-belfast/">Boxer John Cooney in intensive care after title fight defeat in Belfast</a></h3></div><hr class="c-divider"/><div class="b-results-list b-results-list--show-image"><figure class="c-media-item"><a class="c-link" href="/sport/boxing/2025/01/13/its-been-a-blast-tyson-fury-retires-from-boxing-again/" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"><img data-chromatic="ignore" alt="‘It’s been a blast’: Tyson Fury retires from boxing again" class="c-image" loading="eager" src="https://www.irishtimes.com/resizer/v2/JJBZTNQH4JOMRGZYKFM6NWEPWI.jpg?smart=true&auth=1d1e206f1aa449bfcba85ad07f3d7ad463eede518bd0fe9c3202b9502a45df77&width=500&height=333" 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that still hurts: ‘He kicked, he cursed me. 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class="c-divider"/><div class="b-results-list b-results-list--show-image"><figure class="c-media-item"><a class="c-link" href="/sport/2024/12/20/irish-times-sportswoman-of-the-year-awards-the-greatest-collection-of-women-in-irish-sport-in-one-place-ever-assembled/" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"><img data-chromatic="ignore" alt="Irish Times Sportswoman of the Year Awards: ‘The greatest collection of women in Irish sport in one place ever assembled’" class="c-image" loading="eager" src="https://www.irishtimes.com/resizer/v2/SSSW3LZ77BC3ZLSQ3WEWCGHWII.JPG?smart=true&auth=92ba5d2de7376199be3b6c4e82d180c82c3403294597350d54e3eb4d80419e5b&width=500&height=333" srcSet="https://www.irishtimes.com/resizer/v2/SSSW3LZ77BC3ZLSQ3WEWCGHWII.JPG?smart=true&auth=92ba5d2de7376199be3b6c4e82d180c82c3403294597350d54e3eb4d80419e5b&width=250&height=166 250w, 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2024" class="c-image" loading="eager" src="https://www.irishtimes.com/resizer/v2/3WGEYMS3OVGNLEGBX7B3YR62XU.jpeg?smart=true&auth=5a314a12da2be568d0316df7f8b96d3ce69e0834443189433278ec8e237eda1d&width=500&height=333" srcSet="https://www.irishtimes.com/resizer/v2/3WGEYMS3OVGNLEGBX7B3YR62XU.jpeg?smart=true&auth=5a314a12da2be568d0316df7f8b96d3ce69e0834443189433278ec8e237eda1d&width=250&height=166 250w, https://www.irishtimes.com/resizer/v2/3WGEYMS3OVGNLEGBX7B3YR62XU.jpeg?smart=true&auth=5a314a12da2be568d0316df7f8b96d3ce69e0834443189433278ec8e237eda1d&width=500&height=333 500w" sizes="(min-width: 48rem) 500px, 250px" width="500" height="333"/></a></figure><h3 class="c-heading"><a class="c-link" href="/sport/2024/12/20/two-time-olympic-champion-kellie-harrington-named-irish-timessport-ireland-sportswoman-of-the-year-2024/">Two-time Olympic champion Kellie Harrington named Irish Times/Sport Ireland Sportswoman of the Year 2024</a></h3></div><hr class="c-divider"/><div class="b-results-list 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data-style-wrap="nowrap"><div class="c-stack b-numbered-list__item" data-style-direction="horizontal" data-style-justification="start" data-style-alignment="unset" data-style-inline="false" data-style-wrap="nowrap"><p class="c-paragraph">1</p><a class="c-link" href="/life-style/people/2025/03/24/why-is-irish-social-media-star-garron-noone-at-the-heart-of-a-controversy-on-immigration/"><h2 class="c-heading">Why is Irish social media star Garron Noone at the heart of a controversy on immigration?</h2></a><a class="c-link b-numbered-list__item-image" href="/life-style/people/2025/03/24/why-is-irish-social-media-star-garron-noone-at-the-heart-of-a-controversy-on-immigration/" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"><img data-chromatic="ignore" alt="" class="c-image" loading="lazy" src="https://www.irishtimes.com/resizer/v2/4MSIWT4Y2NAUDNKWVW5GRMCHMA.jpg?focal=2612%2C1651&auth=b84a54be054e5176f60888c0036fa49495a2cfe5085a051a361d476b1c72a868&width=274&height=182" 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height="182"/></a></div><hr aria-hidden="true"/><div class="c-stack b-numbered-list__item" data-style-direction="horizontal" data-style-justification="start" data-style-alignment="unset" data-style-inline="false" data-style-wrap="nowrap"><p class="c-paragraph">3</p><a class="c-link" href="/world/us/2025/03/24/atlantic-magazine-editor-says-he-was-added-to-trump-advisers-text-group-on-bombing-houthis/"><h2 class="c-heading">US magazine editor says he was added to Trump advisers’ text group on bombing Houthis </h2></a><a class="c-link b-numbered-list__item-image" href="/world/us/2025/03/24/atlantic-magazine-editor-says-he-was-added-to-trump-advisers-text-group-on-bombing-houthis/" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"><img data-chromatic="ignore" alt="" class="c-image" loading="lazy" src="https://www.irishtimes.com/resizer/v2/LYATB4JCFRVGVKIBYVSP2UZYME.jpg?smart=true&auth=16a15c91a343d6fc27ace43393c3357c12c742ad82ee660bfb2581a0ef1b9f04&width=274&height=182" 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a tour of England in October, 1971, <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/muhammad-ali/\" target=\"_self\">Muhammad Ali</a> visited The Wellington, strongman Butty Sugrue’s pub in Shepherd’s Bush, <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/london/3/\" target=\"_self\">London</a>. At one point in the festivities, the <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/kerry/\" target=\"_self\">Kerryman</a> and Ali had a one-on-one chat during which the landlord asked the former heavyweight champion of the world to consider a fight in Ireland, the profits from which would go to a charity close to his heart.","type":"text"},{"_id":"I7X2CJYRGZE7ZHYHJESEZ6RF2E","additional_properties":{"_id":1741967126936},"content":"“Like Joe Louis, he is deeply interested in the welfare of the mentally handicapped,” said Sugrue. “So, I put the idea to him and asked him would he fight in Dublin. He told me he would go anywhere at any time to fight for the mentally handicapped children, and he promised me then to do this fight for £100,000.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"O7667JLDRNFJNNX64VDIG5L5QA","additional_properties":{"_id":1741967126937},"content":"Whether Ali made any personal assurances about a future bout for any charity is open to question but there is no doubt the idea of him boxing in Ireland seems to have been born during that encounter. Not that this kind of forensic detail mattered to the sceptical media in Ireland. They were not convinced by Sugrue’s announcement in March 1972 that the most famous athlete in the world would be coming to Dublin that summer. As if a former circus strongman could pull off such a feat.","type":"text"},{"_id":"2MKSZDGYMVBI5NSBCBTPO5OHIU","additional_properties":{"_id":1742466757937},"content":"‘Can Butty Produce Ali Here?’ asked The Irish Press, the incredulous tone of the headline setting the tone for much newspaper coverage about that possibility over the next few weeks.","type":"text"},{"_id":"GTQONDUCMBCTJG4JY5O4DSKQ4M","additional_properties":{"_id":1741967126939},"content":"A master at garnering cheap publicity, Sugrue enjoyed a reputation as something of a carnival barker, often guilty of delivering less than he promised, forever enmeshed in madcap ventures designed to drive up revenue at one of his establishments. Barely four years had passed since he had last made international headlines. In his second attempt at one of the lesser spotted world records, he persuaded Mick Meaney, a Tipperary-born barman at the Admiral Nelson, a pub he then ran in north London, <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/abroad/generation-emigration/the-story-of-the-irishman-buried-alive-in-kilburn-1.2463196#:~:text=Meaney%20bedded%20down%20for%20the,opened%20onto%20bags%20of%20lime.\" target=\"_blank\">to spend 61 days in a coffin, buried 11ft below the surface</a>.","type":"text"},{"_id":"RZLJHOGF6ZA3XIVQMTBYBH5Y2Y","additional_properties":{"_id":1741967126940},"content":"A classic slice of Sugrue grotesquerie. Before the burial, he organised “The Last Supper”, a meal at which Jack Doyle, one-time heavyweight contender turned cabaret act, sang songs. Meaney was then placed in his “all-mod cons” coffin. Watched by large numbers of Irish expatriates wearing solemn black suits and gleaming white shirts, he was passed through the window of the bar and lifted on to a flatbed truck-cum-hearse that took him to his “final” resting place at Mick Keane’s building yard. When Meaney finally emerged from his subterranean spot more than two months later, it was to a kiss from the glamorous figure of Diana Dors, and the soundtrack of the London-Irish Girl Pipers.","type":"text"},{"_id":"7LU3TZBJRNAI5HJCXRB3BMKFGQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1742466757942},"content":"Questions were subsequently raised about the nature of that enterprise in the House of Commons, a measure of how well Sugrue sold the stunt to the media and how famous he had become in Britain. It was all a long way, literally and metaphorically, from Gortnascarry, the townland near Killorglin in southwest Kerry where Michael (his official name) was born on July 24th, 1924. One of the six children (three sons and three daughters) of Daniel and Anna Sugrue, he earned the sobriquet “Butty” early on due to his short, thick build and prodigious strength.","type":"text"},{"_id":"6IQFQRUGSNH5ZPOBT562YITCR4","additional_properties":{"_id":"N2MO7RZOGNGP7B24JMKGS3UCSM"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"KUH5KGUL733IROXI6QVSLPZN6A","additional_properties":{"_id":1742466757949},"type":"image"},{"_id":"6LJI43V4BJEJXNF5SCZTRHRC7M","additional_properties":{"_id":1742466757944},"content":"In his youth, he had been an amateur boxer at a time when budding Killorglin pugilists fought in a ring set up in the fabled Oisin Ballroom on Iveragh Road. Alongside his brother Tim, known to all as “Fly”, he also travelled to compete at tournaments in Cahersiveen, Tralee and Castleisland. Around then he started to gain a reputation for being abnormally strong. Popular lore in the area held that his power was down to the amount of goat’s milk he drank in his formative years. English newspapers, prompted by his own anecdotes, later attributed his brawn to an idyllic rural childhood spent chasing wild rabbits and eating them raw.","type":"text"},{"_id":"UYMCKIA2ONGUZGU3NRRQ3KNJGQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1741967126943},"content":"Variously described as somewhere between 5ft 5in and 5ft 8in in height, with a few stubborn wisps of hair clinging to his otherwise balding pate, he was a small, squat man blessed with incredible power. As a young lad during a stint working the peat bogs in Offaly, he entertained larger colleagues by hoisting them over his head and holding them there. In the pre-television era, that gift was remarkable enough for him to eventually parlay it into a modicum of fame. Leaving the turf-cutting behind, he spent much of the 1940s and early 1950s traversing the country as a headline act with Duffy’s Circus.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ZKBFP5M7U5G3TDSOTGARIVNZVA","additional_properties":{"_id":1741967126944},"content":"Most evenings, he entered the ring to the sound of his colleague Michael Doyle fingering the accordion, the audience gasping the instant they realised the musician was perched atop a chair that Sugrue held between his teeth while walking along. Posters declared him “Ireland’s Strongest Man!” and few quibbled with the billing. Those who did were invited into the spotlight to see if they could match his feats. Usually, he lifted four 56lb shop weights attached to a steel cart axle (also 56lb) above his head and then watched the doubters and naysayers fail one by one to replicate his action.","type":"text"},{"_id":"I4WH72FYNNGRTK6FAKF5TCFQXM","additional_properties":{"_id":"ADACVSGGMRADZEEPDVMCTIDYPQ"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"TNKIDCR32FENZCBD2ZPUIEX6JI","additional_properties":{"_id":1742466757948},"content":"Another trick was to sit 10 men on a trailer before dragging it around the big top with a rope clenched between his teeth. Typical sideshow fare, the kind of act that the people of a town remembered, and it made Sugrue nationally famous. When the adults repaired to the pubs afterwards, they spent hours figuring out how such a small man could be so strong. At school the next day, kids talked of little else. Over time, his legend grew and grew and the story about him tugging a double-decker bus across O’Connell Bridge in Dublin with those ever-resilient gnashers became national lore.","type":"text"},{"_id":"LR4JLHOQ75AGXLCA6RU2WZHBOM","additional_properties":{"_id":1741967126946},"content":"Emigrating to London in the early 1960s, Sugrue arrived in a city teeming with Irish and opportunity. A teetotaller, he got involved in the pub business, an industry where his name recognition and flair for promotion brought exiled compatriots flocking to his bars. If his quiet manner and gentle ways belied his illustrious past as Ireland’s strongest man, customers caught glimpses now and then of his remarkable abilities. Troublemakers left his establishments in a hurry. He wouldn’t fight anybody, he’d just grab at them, and once he’d gained a substantial hold, the miscreant was bodily lifted from the premises and warned not to return.","type":"text"},{"_id":"PSLURCRHGZBXZND6MW7Q3ZYGYY","additional_properties":{"_id":1741967126947},"content":"Not long after Nelson’s Pillar was blown up on O’Connell Street in Dublin in 1966, Sugrue put the word out that the head of the statue would be making an appearance in the Admiral Nelson on a certain night. The place was packed to the rafters when the proprietor announced that, unfortunately, some ne’er-do-wells had stolen the head from a wheelbarrow in the backyard the previous evening. Only Sugrue could get away with disappointing people on that scale.","type":"text"},{"_id":"H4MSKLNVAFEOFIPOYH65LOSFLY","additional_properties":{"_id":1742466757946},"type":"image"},{"_id":"QRXO5X3GJ5CXLDHBQPDUEWTWHU","additional_properties":{"_id":1741967126948},"content":"For all these misadventures, stunts and half-truths, Sugrue’s friends regarded him as intensely loyal, and he had an admirable history of assisting Irish people in London, most especially Doyle, an increasingly pathetic alcoholic. If the Corkman needed a place to stay, he knew his Kerry pal would come through for him. Once, he accompanied the former contender to Elstree Studios for a summit with <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/marlon-brando/\" target=\"_self\">Marlon Brando</a>, who had sent his Rolls-Royce to ferry them to the set of The Countess of Hong Kong. Both men had been married to Movita Castaneda, a Mexican film star, and Brando wanted information from Doyle to help him negotiate his divorce. Sugrue tagged along as security in case the discussion between the ex-husband and the wannabe ex-husband turned ugly. It didn’t. The trio got on so well that Sophia Loren stood in for a photograph with them that day.","type":"text"},{"_id":"TC5AVYTU2FCBLIVREI7QISKLYA","additional_properties":{"_id":1742466757960},"content":"10 things about Marlon Brando that might just surprise you . . . or will they?","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"WHFLH2LIAZCV5OZYTM55TTCHKE","additional_properties":{"_id":1741967126949},"content":"For the rest of the decade, Sugrue became such a staple in London tabloids that one columnist affectionately dubbed him “the splendid spoofer”. Photographs of somebody sitting on a chair that he was clasping in his teeth or shots of him grimacing while holding back a revving motorcycle (a stunt he enacted on the Tonight with Dave Allen television show) were regular features in the English press. Yet, the showbiz persona was very different from his private self. Noted for his charity and generosity to those struggling, he once performed his strongman act for the delighted inmates of Maidstone Prison.","type":"text"},{"_id":"c699365c-b05e-46de-a9cd-c7c8a4b5aaae","additional_properties":{"_id":1742466757943},"subtype":"irish-times-video","type":"video"},{"_id":"CLUYGOCVDFCY5ORV3WIFIXWBAI","additional_properties":{"_id":1741967126950},"content":"In 1970, he pulled together a star-studded evening at the Royal Albert Hall in aid of “the National Society for Mentally Handicapped Children and St Patrick’s Island”. With the Irish tenor Josef Locke as the headliner, support acts included The Johnstons (featuring Paul Brady), the New Faces and an up-and-coming singer called <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/david-bowie/\" target=\"_self\">David Bowie</a>, strumming a 12-string, and singing Space Oddity. Quite the line-up.","type":"text"},{"_id":"GIRUAXZ4HJD7ZOSUP7RI44FQYE","additional_properties":{"_id":1741967126951},"content":"Wanting to help kids was a typically noble project of his but the St Patrick’s Island aspect of the fundraising was more dubious. The previous year, in a supposed move to stop it being <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/heritage/the-way-we-were-hippies-with-plans-for-skerries-1.3758949\" target=\"_self\">taken over by hippies</a>, he had purchased this tiny islet off the coast of north Dublin. He wanted to build a spiritual and health retreat facility there, a place where “slim men will grow big and big men will grow slim”. There may have been truth to that intention but, not long after the announcement, Mick Jagger had to deny newspaper reports he had bought the 16 acres located 1.5km from the mainland off the Kerryman.","type":"text"},{"_id":"PL5BAB5B7FEYLBBXOZ76YPY364","additional_properties":{"_id":1741967126952},"content":"“I’m not in the business of buying islands,” said Jagger. “What’s more, I have never heard of Mr Sugrue.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"HRO7BGJLWZE3ZGTGMZQP5YP264","additional_properties":{"_id":1741967126953},"content":"That would have made the Rolling Stone unique because Sugrue was an extraordinarily adept self-publicist and stories about him were legion. He once challenged the combined Oxford-Cambridge boat race crews to a tug of war. They demurred. He regularly called out publicans around the world, offering them £500, sometimes doubling that sum, if they came to London and matched his feats of strength. None ever took him up on the offer.","type":"text"},{"_id":"TSHYNUZ6GY6EZALUYACQ2DW5PI","additional_properties":{"_id":1742466757967},"type":"image"},{"_id":"AV6QVBYLDFEXPIJEGMVRCJGK2U","additional_properties":{"_id":1741967126954},"content":"This, then, was the picaresque character purporting to bring Ali to Ireland and many of the country’s sportswriters just could not reconcile his chequered history of bizarre exploits with his present lofty intentions. Yes, Sugrue had succeeded in bringing Louis on a tour of Ireland in 1966, as a cabaret act, not a fighter, and inevitably bragged he had lifted the former heavyweight champion in a chair clean off the ground with his teeth. But that promotion lost money and turned into a farce. And, while getting a superannuated boxer decades removed from his pomp to sing at The Arch Ballroom in Tallow, west Waterford, was a singular achievement, it was not the same as trying to import the most box-office athlete on Earth to fight. Surely he was not seriously going to try to do this ...","type":"text"},{"_id":"6YCPCZFNSNANPAQRN5ZCKVIXNM","additional_properties":{"_id":1742466757969},"content":"Muhammad Ali: the man who became king of the world","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"3ENK6AZEBNG7NK7HUCRA4TIRGI","additional_properties":{"_id":1742466757970},"content":"<i>The Big Fight: When Ali Conquered Ireland by Dave Hannigan is published by Merrion Press</i>","type":"text"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"metered"},"credits":{"by":[{"additional_properties":{"original":{"byline":"Dave Hannigan"}},"name":"Dave Hannigan"}]},"description":{"basic":"Kerryman Michael ‘Butty’ Sugrue was known as ‘the splendid spoofer’, so few believed he’d convince the most famous athlete in the world to fight in Croke Park"},"display_date":"2025-03-23T06:00:00Z","headlines":{"basic":"When Muhammad Ali came to Ireland: how a ‘splendid spoofer’ from Kerry planned to lure the boxer to Dublin","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"8948"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"NO3K35LUNWTQILKWHOYBC3SXWE","auth":{"1":"2e580b7e77a20913f9df76263274ad6cb08c813a1b0138ff1f5642eb5fc05127"},"focal_point":{"x":1150,"y":196},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/NO3K35LUNWTQILKWHOYBC3SXWE.jpg"}},"subtype":"feature","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Books"},{"name":"Sport"},{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Culture"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/culture/books/2025/03/23/when-muhammad-ali-came-to-ireland-how-a-splendid-spoofer-from-kerry-planned-to-lure-the-boxer-to-dublin/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/culture/books","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Books"}}}},{"_id":"JYNMU2YJORFJ5C7TWRZZQA5GNU","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":164,"audio_url":"https://beyondwords-cdn-b7fyckdeejejb6dj.a03.azurefd.net/audio/projects/8948/podcasts/178d2b43-8e74-46a0-9fa5-99fd69382b67/versions/1742664944/media/57c1b3c5fd6b2d9e7d9c1304ea5f3d14_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/sport/boxing/2025/03/22/when-george-foreman-visited-a-struggling-part-of-limerick/","content_elements":[{"_id":"JWNA42IPENEOLII6WKNT25KERY","additional_properties":{"_id":1742657976595},"content":"","type":"text"},{"_id":"GB47XP2GDFA5LPFUES7GKRWIUA","additional_properties":{"_id":1742663598504},"content":"In 1999 the deprived area of Southill in <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/limerick/\" target=\"_blank\">Limerick</a> was boosted by a visit from the former World heavyweight boxing champion <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/george-foreman\" target=\"_blank\">George Foreman</a>.","type":"text"},{"_id":"HKYK6EVPF5EX3M725OLS5FUWHY","additional_properties":{"_id":1742663598505},"content":"Six years previously, Foreman astonished the boxing world by winning the world title at the age of 45, knocking out Michael Moorer in the 10th round. He defended his title twice before retiring at the age of 48 in 1997.","type":"text"},{"_id":"WNAKYDYXSBFCPLIGM4EW47XU4U","additional_properties":{"_id":1742663598506},"content":"He arrived in Limerick with his friend George Kemble, the Boston journalist and Irish Times sports columnist.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ENXNOO2LGJFQ7C5H7HR7PSRDGM","additional_properties":{"_id":1742663598507},"content":"Their host, Father Joe Young, chairman of the local boxing club who first suggested the visit nine years earlier, said: “Every man, woman and child is here today to honour George. It is a milestone in the history of the community that has been devastated in so many different ways, mainly by unemployment.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"P35A7O2XNBCAPJB3NYWDF6MVLA","additional_properties":{"_id":1742663598508},"content":"","type":"text"},{"_id":"TVRKHBQY7FCYXFO4QIQTXIZUBM","additional_properties":{"_id":"XKFYNASP2NHKZDH3EDCWINPUIA"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"EV5AXSDL3NGVLJAMBW7MJGDZYU","additional_properties":{"_id":1742663598510},"content":"Foreman told the assembled young people to “get high on life not on drugs. Clean up your lives as I did. I myself came from the impossible and have dedicated my life to physical fitness. From a once hopeless position I have found it possible to reach happiness, become rich and famous and somebody my dear mother was proud of.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"IENLJTJP4VBSDG2ZDNZEBIEZ2A","additional_properties":{"_id":"6VS3Q34LX5AFROLVKYYAAUDDRE"},"content":"George Foreman: A life in pictures","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"XB6JDTLFAJH7FHDP2SOHMXXAWI","additional_properties":{"_id":1742663598511},"content":"People across the world have been paying tribute to Foreman, who died suddenly on Friday at the age of 76. Foreman was born in Texas. At the age of 19 he won the heavyweight boxing gold at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City.","type":"text"},{"_id":"AKLKVVVYINH3VL2W4Q5BG4XCWA","additional_properties":{"_id":1742663598512},"content":"He won 37 successive fights and was the hot favourite to beat Muhammad Ali in boxing’s most celebrated fight: the ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ in Kinshasa, now the Democratic Republic of Congo, in 1974. But he was beaten in the eighth round.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ZBKQAYUP5JCDNAFHPWIMZX3B7A","additional_properties":{"_id":1742663598513},"content":"He retired from boxing, took up preaching and then made a comeback 13 years later.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ZPYMHYUHAFAWNAKMEMZQ4HHM6M","additional_properties":{"_id":1742663598514},"content":"","type":"text"},{"_id":"I4IQYUKC5VEI3KP7E3BXKLZEH4","additional_properties":{"_id":1742663598515},"content":"","type":"text"},{"_id":"XQO6UCP5VJFBZLLN3UOUDEURMQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1742663598516},"content":"Former World boxing champion Barry McGuigan described Foreman as an “absolute gentleman” who was an “unbelievable human being” yet a “beast in the ring”.","type":"text"},{"_id":"Z2XMSVIQ5BB3BLKAFI46UMV4S4","additional_properties":{"_id":"UF7UFCLBXFCA3M2SJ5TLEN3XEE"},"content":"George Foreman: Heavyweight boxing champion dies aged 76","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"CXIYRRJJNJAORD2FJXUHH4GSGQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1742663598517},"content":"The Monaghan man told Newstalk he believes Foreman’s record of winning a world title at the age of 45 will never be beaten in the sport.","type":"text"},{"_id":"AP6WR7GYEREXFHECVHQPOBRUPU","additional_properties":{"_id":1742663598518},"content":"Former football manager Roddy Collins, the brother of the world Irish boxing champion Steve Collins, said he found Foreman to be “very humble” when he met him.","type":"text"},{"_id":"UQHSS2I3M5CATL47BBHU24R2EA","additional_properties":{"_id":1742663598519},"content":"“His hand was the biggest hands I had ever seen. He was 6ft 4ins, but he looked about 6ft 10ins. The way he won the title so late in his life was unbelievable,” Mr Collins told Newstalk’s Anton Savage programme.","type":"text"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"metered"},"credits":{"by":[{"additional_properties":{"original":{"byline":"Ronan McGreevy"}},"name":"Ronan McGreevy"}]},"description":{"basic":"Former Irish boxer Barry McGuigan says Foreman was a ‘beast in the ring’ but a ‘gentleman’"},"display_date":"2025-03-22T17:30:39.304Z","headlines":{"basic":"When George Foreman visited a struggling part of Limerick","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"8948"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"T3DGLAE65ZBV7JR2KO7EJ4ZKHY","auth":{"1":"ad0c22426bf88495b9dba8f66118d54a9022b788a0a65cb8544939019b4e58ea"},"focal_point":{"x":630,"y":250},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/T3DGLAE65ZBV7JR2KO7EJ4ZKHY.jpg"}},"subtype":"default","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Sport"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/sport/boxing/2025/03/22/when-george-foreman-visited-a-struggling-part-of-limerick/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/sport/boxing","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Boxing"}}}},{"_id":"XRAF5L4Y3JF3DIXP3Y3ZZSCXRE","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":59,"audio_url":"https://beyondwords-cdn-b7fyckdeejejb6dj.a03.azurefd.net/audio/projects/8948/podcasts/7ede7014-b15c-4d75-a110-1dd1d283d039/versions/1742651910/media/3c2049298452e71a60830dd8e10016c0_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/photography/2025/03/22/george-foreman-a-life-in-pictures/","content_elements":[{"_id":"YRIPS7M6VBB4DGH3O543SMJ46A","additional_properties":{},"content":"Former two-time world <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/boxing/\" target=\"_blank\">heavyweight champion</a> George Foreman <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/boxing/2025/03/22/george-foreman-heavyweight-boxing-champion-dies-aged-76/\" target=\"_blank\">has died at the age of 76</a>.","type":"text"},{"_id":"7BEFFENQ5NGPJAW5ZJNXY5YDKI","additional_properties":{},"content":"Foreman was an <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/olympic-games/\" target=\"_blank\">Olympic</a> gold medallist in 1968 before claiming his first heavyweight title with a stoppage win over Joe Frazier in 1973.","type":"text"},{"_id":"4CHEUMMA6BAQ7APACTS2D6SCD4","additional_properties":{},"content":"He lost the belt a year later to <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/muhammad-ali/\" target=\"_blank\">Muhammad Ali</a> in the “Rumble In the Jungle” bout held in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, then known as Zaire. His second championship came more than two decades later at the age of 45, with a stunning knockout win over Michael Moorer in 1994 making him the oldest heavyweight champion ever. ","type":"text"},{"_id":"QA7XRMURIVEKHKESQO6NXW6MWE","additional_properties":{},"content":"He retired from the sport in 1997 with a record of 76 wins – 68 by knockout – and just five losses. Foreman found tremendous success in the business world after his retirement, with his popular George Foreman Grill selling in the millions. – PA","type":"text"},{"_id":"5BODZHY2IRAFNMUVSS33LD4Z7I","additional_properties":{"_id":"DXIRGXGVUNA57BTKOZYZU4GNDQ"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"P3GTJDJ4TNALHCEIUAB26UK2F4","additional_properties":{"_id":"FXJZIRK6YVDVPJDVJFJMFYI2FM"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"WFXBAPXNPRCYJO6HZBUABCAMZ4","additional_properties":{"_id":"56AE5UE6PZHNLPPEWHS2DR7QMU"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"2Q7KJMWID5EP5AML6WJYFOG7YQ","additional_properties":{"_id":"ZULELPO2JRGT3JWJ3QQJL74SWA"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"LJ26BAK2PZD63C3NFYACUVSJI4","additional_properties":{"_id":"2X6DGHIPYJB4JBWI6N3BYPVVIY"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"D742EVYLVNFTBEQQT4M6DMILTY","additional_properties":{"_id":"MY2NO23UKRE6VIKGBHYROUSSJE"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"GCQYCYQRCVBHBHF6NN3FP4FIUU","additional_properties":{"_id":"ZOGEEIMMNJF6HBLY3IQTU4DT3E"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"MEV7HPGLVX2FDESHW24XWCAHKQ","additional_properties":{"_id":"HIZBUVAWPVE5HBPJJD4UQO6S3A"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"B4FL4RCO3BDOFK6LQ3GCWHJM54","additional_properties":{"_id":"F7GWGONY3BDDTJN4OTMHFQBBWA"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"7F4MY4IMMJDZ7OEWZXEY2VXLLU","additional_properties":{"_id":"4CVSW5TCGVH2FDBRCL2AG5FGAQ"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"7RTUGCEBPZCBXKX6L55U3HNVBQ","additional_properties":{"_id":"EMOXG4X7MBFWXNNZFICBRC3XME"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"TVRKHBQY7FCYXFO4QIQTXIZUBM","additional_properties":{"_id":"XCRGCIMQSFGDLA7H3HLELR6AOY"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"CZRGOGTBDBFRPOVEVA2XXSHFHU","additional_properties":{"_id":"J4QSONGDCZEJHAIVHSFDSBHEEY"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"4FJQASRHZJCEJDQ4NM564QKMSI","additional_properties":{"_id":"2LH6GS2ZJ5GEZPGHG3LHSHZMII"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"T3DGLAE65ZBV7JR2KO7EJ4ZKHY","additional_properties":{"_id":"WGXZHYC4RNHSBOSWJ2BFL7PE64"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"XRWB3SLKHRH5ZOFXBVOSHP3KEA","additional_properties":{"_id":"RMF7CTK5WZHVBF2EZDTYUO6A4E"},"type":"image"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"metered"},"credits":{"by":[]},"description":{"basic":"George Foreman, an Olympic gold medallist and heavy weight champion, was one of the great second acts in sports"},"display_date":"2025-03-22T13:53:25.29Z","headlines":{"basic":"George Foreman: A life in pictures","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"8948"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"GS6WS3LJDVE33E3L35YIHZD5IM","auth":{"1":"617e6c9a8b50a470d23499819c24fe389e51a96878b7d4a0e91fb8143cb22ff2"},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/GS6WS3LJDVE33E3L35YIHZD5IM.jpg"}},"subtype":"feature","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Photography"},{"name":"Sport"},{"name":"Boxing"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/photography/2025/03/22/george-foreman-a-life-in-pictures/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/photography","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Photography"}}}},{"_id":"C5S74JJ2KJD6LISSGEBMPYDD7M","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":283,"audio_url":"https://beyondwords-cdn-b7fyckdeejejb6dj.a03.azurefd.net/audio/projects/8948/podcasts/d24e5943-b49a-4b41-ae01-ea7f7eff9dc3/versions/1742651922/media/0ff97bb07089d0c919c08ed811861cec_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/sport/boxing/2025/03/22/george-foreman-heavyweight-boxing-champion-dies-aged-76/","content_elements":[{"_id":"O3S2SNPSZNCAPAXGQYGCZGJKNY","additional_properties":{"_id":1742627238493},"content":"George Foreman, one of the great second acts in sports, who reclaimed the heavyweight <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/boxing/\" target=\"_blank\">boxing</a> title at age 45 and became a celebrated product pitchman, died on Friday aged 76.","type":"text"},{"_id":"Z6M3LPX4NVEPTGFOFRJF237XNU","additional_properties":{"_id":1742627238502},"content":"“With profound sorrow, we announce the passing of our beloved George Edward Foreman snr who peacefully departed on March 21st, 2025 surrounded by loved ones,” his family said in an Instagram post.","type":"text"},{"_id":"JM7STGWMXZDUDHL6ZDRDA4FHUQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1742627238503},"content":"An intimidating, thunderous puncher who lost his first title to <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/muhammad-ali/\" target=\"_blank\">Muhammad Ali</a> in their famed “Rumble in the Jungle” in 1974, “Big George” was a more rotund, jovial figure when he knocked out Michael Moorer for his second crown two decades later.","type":"text"},{"_id":"WL5IEP6JUNBZLJIVACFF4L4NJI","additional_properties":{"_id":1742627238504},"content":"Foreman's comeback and the fortune he made selling fat-wicking electric cooking grills made him an icon of self-improvement and success for the Baby Boom generation.","type":"text"},{"_id":"JELDCPYZNFCE3EBSQDKNYSAAT4","additional_properties":{"_id":1742627238505},"content":"Born in Marshall, Texas, on January 10th, 1949, Foreman’s family soon moved to Houston where he and his six siblings were raised by a single mother. Growing up poor in the segregated American south, Foreman dropped out of junior high school and used his size and fists in street robberies.","type":"text"},{"_id":"OPM7WR24XBAQTLTILGJCEBT47Y","additional_properties":{"_id":1742627238506},"content":"“George’s journey from the streets of Fifth Ward to boxing and business success was an inspiration,” Houston mayor John Whitmire said in a statement.","type":"text"},{"_id":"5Y3NQZCN7ZBBFC2QRN2UYLGGUA","additional_properties":{"_id":1742627238507},"content":"“He never forgot where he came from ... Houston will forever be proud to call George Foreman one of our own.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"6NBGDQKDENC4NIPRLKOMGLLWIE","additional_properties":{"_id":1742627238508},"content":"The Job Corps, part of US president Lyndon B Johnson’s “Great Society” reforms, “rescued me from the gutter,” Foreman later wrote. Through the programme, 16-year-old Foreman moved out of Texas and was encouraged to channel his rage and growing bulk into boxing.","type":"text"},{"_id":"EZSW4OZSYBBN7EAQI7BOL2UAYA","additional_properties":{"_id":1742627238509},"content":"At age 19 and in his 25th amateur fight, Foreman captured the heavyweight boxing gold medal at the 1968 <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/olympic-games/\" target=\"_blank\">Olympics</a> in Mexico City. Turning pro, he won 37 straight matches on his way to face reigning champion Joe Frazier in Kingston, Jamaica, winning by technical knockout in round two.","type":"text"},{"_id":"RMSSS3DEFDSXDDJBXLMFG73ZL4","additional_properties":{"_id":"WRIGUVMEAFHZHAJWAM6V7RZWTA"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"HAT3BXOH7JAHLD5CRUNSU2VHGM","additional_properties":{"_id":1742627238510},"content":"Foreman defended the belt twice more before meeting Ali in Kinshasa, Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in one of the most celebrated boxing matches in history.","type":"text"},{"_id":"JLP54O3A3FF2TGXC2CELVT6AVY","additional_properties":{"_id":1742627238511},"content":"Ali had been stripped of his crown seven years before for refusing to be drafted into the Vietnam War and came into the match a heavy underdog against the bigger, younger champion. But for seven rounds, Ali laid against the ropes and fended off Foreman’s clubbing blows, tiring him before knocking him out in the eighth round.","type":"text"},{"_id":"7P5XKAHEH5BVBLLJZG5KCZXGP4","additional_properties":{"_id":1742627238512},"content":"“I was one strong heavyweight punching fighter,” Foreman told Reuters in 2007. “I was one punching machine and that was the first time I delivered everything I had and nothing worked.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"2UBM4YRDEVES3ITIJP3TRXTE3U","additional_properties":{"_id":1742627238513},"content":"The loss devastated Foreman. He took a year off before returning to the ring and then, after a second professional loss, retired in 1977 to become an ordained minister in the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ.","type":"text"},{"_id":"MEHQUOERY5HCRE6YTZAFMIFYOU","additional_properties":{"_id":1742627238514},"content":"A decade later and considerably heavier at 315 pounds (143kg), Foreman staged an unlikely return to the ring to raise money for a youth centre he founded in Texas.","type":"text"},{"_id":"2WPIGIMXX5DQ7GJXQD6X45YC4Y","additional_properties":{"_id":1742627238515},"content":"He went on to win 24 straight matches, gradually slimming along the way, before losing to Evander Holyfield in a 12-round decision in 1991. Three years later, he knocked out undefeated southpaw Moorer to become the oldest ever heavyweight champion at age 45.","type":"text"},{"_id":"R7ZTKGY46NCL7GLHTCKNYBXVHM","additional_properties":{"_id":"5B2LWRIMD5ASNBZ4MG7NOPFX5U"},"content":"George Foreman: Heavyweight boxing champion dies aged 76","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"X4LGSMCOMBHW3C4SDAFWLIDHKA","additional_properties":{"_id":1742627238516},"content":"Foreman's last match was in 1997, ending his career with a professional record of 76 wins and five losses.","type":"text"},{"_id":"MPDSC7DBMBDK3GXMFOYAZ3QZSA","additional_properties":{"_id":1742627238517},"content":"Foreman was married four times in the 1970s and 1980s. In 1985, he married for the fifth time to Mary Joan Martelly, with whom he remained for the rest of his life. He had five sons – all called George – five biological daughters, and two adopted daughters.","type":"text"},{"_id":"M2NWTAO6PJAGTP5MICKTWD463Y","additional_properties":{"_id":1742627238518},"content":"Throughout the 1990s and after retirement, he was an enthusiastic pitchman for various products, most notably an electric grill from home appliance maker Salton Inc. In 1999, the company paid Foreman and his partners $137.5 million to put his name on the grill and other goods.","type":"text"},{"_id":"TJRO2AZHKFGNZOF6DPYPBN4Q5M","additional_properties":{"_id":1742627238519},"content":"“What I do is fall in love with every product I sell,” Foreman wrote in his autobiography, “By George”.","type":"text"},{"_id":"BR6KLYN6VVDSLGUSUTX53ZB3CM","additional_properties":{"_id":1742627238520},"content":"“That’s what sells. Just like with preaching.” – Reuters","type":"text"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"metered"},"credits":{"by":[{"name":"Rocky Swift"}]},"description":{"basic":"Foreman, a two-time world heavyweight champion and Olympic gold medallist, retired in 1997"},"display_date":"2025-03-22T07:24:04.801Z","headlines":{"basic":"George Foreman: Heavyweight boxing champion dies aged 76","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"8948"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"4FJQASRHZJCEJDQ4NM564QKMSI","auth":{"1":"b6ade60e1fda61cc4722c3b3a537127a047bee4be5ecfaf495a8668e8d16694d"},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/4FJQASRHZJCEJDQ4NM564QKMSI.jpg"}},"subtype":"default","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Sport"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/sport/boxing/2025/03/22/george-foreman-heavyweight-boxing-champion-dies-aged-76/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/sport/boxing","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Boxing"}}}},{"_id":"KP3O3AHMDZF6VHPHCC5XLM3TNU","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":341,"audio_url":"https://beyondwords-cdn-b7fyckdeejejb6dj.a03.azurefd.net/audio/projects/5469/podcasts/2727b611-3b69-43a7-9282-235b38bec0c4/versions/1742502938/media/4b8dbd06d2db4634541493ebc90754e5_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/sport/athletics/2025/03/21/los-angeles-2028-is-where-inclusivity-implicit-in-the-olympic-charter-is-set-to-collide-with-reactionary-trump-agenda/","content_elements":[{"_id":"6Z75RGIFQ5HOTJMKTLA2CMJMKA","additional_properties":{},"content":"The most recent version of the <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/ioc/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\" title=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/ioc/\">Olympic Charter</a>, in force from January 30th, 2025, is not for the faint hearted. The first sentence of the first paragraph under the subheading Fundamentals of Olympism sets out the charter’s otherworldly vibe. ","type":"text"},{"_id":"WCRFE6N5M5GYZPSXFGV3R6RGGY","additional_properties":{},"content":"“Olympism is a philosophy of life, exalting and combining in a balanced whole the qualities of body, will and mind,” it says. Continuing, it speaks of “the educational value of good example, social responsibility and respect for internationally recognised human rights and universal fundamental ethical principles”.","type":"text"},{"_id":"AVO4EREWRJF4LD5GW6R45SFHDM","additional_properties":{},"content":"The Olympic Charter is a bubble bath of goodness, possibly one of the most aspirational documents ever written.","type":"text"},{"_id":"5MWUQYIYHJEZXLKTJWHUFODQLI","additional_properties":{},"content":"“The goal of Olympism is to place sport at the service of the harmonious development of humankind,” it says. It is wokeness in gold leaf. You get the picture. ","type":"text"},{"_id":"WGYTFJQNH5HM7C2X6V5EJKOCSA","additional_properties":{},"content":"Of course, it also talks of race, colour, sex, sexual orientation, language, religion, political and other opinion, national and social origins and birth.","type":"text"},{"_id":"5UUB5QPJCRAHTM2WNUC7GZ42PY","additional_properties":{},"content":"It ends by saying that belonging to the Olympic movement requires compliance with its doctrine.","type":"text"},{"_id":"5RVSJRJAXFDOPCRRGSD6AXEFB4","additional_properties":{},"content":"The <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/ioc/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\" title=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/ioc/\">International Olympic Committee </a>(IOC) takes the charter extremely seriously. It is their sporting bible, their sacred scripture.","type":"text"},{"_id":"FKH4Q7L2GND47K4V5UGIEEPZCY","additional_properties":{},"content":"That leads to the question – whither the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games in Maga (Make America Great Again) land? ","type":"text"},{"_id":"EB33TSAWXJEBZMAK6HHY2ZKGGI","embed":{"config":{},"id":"acast_podcast-36221","url":"/"},"subtype":"acast_podcast","type":"custom_embed"},{"_id":"YVG2YPEJHFES7AZIIRNMB42DUM","additional_properties":{},"content":"Three years away and already the Trump administration has trashed any pretence that it respects or cares about the Olympic Charter. The alarm bells have been ringing with Maga’s accelerated and carefree way of banging all things right out of shape. ","type":"text"},{"_id":"LC572IJYPBCS3GHUQDVEJTIOTM","additional_properties":{},"content":"The increasingly belligerent rhetoric and behaviour of the administration, and the recent rounding up of unidentified men in the US and their deportation to a jail in El Salvador without due process, is likely to send a shiver down the spine of new IOC president Kirsty Coventry, the first woman and African to hold the office in 130 years. ","type":"text"},{"_id":"7TLEA4MLDFHCVNMD5VGG533YEM","content":"<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Kirsty Coventry delivers her acceptance speech after being elected as the 10th President of the International Olympic Committee, and the first female President in IOC history. <a href=\"https://t.co/3BXf9kK0dI\">pic.twitter.com/3BXf9kK0dI</a></p>— IOC MEDIA (@iocmedia) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/iocmedia/status/1902747047989526646?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 20, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>","type":"raw_html"},{"_id":"T53GSLHTCZCJNJBJI43IHO34YI","additional_properties":{},"content":"It will especially resonate with the “s**thole” countries US president Donald Trump spoke about in 2018, referring to Haiti and African nations. Coventry might reflect on whether her country, Zimbabwe, was in his thoughts at the time. ","type":"text"},{"_id":"L6FNQL75LRGBBLDX2HUG6BTHIY","additional_properties":{},"content":"Another red flag went up last week when the New York Times reported on a draft list of countries the state department was proposing to ban from travelling to the United States. The list was, noted the newspaper, in circulation and in three sections: red, orange and yellow.","type":"text"},{"_id":"HPVC6GIYF5DLJLCPXRWKLIRBMA","additional_properties":{},"content":"The “red” list included 11 countries whose citizens would be forbidden entirely from entering the US: Afghanistan, Bhutan, Cuba, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Venezuela and Yemen. ","type":"text"},{"_id":"EUAOWNZTL5AG3OAEBJEDXCK3TE","additional_properties":{},"content":"If ratified, that would deny entry into the country of two IOC members, Afghan Samira Asghari and Cuban Maria de la Caridad Colon Ruenes as well as honorary IOC member Samih Moudallal from Syria.","type":"text"},{"_id":"CVTVZ5HKVFCRVJROWAZLUXOY5U","additional_properties":{},"content":"This week French newspaper Le Monde ran the headline, “Trump’s shadow looms over world sport.” ","type":"text"},{"_id":"TBEROMOBHVHGBM2MFR5U4RRJDE","additional_properties":{},"content":"Last month in the Los Angeles Times a letter to the editor was printed beneath the headline, “Will the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles become the ‘dictator games’?”","type":"text"},{"_id":"U4TOT6FISRCMFM4OHQ2G3TFYOI","additional_properties":{},"content":"In it, the author, from Boston, noted the extent of alienation and threat the administration has directed at US allies Canada, Denmark, Mexico, Ukraine and Panama and suggested that a boycott would be a reasonable response.","type":"text"},{"_id":"OQCR2QFLDUXOQZRNA27BHBTMHU","additional_properties":{},"type":"image"},{"_id":"PW4GRMRZDVFP7LC3YCCP6SKAYA","additional_properties":{},"content":"History has shown that the Olympic movement has a strong stomach for unsavoury characters. It ran the games in Hitler’s 1936 Berlin despite the threat of a boycott. Then IOC president Avery Brundage (American) was a Nazi sympathiser and stated publicly that Jewish athletes were being treated fairly and that the games should proceed as planned. In the end, 49 teams from around the world competed, more than in any previous Olympics.","type":"text"},{"_id":"RESB4GAXRNHZZNNNUPLI7BL4DM","additional_properties":{},"content":"In that, there is a lesson about the durability of the Olympic movement as much as the stance of athletes and nations. Also, that the old Olympics carapace has not changed much across 90 years. The message has not changed either. ","type":"text"},{"_id":"4CYELJA46FERHLOVFUXYH2OS24","additional_properties":{},"content":"On Tuesday, outgoing IOC president Thomas Bach spoke to CNN and advocated for the Olympics as a unifying force. Deploying his diplomatic skills, he praised Trump as “an outspoken supporter and promoter” of Los Angeles. ","type":"text"},{"_id":"DJ4GHMTEGFDYDKQMCZCFHNNNBM","additional_properties":{},"content":"Too astute for controversy over the proposed visa changes or that Trump had wrongly asserted that Paris gold medal-winning boxers Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-ting had “transitioned”, Bach knew those issues were at the mercy of a fractured American political landscape and a White House that prides itself on being a disruptive force.","type":"text"},{"_id":"U6OCI4H5Y5CTHJJUXR7D4D53T4","additional_properties":{},"content":"Five ring circus: Trump jnr squeezes in fake news with criticism of opening ceremony","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"ELKKJORPQRB3LO3ZSEEKP4PND4","additional_properties":{},"content":"This is an administration where nothing is too small and cruelty is sometimes the point. On Thursday French officials expressed dismay after one of their space research scientists was denied entry to the country. Immigration officers had found text messages containing a “personal opinion” about the Trump administration and its policies on scientific research. It begs the question of what chance a Palestinian athlete might have.","type":"text"},{"_id":"RE5U6ZTJLJF2DJNZBRJM7DPNAI","additional_properties":{},"content":"If there was one thing that may have dampened the spirits of Coventry as she walked from the luxury Greek resort of Cota Navarino on Thursday afternoon, it was the certainty that the next Olympic Games and its athletes will not be immune from the clash of cultures. ","type":"text"},{"_id":"6PF2JVXHVFDCXNQG44KJTXSMUU","additional_properties":{},"content":"Los Angeles 2028 is where Project 2025, the hard-right playbook for American government and society, meets the Olympic Charter’s mission statement of inclusivity and hope. It is a car crash in the making.","type":"text"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"premium"},"credits":{"by":[{"additional_properties":{"original":{"byline":"Johnny Watterson"}},"name":"Johnny Watterson"}]},"description":{"basic":"‘This is an administration where nothing is too small and cruelty is sometimes the point’"},"display_date":"2025-03-21T06:00:01Z","headlines":{"basic":"The Olympic charter and USA’s hard-right playbook are on a collision course for Los Angeles 2028","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"5469"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"5WWEXPJTUJPTOVXZSGW4FKVSLM","auth":{"1":"b390b68f09179fd81fea63cc65855994fe79c8d8bd3c489d2bb3c859605003bd"},"focal_point":{"x":2130,"y":1018},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/5WWEXPJTUJPTOVXZSGW4FKVSLM.jpg"}},"subtype":"columnist","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Athletics"},{"name":"Tennis"},{"name":"Soccer"},{"name":"Rugby"},{"name":"Hockey"},{"name":"Golf"},{"name":"Cycling"},{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Sport"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/sport/athletics/2025/03/21/los-angeles-2028-is-where-inclusivity-implicit-in-the-olympic-charter-is-set-to-collide-with-reactionary-trump-agenda/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/sport/athletics","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Athletics"}}}},{"_id":"UMAPDS6DGBBCFBYQ76ULKADCYM","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":374,"audio_url":"https://beyondwords-cdn-b7fyckdeejejb6dj.a03.azurefd.net/audio/projects/5469/podcasts/e3885a18-4dfd-4c39-ac30-0188c9ac34a7/versions/1742328452/media/21ba313e326a1862216959a43e5fd6e6_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/sport/athletics/2025/03/19/lord-of-the-rings-all-you-need-to-know-about-the-race-to-become-the-next-ioc-president/","content_elements":[{"_id":"3JXIIDNVRZBQ7KDBCLT23GHTAI","additional_properties":{},"content":"When Sebastian Coe added his name to the race to become the next president of the <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/international-olympic-committee/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"\" title=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/international-olympic-committee/\">International Olympic Committee</a> (IOC) last September, he was not thinking about finishing anywhere other than first.","type":"text"},{"_id":"2JK3CZYJUBBVTDFSQN7KEUPRIY","additional_properties":{},"content":"Often dubbed the Lord of the Rings, the IOC presidency is considered the most powerful position in global sport. The race to succeed Thomas Bach, who has been in power since 2013, will reach the finish line on Thursday afternoon at the suitably luxurious Romanos Resort in Costa Navarino, Greece.","type":"text"},{"_id":"BEO6ZACWI5FINIMQNBZSJWVTE4","additional_properties":{},"content":"The IOC don’t like to reveal much about the running of their business, and while Coe is seen as the favourite among the seven candidates, the opaque election process and notoriously nebulous IOC politics leave plenty of scope for a surprise.","type":"text"},{"_id":"SHZIQVKDEJC65L5G3Z6DMFZGBE","additional_properties":{},"content":"For Coe, the president of World Athletics, the stakes are high as he looks to become the first British man to hold the position and thus complete his rise through the ranks of sporting governance and power. ","type":"text"},{"_id":"WHQU5N3ET5DNRAPUVKC4AZUGFU","additional_properties":{},"content":"“I see this as another extension of the journey,” Coe said when launching his presidential manifesto last September. “It’s the dance I just couldn’t sit out.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"YC3L2HLOA5HINHUPH5W66JZXDA","additional_properties":{},"content":"The 144th IOC session gets under way on Wednesday, before Thursday’s vote among the 109 <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_members_of_the_International_Olympic_Committee\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"\" title=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_members_of_the_International_Olympic_Committee\">active IOC members</a>, made up of royalty, former athletes, sports administrators and politicians.","type":"text"},{"_id":"7WZLAOHQABBSFI7EYLUPLS3UZA","additional_properties":{},"content":"Why is Thomas Bach stepping down?","type":"header"},{"_id":"E2KPA4OOSVHTHJLQBU5H7IKJ4A","additional_properties":{},"content":"Only the ninth president in the 131-year history of the IOC, Bach secured his first eight-year term in 2013, and another four-year term in 2021. ","type":"text"},{"_id":"CCRUY452GRCAVFXE2XID4T7IKQ","additional_properties":{},"content":"“Change or be changed,” the 71-year-old Bach said when confirming his decision to resign from the IOC in August. “New times are calling for new leaders.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"CEURWCPM45EYXK4WUOANUFFNIU","additional_properties":{},"content":"The IOC confirmed the seven candidates in September, all of whom are IOC members and had to fulfil certain election criteria. Bach will officially step down on June 23rd, the new president assuming power the following day for an initial term until 2033.","type":"text"},{"_id":"5GWZODPDX5ECJNBCY5ORBX36QM","additional_properties":{},"content":"However, the IOC has set an age limit of 70 for presidents, with the possibility of extending this by a maximum of four years. If Coe wins, his term would probably be shorter, as he would be 74 in 2030.","type":"text"},{"_id":"JZVHQ34CCBGYHBQ7MLZVVU42PA","additional_properties":{},"content":"There have only ever been nine IOC presidents in 131 years?","type":"header"},{"_id":"N5OZP6A7GNCJZE6NOQJJMX7X4Q","additional_properties":{},"content":"Yes, that’s it, all nine from the western world, including <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/news/former-olympic-committee-president-dies-at-84-1.177799\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"\" title=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/news/former-olympic-committee-president-dies-at-84-1.177799\">our own Lord Killanin</a>, three of them being former Olympic athletes, and no women.","type":"text"},{"_id":"CZ2BIVLSNNH77GGB5DGOPZIZX4","additional_properties":{},"content":"They are Dimitrios Vikelas (Greece, 1894-1896), Pierre de Coubertin (France, 1896-1925), Henri de Baillet-Latour (Belgium, 1925-1942), Johannes Sigfrid Edstrom (Sweden, 1946-1952), Avery Brundage (USA, 1952-1972), Lord Killanin (Ireland, 1972-1980), Juan Antonio Samaranch (Spain, 1980-2001), Jacques Rogge (Belgium, 2001-2013), Thomas Bach (Germany, 2013-2025).","type":"text"},{"_id":"BTCWHDUL7VHETHLATVIFDXPXDI","additional_properties":{},"type":"image"},{"_id":"4LIJGF37AZAMPCFWL77VJG63DQ","additional_properties":{},"content":" ","type":"text"},{"_id":"4MEKQTTOTZGEXAPV44MX37LVYE","additional_properties":{},"content":"Who are the seven candidates?","type":"header"},{"_id":"RI23CJXBSRHYLDZ6B4RHDJ5NCU","additional_properties":{},"content":"<b>Sebastian Coe</b> (Great Britain, age 68). Seen as the front-runner, Coe’s record as an athlete and administrator sets him apart. As head of World Athletics since 2015 he’s helped revive the fortunes of that sport. His decision to award prize money at the Paris Olympics was not supported by Bach.","type":"text"},{"_id":"4PPQ3XNG7BBZDKSDMFQKFT3EXE","additional_properties":{},"content":"<b>Kirsty Coventry</b> (Zimbabwe, age 41). The most successful African woman in Olympic history, Coventry won seven medals in swimming and is looking to become the first woman and African to head the IOC. She’s been minister of sport in Zimbabwe since 2019. Her inexperience on the global administration stage may count against her.","type":"text"},{"_id":"N5CZ2TQTG5GO7MXWBCSVHCRFBA","additional_properties":{},"content":"<b>Juan Antonio Samaranch jnr</b><b> </b>(Spain, age 65). Son of the man who was IOC president from 1980-2001, transforming the Olympics into a commercial powerhouse. Samaranch jnr is in his second stint as an IOC vice-president, and has been on co-ordinating committees for three Winter Olympics.","type":"text"},{"_id":"Z2KVTFTFK5F6HLHICOUROOZVCU","additional_properties":{},"content":"<b>David Lappartient</b> (France, age 51). Despite only being an IOC member for three years, Lappartient has served seven successful years as president of the International Cycling Union and helped secure the 2030 Winter Olympics for France.","type":"text"},{"_id":"UNOSYJZA6NA33GVBSWIRGEAFYA","additional_properties":{},"content":"<b>Morinari Watanabe</b> (Japan, age 66). Currently president of the International Gymnastics Federation, Watanabe was on the executive board of the Tokyo Games organising committee, and part of the co-ordination commission for LA 2028. Seen as a traditionalist, he also opposed prize money at the Games.","type":"text"},{"_id":"63IEOG5RXJHVDKOKOO4YK6R4MU","additional_properties":{},"content":"<b>Prince Faisal al-Hussein </b>(Jordan, age 61). The younger brother of King Abdullah II, Prince Faisal has been an IOC member since 2010. Looking to become the first Asian president, he was part of the IOC executive board that approved controversial rules for the women’s Olympic boxing tournament in Paris.","type":"text"},{"_id":"V36V2IYJTNGSVASU4ROSNIADFY","additional_properties":{},"content":"<b>Johan Eliasch</b> (Sweden/Great Britain, age 63). The Swedish-born multi-billionaire businessman and environmentalist was elected as the International Ski Federation president in 2021, and only became an IOC member last July. He is seen as the outsider.","type":"text"},{"_id":"RX475J25RVBXHIDCCEU3WVPMSE","additional_properties":{},"type":"image"},{"_id":"EDR7ILOBIFBQHNQONT27LRJ2SY","additional_properties":{},"content":"How exactly will Thursday’s voting work?","type":"header"},{"_id":"X7DDO54LBRG2NM2OMFSBOMOZN4","additional_properties":{},"content":"Good question, given the IOC’s secret ballot and conclave voting structure dates back more than 100 years and is not too unlike the election process for a new pope.","type":"text"},{"_id":"QIEHLMGOTNG77ALPXLBYFA7QSI","additional_properties":{},"content":"Since 1925, candidates have gone through a series of rounds until one receives an absolute majority (more than half of the total votes) of the IOC members. In each round, the candidate with the least support is eliminated (in the event of a tie, an intermediate vote will split them).","type":"text"},{"_id":"3N3T7XP2R5BARFNE4L6275D3DY","additional_properties":{},"content":"The voting excludes IOC members from the same country as a candidate, unless already eliminated. There will be no disclosure on the nature of the voting in between rounds before the new president is declared by Bach himself.","type":"text"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"metered"},"credits":{"by":[{"additional_properties":{"original":{"byline":"Ian O'Riordan"}},"name":"Ian O'Riordan"}]},"description":{"basic":"Sebastian Coe is the favourite in a seven-strong field"},"display_date":"2025-03-19T06:00:01Z","headlines":{"basic":"Lord of the Rings: All you need to know about the race to become the next IOC president","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"5469"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"WQJZDPHN7FHR7B2QQYTUZKAJIM","auth":{"1":"406ffa355f583e333bdfe417a39e7b3d01d34a973feab4c07769dab60ddaa8a0"},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/WQJZDPHN7FHR7B2QQYTUZKAJIM.jpg"}},"subtype":"analysis","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Athletics"},{"name":"Tennis"},{"name":"Soccer"},{"name":"Rugby"},{"name":"Hockey"},{"name":"Golf"},{"name":"Cycling"},{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Sport"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/sport/athletics/2025/03/19/lord-of-the-rings-all-you-need-to-know-about-the-race-to-become-the-next-ioc-president/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/sport/athletics","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Athletics"}}}},{"_id":"XM6V3TBJZFGCTB5BOPY4VXCXQA","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":310,"audio_url":"https://beyondwords-cdn-b7fyckdeejejb6dj.a03.azurefd.net/audio/projects/5469/podcasts/9960a57c-434c-40bf-9259-074c5e814d97/versions/1742404002/media/d9b41fd0bb10d10b8ba12bc1dee505d2_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/sport/boxing/2025/03/18/what-the-latest-ioc-decision-means-for-irish-boxers-targetting-the-olympics/","content_elements":[{"_id":"CMGSVACAMBFAPG273XNMKYNADA","additional_properties":{},"content":"What has happened?","type":"header"},{"_id":"7LHILR6WPJFJPFIU42F6N53JEA","additional_properties":{"_id":1742325139046},"content":"This week the executive board of the <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/international-olympic-committee/\" target=\"_self\">International Olympic Committee</a> (IOC) recommended that boxing be brought back into the Olympic family, and included in the Olympic programme for <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/los-angeles/\" target=\"_self\">Los Angeles</a> 2028. That recommendation will be voted on at an IOC meeting in Greece.","type":"text"},{"_id":"JI2LMXP5KFEQZMMBQGAAIKMBSQ","additional_properties":{},"content":"Wasn’t boxing always in the Olympic schedule?","type":"header"},{"_id":"4HFXU34ZKFFU3EKLCRFIM7WBSI","additional_properties":{"_id":1742325139048},"content":"No. Boxing wasn’t on the Los Angeles roster following years of bitter exchanges between the International Boxing Association (IBA) and the IOC. Their disagreements became so toxic that in 2023 the IOC refused to recognise the IBA, citing financial obscurity, governance failure and ethical concerns about how the organisation was run. In the last two Games, Tokyo and Paris, boxing was organised by the IOC, not the IBA. Normally the international body would run the Olympic competition.","type":"text"},{"_id":"JICIXTPW65BADCNCSDCPZ5MRXU","additional_properties":{},"content":"Was the IBA so bad?","type":"header"},{"_id":"VVAVNV3DTFADPASJ6LZU64JQPM","additional_properties":{"_id":1742325139050},"content":"That depends on where you come from. The IBA president is a Russian called Umar Kremlev, while the Russian energy company Gazprom became a “general partner” of the IBA in 2021 before it was targeted by western financial sanctions following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. One of the things the IBA changed was awarding prize money. At last week’s IBA Women’s World Championships there was €100,000 (€91,600) for a gold medal, $50,000 (€45,800) for a silver and for bronze $25,000 (€22,900) from a $2.4m (€2.2m) prize fund.","type":"text"},{"_id":"IHWIGM2KXBHFPM56VWOEOKS5LY","additional_properties":{},"content":"So, the IOC and IBA were at loggerheads, then what happened?","type":"header"},{"_id":"D2MB6XTATZFTVLXVKXMHQRHJZA","additional_properties":{"_id":1742325139052},"content":"As the battle was raging, another entity, World Boxing, was set up in opposition to the IBA. In 2023 the new World Boxing body had 27 affiliated members and it now has more than 60. Last month, World Boxing was recognised by the IOC as the international governing body for boxing.","type":"text"},{"_id":"MCZUNTKURBGXJOEE4DEFPMKJGI","additional_properties":{},"content":"So we now have two governing bodies?","type":"header"},{"_id":"YXY7CPQXU5GQFAFRCJG3RD63UE","additional_properties":{"_id":1742325139054},"content":"Yes. One the IOC recognises and one it doesn’t.","type":"text"},{"_id":"YPXXXPZNZBFN5D564QOPEUIYQI","additional_properties":{},"content":"But the decision to guarantee boxing’s place in Los Angeles is good news for Irish fighters, right?","type":"header"},{"_id":"QJ75G3QUCZEIRMFCO3BAJINYUY","additional_properties":{"_id":1742325139056},"content":"It’s not that simple. Ireland is not a member of World Boxing.","type":"text"},{"_id":"SZPSAERSQ5HSNBFHQXFAJV7DDM","additional_properties":{},"content":"Oh?","type":"header"},{"_id":"L6JYC2CPMZBKNKJWBYKDOQTAFU","additional_properties":{"_id":1742325139058},"content":"","type":"text"},{"_id":"H7IO372UYVESXMTBM24XZKUA2Q","additional_properties":{},"content":"Yes. In a 2023 AGM the membership of the Irish Athletic Boxing Association (IABA) was asked to vote on removing IBA from the IABA constitution and had that passed affiliation to the new World Boxing body would have been put to them. They voted against it. Some saw that as a missed opportunity, not only for our Olympic boxers but also because getting in early could have allowed Ireland take up a leadership role in the new organisation.","type":"text"},{"_id":"QBHV342EIZAPDNJ32RZSEIXTF4","additional_properties":{},"content":"Is Ireland isolated, then?","type":"header"},{"_id":"S4ZKU2CELFEF5DN75DY7T7UAI4","additional_properties":{"_id":1742325139060},"content":"Well, Ireland, Spain and Portugal are the only federations in western Europe with no connection to World Boxing. There are 22 other European nations that are members while Britain is an associate member.","type":"text"},{"_id":"XZNM3ZLKE4FPOGG2KLNZGRPCIQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1742325139061},"type":"image"},{"_id":"4PNTIR2RH5A5LHCCO7LOKQ2TY4","additional_properties":{},"content":"So the good news about boxing being included for LA 2028 isn’t so great for Ireland?","type":"header"},{"_id":"XHCOVTIC6NHSLLSGZ5A4CUGRUI","additional_properties":{"_id":1742325139063},"content":"Irish boxing told its clubs on January 17th that they had applied to the IBA to activate what they called their dual membership mechanism. That mechanism came about when the IBA amended its constitution last December.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ALVDCRN3YVF5BH4WE4M3BUSAB4","additional_properties":{},"content":"So Ireland will seek to become members of both World Boxing and the IBA?","type":"header"},{"_id":"YN7GYU5I3BFDVAF2EI4JFYL5EA","additional_properties":{"_id":1742325139065},"content":"Exactly.","type":"text"},{"_id":"DYZ3SMGUIFGL7CFFNN4S6K2YLE","additional_properties":{},"content":"How does that work?","type":"header"},{"_id":"KAPSINJ5ZFBJTF7OVXRK3TX3CQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1742325139067},"content":"The IBA was due to have a board meeting during the recent women’s world championships. The IABA contacted the IBA on Sunday but got no response. The IBA have published no criteria for what they will accept for dual membership or what they will deny. There’s no appeal mechanism and any permission granted is temporary and can be revoked at any time. The Irish application has been in for a little more than eight weeks.","type":"text"},{"_id":"26NL3VF7TZC2TLUJIL5TOWTZ6Y","additional_properties":{},"content":"What do the IABA say officially?","type":"header"},{"_id":"JTFQ6WA5HRGNPJNUXXG5XECXZI","additional_properties":{"_id":1742325139069},"content":"“We applied to the IBA to activate its dual membership mechanism on January 17th. We have been in conversation and correspondence with the IBA since then, as recently as March 16th to seek an answer from them in the knowledge that the IBA board of directors was to meet during the course of the Women’s World Championships. We have had no response to date.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"6OSGOO26IVHI5C7AZLRQAM45SU","additional_properties":{},"content":"So what happens now?","type":"header"},{"_id":"KADBPJQMWRHK3AS6Y4VXMZ54ZY","additional_properties":{"_id":1742325139071},"content":"That is difficult to say and there is some guesswork here, as it is unclear whether the IBA will grant Ireland dual membership. What is clear is Irish boxers could miss out in competing in the inaugural World Boxing World Championships for men and women in Sheffield this September.","type":"text"},{"_id":"XE3BY7CRXVDS3LSCQYWDNHUROY","additional_properties":{},"content":"So, the bottom line is – Ireland’s participation in the Olympic Games in Los Angeles 2028 – may still be in play?","type":"header"},{"_id":"4TXGN56C7VANPF7GNRG2HRGGH4","additional_properties":{"_id":1742325139073},"content":"Yes. Ireland needs to affiliate to the IOC-recognised World Boxing before the qualifying process for the Olympic Games begins, probably about two years before the Games or Irish boxers will not be eligible to compete in Los Angeles 2028.","type":"text"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"metered"},"credits":{"by":[{"additional_properties":{"original":{"byline":"Johnny Watterson"}},"name":"Johnny Watterson"}]},"description":{"basic":"Boxing will be at the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles but Irish fighters' participation is not straightforward \n"},"display_date":"2025-03-18T19:00:01Z","headlines":{"basic":"What the latest IOC decision means for Irish boxers targeting the Olympics","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"5469"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"GQMAB3CIY5DCBKSAOKGMVC7KXE","auth":{"1":"711f2a3940a41f3350dcac80f83c84c77a2d7c8ca2ce9b7dcdb26116df7becb6"},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/GQMAB3CIY5DCBKSAOKGMVC7KXE.jpg"}},"subtype":"analysis","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Sport"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/sport/boxing/2025/03/18/what-the-latest-ioc-decision-means-for-irish-boxers-targetting-the-olympics/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/sport/boxing","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Boxing"}}}},{"_id":"JSKRFDZN2VDSPIIRMWMMMP7PHI","additional_properties":{},"canonical_url":"/sport/boxing/2025/03/17/olympic-status-of-boxing-on-verge-of-being-secured/","content_elements":[{"_id":"FJQRS7ELKNA4HHFYOQP5SJO5XE","additional_properties":{},"content":"Boxing’s Olympic status is on the verge of being secured after years of uncertainty. On Monday the <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/international-olympic-committee/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"\" title=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/international-olympic-committee/\">I</a><a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/international-olympic-committee/\" rel=\"\" title=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/international-olympic-committee/\">nternational Olympic Committee (IOC) </a>president Thomas Bach said that his executive board had recommended that boxing should be included in the 2028 games to be held in Los Angeles. It appears to be a formality that the IOC membership will ratify the decision in the coming days as Bach and his colleagues confirmed last month that they now recognise World Boxing as the sport’s new international federation.","type":"text"},{"_id":"EXBYOGDOFRGZHMTUTBX5I4I3PM","additional_properties":{},"content":"“After the provisional recognition of World Boxing in February we were in the position to take this decision,” Bach said at a press conference. “I’m very confident the [IOC] session will approve it, so that all boxers then have certainty that they can participate in the Olympic Games in LA2028 if their national federation is recognised by World Boxing.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"F3YZJQURDNFZTKXYYJCWKNZ7WQ","additional_properties":{},"content":"Boxing has featured in every summer Olympics since 1904, and great champions have emerged – from Cassius Clay (who became Muhammad Ali) and Sugar Ray Leonard to Katie Taylor and Oleksandr Usyk. Its permanent banishment from the Olympic movement would have had disastrous consequences for an already beleaguered sport.","type":"text"},{"_id":"WK4IRO3UYREMJKPZNQXRD5E2B4","additional_properties":{},"content":"In 2019 the IOC had suspended the former governing body, the infamous and Russian-dominated International Boxing Association, citing a lack of faith in its integrity after a series of controversies surrounding finance and the suspicious scoring of fights. After the IBA failed to meet any of the stipulations for change the IOC took the drastic step of removing boxing from the Olympic movement in 2023. It was made plain that unless a new regulatory body emerged boxing had no chance of appearing in any future Olympic Games.","type":"text"},{"_id":"UO5WWEBPCZGSVDADIOZYPBUUJE","additional_properties":{},"content":"The IOC had reluctantly run the boxing tournaments at the previous two Olympics, in Tokyo and amid controversy over gender eligibility tests in Paris, but they did not include the sport in the initial programme for Los Angeles. There were serious concerns that boxing would be marginalised permanently from Olympic competition but the emergence of World Boxing transformed the landscape.","type":"text"},{"_id":"5D2YGRMZEVGTLNDGOGAD5F36VY","additional_properties":{},"content":"Founded by Boris van der Vorst, the president of the Dutch boxing federation who began canvassing for support in 2022, World Boxing now has 84 member states with British and American administrators having also played key roles in setting up a credible alternative to the IBA.","type":"text"},{"_id":"HSMY27D4MFBMVDQQV7JQTATWXU","additional_properties":{},"content":"Reacting to Bach’s announcement, Van der Vorst said: “This is a very significant and important decision, and takes the sport one step closer to being restored to the Olympic programme. I have no doubt it will be very positively received by everyone connected with boxing who understands the critical importance to the future of the sport of continuing to remain a part of the Olympic movement. We hope for a positive outcome when the IOC session meets this week.","type":"text"},{"_id":"4LP2NSKLZJBHTMKIFN6FX6FVIU","additional_properties":{},"content":"“World Boxing understands that being part of the Olympic Games is a privilege and not a right. I assure the IOC that if boxing is restored to the programme for LA28, World Boxing is completely committed to being a trustworthy and reliable partner that will adhere to and uphold the values of the Olympic charter.” – Guardian","type":"text"},{"_id":"QSL2WIIHKFFFTK25EKOWKGJZOE","additional_properties":{},"content":"","type":"text"},{"_id":"JRTCV4R3R5CEJGEWIUV2KYUYLE","additional_properties":{},"content":"","type":"text"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"metered"},"credits":{"by":[{"additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Donald McRae"}]},"description":{"basic":"IOC president Thomas Bach says executive board has recommended that boxing be included in 2028 games in Los Angeles"},"display_date":"2025-03-17T18:07:34.804Z","headlines":{"basic":"Olympic status of boxing on verge of being secured ","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"5469"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"D5RXYUNLWFH7DDQWPGNQYY2NVU","auth":{"1":"da06a310255af9d6547d948b7bb338b99effdbdbec27e674eed6ea2fa4f9f213"},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/D5RXYUNLWFH7DDQWPGNQYY2NVU.jpg"}},"subtype":"default","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Sport"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/sport/boxing/2025/03/17/olympic-status-of-boxing-on-verge-of-being-secured/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/sport/boxing","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Boxing"}}}},{"_id":"66CY2RNQOVAB5PNEF7VS4MDUHY","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":207,"audio_url":"https://beyondwords-cdn-b7fyckdeejejb6dj.a03.azurefd.net/audio/projects/5469/podcasts/f6796db4-3d9e-4f73-b980-e72e443fee78/versions/1742156648/media/7b581276d655fb298269658d8be9b66b_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/sport/boxing/2025/03/16/orourke-sisters-take-silver-medals-at-world-championships-in-serbia/","content_elements":[{"_id":"DBBGINBMYFHYLJGW64TVO5JYJY","additional_properties":{},"content":"Two silver medals as well as $50,000 (€46,000) each in prize money will make their way back to Roscommon following <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/lisa-o-rourke\" rel=\"\" title=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/lisa-o-rourke\">Lisa</a> and <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/aoife-o-rourke\" rel=\"\" title=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/aoife-o-rourke\">Aoife O’Rourke</a>’s end to the World Boxing Championships in Nis, Serbia.","type":"text"},{"_id":"OSGVQ3WUPFDIDFIF7DM3BXO33U","additional_properties":{},"content":"Gold medals evaded both sisters in the end, the younger 22-year-old Lisa first and then 27-year-old Aoife, who had to step into the ring immediately after her younger sibling’s defeat. It was also boxing history as sisters had never made it through to finals night before at world level.","type":"text"},{"_id":"G3Y26X5NJ5DTPMX2CBZJQAUWDA","additional_properties":{},"content":"Lisa, who won the gold medal at the 2022 World Championships in the 70kg division, was beaten by Russia’s Elena Gapeshina by unanimous decision in the first of the evening bouts, again at light middleweight.","type":"text"},{"_id":"RERKU74FY5BCRM6ZHI6QK3JRGQ","additional_properties":{},"content":"Tall and rangy against a smaller sturdy Russian, O’Rourke opened her bout fighting from a distance and comfortably working off the back foot.","type":"text"},{"_id":"H2W5VHWR3FAYXP6A6ZOV5NVIEM","additional_properties":{},"content":"Although she landed some nice right hands and a combination in the opening three minutes, Gapeshina stayed composed and compact and always came forward. The judges saw her as the dominant boxer in the opening round with all five scoring it 10-9 in Russia’s favour for 5-0.","type":"text"},{"_id":"K3IJT3OPGFDBXLIY76EGNBL7TI","additional_properties":{},"content":"That was repeated in the second round, O’Rourke never taking a step back but many of her shots whizzing past her Russian opponent and not scoring. A right upper cut at the end of the round from Gapeshina would have caught the eye of the judges and again they scored the second round the same as the first, 5-0 for the Russian boxer.","type":"text"},{"_id":"R2MYLE6ECV2IWB35GJQWBCULUU","additional_properties":{},"type":"image"},{"_id":"BT46I7IM5VA6DO4OTL3M3JVBMA","additional_properties":{},"content":"There was no way back for the gutsy O’Rourke, who again fired everything she had at her opponent in the final round. But it was not enough to turn the fight with the bout awarded to the 27-year-old Russian by unanimous decision.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ADSRDPRVWNDZ7MQZJMQJZELUVI","additional_properties":{},"content":"Three-time European middleweight champion Aoife then stepped into the ring just as her sister was leaving the arena and faced an opponent, Anastasiia Shamonova, who she had beaten in the 2024 European final. The two knew each other well and that showed as the bout took off at a furious pace.","type":"text"},{"_id":"U2DGNFRGE5CDNC4JZSXIRIOXZE","additional_properties":{},"content":"O’Rourke was landing with jabs and back hands, but so was Shamonova. There were a few tangles in the first round but the judges sided with some cleaner shots to mark it 4-1 for Russia.","type":"text"},{"_id":"BD2AFXBAZBBQPHVSOK5VY7S7HQ","additional_properties":{},"content":"There was little in it with O’Rourke taking her high-tempo game to her opponent with even more aggression in the second round. But an early jab and a cross from the Russian indicated that she was opting for a less is more approach and with the cleaner shots and effective back hand.","type":"text"},{"_id":"DYNA6MW2FZGOZNB76NOMSGJW2Q","additional_properties":{},"content":"While O’Rourke was flooding the zone with punches and kept the tempo high and lively, it was Shamonova the judges scored higher. Although the second round was split again, it was 4-1 for the Russian fighter.","type":"text"},{"_id":"R3EGBJHQKVANLECIH3VHY5CZCY","additional_properties":{},"content":"It wasn’t as much as an uphill battle in the third as it had been for her sister just minutes before, but it was a big ask for O’Rourke to turn the final. Again, no quarter was given but every raid from the Irish boxer was countered by the Russian. Although O’Rourke landed some stiff scoring jabs and was unrelenting in her go-forward mindset, Shamanova remained composed under the pressure and was able to land scoring shots with the judges again siding with her with a points decision.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ILYE4I2ZSRDXRFM4BIW2LMYZBE","additional_properties":{},"content":"It was disappointment on the night, two defeats within 30 minutes for Ireland but a fantastic showing by the sisters from Tarmon and another expression of how Ireland can consistently compete at the highest levels of the sport. In all 239 boxers from 51 federations competed in the championships, with the O’Rourke sisters making it through to the last day from an Irish team of eight athletes.","type":"text"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"metered"},"credits":{"by":[{"additional_properties":{"original":{"byline":"Johnny Watterson"}},"name":"Johnny Watterson"}]},"description":{"basic":"Roscommon siblings both lose to Russian opponents in their gold medal matches "},"display_date":"2025-03-16T19:36:17.577Z","headlines":{"basic":"O’Rourke sisters take silver medals at World Championships in Serbia ","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"5469"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"MPHAR3YJ7FETXH2SJH52ZJMQSE","auth":{"1":"a003b60225d9e90fc54c58cc0c1b2a5f92f28fcd2b509dbd1eaf151921160c2b"},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/MPHAR3YJ7FETXH2SJH52ZJMQSE.jpg"}},"subtype":"default","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Sport"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/sport/boxing/2025/03/16/orourke-sisters-take-silver-medals-at-world-championships-in-serbia/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/sport/boxing","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Boxing"}}}},{"_id":"APND4E63EJA6DFFVPLFDJLXDA4","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":586,"audio_url":"https://beyondwords-cdn-b7fyckdeejejb6dj.a03.azurefd.net/audio/projects/5469/podcasts/b634a0ce-e88b-4e3a-b707-0c9fa0fef3b2/versions/1742111288/media/6d0b3fda992f8285df0885eb7d4c1761_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/sport/boxing/2025/03/16/donald-mcrae-boxing-makes-me-feel-so-fking-alive-i-wanted-that-back-because-i-didnt-want-to-wallow-in-grief/","content_elements":[{"_id":"NLLCPOVECJBMDGLV3PKUA3UIKE","additional_properties":{},"content":"Years ago, when he was just finding his way in the world of boxing writing, Donald McRae was in conversation with the greatest of them all, the late <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/hugh-mcilvanney-obituary-the-best-sportswriter-of-his-era-1.3770756\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\" title=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/hugh-mcilvanney-obituary-the-best-sportswriter-of-his-era-1.3770756\">Hugh McIlvanney</a>. He’s telling this story now down a Zoom line and makes sure to preface it by saying he won’t embarrass himself by trying the accent. ","type":"text"},{"_id":"DN4342EEJRDFHN6AVDROZKHTKI","additional_properties":{},"content":"But if you’ve read any McIlvanney or if you ever heard him speak when he was alive, it won’t be hard to imagine his warning to the younger McRae. “He said to me, ‘Ambivalence is going to be your constant companion,’” says the <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/south-africa/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\" title=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/south-africa/\">South African</a> author and journalist now. ","type":"text"},{"_id":"64RV4IHKGVET5NPGBIYWIN3NME","additional_properties":{},"content":"“Which is such a McIlvanney way of putting it. But it’s so pertinent because you’ve got to live with it in boxing. It’s that constant fluctuation between the good and the bad. The hypocrisy of it. Talking about the beauty of boxing and how it saves lives but at the same time acknowledging that it damages and maims and kills people.","type":"text"},{"_id":"YCQLM6OB6VHGHMI5FX6BVF2WDA","additional_properties":{},"content":"“I will get duped by it and think that this is actually going to make me feel so alive. And then a day later, it makes you feel so dejected and dirty. You think, ‘Why did I ever think it would be any different?’”","type":"text"},{"_id":"6QN6THVYZ5ANTNQU5TKP2BFA4U","additional_properties":{},"content":"All of which gives a flavour of how McRae finds himself in the here and now. Still in love with boxing, irredeemably and despite himself. But exhausted with it too. After the thick end of four decades of writing about the sport, he has released The Last Bell, which he says will be his final boxing book. ","type":"text"},{"_id":"ID2LAU7GPZGXTFFB7K6POKYN2Y","additional_properties":{},"content":"Millions of dollars ‘under the table’: Daniel Kinahan’s backroom role in boxing","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"NI3HMGATKNCTZBLKCLEGMG75NA","additional_properties":{},"content":"“In the six years of boxing that I covered for this book, so much happened,” he says. “The Kinahan saga, which I know had been going on for some time, became just impossible to ignore. And then all the positive drug tests and then the Saudis moving in – it just felt like one dark wave after another engulfing the business of boxing. ","type":"text"},{"_id":"O74KJYLIMBBEFJQFMWR2JFIQEM","additional_properties":{},"content":"“I got to the point where maybe I was worn out. I took genuine pleasure in Alexander Usyk because I like and admire him. But my excitement at seeing him become undisputed heavyweight champion of the world was minuscule compared to all the other feelings I had about the way boxing had gone and the way boxing and Saudi were now working so closely together especially. ","type":"text"},{"_id":"XTXCI55CARO3FC4AUNAI5D4GPY","additional_properties":{},"type":"image"},{"_id":"Q2HOFZ3ZVBCKLLYTD2C5MKH5F4","additional_properties":{},"content":"“So I think it’s got to a point where I will still follow boxing because I love to interview fighters. I will go to certain fights. But I think I’m going to limit my writing to journalism. And maybe I’ll become a better journalist now because perhaps I’ve been a bit too sentimental in my coverage of boxing. And maybe I can be a bit more forensic and a bit harder in my assessment of it.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"LK65TAM4YRH4FOVZN2XHIWDWWE","additional_properties":{},"content":"It is 29 years now since Dark Trade was published. McRae’s first boxing book remains one of the great journeys into the sport’s black heart and won him the first of two William Hill Sports Book of the Year prizes. Whatever beats The Last Bell to the prize this year – if anything does – will have to be pretty extraordinary.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ZMVENS4QAJG3XOK4W4JWNKVGJQ","additional_properties":{},"content":"Though it isn’t exactly a sequel to Dark Trade, it finds McRae back digging in the same sort of mines. It was a book he had in his head for a long time but really only found himself itching to get started in late 2018. By pure happenstance, it coincided with a time of terrible loss in his life – his sister who was only three years older than him died at just 60. Within the following 18 months, both his mother and father died back in South Africa. His wife’s mother died a year to the day after his own.","type":"text"},{"_id":"EMLFYBSIINBKXIPCYFEWOPNK7Q","additional_properties":{},"content":"All around him, the ravages of time and illness ground away. In December 2018, his family was as it had always been – himself, his sister and his parents. By mid-2020, only he remained. His father died in the teeth of the pandemic and he could only watch the funeral on a video feed in his house in London. He didn’t really know it but he needed boxing more than ever.","type":"text"},{"_id":"GBUVWZ7JRZCN5JQ5LJ43M3PSJ4","additional_properties":{},"type":"image"},{"_id":"N52H5XWZ7FCNNIRDPAAV3XPGEA","additional_properties":{},"content":"“The last time I saw my sister, she was in hospital and we had no idea then that she would die just a matter of weeks later. But I spoke to her then about the idea of starting this book and although she wasn’t a boxing fan, she loved the fighters. She said, ‘The stories are just amazing. You should do it.’ Once I lost her, even though I accepted her death, it did kind of unhinge me.","type":"text"},{"_id":"MOO3SYK3ANDZTHKKCB2NSJENTU","additional_properties":{},"content":"“Boxing is like all sport, at times it just all seems so unimportant. But I think there’s a line in the book where I say something like it makes me feel so f**king alive. Even though it’s silly. It’s when your senses are so heightened and you are pulsating with life like a teenager pulsating with acne. You just feel, ‘Wow.’ ","type":"text"},{"_id":"CE5DSQKUSJD3VJ5NAEWSERPZNY","additional_properties":{},"content":"“And I think I wanted that back because I didn’t want to wallow in grief. I kind of accepted what had happened. I know this comes to all of us. But I wanted that feeling of being lit up on the inside. Boxing does that to me. ","type":"text"},{"_id":"6H2EZLGD6ZDXJGXDMXLD6LRU2Y","additional_properties":{},"content":"“There are many fights that are covered in the course of the book, like Katie Taylor against Amanda Serrano in New York, where I was absolutely lost in however long that fight lasted. I was just lost in it and I didn’t think of anything else. So I guess that was kind of the pull for me because I thought I could just lose myself for a while in boxing again.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"JFJMKECC5JDBZI24UBSCW43ZWE","subtype":"pullquote","type":"quote"},{"_id":"GNYXFBJPOJA2PNYUBYYU34PVCU","additional_properties":{},"content":"McRae has made his name in journalism interviewing sportspeople of all kinds. The famous and the unknowns, all sports, all walks of life. But he has never made any secret of the fact that boxers sing to him in a key the rest can’t reach. And so he went looking for stories and again and characters again started to populate the book with them. ","type":"text"},{"_id":"KDXHRYTHX5H5LKBABVMOPKAAWE","additional_properties":{},"content":"In Isaac Chamberlain and Patrick Day, he found the side of boxing that is always shimmering with peril. In Andy Lee, he found boxing’s decency. In Tyson Fury, its madness. In Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano, its pure, uncut adrenaline hit.","type":"text"},{"_id":"4TTMU742HBJTZND67QHEEKZPRY","additional_properties":{},"type":"image"},{"_id":"YBW4NZCYO5DXBNLQZFETSK5DII","additional_properties":{},"content":"“Katie Taylor said to me that the Olympics when she lost in 2016, that’s still seared inside her, that defeat. And she just took it. You lose the Champions League final or World Cup final in football and of course it’s going to scar you a little bit inside. But in boxing, the scars and wounds are so much deeper. And when you get the opportunity to hear them talk about these things, and sometimes in quite poetic ways, as a writer you become such a sucker for it, don’t you?","type":"text"},{"_id":"7C366VA4RVDGZGB6GBE4PFEILQ","additional_properties":{},"content":"“The humanity of boxers is definitely the thing that draws me in. Because the way fighters talk about fear – and the best of them do say, ‘Of course I’m scared.’ They’re not so scared of being hurt. They’re scared of being exposed. ","type":"text"},{"_id":"J6U4VGTHLRBAHH3VFESFXSWSIY","additional_properties":{},"content":"“There’s something naked about being a fighter. I think that your emotions are stripped bare. It’s one thing to lose, but it’s another thing to be knocked out. Obviously it’s seen mainly as a masculine sport and for a lot of these guys, their masculinity is shredded when they get knocked down. ","type":"text"},{"_id":"Y65QPGKJUREOHFJKVUXXGDYBLY","additional_properties":{},"content":"“Obviously these sports carry danger, but boxing’s like nothing else in the sense that these fighters’ lives are on the line. And I think it forces them to look quite deeply into themselves, if you get them on a good day where they’re willing to talk about those deep emotions.","type":"text"},{"_id":"NLFNPTGFGNENXOVESQGQHGWWWM","additional_properties":{},"content":"“And you can get beguiled by that. Because then you sit down and watch a fight or you settle in for a night of fights and it turns out to be anything but amazing. I feel that so much. It lets you down so often. But the nights when it is good, it’s incredible.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"LLCTUX6RTNHBPJUMNUPVGBG2JI","additional_properties":{},"content":"Ultimately though, boxing is rotten. We know this. On so many levels and in so many different ways. The Last Bell covers the period over the past decade or so when whatever last scrap of dignity boxing had got washed away. ","type":"text"},{"_id":"RYQVKKWV75H3HHMTYUHLMOIP4Q","additional_properties":{},"content":"In Ireland, we were the canaries in the coal mine – when Tyson Fury announced on social media in June 2020 that Daniel Kinahan had made the deal for him to fight Anthony Joshua, the public revulsion here was instant. It turned out to be the beginning of the end.","type":"text"},{"_id":"TQOOB5EHKKCU4UZKAUEUPXKHIE","additional_properties":{},"type":"image"},{"_id":"RYQVKKWV75H3HHMTYUHLMOIP4Q","additional_properties":{},"content":"“It was a watershed moment, wasn’t it?” says McRae. “Because I’d begun to despair. In the UK, no one would speak in boxing about Kinahan. No one would talk about him. It was all, ‘Oh, you can’t talk about Kinahan, he’s too intimidating’. Or it was, ‘No one wants to hear about that.’ ","type":"text"},{"_id":"3TS2WT4EDZFWXAOJ2HNIO7LCEE","additional_properties":{},"type":"image"},{"_id":"WJ7WQKVGZJBSVPHNTB2FVCGEV4","additional_properties":{},"content":"“And it was the writers in Ireland who did their job. I loved it because they just never gave up. They kept coming back to Kinahan and the feud and the drugs, the death that stalked the streets of Dublin for a time. I think Tyson felt sort of untouchable and Kinahan maybe even felt untouchable because it looked like he could go on being in boxing with no consequence. But once Tyson made that video, it blew up then, didn’t it? And it was a big, big moment. And things did change.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"GDMFJFYF35HHVJCVVUUFOMM234","additional_properties":{},"content":"As the book goes on, more and more of what McRae loves about boxing feels like it gets further and further away. The increasing presence of Saudi Arabia, the seemingly unchecked levels of doping in such a dangerous sport – all of it becomes a cloud that gradually obscures the parts of boxing he loves. ","type":"text"},{"_id":"H4DFW44VXJFBTFNSPUYFYYZV64","additional_properties":{},"content":"“I always attempt to distinguish between boxing, which I love in terms of the fighters, the fights, the drama of it. I love that. I still do. But what I’ve come to loathe and actually, even though I hate is not a word I use because I tend not to hate things – but I did come to kind of hate the business of boxing.","type":"text"},{"_id":"3JPIL6B4YVDDDNLMKTOUIUNO54","additional_properties":{},"content":"“I’m still going to write about boxing for The Guardian. We’ll see how that goes because I’m now going to be focusing quite a lot on the business of boxing. But I’ll still continue doing the interviews for a long time hopefully. I feel my energy levels are as high as ever. And my curiosity is as deep as ever.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"YOBIJKMEDZBDZOZ6AFGYO6X5F4","additional_properties":{},"content":"<i>♦ The Last Bell by Donald McRae is published by Simon & Schuster and is out now</i>","type":"text"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"metered"},"credits":{"by":[{"additional_properties":{"original":{"byline":"Malachy Clerkin"}},"name":"Malachy Clerkin"}]},"description":{"basic":"The South African sports writer explains why he wrote what he says will be his final boxing book"},"display_date":"2025-03-16T07:42:52.365Z","headlines":{"basic":"Donald McRae: ‘Boxing makes me feel so f**king alive. I wanted that back because I didn’t want to wallow in grief’","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"5469"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"AZ3ANUOB6JGBBOXLYWGY4YDYDA","auth":{"1":"ff98f6448f11face33048c8cfbe9cd46b01ccb460d14bef2d580f54f62f73461"},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/AZ3ANUOB6JGBBOXLYWGY4YDYDA.jpg"}},"subtype":"feature","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Sport"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/sport/boxing/2025/03/16/donald-mcrae-boxing-makes-me-feel-so-fking-alive-i-wanted-that-back-because-i-didnt-want-to-wallow-in-grief/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/sport/boxing","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Boxing"}}}},{"_id":"BCUYXNF36BFLHGJEHPJPV5UXC4","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":153,"audio_url":"https://beyondwords-cdn-b7fyckdeejejb6dj.a03.azurefd.net/audio/projects/5469/podcasts/22a0ba62-6aa0-45ab-bb07-dce1ac91eca4/versions/1741982923/media/61445910213c8d00671d964b8020e6f2_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/sport/2025/03/14/aoife-orourke-eases-to-middleweight-final-at-world-championships/","content_elements":[{"_id":"FJQRS7ELKNA4HHFYOQP5SJO5XE","additional_properties":{},"content":"Ireland’s Aoife and Lisa O’Rourke have both upgraded their bronze medals to at least silver after winning their semi-final bouts at the IBA Women’s World Championships in Serbia.","type":"text"},{"_id":"P72GCBUXJBHTZE2BUVG4V7BZ64","additional_properties":{},"content":"The Roscommon sisters will fight for gold in their respective divisions on Sunday.","type":"text"},{"_id":"IHHR6ZTMR5HABMPBK62OA57IVY","additional_properties":{},"content":"In Friday’s early session, 27-year-old Aoife took a comprehensive victory over Serbia’s Nikolina Gajic in her middleweight semi-final.","type":"text"},{"_id":"REKN7SRTRFDNPLWUOJUZNBJOHA","additional_properties":{},"content":"O’Rourke, the reigning European champion, eased herself into the contest before coming to life midway through the first round. Landing a number of clean combinations before the bell, the judges scored the opener 3-2 in favour of the number-one seed.","type":"text"},{"_id":"47TV7JVKIFCLLNAAB34GYQC2XM","additional_properties":{},"content":"Carrying that momentum into the second, O’Rourke began to devastate the home fighter with a series of stinging left jabs.","type":"text"},{"_id":"NLIYURV64FGHZHGG6HK6CPQVNU","additional_properties":{},"content":"With Gajic quickly fading, the referee deducted a point from the Serb for excessive holding before stepping in to give the fourth seed a standing count 30 seconds from the bell.","type":"text"},{"_id":"OLSXVBFOOVFZHMC23CDOYWMIRQ","additional_properties":{},"content":"Utterly in control at this point, O’Rourke could afford to sit back for the third. 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Eventually, the veteran assessor checking her hand wraps looked up and ventured, “Ireland?” She shook her head. Not today. GB Boxing was printed on her singlet. He was trying to make sense of it all. He wasn’t the only one.","type":"text"},{"_id":"NJWATQIC2ZCE7MTWXCUJUBLWN4","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260744},"content":"Moments later Broadhurst entered the ring at the Indoor Stadium in Bangkok. Up in the stands, members of Team Ireland watched on as their former, recent, training partner boxed for Great Britain. Everybody was trying to navigate a path to Paris. For Broadhurst, along the way, it had somehow all turned a little Robert Frost.","type":"text"},{"_id":"63WE4YST5VEHNLJWI2IYRJTIIQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260745},"content":"“The whole experience of what happened last year was quite traumatising, to be honest.” she says. “It still hurts, it’s still quite raw.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"O4OQGGGWJNHYLBAIOAJE2VPXTM","subtype":"pullquote","type":"quote"},{"_id":"N566MIRUEFDQNEYUHQOFAZQFAY","additional_properties":{},"type":"image"},{"_id":"P6HX6OLQSBG77J6H5QPCRXJOWA","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260746},"content":"It’s coming up on 12 months now since her life was turned upside down. At the start of March last year the Dundalk boxer was hoping to fight in the Olympics for Ireland. Just a few weeks later she was on a plane to Sheffield to train with Great Britain.","type":"text"},{"_id":"2QBASZMRZBAGZKEAQTQMUYMIJY","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260747},"content":"In advance of that Olympic qualifier last May, <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/boxing/2024/07/20/meet-team-ireland-boxers/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\" title=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/boxing/2024/07/20/meet-team-ireland-boxers/\">Team Ireland</a> and <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/boxing/2024/05/27/amy-broadhurst-wins-opening-olympic-qualifier-for-team-gb/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\" title=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/boxing/2024/05/27/amy-broadhurst-wins-opening-olympic-qualifier-for-team-gb/\">Team GB</a> pitched up at the same camp. Canteen tables became independent islands, friends avoided making eye contact, and water cooler pleasantries came with a health warning.","type":"text"},{"_id":"MOGD23VYQBBWPLJKIWBBYWPIQI","additional_properties":{},"content":"Amy Broadhurst wins opening Olympic qualifier for Team GB","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"XXFL5UM5PVBBDOVDMLX75BVFZU","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260748},"content":"“It was a really horrible atmosphere, we could be sitting next to each other at lunch and you are kind of like, ‘do I speak to them, do I not?’ It was very difficult.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"E6QAVNW5QRCEZAGFEEPQ625SPE","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260750},"content":"Before life became tangled in knots and acrimony, hers was once a much simpler story. One she had scripted herself.","type":"text"},{"_id":"HCV6E4FCPBFORKLLXAL4S4YD74","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260751},"content":"After winning the IBA world title in 2022, Broadhurst was invited back to her old primary school. They had a surprise – a letter she had written when just 11 years of age. They read the piece back to her, the story of a girl imagining she had won gold in the Olympics and on arriving back to Dundalk the entire town turned out to welcome their champion home.","type":"text"},{"_id":"VDTMU4BU3BEI5IABRDPEPWDFTU","subtype":"pullquote","type":"quote"},{"_id":"D4ZFWUGLXNGXXEUKCYTEXZMTSU","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260752},"content":"Ever since she was a youngster training at Dealgan Boxing Club, that had been her dream.","type":"text"},{"_id":"GX2GSFJZ6JHSLGMVDHYRXNICJA","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260753},"content":"She was untouchable in 2022 – winning gold at the Worlds, Europeans and Commonwealth Games. She won <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/2022/12/20/amy-broadhurst-named-irish-timessport-ireland-sportswoman-of-the-year-2022/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\" title=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/2022/12/20/amy-broadhurst-named-irish-timessport-ireland-sportswoman-of-the-year-2022/\">The Irish Times Sportswoman of the Year award </a>and was shortlisted for RTÉ Sports Personality of the Year. All roads were leading to Paris.","type":"text"},{"_id":"KZB4K2KXMFA6XBEUZE5PYNH6AA","additional_properties":{},"content":"Amy Broadhurst named Irish Times/Sport Ireland Sportswoman of the Year 2022","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"UIQEL6REMND4HF2FZHMWFU4SM4","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260754},"content":"And there was no time to waste. On New Year’s Day 2023, she went sparring. ","type":"text"},{"_id":"ABJ332RG7ZAYJNYEIKFRMTBURA","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260755},"content":"But her opponent was big and strong and keen. He caught Broadhurst hard, almost knocked her out. Her legs went, the sparring session was stopped.","type":"text"},{"_id":"V4X457YJZBBC7L4YR733UOJYK4","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260756},"content":"“After a great year in 2022, on January 1st, 2023, it was like somebody flicked a switch on my whole career.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"2E7K5UQINBDMXCCJCCXGFCFATM","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260757},"content":"Later that month she was beaten 3-2 by <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/boxing/2024/06/28/grainne-walsh-combines-power-of-the-mind-and-body-to-realise-her-paris-dream/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\" title=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/boxing/2024/06/28/grainne-walsh-combines-power-of-the-mind-and-body-to-realise-her-paris-dream/\">Gráinne Walsh</a> in the Irish National Championships. But the following month at the Strandja tournament in Bulgaria, Broadhurst beat all comers to take gold. She hoped January had been a blip.","type":"text"},{"_id":"LQIW27IVCFGUTMYQATS2G4RGUE","subtype":"pullquote","type":"quote"},{"_id":"JTZSXSSQDNHKJOVDTYD3FRL4HE","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260758},"content":"However, in June she lost on a split decision to Rossie Eccles in the European Games in Poland – a qualifier for the Olympics. During that competition, she also made public her relationship with Eoin Pluck, one of the coaches in the Irish Athletic Boxing Association’s High Performance Unit.","type":"text"},{"_id":"PZ4NZBZGYRB5ZIFBX7Y2TGD2XQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260759},"content":"“That’s when sh*t hit the fan,” she says. “Everything changed from that moment.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"M7QAXRAS5FHFLMX5CECRYFA774","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260751},"content":"Broadhurst spent the winter rehabbing a shoulder injury she had picked up during the Europeans while Pluck eventually returned to coaching.","type":"text"},{"_id":"VM4YJJLFXRBMDAJK6I6MTZB6TA","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260762},"content":"But 2023 ended as it had started, shipping a couple of heavy jabs. In late December, Broadhurst received a message requesting her sponsored car be returned.","type":"text"},{"_id":"TVBP5YXXZ5HLLFS4ZXCKTASKPE","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260763},"content":"“On the same day, about 20 minutes later, I got an email from Sport Ireland saying my funding had been cut from €40,000 down to €18,000.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"PCEVLTJZ4NDAFLRRMZSTTS2JQY","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260764},"content":"In boxing, timing is everything. In and out of the ring. It’s fair to say being a talented lightweight (60kg) woman boxer in Ireland over the last two decades would constitute pretty lousy timing.","type":"text"},{"_id":"RPPPXT7BRZGV5P4NUVIUTNDUBE","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260765},"content":"During that period Ireland has boasted two of the best fighters on the planet in that division – Katie Taylor and Kellie Harrington.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ISPCBDVBVFACTIHWJ7OBTIQBE4","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260766},"content":"Harrington won gold at lightweight in Tokyo and the moment the Dubliner declared she would defend her title in Paris, Broadhurst – a natural 60kg fighter – had little choice but to move division.","type":"text"},{"_id":"KREGEIDLOBENVDP26XQVEXCZKY","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260767},"content":"She graduated upwards to 66kg – meaning Broadhurst, Walsh and Lisa O’Rourke were all vying for one Olympic spot.","type":"text"},{"_id":"7IU3NJ3JMVBZBEHEZ6QPREO63A","subtype":"pullquote","type":"quote"},{"_id":"DRVKWF3UPVBSDKTCIR6RJOD7VE","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260768},"content":"Walsh had the opportunity at the first qualifier in Italy in March 2024 but came out on the wrong side of a controversial decision. It opened the door for the others to challenge for a crack at the second qualifier in Thailand.","type":"text"},{"_id":"5GBMOPIXDRFNLM6GDHJ7O7SAKE","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260757},"content":"Broadhurst hoped there would be a box-off between the three. But the assessment never came. It was decided Walsh would go to Thailand. Broadhurst’s dream was over. Her world unravelled.","type":"text"},{"_id":"PWNF3II6UNACJOD2T7CVITJ5ZE","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260770},"content":"“When I was told that I wasn’t picked for the qualifier, I was absolutely devastated. God forgive me but the first thing that came to my head was, ‘I want to kill myself.’","type":"text"},{"_id":"NPT3L3MEXRFOFAFMSQSWNFRGBI","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260771},"content":"“My mum came down to me straight away. I cried my eyes out for hours. It had been my whole life, I’d worked my entire life for this one competition and suddenly it was gone. I was lost, ‘What do I do now?’”","type":"text"},{"_id":"67BSALBJZ5FBPD5G5AKRMH77PI","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260772},"content":"But two days later a window of opportunity was pushed open. Team GB were aware of her circumstances and they were interested. She was eligible to fight for them because her dad, Tony, is originally from England.","type":"text"},{"_id":"H357GKVSQZCVRBFLB2F2KH5ZD4","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260773},"content":"The days that followed were a haze. One moment her dream was over. Then it wasn’t. But what would it mean to declare for Britain? What would people think? What would 11-year-old Amy do?","type":"text"},{"_id":"33L5IQNMBBFM5B3KVTSKP2SJ6I","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260774},"content":"The 27-year-old Amy rolled the dice, she chased the dream.","type":"text"},{"_id":"AUVM322LUZD7NC44PSUHJQELIE","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260775},"content":"The plan was to try for the 60kg class. Naturally, the British boxers in that division didn’t unfurl a welcoming mat. Broadhurst understood, she wouldn’t have done so either.","type":"text"},{"_id":"CR3KXUIODNFRVN7LTN5CYP5E4A","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260776},"content":"Back in Ireland, there was collateral damage. Harrington said she would not be working with Pluck for the Olympics, believing it was akin to having a “spy in the camp”.","type":"text"},{"_id":"OEIJEJ544ZBX7AZ6RJYMQNB2SE","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260777},"content":"“She made the right decision. I would have done the same thing,” says Broadhurst.","type":"text"},{"_id":"GU26YTGHX5BMLAEZKSO6E2ERUA","subtype":"youtube","type":"oembed_response"},{"_id":"G46GONJVY5EDDKVPLC75MGCMCU","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260778},"content":"Meanwhile, the high performance director of Irish Boxing, Tricia Heberle, defended the selection process.","type":"text"},{"_id":"UGSJMG5VNNFIRKSLTNBA7KQBPI","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260779},"content":"“There was no hesitation that she [Gráinne] was the number one,” she stated.","type":"text"},{"_id":"JRU6XVU4KJFJTPEORNONTMUH3A","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260780},"content":"But news of Broadhurst’s efforts to switch allegiance became public knowledge before the move was approved.","type":"text"},{"_id":"QS4LIHGWR5CQVD75IP6UE6GSXU","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260781},"content":"“I felt they portrayed it that I was the one doing wrong as if I was a traitor,” Broadhurst now explains. “But they never gave me an opportunity. If they gave me an assessment and then I lost, I would have said, ‘fair enough’, but they didn’t do that.","type":"text"},{"_id":"POZRIHJGYRHONLWEW6URWTQNXM","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260782},"content":"“If they had just given me a fair shot I don’t think me moving country would have happened.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"WJLUHDETWVERHCPF2ZGCAALSNE","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260783},"content":"When she arrived in Thailand with Team GB last May, Broadhurst knew she wasn’t right. Physically, she was in superb shape but mentally her head was scrambled. She won her first two fights before losing on a split decision to South Korea’s Yeonji Oh in the quarter-final stages. This time, it was over.","type":"text"},{"_id":"COAOCQKEWJBV7PC65K4GVO752Q","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260784},"content":"“I couldn’t even give you a percentage of where my head was at that day. It was horrible, you are trying your best but you just have this big cloud in your head.","type":"text"},{"_id":"XNJK2XOTSJF3JPKLEBMXS7QH2E","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260785},"content":"“You are walking out with GB on your back and you know some of the Irish team are up in the stands watching you.","type":"text"},{"_id":"XNE3H2R7PNCT5BE7VYKAYUUARY","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260786},"content":"“The Amy that got in the ring that day, that’s not me. I knew from the very first fight that mentally I couldn’t switch on. I tried so hard to block out everything, but I just couldn’t.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"ZSBFTTRB5BEEJDISTPVP5C5VA4","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260787},"content":"She was a rock tossed to the waves. Sinking.","type":"text"},{"_id":"JMWVIHXXMBGEXKVOBQ76I6HFIM","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260788},"content":"It was, she acknowledges, a difficult situation for many others too and she will forever appreciate the members of the Irish team who did offer her some quiet support at the time.","type":"text"},{"_id":"BLD5P2SL6BAD3LQWTAFUI7TLQA","subtype":"pullquote","type":"quote"},{"_id":"BUAGILJJ2JDOTP4J2RLQLL27M4","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260789},"content":"And she always felt Team GB coaches such as Gary Hale, Rob McCracken and Phil Sellers also had her back.","type":"text"},{"_id":"S56PEG232ND4RP6SBYFAFZVQPI","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260790},"content":"Still, the moment she lost in Bangkok, Broadhurst knew the backlash was coming. Had she qualified for Paris, it would have given her leverage. But coming up short, she was a carcass for the hyenas. They circled.","type":"text"},{"_id":"P34FDHHMRZFYFH7XPRXTHJW7LQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260791},"content":"“That’s when the social media abuse really cranked up. ‘Good enough for you’, ‘That’s what you get for changing country’, ‘You’re not good enough’.","type":"text"},{"_id":"4LPNU7XRS5EARCICSA6J47VA2A","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260792},"content":"“To go from being a hero in 2022 to, not that people disliked me, but to have such a negative sort of conversation around me, I didn’t know how to handle it. It felt like people were going to hate you forever.","type":"text"},{"_id":"EJ5YTBGTGZHEPCVNC3GLYUW3VA","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260793},"content":"“I was sad after losing that fight but more than anything I was just numb. For a while afterwards, I did think, ‘maybe I’m not good enough, maybe in 2022 I just got lucky.’”","type":"text"},{"_id":"IA2OWAVLOJHCFJ6TIU5TIJFMEA","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260794},"content":"But the Olympics brought both pain and reassurance.","type":"text"},{"_id":"TTTXRJ4WWJDRHIYGQSZ2WM7WUY","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260795},"content":"Algerian Imane Khelif beat China’s Yang Liu in the Olympic welterweight final. Broadhurst had beaten Khelif in the final of the Worlds in 2022 while she had overcome the Chinese fighter in the semi-final of the Strandja tournament in 2023.","type":"text"},{"_id":"LKSNC3YKN5GK7H3G3U7LPVA7B4","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260796},"content":"The year 2022 was no fluke.","type":"text"},{"_id":"DCMA777EVBHHZAFUVZLWXJ5VBQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260797},"content":"Amid the squall, boxing had almost destroyed her. But after the storm came the calm.","type":"text"},{"_id":"2Q74HFNC6BH3LCO4ACMOGS3RAE","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260798},"content":"“I went through a stage where I thought I hated boxing, but I didn’t hate it, I just hated what I was going through. Everything changed the moment I found out I was pregnant.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"3EZLMDTRZFFFZP5WYYXHR74W4Q","additional_properties":{},"type":"image"},{"_id":"5WAIHHOTYNBSXN5EZBS2EQK35M","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260800},"content":"She’s due in May. It’s a boy.","type":"text"},{"_id":"KGZBNO4MIJGBDJHHX3RMCTAITE","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260801},"content":"From the fog of 2024, this has become Amy Broadhurst’s clarity.","type":"text"},{"_id":"URJVU2DVNZEMZLUERMCFMHPPOY","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260802},"content":"Last summer the couple decided to try for a baby. They would give it until September and if Broadhurst was not pregnant by then, she would turn professional.","type":"text"},{"_id":"KUZ3VXYBKNBMBDKNZYB7LNPFJQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260803},"content":"With their deadline rapidly approaching, in September it happened.","type":"text"},{"_id":"LOKJRUHVDRD2TNHR2DGERUBKDM","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260804},"content":"“It was kind of fate really because that month was going to decide everything for me,” she recalls.","type":"text"},{"_id":"3JNFH7OWSVFIDFSUE7ZLSESTIE","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260805},"content":"“I believe 100 per cent that I’ll be at the Olympics. I think that’s why I ended up pregnant. Had I not got pregnant, I would be pro now. Everything happens for a reason.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"6AZL5XNAZBCXPHVCXRBIGSDQBY","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260806},"content":"The dream is back on, Los Angeles 2028.","type":"text"},{"_id":"DKY5LRM3YBCBVCHKTYVFLA2EZQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260807},"content":"“When I got pregnant first, a lot of people said, ‘so are you hanging up the gloves now?’ It used to annoy me. Just because you are a woman there’s a perception that automatically some people think, ‘that’s her done now, she’s finished.’","type":"text"},{"_id":"2LLTQ42HEZED7OL7FWNC2HRFOA","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260808},"content":"“I want to fight in the Olympics and I also want to show you can be a mother and fight in the Olympics. To demonstrate to other women what can be done.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"ZELCB26EFNAVFBVBEILOT5YNSE","subtype":"pullquote","type":"quote"},{"_id":"TMM35Q6UIRBBZNYWFEMCD5DMIE","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260809},"content":"But every decision she makes now will also have to account for the newest member of the family.","type":"text"},{"_id":"KOX4FTBDUJDP7ARAXN4B5UZ3BU","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260810},"content":"“He will hopefully be going to school in five or six years and I don’t want him to be listening to, ‘oh, your mum is a turncoat’ or any of that kind of stuff.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"H55BNPO7CBDJ5PZJ4UWOM4QZLU","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260811},"content":"Anglo-Irish history is a topic she’s always felt was best stored away on a very high shelf. It doesn’t interest her, doesn’t stir her.","type":"text"},{"_id":"6AZGVF2LPBAX3GR43PDCGWNYIQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260812},"content":"“The whole Ireland hates England thing, I don’t get it. My dad is English, I see everybody the same, that’s it.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"ZL2TZKLQMZEKXLYRUDQZLEOOTM","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260813},"content":"But the politics of sport might well determine what happens next.","type":"text"},{"_id":"575P2HBGYBFX5OWPVCZTUDTTAE","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260814},"content":"Three years of non-participation with a federation is normally required before a switch to another country can be granted. In the case where two governing bodies agree, as happened between the relevant federations last year, it is possible to ask for that period to be shortened. However, in this instance, there would also be the issue of trying to move a second time.","type":"text"},{"_id":"2XQ3JI7ZJFBA3DL3YDUJEFB56Q","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260815},"content":"She learned so much during her time working with Ireland’s High Performance Unit run by Zaur Antia and his team of coaches while Broadhurst also realises Team GB went out on a limb for her last year.","type":"text"},{"_id":"TR7ZEANODRFONHVLVP63QK3BDA","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260816},"content":"Her relationship with Heberle, who has since stepped down from the IABA, however, is unlikely to ever be reconciled. The fallout there was too great. Too brutal. There were no goodbyes.","type":"text"},{"_id":"4HHJPJNS3FD5RJNF3GSRNYMJRU","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260817},"content":"“I don’t think there is anything that is ever going to affect me the way the whole thing did last year.","type":"text"},{"_id":"2UATIQHLG5CZ5FYZICFYYKPZD4","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260818},"content":"“But one thing I’ve learned is you cannot predict what is going to happen. This time last year I was on the Irish team, then I was on the British team, now I’m on no team, I’m pregnant, I’m sitting at home watching TV.","type":"text"},{"_id":"PBOB5V3LDNGILNDHBP6HFN6WAI","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260819},"content":"“Everything is up in the air as regards where I’m going to go but I’m so lucky with my family, my mum and dad have always been there for me, Eoin is so supportive too. When the time comes, we’ll all sit down together and decide what is best.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"N6YAJURJ4ZE5BFFVJWPPBS4JXE","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260820},"content":"Ultimately, she knows, whether it might end up being Ireland or Team GB won’t solely be her decision.","type":"text"},{"_id":"JYSZMVUKGNFFNGZQ3GVTMIQVC4","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260822},"content":"The Women’s world Championships begin in Serbia this weekend. Pluck is with Team Ireland in Nis. Walsh is Ireland’s boxer at 66kg while O’Rourke has moved up to 70kg.","type":"text"},{"_id":"J5TJTYMBXREZBATF3PGEYLG4TQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260823},"content":"With Harrington not fighting, Ireland travelled with no entry at 60kg. After all the logjams, there is now an opening in that category.","type":"text"},{"_id":"2FOLPFIJDVD4BM6YLBQSH3IJWE","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260757},"content":"Broadhurst will turn 28 on St Patrick’s Day. Harrington won her second Olympic gold medal at 34. Katie Taylor is 38.","type":"text"},{"_id":"XWWRBLMLO5DPLL7KJCMNPSVAQE","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260825},"content":"Rio 2016 gold medallist Estelle Mossely, mother and boxer, fought at the Paris Games. It can be done.","type":"text"},{"_id":"AONM4ZGXZZHPBA6FWQKNMXIQ6U","subtype":"pullquote","type":"quote"},{"_id":"IQGOB4PRDFGRPE3APZ7HMBGT7E","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260757},"content":"Broadhurst can still see the perplexed face of the assessor stamping her wraps in Bangkok last May, wondering why she wasn’t in an Ireland singlet.","type":"text"},{"_id":"XAB5JXGTIRFATEGF5L55ZS4AKQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260828},"content":"“Of course, I’m disappointed the way things ended up but I can sit back and say I tried everything I could to get to the Olympics. And if I had to go back, I’d do it all again.","type":"text"},{"_id":"STTAICV3DZCGZM7H64ASU235UM","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260829},"content":"“People might criticise you for what they see as turning your back on your country, but with the Irish team, I went up six kilos from my actual weight only then not to be given a fair shot.","type":"text"},{"_id":"PCKGMV5G75FBRCCLOXMYHCDDYE","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260830},"content":"“My dream since I was a kid was to go to the Olympics. When that didn’t happen with Ireland, I didn’t want to give up on it. I suppose we all kind of thought the story was going to end up with me meeting Kellie in the Olympics. It seemed like a fairy-tale, but it wasn’t to be. Still, what happened last year, that’s part of my story.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"A3RFMAWDQBBDZD3QL7PI26OJVE","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260831},"content":"But it’s just not to be the final chapter. The truly gripping tales are rarely linear.","type":"text"},{"_id":"3OZN4D5QKJHNTN23OLEZ2ZFEB4","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260832},"content":"The 2026 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow next July stand out as a likely first milestone target.","type":"text"},{"_id":"43AOVU7WZRBYRHEA4U4PSPAQLM","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260833},"content":"She’s not explicitly looking for a redemption story, but if it plays out that way, no harm.","type":"text"},{"_id":"SXLSOEPEBRG2TM34LTNEA3YISE","subtype":"pullquote","type":"quote"},{"_id":"PMFZ4TCCUFBOZLCCCTJY47PPM4","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260834},"content":"By declaring her LA intentions, Broadhurst knows she is making herself vulnerable again. There’s no guarantee any of it will work out. It’s a gamble. But that never stopped her before.","type":"text"},{"_id":"XIKGM2RHU5CV7BJZM3D5EHVTIY","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260835},"content":"Anyhow, life is forever moving forward. They have gone with a Winnie the Pooh-themed nursery. A large Tigger teddy Amy received for her communion has been refreshed and rehomed. Pluck is digging out a childhood toy of his own.","type":"text"},{"_id":"5H3KDOUEFRFPDLFDSTBQ2EOVXQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260836},"content":"“I’m really looking forward to our little boy arriving,” says Broadhurst. “There is so much to look forward to now. I’m mad to get back training as well, really excited.","type":"text"},{"_id":"CO5I62LL7VGGPK3B7XHKDKFESU","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260837},"content":"“My parents travel everywhere when I’m competing, so we will be able to bring him with us. How cool would it be if he got to watch his mum and dad in the Olympics.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"DYZBU7VMGZCNHKAROG5GZXCGWA","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260838},"content":"Now, there’s an ending.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ZVJK6QCD7ZHKLMYTHFEPNINGBE","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260839},"content":"","type":"text"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"metered"},"credits":{"by":[{"additional_properties":{"original":{"byline":"Gordon Manning"}},"name":"Gordon Manning"}]},"description":{"basic":"After switching from Ireland to Team GB ‘it was a really horrible atmosphere ... it was very difficult’"},"display_date":"2025-03-09T06:00:00Z","headlines":{"basic":"Amy Broadhurst: ‘I was on the Irish team, then on the British team, now I’m on no team'","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"5469"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"W6PPT52SUBHVZOAV776Q5P47CU","auth":{"1":"0f72813c84f55c493849b6531c80eb25b14d066e8030716bf618e18e801d98ea"},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/W6PPT52SUBHVZOAV776Q5P47CU.JPG"}},"subtype":"feature","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Sport"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/sport/boxing/2025/03/09/former-iba-world-champion-amy-broadhurst-boxing-clever-despite-tough-time-on-the-ropes/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/sport/boxing","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Boxing"}}}},{"_id":"TVMMHC4RHJF5VECBFDQDS4OY54","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":157,"audio_url":"https://beyondwords-cdn-b7fyckdeejejb6dj.a03.azurefd.net/audio/projects/8948/podcasts/988c4c30-635b-4279-8e91-21b1fce541e7/versions/1741272626/media/04b3bdb3cb6a2de64c3f299e5f60e9e8_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/sport/boxing/2025/03/06/katie-taylor-to-fight-amanda-serrano-in-madison-square-garden-rematch/","content_elements":[{"_id":"JFIVIEGQ7VAZ5LDNF5FUVGBZ5U","additional_properties":{},"content":"<a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/katie-taylor/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"\" title=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/katie-taylor/\">Katie Taylor</a> will face Amanda Serrano in a rematch at Madison Square Garden in New York City this July.","type":"text"},{"_id":"EKWOKHVWS5DAPMHGWLOVCQ4ZTU","additional_properties":{},"content":"The Bray fighter first met Serrano in April 2022, making history as the first women’s fight to headline Madison Square Garden. Taylor won the bout on a split decision.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ETZGMY473NCZFPWGPO452ROTY4","additional_properties":{},"content":"Following the success of the first fight, there was quickly talk of a rematch, however it took some time to come to pass.","type":"text"},{"_id":"MFDDFR2L2NHP3M4B5ARL6K7TIA","additional_properties":{},"content":"Last November the pair finally returned to the ring, this time in Arlington, Texas. The result again went Taylor’s way, seeing her remain the undisputed super lightweight champion.","type":"text"},{"_id":"JOYX6SEXI5HDNGAX5DC4STHCN4","additional_properties":{},"content":"Taylor vs Serrano 3 will take place on Friday, July 11th, headlining Madison Square Garden’s first-ever all-women’s professional boxing card.","type":"text"},{"_id":"YXR4FQCOWFB63HUFUUVYN72TAE","additional_properties":{},"content":"The championship fight, which will be contested over 10, two-minute rounds, will be streamed live globally on Netflix.","type":"text"},{"_id":"MMURCIXUTVCCDD4PB4T6LIIFI4","additional_properties":{},"content":"“I’m 2 and 0 against Amanda but it’s obviously a very special rivalry that delivers every time we step in the ring so I think it’s only right that we have the trilogy,” Taylor said following confirmation of the rematch. ","type":"text"},{"_id":"D7WXHBHDIJBRJG22QK4PDKAGF4","additional_properties":{},"content":"“The atmosphere for the first fight there was amazing and I’m sure it won’t be any different this time around. The numbers that got to see the last fight in November were incredible so hopefully those people will all want to tune in for the trilogy fight as well and we can deliver another great fight.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"DBRRBHCGBFAXPB22DPN73MG7TM","additional_properties":{},"content":"Of her 25 professional fights to date, Taylor has taken 24 wins, including six knockouts. Her only defeat came against Chantelle Cameron in May 2023.","type":"text"},{"_id":"5URLDVXB25FRXDBUV2FXQ24TFE","additional_properties":{},"content":"Unified featherweight world champion Serrano meanwhile has taken 47 professional wins (31 knockouts) to three losses and one draw.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ZRKPPJ5KFRCGNHOLM7LY7KPZOI","additional_properties":{},"content":"“I promised my fans they would see this trilogy, and I’m incredibly grateful that we get to complete our journey where it all began – at Madison Square Garden, live on Netflix for the world to see,” the Puerto Rican said.","type":"text"},{"_id":"HEIKT3E2MBAVVJWLCFGJINOG5I","additional_properties":{},"content":"“I’m disappointed that Katie Taylor did not keep her word and make the trilogy 12 three-minute rounds, equal to the men.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"BJ4MNLHZRJFGLKSHV5MRY7I2F4","additional_properties":{},"content":"“This is a record-setting pay-day for both of us, and we owed it to the fans to honour the handshake deal we made. She didn’t,” Serrano claimed.","type":"text"},{"_id":"FLT4LCHGZJCTFNEQAG2FPNGR5A","additional_properties":{},"content":"“But make no mistake, every time we share the ring, it is war, and I know Friday, July 11th, will be the greatest yet because I will finally get the official W I deserve.”","type":"text"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"metered"},"credits":{"by":[{"additional_properties":{"original":{"byline":"Muireann Duffy"}},"name":"Muireann Duffy"}]},"description":{"basic":"Fight to take place in New York on July 11th"},"display_date":"2025-03-06T14:22:24.303Z","headlines":{"basic":"Katie Taylor to fight Amanda Serrano in Madison Square Garden rematch","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"8948"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"3WXXLDPL2BDSZIN7T7TQWENTLM","auth":{"1":"de26e7c2d759f3dd93682d49b4d4ca7e12350536f9e2f5eb8b038391d4183b46"},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/3WXXLDPL2BDSZIN7T7TQWENTLM.jpg"}},"subtype":"default","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Sport"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/sport/boxing/2025/03/06/katie-taylor-to-fight-amanda-serrano-in-madison-square-garden-rematch/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/sport/boxing","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Boxing"}}}},{"_id":"OGJNI2AHO5DJVAMHK6DI2YZXR4","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":371,"audio_url":"https://beyondwords-cdn-b7fyckdeejejb6dj.a03.azurefd.net/audio/projects/8948/podcasts/ecffdedf-e280-4a2c-a633-e09b718e3e74/versions/1740778090/media/530610d37c71d6b6a0269c5503628105_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/crime-law/2025/03/01/millions-of-dollars-under-the-table-daniel-kinahans-backroom-role-in-boxing/","content_elements":[{"_id":"STV4D5FJCZF3TKON4453D5KULU","additional_properties":{"_id":1740770663449},"content":"Crime cartel leader Daniel Kinahan was the beneficiary of a secret deal to receive millions of dollars “under the table” from a leading US boxing promoter, according to Californian court filings that purport to cast new light on Kinahan’s close relationship with champion fighter Tyson Fury.","type":"text"},{"_id":"RYR4N2CMA5FCNLSVBYUMVXWIPQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1740770663450},"content":"Kinahan is alleged to have a provided a “personal guarantee” for Fury’s fees when was he poached in February 2019 by US promoter Top Rank from rival promoter Frank Warren’s Queensberry promotions.","type":"text"},{"_id":"FED4SRNXCFHTHPSYNPHQHJRQAY","additional_properties":{"_id":1740770663451},"content":"The deal was struck after Top Rank’s agent William Keane spent two weeks in Dubai courting Kinahan and Fury, who was being advised by Kinahan. Mr Keane says he ran up more than $27,000 in expenses in that fortnight.","type":"text"},{"_id":"KLU5X24UUVG2LB2S2RAWXEMW6Q","additional_properties":{"_id":1740770663452},"content":"Mr Keane has issued a lawsuit against Top Rank claiming more than $25 million in unpaid fees. He claims Top Rank asked him to hire Fury because the business needed a star fighter to drive ratings under its deal with Walt Disney-owned cable sports broadcaster ESPN.","type":"text"},{"_id":"GIAPLJRZNBDVRMFCVBIYZJH26E","additional_properties":{"_id":1740770663453},"content":"Kinahan stepped forward to guarantee Fury’s fees after the fighter questioned Top Rank’s ability to pay, the lawsuit said.","type":"text"},{"_id":"2ZCKRYVQQJF4DEWJFQDZMQNHSM","additional_properties":{"_id":1740770663454},"content":"“Keane knew he had only one option. He had to turn to Kinahan for help. He did, and Kinahan offered to personally guarantee Fury’s contract.” ","type":"text"},{"_id":"M4CF44RN6REQPHZZLUANY4XHTI","additional_properties":{},"content":"Kinahan’s personal guarantee “was sufficient for Fury”.","type":"text"},{"_id":"EPVSK3NBHJGXJMSWSEULTJZFCU","additional_properties":{"_id":1740770663455},"content":"One month later, Kinahan himself is alleged to have been engaged as an “international consultant” by Top Rank president Todd duBoef.","type":"text"},{"_id":"SQUVEBTGNBG5BILKUDTDVKZNUA","additional_properties":{"_id":1740770663456},"content":"Mr Keane claims Mr duBoef turned to Kinahan because he was concerned that mixed-martial arts promoter UFC could hinder Top Rank by winning a boxing deal for itself from ESPN.","type":"text"},{"_id":"DH3ATC3KUJAJ3CUXTTUB7AQ6UA","additional_properties":{"_id":1740770663457},"content":"Kinahan’s role was to “help orchestrate Top Rank’s strategic move” into foreign markets.","type":"text"},{"_id":"G5N5J26K3NBOXB3J7PZYWC5NZM","additional_properties":{"_id":1740770663460},"content":"Still, the Kinahan arrangement was to be shielded from Mr duBoef’s stepfather and Top Rank founder Bob Arum. Mr Arum is a legendary veteran of the boxing world who became Muhammad Ali’s lawyer and promoter in the 1960s.","type":"text"},{"_id":"J7DWXX2UWZGZ7LXLAHIZ4EPPZI","additional_properties":{"_id":1740770663461},"content":"“Concerned Arum would overrule him if he found out, duBoef decided to pay Kinahan millions of dollars for his exclusivity to Top Rank ‘under the table’ without Arum’s knowledge or consent,” said the lawsuit.","type":"text"},{"_id":"MQXYQY6KGNE6DJ3OYL6XRJWZTM","additional_properties":{},"content":"Kinahan became upset with Mr duBoef before the final deal was struck because Mr duBoef had “started to back-pedal due to concerns that once Arum found out he would kill the deal”. ","type":"text"},{"_id":"5QWVQ5EU65BS7FUCPT2XYJZ4IY","additional_properties":{"_id":1740770663459},"content":"“DuBoef naturally asked Keane to smooth things over with Kinahan before duBoef would speak with him directly. ","type":"text"},{"_id":"S6EFMTP6S5GB7MWCLMQNG43TD4","additional_properties":{},"content":"“DuBoef expressed that having Kinahan’s muscle exclusively backing duBoef would be a massive advantage when it came to potential competitors and duBoef’s plans for European expansion.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"TJXA2JOJNRHNPJYMODM2VNVRGE","content":"Tyson Fury refuses to address Daniel Kinahan sanctions story at press conference","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"7PVQUHSTXJBE5PNHANYOSGJHLE","additional_properties":{"_id":1740770663462},"content":"Kinahan and his brother Christopher jnr are alleged to run the huge international drug trafficking operation established by their father, Christopher snr. Based in Dubai after moving from Dublin, they are the target of a widespread Garda investigation and were hit by US financial and travel sanctions three years ago.","type":"text"},{"_id":"7XDKD27PGJBNDIS2P5S5ULJCUM","additional_properties":{"_id":1740770663463},"content":"The American sanctions led to the closure of MTK Global, the boxing promotion company Daniel Kinahan founded in 2012 which on to become a powerful force in the top echelon of international boxing. Kinahan maintained he sold the business in 2017.","type":"text"},{"_id":"UKGGOBAA5VGJBDMCBLYEG4EPZY","additional_properties":{"_id":1740770663464},"content":"When the sanctions were imposed, Mr Arum told NewsTalk radio in Dublin that he would not do business with Kinahan because of measures taken by the US authorities.","type":"text"},{"_id":"6Q6BEV33DVD4DDGZJIVLUJ46BY","additional_properties":{"_id":1740770663465},"content":"Despite claims that Mr duBoef wanted to shut out Mr Arum from the Kinahan deal, the lawsuit claimed Mr Arum and Kinahan were themselves closely aligned against Mr duBoef within Top Rank.","type":"text"},{"_id":"PIP7DOWPLLAICANPGQHTO7VR3M","additional_properties":{},"type":"image"},{"_id":"HEK2QA4ICJHBNEP4LZ2Q5YBJRM","additional_properties":{"_id":1740770663466},"content":"“DuBoef was oblivious to the fact that both Kinahan and Arum had no confidence in his judgment or management acumen. In fact, while in Kazakhstan, Kinahan confided in Arum that he was concerned about duBoef’s ability to lead the company after a meeting in which Kinahan told Arum how disliked duBoef is throughout boxing and is viewed as utterly incompetent,” the lawsuit said.","type":"text"},{"_id":"JRGBMCBK6JHVTI54WONV2FGUVQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1740770663467},"content":"“When they returned to the United States, Arum confided in Keane and shared his concerns about duBoef’s competence and potential as the future leader of Top Rank. Arum then instructed Keane to manage the Kinahan relationship and ‘not let [duBoef] f**k it up’.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"K4CEVWLYINF53DESTN56H5YADY","additional_properties":{"_id":1740770663468},"content":"Mr Keane claims Mr duBoef later developed “second thoughts” about the Kinahan arrangement because of concerns it would damage a prospective deal with Sky Sports in 2021.","type":"text"},{"_id":"QZ5SA4LJLJCPNMOIQ6FOHHS4OM","additional_properties":{"_id":1740770663469},"content":"Mr duBoef saw the link with Sky as the start of his plan for Top Rank to dominate boxing in the same way that UFC dominated mixed martial arts.","type":"text"},{"_id":"WBUZA26YVJB43ATODYSRCV33RI","additional_properties":{"_id":1740770663470},"content":"“DuBoef was concerned, however, about his alliance with Kinahan. According to duBoef, if Sky Sports learned that Top Rank was affiliated with Kinahan, it would blow the deal because Kinahan was still the subject of negative press in the UK,” the lawsuit said.","type":"text"},{"_id":"EYJS2VNEBJAHTMRDQGUNAXHU74","additional_properties":{"_id":1740770663471},"content":"“Even though duBoef said he needed Kinahan’s MTK roster of UK fighters as well as Kinahan’s ability to poach Queensberry fighters at will, he told Keane that he was going to have to publicly, and to some extent privately, distance himself from Kinahan. As a consequence, duBoef told Keane that he needed him to fully take over the relationship with Kinahan and manage the relationships with all of Top Rank’s UK fighters.","type":"text"},{"_id":"KRWI3WIX7VG7JNFM5IKNC67VVE","additional_properties":{"_id":1740770663472},"content":"“DuBoef told Keane that he considered him to be his partner and needed assurances that Keane would be loyal to him, rather than to Arum, Kinahan or anyone else.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"3L7SPPTXO5B2PBNC4YM5U6V3DI","additional_properties":{"_id":1740770663473},"content":"","type":"text"},{"_id":"YIXV7UTEBND5FBMTPDZDSVMWTU","additional_properties":{"_id":1740770663474},"content":"Mr duBoef called Mr Keane “in a panic” when Kinahan was sanctioned in 2022. “This time, duBoef asked Keane to lie to senior ESPN executives and say that duBoef had nothing to do with Kinahan and had never even met him.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"BUXSPU644ZDQBCOS2KQXU422VY","additional_properties":{"_id":1740770663475},"content":"Top Rank did not immediately reply to a request for comment emailed to its communications representative.","type":"text"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"metered"},"credits":{"by":[{"additional_properties":{"original":{"byline":"Arthur Beesley"}},"name":"Arthur Beesley"}]},"description":{"basic":"Court filings cast new light on Irish crime boss’s dealings with big promoters and relationship with champion fighter Tyson Fury"},"display_date":"2025-02-28T21:21:02.515Z","headlines":{"basic":"Millions of dollars ‘under the table’: Daniel Kinahan’s backroom role in boxing ","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"8948"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"V64PDIVLCRVTA67KT36HEGZ4CU","auth":{"1":"c2463eaf4c93d3e8652ea29ad60979a0973225d33db4dccbd9cb421f21402382"},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/V64PDIVLCRVTA67KT36HEGZ4CU.jpg"}},"subtype":"default","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Crime & 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recognition to World Boxing.","type":"text"},{"_id":"IPTRS63URRBTLOMVTL7AQ3VNBU","additional_properties":{"_id":1740588229481},"content":"The sport faced the axe from the Games following the IOC’s decision to banish the previous governing body, the International Boxing Association, over a series of governance and financial concerns.","type":"text"},{"_id":"OEC322E2RNDYVCY27D64EGL2D4","additional_properties":{"_id":1740588229482},"content":"Boxing has not been included on the initial list of sports for LA and the IOC has indicated it has no intention of effectively staging the competition itself, as it did in Paris last year.","type":"text"},{"_id":"5ZZA6PI4VFCQBAOEPLEP5SXYWI","additional_properties":{"_id":1740588229483},"content":"World Boxing was launched in 2023 with the specific intention of providing an alternative governing body that could meet the IOC’s approval and currently has 78 members, including England, Scotland, Wales and the United States.","type":"text"},{"_id":"TM75VIEUB5A6DFK35YYFHUES3M","additional_properties":{"_id":1740588229484},"content":"The IOC said in a statement: “World Boxing has continued to make progress regarding the identified areas of consideration in order to be recommended for IOC Provisional Recognition as the IF [international federation] with the Olympic movement governing the sport of boxing at world level.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"V2PJI4GOJFD2HPEBSD2Q7PZ6QM","additional_properties":{"_id":1740588229485},"content":"Ireland remains an absentee from World Boxing’s current list of members and the organisation acknowledged it must do more to convince the IOC that the future of Olympic boxing lies in its hands.","type":"text"},{"_id":"H2OWAFWO6JCKNDVRZFNFQXY2BE","additional_properties":{"_id":1740588229486},"content":"World Boxing president Boris van der Vorst said: “Today’s decision by the IOC is an important milestone, however everyone connected with World Boxing understands that being part of the Olympic Movement is a privilege and a responsibility and not a right.","type":"text"},{"_id":"OXODCORDTRAHPK6XONFZMC356U","additional_properties":{"_id":1740588229487},"content":"“There is still a lot of work to do and everyone is as committed as ever to continuing to work together and doing everything within our power to deliver a better future for our sport and ensuring that boxing remains at heart of the Olympic Movement.”","type":"text"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"metered"},"credits":{"by":[]},"description":{"basic":"Sport faced axe from Games after decision to banish previous governing body over governance and financial concerns"},"display_date":"2025-02-26T17:12:32.634Z","headlines":{"basic":"World Boxing granted IOC recognition as sport takes step towards LA 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promoter Eddie Hearn has warned that the sport “changed tonight” after the incident in which Chris Eubank Jr slapped rival Conor Benn with an egg as their personal enmity boiled over in a press conference in Manchester ahead of their middleweight clash in April.","type":"text"},{"_id":"YXSCJOF3XZAVBOMIS6OK2LLHZ4","additional_properties":{},"content":"Hearn, who represents Benn, told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme on Wednesday: “I’ll choose my words carefully [as I’m on the BBC] but I wasn’t overly happy with it if I’m honest. I never feel like you should lay a hand on a fighter at a press conference, especially not with an object.","type":"text"},{"_id":"OYJI2LHDPVD7HKMLAGF2IVX354","additional_properties":{},"content":"“It was always going to be a volatile build-up and it just turned up a notch. All bets are off now because I didn’t like what I saw from Eubank. It’s the fight game and everything with Eubank is premeditated and it will go viral and some people will like it but just understand the game changed tonight.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"R4XU3ZC7IFF47FMDJZ2AFLWN6M","additional_properties":{},"content":"During a heated exchange on Tuesday night, Eubank had already made reference to two drugs tests Benn failed in 2022 due to what the World Boxing Council called a “highly elevated consumption of eggs” – an offence for which he has since been cleared.","type":"text"},{"_id":"7COTMFDEE5FNNH53PSN4UJ7EZA","additional_properties":{},"content":"And as the fighters faced off on stage, Eubank pulled an egg from his pocket and smashed it against Benn’s face, sparking a brawl as Hearn and Benn’s father Nigel tried to get at Eubank and his team.","type":"text"},{"_id":"CRVRW4HWCVHXBGZIFF5BOP57QQ","additional_properties":{},"content":"Eubank and Benn will fight at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on April 26th, but had originally been due to face off in October 2022 before Benn’s failed tests forced the fight to be called off.","type":"text"},{"_id":"4VXWUI76EFHH5EYJB5ZOXR66ZU","additional_properties":{},"content":"“Conor, I have been meaning to ask you how many eggs you had to eat to fail those drugs tests,” Eubank said during the press conference. “All you and Eddie say is, ‘We are cleared’, but you don’t say how. I am not an academic, but I know one thing – you are a drug cheat.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"RBI6N4GMLFBHTHYDKIDLRWOXFA","additional_properties":{},"content":"Benn originally tested positive for the female fertility drug clomifene.","type":"text"},{"_id":"HXSXUEN57DKXVROY3N4GNAHCMY","additional_properties":{},"type":"image"},{"_id":"5GH3W742FRFNNLJ7PKLCQAQRMQ","additional_properties":{},"content":"The 28-year-old, who has a 23-0 record, was cleared to fight in the UK in November last year after the UK Anti-Doping Agency announced it would not appeal against a decision from the National Anti-Doping Panel to lift his ban, with the British Boxing Board of Control also declining to appeal.","type":"text"},{"_id":"I6JC36FEQBGWJPJVWW4D36ITYM","additional_properties":{},"content":"It remains a sore point for Benn and before the main press conference he was involved in an angry exchange with a journalist when asked if he was going to use a foreign licence for the fight.","type":"text"},{"_id":"53GHNC4EZVAS7P2BZCSM6YIMNM","additional_properties":{},"content":"“If somebody starts asking me trick questions, I’ll throw you out of the room,” Benn said. “I’ll drag you by the neck outside and put you outside.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"DSJVGRVZVVCTDE4AHN4GLGPCBU","additional_properties":{},"content":"It all added to the bad blood between the two fighters, whose fathers Chris Eubank and Nigel Benn twice fought each other during the 1990s and whose rivalry has grown to something that the latter said was “very personal”.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ERCFPLIVN5CJBBOIEMH7DVZ6ME","additional_properties":{},"content":"Benn promised he would force the 35-year-old Eubank into retirement when the pair meet in a fight that will take place in the latter’s division, at 160lbs, rather than at a catchweight.","type":"text"},{"_id":"G7CVBFBEUFAGRIEW6YDQXYFO74","additional_properties":{},"content":"“What I have been through is very public but I want to just get in there and end this man’s career,” Benn said. “I just can’t take him seriously, every time he stepped up, he failed. This is the end [for him], I am 28. He chose to fight a welterweight over all of the middleweight world champions.","type":"text"},{"_id":"4GTKBTFCARD6XLROGO2QR43G2Y","additional_properties":{},"content":"“I am going to render you unconscious, just like Liam Smith did, had you dancing all funny. You can retire off into the sunset with this retirement fund. Because you are done.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"FADTORCLAZEOVLINO4Q4PSZV4A","additional_properties":{},"content":"Eubank, who has a 34-3 record, said the contest was a fight between “two bad guys” given his own reputation.","type":"text"},{"_id":"UH4WZAM4U5A5ZF6DI4UKJJNKUY","additional_properties":{},"content":"“The bad guy is back again, he never cheats or lies but he is still the bad guy,” he said of himself. “For the first time in boxing history, in a mega-fight, there are two bad guys. I have been booed into all my fights since 2014, 11 years of being a bad guy, I’m a veteran. A super-villain. It’s a cold dark moment when you realise thousands of people want to see you hurt and lose.” – Guardian","type":"text"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"metered"},"credits":{"by":[]},"description":{"basic":"‘I never feel like you should lay a hand on a fighter at a press conference, especially not with an object’"},"display_date":"2025-02-26T13:21:19.655Z","headlines":{"basic":"Eddie Hearn warns ‘boxing has changed’ after Eubank hits Benn with egg at face-off","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"5469"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"W5AV66BX3DFZ6HC27UT45HJKBA","auth":{"1":"a22aa6b9b64d86ff8c117fa104c65da6e620da9d1768f7973bf4c90c241b0060"},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/W5AV66BX3DFZ6HC27UT45HJKBA.jpg"}},"subtype":"default","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Sport"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/sport/boxing/2025/02/26/eddie-hearn-warns-boxing-has-changed-after-eubank-hits-benn-with-egg-at-face-off/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/sport/boxing","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Boxing"}}}},{"_id":"AQKPTBQWINABPAKTDUUYK7CLW4","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":329,"audio_url":"https://beyondwords-cdn-b7fyckdeejejb6dj.a03.azurefd.net/audio/projects/5469/podcasts/2139692e-b101-46f1-95e3-ac7b35073d63/versions/1739477814/media/c0f3c79f4b1229af95a553ee178991d1_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/sport/boxing/2025/02/14/john-cooneys-death-wont-change-boxing-it-will-always-be-dangerous/","content_elements":[{"_id":"ML42K3J7RVEJBFDJD4S7Q4WK4Y","additional_properties":{"_id":1739474964767},"content":"The sobering history of <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/boxing/\" target=\"_blank\">boxing</a> has forever been blood and glory. It sits among the risk sports for longer than any other.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ZWY5EQEZF5FXXC7DEKMD42HGQQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1739474964768},"content":"Some people choose ripping along country roads at Portstewart, Coleraine and Portrush on Honda Fireblades in the Northwest 200.","type":"text"},{"_id":"HBRIVZHBGBBHJIX3F4JZCSYO7I","additional_properties":{"_id":1739474964769},"content":"Others sit in Nepal or Tibet base camps and see a different kind of majesty in conquering the mountain. But with Everest, motorcycle racing and professional boxing, the sports will always take a few each year.","type":"text"},{"_id":"NTIBGBCCJBBBLE4GCI74YJCXZ4","additional_properties":{"_id":1739474964770},"content":"Last Saturday, 28-year-old super-featherweight boxer <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/boxing/2025/02/08/irish-boxer-john-cooney-dies-week-on-from-belfast-title-fight/\" target=\"_blank\">John Cooney</a> died after his defeat by Welshman Nathan Howells in <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/belfast/\" target=\"_blank\">Belfast</a> the previous weekend. The <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/galway/\" target=\"_blank\">Galway</a> boxer <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/boxing/2025/02/03/boxer-john-cooney-in-intensive-care-after-title-fight-defeat-in-belfast/\" target=\"_blank\">suffered an intracranial haemorrhage</a> after the bout was stopped in the ninth round.","type":"text"},{"_id":"U7KN2WVKBVGZJOZOXRMDX7HO64","additional_properties":{"_id":1739474964771},"content":"Just more than a year ago we watched Cooney win the Celtic title with a first-round win over Liam Gaynor. It was an appropriate stage for such a talent, a sold-out 3Arena in Dublin on the undercard of <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/katie-taylor/\" target=\"_blank\">Katie Taylor’s</a> world title win over Chantelle Cameron.","type":"text"},{"_id":"7YPAUMH6ERHTZPFPDBLMQXU4CY","additional_properties":{"_id":1739474964772},"content":"Cooney’s triumph in Dublin makes this week’s tragedy more poignant. That night he went into the ring with the same confident mindset that Joey Dunlop had when he threw his leg over his machine in Estonia in 2000, or Ireland’s John Delaney when he started off on his journey up Everest in 2011.","type":"text"},{"_id":"K5RDWAAMXFF2DONDLB472ZCBDI","additional_properties":{"_id":1739474964773},"content":"What bound them together at the end of their lives was spirit, ambition and a fearless sensibility. But most of all they had bulletproof self-belief. They didn’t just like their chosen sport. It wasn’t a pastime or hobby. They didn’t do it for health reasons, to stay trim or find a social circle.","type":"text"},{"_id":"4MWV6DEQ4JA2LFM3J7BAFTKIPM","additional_properties":{"_id":1739474964774},"content":"They didn’t play racing or mountaineering or boxing. You can’t play those sports. They participated because it was part of them.","type":"text"},{"_id":"VU2B3ADUS5FQ5LUWJTHOXFMSGQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1739474964775},"content":"As always when catastrophe unexpectedly strikes, people clamour for change, look to see if anything can be done so that it will not happen again. Over the years, boxing has done that. Doctors closely monitor the fighters, oxygen is at hand and there is an ambulance on site.","type":"text"},{"_id":"P2O3BFDGR5D4RHHJGXOM3FEGPU","additional_properties":{"_id":1739474964776},"content":"Still, while estimates vary, as many as 500 boxers have died since the sport was formalised with rules by the Marquess of Queensberry in 1884.","type":"text"},{"_id":"NIPUQLZO2RGLBKC5JYVDW57NGE","additional_properties":{"_id":1739474964777},"content":"In 2018 a book called Dog Rounds – Death and Life in the Boxing Ring was published. Its author Elliot Worsell sought out and interviewed boxers who had killed their opposite number.","type":"text"},{"_id":"4KELZOIATFGR5IFBXIIAI5HFDM","additional_properties":{"_id":1739474964778},"content":"One was <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/barry-mcguigan/\" target=\"_blank\">Barry McGuigan</a>, whose 1982 fight with African opponent Young Ali resulted in the Nigerian being knocked out in the sixth round. Ali fell into a six-month coma before he died of his injuries.","type":"text"},{"_id":"BXMMBW4M5FHL7CALKYSZGJE3I4","additional_properties":{"_id":1739474964779},"content":"“I hit him right on the nose, his eyes just rolled back. It was a haunting moment. I knew he wasn’t going to get up from that,” said McGuigan.","type":"text"},{"_id":"VNGFHI6M4VBBTBHLERR63CWTTU","additional_properties":{"_id":1739474964781},"content":"In 2020 the former world champion appeared in The Mail Online, again talking about the catastrophic incident in London.","type":"text"},{"_id":"RHNHAMSJ75HM5DU7THRKFZZ4TQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1739474964782},"content":"“After that I didn’t know if I wanted to box or not. If I can do this sort of damage to someone ... it happens, but it’s such a tragedy and it’s the one thing we as boxing fans don’t want to ever happen again. But it happened before, and it will happen again.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"EHFCZPGB6C6YQBTGIROG6WVTDU","additional_properties":{"_id":1739474964780},"type":"image"},{"_id":"4XJPUPG5AFH6VEP7WNJOWDHJUE","additional_properties":{"_id":1739474964783},"content":"There was no requirement for McGuigan to be prescient in knowing his tragic night would be repeated somewhere. His continued anguish also spoke to the pebble in the pond and the ripple effect. The team around the boxer, the opponent who caused the injuries and most of all the heartbroken family, whose lives changed forever.","type":"text"},{"_id":"JFJWBQFAJBDRBEVDUK7U7PXESE","additional_properties":{"_id":1739474964784},"content":"Taking grains of solace, Cooney’s family in a statement spoke of a son, a brother and a fiancee, “who lived and died chasing his dream”. It seemed like cold comfort.","type":"text"},{"_id":"EAOEFUCOBNCT5IFXPXKS5TZ6S4","additional_properties":{"_id":1739474964785},"content":"But through their immeasurable grief it also seemed that doing something in death that he loved was a fragment of consolation – perhaps the only one – and an acceptance of his choice.","type":"text"},{"_id":"SJL2EIMLDFGBFODFAH57TP35TE","additional_properties":{"_id":1739474964786},"content":"Some years ago, a motorbike racer described to me what it was like to hit 200mph down a country road. “Green blur, grey blur, red flash. Hedge, drystone wall, post box.” An indescribable cinematic reel of danger.","type":"text"},{"_id":"52F3WZSPPFCFLME3UOOGI7VCAY","additional_properties":{"_id":1739474964787},"content":"Like those bikes perilously traversing the northern coast of this island or summiting K2, boxing has the same intrinsic appeal and involves an absence of fear in those who take part.","type":"text"},{"_id":"EOIVHR5R3NCG7KUBFIDK7EUAHQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1739474964788},"content":"McGuigan, although he wrestled with his conscience about continuing to box, went on to take the WBA world featherweight title from Eusébio Pedroza three years later at Loftus Road.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ZPTCLJDFCZFYPAQZNDL7I5OTOM","additional_properties":{"_id":1739474964789},"content":"In Dog Rounds, Worsell questioned his place in the sport and as a boxing fan asked if he was somehow complicit in the deaths.","type":"text"},{"_id":"UWM3EOSQ5RGNPKUYJX6GALFIKE","additional_properties":{"_id":"2XNBOBDSHNFA3B3EEYCU4AC7JM"},"content":"‘A lovely sweet kid’: tributes paid to John Cooney after Irish boxer’s death","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"PFCHTECALFC7JMGCPLQWCLSXIA","additional_properties":{"_id":1739474964790},"content":"In a short but all encapsulating synopsis of the book published on Goodreads, the tragedies were described as a trigger for a slew of emotions and consequences.","type":"text"},{"_id":"4LFL6KS5LFEGNHMIYDDBCCHOAM","additional_properties":{"_id":1739474964791},"content":"“Worsell reveals the extent of the devastation left behind,” it said. “In doing so he uncovers an incredible story of guilt, forgiveness, obsession, and violence. What results is a powerful look at the past, present, and future of one of the world’s most dangerous sports.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"PIUFA7WLFFBKHJOTKASSUSV7CM","additional_properties":{"_id":1739474964792},"content":"Today, those close to Cooney may mournfully recognise some of those things. But their grief won’t change boxing. It will remain dangerous.","type":"text"},{"_id":"7ZAVNA75UJHFJKBLIBJ3BYXQHI","additional_properties":{"_id":1739474964793},"content":"Nobody plays the blame game in such calamitous occasions. If they do, then as Cooney is buried in Rahoon cemetery, no less than McGuigan or Howells, in our celebration of boxing we are all in some way complicit.","type":"text"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"metered"},"credits":{"by":[{"additional_properties":{"original":{"byline":"Johnny Watterson"}},"name":"Johnny Watterson"}]},"description":{"basic":"While estimates vary, as many as 500 boxers have died since the sport was formalised in 1884"},"display_date":"2025-02-14T06:00:00Z","headlines":{"basic":"John Cooney’s death won’t change boxing. 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Every fighter knows the dangers but like everything no one thinks it’s going to come to their door,” he added. “It enhances more lives than it destroys or takes.","type":"text"},{"_id":"SIGKB664MFFQLB7IJA3QOTMOEM","additional_properties":{},"content":"“One of John’s sayings was ‘tomorrow is not promised’ and he certainly lived for the day, so he deserves this attention.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"YV3BQDQL75GTDHXNXKHX2TUXS4","additional_properties":{},"content":"Cooney’s death will renew questions about the dangers of boxing and repeated blows to the head taken by fighters.","type":"text"},{"_id":"VQCCLCLHYJFP3EDDW2CA6BRFOI","additional_properties":{},"content":"Colin Doherty, a consultant neurologist and head of the school of medicine at Trinity College, Dublin expressed concern about all sports – including rugby – in which players suffer “head injuries, subconcussive and concussive blows”.","type":"text"},{"_id":"BUZZWE453NB6ZB4CVO3VZDE2RY","additional_properties":{},"content":"He called for a joint effort to make such sports safer. “Let us get people together, let the government bring people together, including people like myself and the sports people and players and fans, and lets make these things safer, because they aren’t as safe as they could be, and that’s just a simple fact,” he told RTÉ.","type":"text"},{"_id":"NQ5HDUEKAZIXQTA6R4BR3PJJTM","additional_properties":{},"type":"image"},{"_id":"KS5XFLSS4BGHTPP6JKGINJEKOQ","additional_properties":{},"content":"Fellow Galway boxer Kieran Molloy described Cooney as “a fantastic boxer, a young man just chasing his dreams”.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ZQGYPGWQFNHGJKAIAYBDMSV3PY","additional_properties":{},"content":"“He was on the verge of some very big fights. 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RIP John ‘the Kid’ Cooney.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"KBV6M6NCIVBLNJ3TGQGYTTYNKA","additional_properties":{"_id":1739089412997},"content":"Cooney won the title with a win over Liam Gaynor in <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/dublin/\" target=\"_blank\">Dublin</a> in November 2023 but spent a year out of the ring with a hand injury.","type":"text"},{"_id":"GIS67NCGLJGXFD2TNHN6V7WMHA","additional_properties":{"_id":1739089412998},"content":"He returned in October with a victory over Tampela Maharusi.","type":"text"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"metered"},"credits":{"by":[]},"description":{"basic":"The 28-year-old had been in intensive care following last Saturday’s fight"},"display_date":"2025-02-08T20:48:40.494Z","headlines":{"basic":"Irish boxer John Cooney dies a week after Belfast title fight","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"5469"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"ZGLLFGFNVFB7LIEIGJ2Y23IZUE","auth":{"1":"610e479f3653d7a32f1ec27b0eae326009a1123b0cfb021f8380abb7dd65d4c5"},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/ZGLLFGFNVFB7LIEIGJ2Y23IZUE.jpg"}},"subtype":"default","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Sport"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/sport/boxing/2025/02/08/irish-boxer-john-cooney-dies-week-on-from-belfast-title-fight/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/sport/boxing","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Boxing"}}}},{"_id":"UAJ2H5IEXREI3HJXLKLUFAS43U","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":194,"audio_url":"https://beyondwords-cdn-b7fyckdeejejb6dj.a03.azurefd.net/audio/projects/5469/podcasts/2eade528-198f-4c23-a3f9-f5b23c184a57/versions/1738860123/media/cfcd427a167dceba91347128c5fc2a2e_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/sport/gaelic-games/2025/02/06/i-cant-see-it-happening-katie-taylor-fight-at-croke-park-not-on-the-cards-says-stadium-director/","content_elements":[{"_id":"NDH7VGYRKRBCTLNTQHYJ6TSUKQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1738879140755},"content":"<a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/croke-park/\">Croke Park</a> stadium director Peter McKenna has apparently ruled out a <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/katie-taylor/\">Katie Taylor</a> title fight taking place in the stadium this year.","type":"text"},{"_id":"MUKMYIGMVFHYPPR4PSWGQSV4OY","additional_properties":{"_id":1738879140756},"content":"Asked about the prospect at the launch of the GAA’s annual reports on Thursday, McKenna said, “no” despite apparent optimism on the part of promoter Eddie Hearn.","type":"text"},{"_id":"G5T5YTCFUFHGZJLXAF4R3EKZZI","additional_properties":{"_id":1738879140757},"content":"“Being honest, Eddie hasn’t been in touch with us. 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The eyes of the world are on us for these types of events and we’re not going to change our position on that.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"GM6LIZL2EFD2RLREUYYCZLFDFU","additional_properties":{"_id":1738879140766},"content":"Speaking on Thursday, McKenna doubted that security is still a deal-breaker.","type":"text"},{"_id":"QKMY6QGI5VHBRKJSZISTZORASQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1738879140767},"content":"“I don’t think it is. The approach seems to be megaphone diplomacy, throw everything at it and something will happen in that sense. Katie Taylor is a magnificent athlete and I think everyone is very, very proud of what she’s achieved as an athlete.","type":"text"},{"_id":"XMX2FB6T6VG3HHUD5B2XOCUEHQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1738879140768},"content":"“But to fill Croke Park with 80,000, you need an undercard, you need a whole razzmatazz to go with it. Those things can’t be done in a short period of time. Even getting an event management plan together, getting the city council to approve it and so on, there’d be a fair bit of work in that.","type":"text"},{"_id":"WZCJK4FMAFEAZHLSW5GWU6KPQE","additional_properties":{"_id":1738879140769},"content":"“So, I think it’s a kite flyer rather than a genuine ... I can’t see it happening because we haven’t heard about it, bar reading (about it) in the papers.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"2AJF6Q6Q7ZE6RBF4Z6NDDRNAOQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1738879140770},"content":"Katie Taylor is world super-lightweight champion, having defeated Amanda Serrano in a rematch in Texas last November. 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night.","type":"text"},{"_id":"X7VPLWK54FBUXNTBSL3EBTM64A","additional_properties":{},"content":"The 28-year-old went up against Nathan Howells of Wales at the Ulster Hall looking to defend his Celtic super-featherweight title.","type":"text"},{"_id":"SQ3YFG4KUZHORBBESGGZGVVTFI","additional_properties":{},"content":"The bout was stopped in the ninth round and Cooney was assessed by the British Boxing Board of Control’s on-site medical team before being taken to Royal Victoria Hospital.","type":"text"},{"_id":"SYVI5JZZBBC33EH3FUMNFPFLRQ","additional_properties":{},"content":"A statement from Cooney’s promoter, Mark Dunlop of MHD Promotions, confirmed: “On arrival at the (Royal Victoria Hospital) it was discovered that John had an intracranial haemorrhage and underwent immediate surgery to relive the pressure on his brain.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"CY2ROI244NHGJMRZS5UP2XHRHU","additional_properties":{},"content":"The statement added Cooney is now being treated in the hospital’s intensive care unit.","type":"text"},{"_id":"3HPAXNTZJBF23PZLAUOML5664Y","additional_properties":{},"content":"Cooney claimed the Celtic super-featherweight title over Liam Gaynor in a first-round knockout at the 3Arena in Dublin in November 2023 which served as the undercard for Katie Taylor’s rematch against Chantel Cameron.","type":"text"},{"_id":"YCDY6C2IB5FUNMX3YVDX7FFP3I","type":"list"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"metered"},"credits":{"by":[]},"description":{"basic":"Super-featherweight underwent surgery after defeat against Nathan Howells on Saturday night"},"display_date":"2025-02-03T18:02:19.203Z","headlines":{"basic":"Boxer John Cooney in intensive care after title fight defeat in Belfast","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"8948"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"ZGLLFGFNVFB7LIEIGJ2Y23IZUE","auth":{"1":"610e479f3653d7a32f1ec27b0eae326009a1123b0cfb021f8380abb7dd65d4c5"},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/ZGLLFGFNVFB7LIEIGJ2Y23IZUE.jpg"}},"subtype":"default","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Sport"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/sport/boxing/2025/02/03/boxer-john-cooney-in-intensive-care-after-title-fight-defeat-in-belfast/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/sport/boxing","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Boxing"}}}},{"_id":"N3N7GPYSMFD5DKZWB35766SAG4","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":111,"audio_url":"https://beyondwords-cdn-b7fyckdeejejb6dj.a03.azurefd.net/audio/projects/5469/podcasts/11f9d024-0847-4a79-aad4-7ab314e76b54/versions/1736783261/media/d682d12c4ee3f2738fb9ceda0062c159_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/sport/boxing/2025/01/13/its-been-a-blast-tyson-fury-retires-from-boxing-again/","content_elements":[{"_id":"TOT6ILGBAFE77F6BIZUNOZ4LSY","additional_properties":{"_id":1736782633001},"content":"<a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/tyson-fury/\" target=\"_blank\">Tyson Fury</a> has announced his decision to retire from boxing in the aftermath of a second defeat to Oleksandr Usyk in a rematch last month.","type":"text"},{"_id":"S6KR3EXGOREERHTU3OKHVZH45A","additional_properties":{"_id":1736782633003},"content":"The former world heavyweight champion posted a video on social media while sat in a car announcing that he would quit the sport three weeks after failing to claim the unified world titles from the Ukrainian in Riyadh by unanimous decision.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ILLTZUH35ZD7JJ7H6AO6T366IY","additional_properties":{"_id":1736782633005},"content":"“Hi everybody. I’m going to keep this short and sweet,” Fury said in the video. “I would like to announce my retirement from boxing. It’s been a blast, I’ve loved every single minute and I’m going to end with this. Dick Turpin wore a mask. God bless everybody, see you on the other side.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"N5KVXJVS6BEYPF6AL55JPFOBBY","additional_properties":{"_id":1736782633007},"content":"Fury had previously announced his retirement from the ring back in 2022 after beating Dillian Whyte, only to return at the end of the year to fight Derek Chisora and going on to set up the unification bouts with Usyk. He also had short-lived retirements in 2013 and 2017.","type":"text"},{"_id":"CN5P2ULWCZFFZL5X3HX4UXA4NE","additional_properties":{"_id":1736782633009},"content":"The 36-year-old’s announcement has come at a time when pundits had been speculating over whether Fury could be tempted into a blockbuster fight against fellow British heavyweight Anthony Joshua.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ZD4UJKYDY5DF5BK3EWFAI2UCD4","additional_properties":{},"content":"Fury previously announced his intention to quit the sport after he retained his WBC belt by defeating Dillian Whyte at London’s Wembley Stadium in 2022.","type":"text"},{"_id":"M3QTHBVV6JAQLA4EE55IFEBPCU","additional_properties":{},"content":"The ‘Gypsy King’ said at the time: “I’ve been in this game 20 years, I’m 34 in a few months.","type":"text"},{"_id":"B6SK3HLX3FAIHANMTBHGKJUM4M","additional_properties":{},"content":"“I said the third (Deontay) Wilder fight would be my last, but I felt I owed the fans one last homecoming. This is definitely the end of the Gypsy King and I went out with a bang.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"NHAPPVWBMVFAHHWB2W5AU7PNGI","additional_properties":{},"content":"Fury returned to fight Chisora the following December and in October 2023 defeated French MMA fighter Francis Ngannou, his last win before facing Usyk. – Guardian & PA","type":"text"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"metered"},"credits":{"by":[]},"description":{"basic":"Former heavyweight champion announces retirement weeks after second defeat to Oleksandr Usyk"},"display_date":"2025-01-13T15:42:37.319Z","headlines":{"basic":"‘It’s been a blast’: Tyson Fury retires from boxing again","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"5469"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"JJBZTNQH4JOMRGZYKFM6NWEPWI","auth":{"1":"1d1e206f1aa449bfcba85ad07f3d7ad463eede518bd0fe9c3202b9502a45df77"},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/JJBZTNQH4JOMRGZYKFM6NWEPWI.jpg"}},"subtype":"default","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Sport"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/sport/boxing/2025/01/13/its-been-a-blast-tyson-fury-retires-from-boxing-again/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/sport/boxing","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Boxing"}}}},{"_id":"DP7YPC4UJVGZNJVWGPXF3WQW5I","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":177,"audio_url":"https://beyondwords-cdn-b7fyckdeejejb6dj.a03.azurefd.net/audio/projects/8948/podcasts/19935732-463e-41fe-871c-05a045764d01/versions/1736411714/media/92c467373681b9f39b13169cfe5d9459_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/life-style/people/2025/01/09/sugar-ray-leonard-on-the-defeat-that-still-hurts-he-kicked-he-cursed-me-he-even-cursed-my-wife/","content_elements":[{"_id":"EMTWFU7OYVH5NFBY3IAXXAX7WM","additional_properties":{"_id":1736409553771},"content":"American <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/boxing/\" target=\"_blank\">boxing </a>star Sugar Ray Leonard reflected on his “underdog” status and the highs and lows of his career at an address in <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/dublin/\" target=\"_blank\">Dublin </a>on Wednesday.","type":"text"},{"_id":"KP7GOBZGKZEEHCB6FYTCILDQZM","additional_properties":{"_id":1736409553772},"content":"The <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/olympic-games/\" target=\"_blank\">Olympic </a>gold medallist and six-time world champion was one of several guest speakers delving into topics of leadership and self-empowerment at the <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/pendulum-summit/\" target=\"_blank\">Pendulum Summit</a> in Convention Centre Dublin.","type":"text"},{"_id":"NBE5VJ7SFRGL5BYAA4SX56IXRM","additional_properties":{"_id":1736409553773},"content":"Leonard recalled meeting his namesake, the pianist and singer-songwriter Ray Charles, moments before his historic 1980 rematch with Panamanian boxer Roberto Durán.","type":"text"},{"_id":"JCSJW2SNWNCBLJ7YJQC5GGLI3I","additional_properties":{"_id":1736409553774},"content":"“My mother named me after Ray Charles because she thought I would be a singer and we knew right away that would not be the case. He sang America the Beautiful for that fight and when he walked over to me he gave me a big hug and a big kiss and he said ‘Ray, kick his ass’. And I said, ‘yes I will’.” Leonard went on to win the match.","type":"text"},{"_id":"XSI4R4Q5ANHSFK2LINRYPZDMWM","additional_properties":{"_id":1736409553775},"content":"Discussing his devastation over being defeated in his initial fight against Durán earlier that year, one of the rare losses of his boxing career, Leonard said that he “watched this loss over and over again”.","type":"text"},{"_id":"XSGW5FVYM5B4XI7PFCC6UD3ZXQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1736409553776},"content":"Speaking about the importance of mind over matter, Leonard expressed his regret over being taken out of his “game plan” by what he described as intimidation tactics on his opponent’s part.","type":"text"},{"_id":"CVQLIHUSDNGMFDEQT6SJKP53NM","additional_properties":{"_id":1736409553777},"content":"“He pushed me, he kicked, he cursed me. He even cursed my wife… he took me out of my game plan and he won the fight,” he said.","type":"text"},{"_id":"MXYJDPOGDJASFCYQQDL7A4FF3A","additional_properties":{"_id":1736409553778},"content":"Leonard said he owes his success in the ring to “sheer determination” and will power, emphasising the importance of self-esteem during his talk on Wednesday evening.","type":"text"},{"_id":"JAO2MTWIZFEDHMRNM5WVI5JGHA","additional_properties":{"_id":1736409553779},"content":"“When I entered that ring, April 6th, 1987, I knew something that very few people knew, and that was I was going to beat ‘Marvellous’ Marvin Hagler,” Leonard said.","type":"text"},{"_id":"NMR3RPRS6ZH67BLKOC4M2RHHAM","additional_properties":{"_id":1736409553780},"content":"“Some of you may remember this but I mean I was a huge, huge underdog, but through sheer determination and will, I was able to push not only my body but my mind to a whole other level.","type":"text"},{"_id":"5VOJM5WJN5B5LMHAL7OSD75XKE","additional_properties":{"_id":1736409553781},"content":"“Less than one hour later… I proved the critics wrong because my determination allowed me to do what they thought would be totally impossible.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"LRFFKBPJ3JHRDPFN2Q7BX42LW4","additional_properties":{"_id":"57W632YHZFAMPDCA32HG4Z3IGU"},"content":"Jimmy Carr: ‘When you get cancelled, it’s not the words of your enemies, it’s the silence of your friends’","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"ON5FEVHT55HENG2Z3PZD2U433E","additional_properties":{"_id":"BPENBCWA4FFBXMVN6RHNKGCCBI"},"content":"Former Finnish prime minister Sanna Marin: ‘We are seeing conservative, masculine forces rising up’","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"QYOLOW373FA7TMTW7BG7Q4D3NE","additional_properties":{"_id":1736409553782},"content":"Leonard played several clips from his old matches after reflecting on them, including a segment from his fight with hitherto undefeated Thomas “Hitman” Hearns, billed as The Showdown. The fight took place in Caesars Palace in Las Vegas on September 16th, 1981.","type":"text"},{"_id":"CIQ2IS3KRNHX5L2XTFL5PPCYKI","additional_properties":{"_id":1736409553783},"content":"On this achievement, he said: “We all have that hidden reservoir of strength, but what separates us is the ability to activate it.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"YCDY6C2IB5FUNMX3YVDX7FFP3I","additional_properties":{},"type":"list"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"metered"},"credits":{"by":[{"additional_properties":{"original":{"byline":"Ella Sloane"}},"name":"Ella Sloane"}]},"description":{"basic":"Six-time world champion was speaking at the Pendulum Summit in Convention Centre Dublin"},"display_date":"2025-01-09T08:30:09.214Z","headlines":{"basic":"Sugar Ray Leonard on the defeat that still hurts: ‘He kicked, he cursed me. He even cursed my wife’","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"8948"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"ICSCUCDW2NF5DNZ6YNX44EVSD4","auth":{"1":"85f969ebbfe1042decdab5f163cde64506d108aa0a14f2148769e434a30c5cba"},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/ICSCUCDW2NF5DNZ6YNX44EVSD4.jpg"}},"subtype":"default","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"People"},{"name":"Sport"},{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Life & Style"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/life-style/people/2025/01/09/sugar-ray-leonard-on-the-defeat-that-still-hurts-he-kicked-he-cursed-me-he-even-cursed-my-wife/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/life-style/people","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"People"}}}},{"_id":"BISONB5UY5A3LHPEOLYKQWRSW4","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":799,"audio_url":"https://beyondwords-h0e8gjgjaqe0egb7.a03.azurefd.net/audio/projects/5469/podcasts/917b30a5-8a3b-4d04-8012-3800f8a7f18d/versions/1734540687/media/1b8ae32f5ddba901c1c16d0866483236_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/sport/2024/12/28/denis-walsh-irish-sports-underdog-mentality-has-been-replaced-with-an-unabashed-hunger-to-be-the-best/","content_elements":[{"_id":"DDZS6ZV4D5BPXLWF7RMT7RBGJI","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530756873},"content":"On the opening weekend of the <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/olympic-games/\" target=\"_blank\">Olympic</a> regatta <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/paul-o-donovan/\" target=\"_blank\">Paul O’Donovan</a> walked into the mixed zone flogging a punchline, mercilessly. In the draw, the reigning World and Olympic champions were just the third seeds. O’Donovan greeted every microphone with a stand-up riff he had composed earlier, pretending to be injured by the slight, or pretending not to be.","type":"text"},{"_id":"XNED3YSDNJFVDNDXQLIYEM6ZYA","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530756874},"content":"“I can’t even count how many names are above us [in the seedings],” he said. “We are just here to enjoy ourselves, do the best we can and take a few of the big scalps – all going well.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"265BYA743VE6ZOMSWAMUWRIOFY","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530756875},"content":"O’Donovan’s self-portrait as an underdog was deliberately preposterous. It was the only gag in the routine. O’Donovan and <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/fintan-mccarthy/\" target=\"_blank\">Fintan McCarthy</a> were favourites to win the gold medal, just as they had been favourites for every race they had rowed together for the previous five years. For them, being an underdog or not being an underdog had no consequence. They had a cold contract with each other to make the boat go faster.","type":"text"},{"_id":"YTVWTBEUXVHVZHZBKUX4VPQHRY","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530756876},"content":"For generations of Irish sportspeople, being an underdog had been a fossil fuel. In the popular imagination, winning was wrapped up with fire. Put ‘em under pressure. Boot and bollock. Stand up and fight.","type":"text"},{"_id":"VHN7G7KCYZFOVHJDN6TPNPVBAM","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530756877},"content":"It was a safe space where winning was optional and losing was available with a range of painkillers and rounds of applause. All of it was a cop-out.","type":"text"},{"_id":"JVVEBIGLHFCDJHYAIQOPN2252M","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530756878},"content":"In the Golden Age of Irish sport, winning has become intentional. Elite Irish sportspeople make themselves accountable to winning and losing rather than innocent hostages to the outcome. ‘If’ has been emasculated. O’Donovan and McCarthy were convinced they would become the first Irish athletes since Pat O’Callaghan to retain an Olympic title. They knew it was in their hands.","type":"text"},{"_id":"DNG6GXK3U5DDZK5H53BZ4HJXYA","additional_properties":{"_id":"2MPKRBP5LNEITM5L4O5N5DS36M"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"D6X3AJ6JYZE3HFKJ6FFZYXA2AM","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530756879},"content":"Gymnast <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/rhys_mcclenaghan/\" target=\"_blank\">Rhys McClenaghan</a> and swimmer <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/daniel-wiffen/\" target=\"_blank\">Daniel Wiffen</a> were of the same mind, though they expressed it with chutzpah. “There’s some things you set out to do,” said McClenaghan a couple of months after he <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/2024/08/03/tears-of-joy-flow-as-rhys-mcclenaghan-wins-historic-olympic-gold-medal-for-ireland-in-gymnastics/\" target=\"_blank\">won gold at the Olympics</a>. “Not just taking part but taking over. As soon as I could see the pathway to being the best in the world I was like, ‘Ok, I’m going to say it because it needs to be said.’”","type":"text"},{"_id":"5NELQWOJ2VFCJLVHPII35FQLJU","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530756880},"content":"After he <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/2024/07/30/irelands-daniel-wiffen-wins-olympic-gold-medal-after-stunning-800m-swim-in-paris/\" target=\"_blank\">won his Olympic gold</a> Wiffen spoke about his nerves, but most of all he spoke about his certainty. “I had no doubt in my mind,” he said. “I had won this already, before I walked out [to the pool].” When he appeared at the RTÉ Sports awards before Christmas he said it wasn’t a question of ‘if’ he would be on the podium at the LA Games, it was only a question of how many medals he would win; his expectation is three.","type":"text"},{"_id":"TCHN6LGBHBBYBNTQEFAW5FRWQY","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530756881},"content":"At the Olympics and the Paralympics this cultural shift was crystallised more than ever. It wasn’t forced or fake. <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/orla-comerford/\" target=\"_blank\">Orla Comerford</a> won bronze in the T13 100m and <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/athletics/2024/09/03/there-is-lots-more-in-the-tank-orla-comerford-happy-with-paralympics-bronze-for-now/\" target=\"_blank\">her first reaction was “disappointment”</a>. At her third Games, this was her first medal. The two athletes who finished ahead of her had both broken the existing world record. When Comerford met her family, she said, her feelings softened, but her first reaction was the most truthful.","type":"text"},{"_id":"4RLGWT3275G63CUZRYVTY3A4AA","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530756882},"content":"“I reckoned at the start of the year that it was going to take a world record to win it and that’s what I had my eyes on,” she said. “I know that was ambitious, but I think that is well within my wheelhouse. I just feel like there is lots more in tank.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"IRQ3TZBHOJGTRE73AXVJ5FGWMQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530756883},"content":"It would have been easy to hide behind the bronze medal and pretend it was the measure of her dreams, and for generations of Irish athletes that would have been the instinctive response: be grateful for the bread on your table.","type":"text"},{"_id":"NMUN6DUYYFGJVGP3PRAGH2DOEE","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530756884},"content":"Winning has no truck with moderation, though; it is governed by greed. In rowing, <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/philip-doyle/\" target=\"_blank\">Philip Doyle</a> and <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/daire-lynch/\" target=\"_blank\">Daire Lynch</a> became the first Irish heavyweight crew to win an Olympic medal, but they weren’t satisfied with bronze either. “It was kind of a wave of positive and negative [as we crossed the finishing line],” said Doyle. “Relief and disappointment.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"XHPWHWBV3BBY7EDJGHDQ5CU7XY","additional_properties":{"_id":1734536500991},"content":"The only way they could have won gold was to cultivate those feelings. If they had aimed for the bottom step on the podium, where would they have ended up?","type":"text"},{"_id":"S4AAK36E3VVO5ZBJTMD5EZMYCU","additional_properties":{"_id":"PBGSI2A5RFBSZKOMKKHPZZH7WI"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"66DH7ZO7ZNHT5CPQVW6G76Z57M","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530756886},"content":"<a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/rhasidat-adeleke/\" target=\"_blank\">Rhasidat Adeleke</a> ran the third fastest time of her career and came fourth in the Olympic final. To win a medal she would have needed to break 49 seconds for the first time in her life. In the course of her season, she set six new Irish records as an individual and six as part of relay teams. At the European Championships, she won two silvers and one gold. Good year?","type":"text"},{"_id":"24IR5DKA4JDDPOJ2YG65STWDRU","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530756887},"content":"In a series of interviews hosted by one her sponsors before Christmas she said she still “had PTSD” from the Olympics. When she’s scrolling through photographs on her phone she skips the images from Paris, she said.","type":"text"},{"_id":"SIXGIKZDMFGMVMXF4VZQ3EFUPM","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530756888},"content":"In terms of medals at major championships, Adeleke had the best season of any Irish athlete since Sonia O’Sullivan in 1998. But her goal was an Olympic medal, and all the other stuff couldn’t make up for that loss. The European Championships and the Olympics were different currencies, and there was no exchange rate.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ZLR2X6Y3V5FYLET6COPDYCSOWA","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530756889},"content":"Adeleke is one of the most talented sports people that Ireland has ever produced, and like Wiffen and McClenaghan and O’Donovan and McCarthy, she has no business sifting through the detritus of a loss in search of comfort, or mitigation. In her mind, she was accountable to the outcome.","type":"text"},{"_id":"MTV3I6NWHZDBHKBZPONBAJMJZI","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530756890},"content":"“I didn’t achieve my dreams today,” she said immediately after the race. “In the future I just hope I’ll be able to perform at my best when it’s most important.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"MZARBQHD2NC3BF7HPKOILXAZLI","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530756891},"content":"At these altitudes the falls are precipitous. <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/leinster-rugby/\" target=\"_blank\">Leinster Rugby</a> and <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/rory-mcilroy/\" target=\"_blank\">Rory McIlroy</a> spend a lot of time near the summit. The footing is treacherous; they slipped again. Leinster are still stuck on four European Cups; McIlroy is stuck on four majors: flamboyant, brilliant, box-office, agonisingly close, tormented.","type":"text"},{"_id":"5GQHB5SDS5EQRHSCWBZH5CW3NU","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530756892},"content":"A month after he bogeyed three of the last four holes at the US Open, McIlroy turned up in the media centre at the Scottish Open, trying to explain himself again. In these situations, over the years, McIlroy has been remarkably candid and generous in his answers. He has sat behind those microphones and somehow led the case for the defence and the prosecution. McIlroy has always understood that being plausible after a crushing loss required a degree of self-rebuke and admission of weakness. Many other sportspeople don’t care about being plausible in public.","type":"text"},{"_id":"6MT5WU4W6VAEDKH6ZGU4RCXIXE","additional_properties":{"_id":"MYE774BUJNAHNHVZTPTMW6CHOM"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"SKTMVTWOIJGEVPRT7BBJUT5CLM","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530756893},"content":"The short putts he missed on the 16th and the 18th overshadowed the clutch putt he holed on the 17th. He came from three shots behind at the beginning of the day to put himself in a winning position at the only time in the tournament when that status mattered. To get there, he had managed his mind and played some brilliantly controlled golf.","type":"text"},{"_id":"O5GNE64W4FHUZEUFQPT6O4UK5I","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530756894},"content":"In the press conference at the Scottish Open he gave a site engineer’s report on the sliding, slippery, smelly, downhill putt he missed on the final green, when he needed to hole it to be sure of a play-off, at least. It felt like the kind of putt that McIlroy could miss at any time, but, according to the statistics, he had not missed from inside five feet on the PGA Tour all season – from nearly 500 putts – until the closing holes at Pinehurst. By the end of the year, he ranked third on tour for putts holed from that range.","type":"text"},{"_id":"D7ZU6B7RJVBVFOERBAHCVVR4CM","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530756895},"content":"With McIlroy, the assumption is always that his mind let him down. He needed to confront that likelihood again. In elite sport, that component cannot be wished away. In that context, McIlroy said something interesting about the putt he missed on the 16th, which was shorter and much easier than the putt he missed on the final green.","type":"text"},{"_id":"33GENKOYVZDCJDQUCAUFG2W7ZM","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530756896},"content":"“I can vividly remember starting to feel a little uncomfortable waiting for my second putt on 16,” he said. “The first putt [from distance] looked like it could be a birdie, and it ran a foot by where I thought it was going to finish. I marked it, Patrick [Cantlay] was hitting his putt, and he can take his time [Cantlay is one of the slowest players on tour].","type":"text"},{"_id":"IWTCNXSRMBE2PPDWIE6FM46DQY","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530756897},"content":"“You have to be really deliberate in what you’re doing. I just think I had to wait a while to hit that second putt. The more you stand there it’s hard not to either start thinking about the future or notice where Bryson’s [De Chambeau] ball is in the fairway. But, again, that’s on me to make sure I’m in the right head space.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"RJJ5ASKX35ED3JOBNI6TP7ZJH4","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530756898},"content":"With Leinster, just like McIlroy, it went down to the wire. By having a kick to win the Champions Cup in the final minute of regulation time, they had put themselves where they had planned to be: in a winning position when it mattered most. This was their intention.","type":"text"},{"_id":"KH2R2IGVWRB2TOYIXLETVU57IM","additional_properties":{"_id":"ZX2W3UZMW5A5DCENR6KLQPLKWI"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"6BL2JSCWHFGE5IXADEGRCJJWVE","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530756899},"content":"Since they last won the title, Leinster have now lost four finals. There is no remedy for past defeats. Like Lot’s wife in the Bible, looking back will turn you into a pillar of salt.","type":"text"},{"_id":"T3K4ZXUTZVCYPJDNWR62VEC4TY","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530756900},"content":"“We said in the changing room, ‘When you want to do great things and you want to achieve great things, you always want the risk of failing greatly as well,’” said James Ryan afterwards. “Would I rather be in a team that tries to be the best team in Europe every year and have risks in a team like this? I still would.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"WEUQMVWF5JDIFHQCKSB6RUB3RI","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530756901},"content":"And that’s the point. Winning, wanting to win, being desperate to win, is the riskiest thing of all. Underdogs hold themselves to different standards. Being an underdog is an each-way bet. It is the realm of “might” and “maybe” and “what harm?”","type":"text"},{"_id":"DBSRC4OEVVGMRMGSLDE7YPKYPY","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530756902},"content":"<a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/willie-mullins/\" target=\"_blank\">Willie Mullins</a> gave that up a long time ago. On the day he trained his 100th Cheltenham Festival winner Ruby Walsh recalled Mullins’ refusal to sell a talented young horse called Wither or Which back in the mid-1990s. At that stage, Mullins had trained just one Cheltenham winner and the economy of Irish racing was such that most trainers were forced to sell their best young horses.","type":"text"},{"_id":"KBC76SSBYZBDXE34PYYBCICOLQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530756903},"content":"Mullins made the decision that his yard wasn’t going to be like that. He embraced the risk. Mullins was still riding as an amateur at the time and in March 1996 he rode Wither or Which to win the Champion Bumper at Cheltenham. Twenty-eight years later, his 100th winner came in the same race, with his son Patrick in the saddle.","type":"text"},{"_id":"66KTA5ZWO5FRBC2XF5EXNKRPHE","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530756904},"content":"The growth of Mullins’ dominance over the last decade has been one of the most extraordinary stories in Irish sport. It is only 11 years since he became the Irish trainer with the most Cheltenham winners, beating Tom Dreaper’s record of 26 that had stood for more than 40 years. At no other time in the history of Cheltenham, though, was 100 festival winners imaginable.","type":"text"},{"_id":"3VQAWE7G65FH7GNZDKZNWIISNE","additional_properties":{"_id":"3U63DO6ZPNCS5GOJ363ZYOUELU"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"D4V4QYCR6RAPLAUTJBJT3UUVBY","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530756905},"content":"On the day in March when Mullins reached that milestone, he saddled a treble. In the opening race, a grade one for novice hurdlers, he trained the first five home. Less than two months later he was crowned champion trainer in Britain, the first Irish-based trainer to achieve that feat over jumps since Vincent O’Brien 70 years ago.","type":"text"},{"_id":"EUGPMALJTJAFJDEBOFS5R7GGZY","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530756906},"content":"There are people in the sport who find his dominance oppressive and boring, but that is a relic of old thinking. He distanced himself from the herd. Great sportspeople make that separation.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ZQAECM7MOFELVFOEV73JZ63IKU","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530756907},"content":"Aidan O’Brien has been at Mullins’ altitude for decades. Before Royal Ascot he trained his 400th group one winner, worldwide, an astonishing number. In November he trained his 20th Breeders’ Cup winner, joining D Wayne Lukas on top of the all-time list, at a meeting where the odds are weighted heavily in favour of American trainers.","type":"text"},{"_id":"OI6Z7YZGIFAIBGG6NYUUDEH7FQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530756908},"content":"Mullins and O’Brien, we take for granted. The excellence of the Ireland rugby team has become a given, too. Excluding the pandemic-ravaged schedule in 2020, Ireland have, on average, lost five Test matches in the year after a World Cup; this year they lost just three times and won the Six Nations. <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/rugby/2024/07/13/ciaran-frawley-the-man-of-the-hour-as-ireland-strike-late-to-stun-south-africa/\" target=\"_blank\">Ireland won in South Africa for only the second time</a> in the fixture’s history and <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/rugby/2024/02/02/ireland-stun-france-with-best-ever-six-nations-victory-on-french-soil/\" target=\"_blank\">won in France for just the 13th time</a> in 114 years.","type":"text"},{"_id":"IGB62OU6AFFDZDBT6RKJLI367E","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530756909},"content":"And yet, by the end of the year, there was general uproar about the clunkiness of Ireland’s performances in the Autumn Internationals. Success takes that toll. In the decades when Irish rugby was an underachieving underdog, those performances would have been given a God-help-us benediction. Which would we prefer?","type":"text"},{"_id":"MHIMDGRSHZEPXMMQRUJXMCIIA4","additional_properties":{"_id":"VAJT4MAFKVHFPD3QAXDEFKPTZI"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"AELHP2EJBJBTHLOCLFUTOZHWAU","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530756910},"content":"<a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/katie-taylor/\" target=\"_blank\">Katie Taylor</a> keeps getting the close calls that Leinster and McIlroy find so elusive. She keeps putting herself in winning positions too. Her resilience and drive and stamina and skill are outlandish. How many global pioneers in their sport have we produced? Maybe only Taylor.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ZY6KJPX67REO5OLDPR5XEN2AFI","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530756911},"content":"It is extraordinary, though, that <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/kellie-harrington/\" target=\"_blank\">Kellie Harrington</a> should come along at the same time. In the beginning she might have followed in Taylor’s footsteps, but soon she made her own path. Double Olympic champion now. Heading to Paris, she carried the same expectation as Wiffen and McClenaghan and O’Donovan and McCarthy; none of them buckled. “Dreams are heavy things,” wrote Laurence Arnholt in one of his children’s books. Grown-ups know that too.","type":"text"},{"_id":"H2RIJHPRIFBONLK23MCSQGL3MY","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530756912},"content":"The hurling championship was a glorious sunbeam in a cloudy summer. The All-Ireland final was a match of everlasting brilliance. Everything about it was heartening and uplifting. Armagh won the football All-Ireland as outsiders. They didn’t think like underdogs, though.","type":"text"},{"_id":"RQE5XTRZJ5F6BENFEN3UUSFJK4","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530756913},"content":"That cop-out is dead.","type":"text"},{"_id":"2GXCE3WWBFB5HMA633J74CMKE4","additional_properties":{},"type":"list"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"premium"},"credits":{"by":[{"additional_properties":{"original":{"byline":"Denis Walsh"}},"name":"Denis Walsh"}]},"description":{"basic":"In the Golden Age of Irish sport, winning has become intentional"},"display_date":"2024-12-28T06:00:00Z","headlines":{"basic":"Denis Walsh: Irish sport’s underdog mentality has been replaced with an unabashed hunger to be the best","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"5469"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"MX64ROKLF5CIHDXOBKB6GYZYRE","auth":{"1":"42b4f9b40dd5b3fd2135c15cc19c2536d3574044a9f61e387385859488a7abcb"},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/MX64ROKLF5CIHDXOBKB6GYZYRE.jpg"}},"subtype":"feature","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Sport"},{"name":"Rugby"},{"name":"Racing"},{"name":"Golf"},{"name":"Gaelic Games"},{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Athletics"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/sport/2024/12/28/denis-walsh-irish-sports-underdog-mentality-has-been-replaced-with-an-unabashed-hunger-to-be-the-best/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/sport","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Sport"}}}},{"_id":"OEWYAH5XHBAQZNAS6F4WZUCM6Q","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":978,"audio_url":"https://beyondwords-h0e8gjgjaqe0egb7.a03.azurefd.net/audio/projects/5469/podcasts/d12d50e5-ca7e-4618-a92c-d60270c9ed21/versions/1734027032/media/3ea01cd39c409e225066a3aa27ac2a77_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/sport/soccer/2024/12/28/sports-speak-2024-the-wit-and-wisdom-from-damian-duff-to-daniel-wiffen-kellie-harrington-to-rory-mcilroy/","content_elements":[{"_id":"5UQ6A4YNU5HFJDPPEP7CEAWO74","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500673},"content":"<b>January</b>","type":"header"},{"_id":"6LBNJ6QYI5H6HLQJ7FDSC6D66Y","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500674},"content":"“I realised that my resources are not endless . . . we are not young rabbits any more and we don’t jump as high as we did.” <b>Jurgen Klopp catching Liverpool fans on the hop by announcing that he would be leaving them at the end of the season.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"6DRIGB35TJFKRISDKILS77O4SE","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500675},"content":"“I honestly wish it was my wife leaving me and not Jurgen.” <b>A soon-to-be single Liverpool-supporting caller to talkSPORT after Klopp’s announcement.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"UASL2OHS4RDEJGXVXZJXSO3GEI","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500676},"content":"“I enjoyed that, I really did. I started the week feeling a bit rough but I bought myself an air fryer and started eating a bit better.” <b>Ronnie O’Sullivan after finding his inner Ninja in his comeback against Judd Trump in the World Grand Prix final.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"IG4SJIREXMAX2QZYP6GNHJUDHQ","additional_properties":{"_id":"XTSRY7QKJFBNBNLADMBHGOXOOI"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"VABLY446JNCGVGXZBMKCN3FZOI","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500677},"content":"“I just wake up, play on my Xbox, have some food, have a chuck at the board, go to bed and that’s it.” <b>Luke Littler on his life before reaching the World Darts Championship final at the age of just sixteen. It’s changed a fair bit since then.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"EM4XEHFYAJHF5CJ2CGEF2NC2QY","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500678},"content":"<b>February</b>","type":"header"},{"_id":"DALWHI4CMFASVKNBYLFK6H7HMY","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500679},"content":"“Speaking from experience, when you have a barnet like that, you have got to play well – and my God, did that boy play well.” <b>Brian O’Driscoll doffing his cap to Joe McCarthy (and his hair-do) after his most excellent Six Nations display in the victory over France in Marseille.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"5Z5IOKAZP5HLPGZ63ZWVORSR2E","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500680},"content":"“I’m in awe of Willie Mullins. He’s at the top of his profession and has been for over a decade. Some people are suggesting he should be restricted. Well, you don’t tell Taylor Swift to stop releasing albums so that other people can win the Grammys.” <b>Jane Mangan salutes trainer Willie Mullins and his crop of Swiftie horses.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"XCCQOSTHUFAZXEPGKQSASZCWS4","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500681},"content":"“I stopped someone following me in to the toilet the other day. They were like, `oh, can I get a photo?’, and I was like, `yeah, but do you mind if you wait for a bit?’.” <b>And this was before Daniel Wiffen won his Olympic medals. They’re probably snapping him at the urinal this weather.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"4KD245WDCRCU7PSPRQJSKWEJSA","additional_properties":{"_id":"E34PQLGEJJEZDKYBKS6WRXIXVE"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"42EAPKULOVBO7I2HAC7FOHHSQ4","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500682},"content":"“How do I word this? Maybe through someone through someone through someone, someone asked me would I be interested in speaking to someone.” <b>Damien Duff on whether the FAI contacted him about becoming Stephen Kenny’s successor during their interminable search for one. That was a definitely maybe.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"JXNRDRQSW5GQDDOG5HBN276ATI","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500683},"content":"<b>March</b>","type":"header"},{"_id":"WM5ZP2JSR5HGBEZBH52OC62JNQ","additional_properties":{"_id":"CH4SVKW76RDGLN3EEADQ4PLDGE"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"R6AW4JAT3FH4LMJEN6Q7UY263U","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500684},"content":"“She’s such an incredible rider. As good as she is everywhere else, she’s even better here. We’ve had some incredible days.” <b>Trainer Henry De Bromhead after Rachael Blackmore rode Captain Guinness to victory in the Champion Chase at Cheltenham. Having already won the Gold Cup and two Champion Hurdles, that secured Blackmore the third jewel in the festival’s crown.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"KDZJWSARQJBVNCUKTKB3E7UVSY","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500686},"content":"“We unknowingly used a divisive expression. We deeply regret this error and apologise to those we have offended.” <b>MLS club Minnesota United after signing off their announcement about hosting St Patrick’s Athletic in a friendly with: “Tiocfaidh Ár Lá.”</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"QQCCO757TZBDFN5L7ZNZORHO3Q","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500688},"content":"“I have a poster of Novak on my wall. Every night I go to bed, I see him. He’s the best player ever. I will keep this moment with me for the rest of my life.” <b>Luca Nardi, the 20-year-old Italian who, when ranked 123 in the world, beat his poster boy Novak Djokovic at the Indian Wells Open.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"S27OLOOZUJAN5ANSJWBG2UNYUM","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500690},"content":"“I told John that I’ll chase balls into the bushes or go look at players, whatever he needs. I’m delighted he feels I’ve something to contribute after all these years.” B<b>rian Kerr on returning to the Republic of Ireland set-up as a technical adviser to interim manager John O’Shea, 19 years after he was the gaffer himself.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"MC3XVODHZBADJAKC3NGARAOCNA","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500692},"content":"April","type":"header"},{"_id":"GXK3PURBAFBTDODU7OTN7I7I4A","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500693},"content":"“He’s transformed the club from a place when they had people like me playing for them – that’s how bad it was.” <b>Peter Crouch saluting Jurgen Klopp as he closed in on his final game in charge of Liverpool.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"J3U5QVLBYMZTBUY47Z5ZYRJJQQ","additional_properties":{"_id":"SZR4O5D3SFCUBGJPHPEBAK2H2I"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"ID2KSA6BD5GQ3H5ILQUESI747E","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500695},"content":"“I sort of liken it to when Northern Ireland went through the peace process. Catholics weren’t happy, Protestants weren’t happy, but it brought peace and then you just sort of learn to live with whatever has been negotiated.” <b>Rory McIlroy reckoning that a Good Friday agreement is needed to resolve the LIV v PGA war.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"4PBWKJK6HJCFZOYMUCFYZNFGYQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500697},"content":"“Bristol Rovers Football Club would like to apologise for any offence caused by an error in wording in a recent communication. No harmful intention of meaning was ever intended.” <b>That “error”? “We will provide all disabled fans with free electronic ticket cards upon request. As for normal fans and older fans, they can purchase the card for £15.” Oh my.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"7R5BH7LYTJHZJNRDUNZZ6WYIUI","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500699},"content":"“He’s an intellectual earthquake that transforms itself into this athletic majesty. It’s not bomb and gouge, it’s laser-guided missiles that you’re watching here.” <b>Brandel Chamblee swooning, as only Brandel Chamblee can, over Bryson DeChambeau’s opening round of 65 at the Masters. The missiles were misdirected thereafter, DeChambeau finishing nine shots behind winner Scottie Scheffler.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"3MZIPARJGRBPRMLB4K3VC3JNV4","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500701},"content":"May","type":"header"},{"_id":"W3LUFJ2C4GGQ2YOWVODL5OSVNA","additional_properties":{"_id":"TTCPVJ3KONF6JBY5HCTOHWT4W4"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"K4BENKEC2JA7TBIG7DXP6O22FM","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500702},"content":"“We’re going in full guns blazing.” <b>An unfortunate enough turn of phrase from Northampton Saints’ Tommy Freeman ahead of the Champions Cup semi-final against Leinster in Croke Park, just after he and his team-mates were told about the stadium’s history.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"44EGDGSVLRGKRM7Q67ZM6BNDXM","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500704},"content":"“Bruce had to be played, I suppose. They had to dance in the dark up here for a couple of days but the pitch was the one to suffer.” <b>Wexford manager Keith Rossiter none too impressed with the state of the Nowlan Park surface a couple of weeks after senior hurler Springsteen played on it.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"Q5PLJKY3VRGE5LJHXKKO53F5VA","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500706},"content":"“Clearly, there is something rotten in Irish rugby for its finest ambassadors to bend the knee whether at international level or in the Champions Cup. There is no question here of shooting at the ambulance. We greatly sympathise with Leo Cullen and his kids.” <b>French newspaper Midi Olympique offering a, eh, heartfelt hug to Leinster after that Champions Cup final defeat by Toulouse.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"WWZPMTJQGNGVNAPD7ENY5ALEAQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500708},"content":"“I was pretty rattled to say the least. I was shaking the whole time. It was definitely a new feeling for me.” <b>Scottie Scheffler on that bizarre moment he was handcuffed and arrested outside Valhalla Golf Club ahead of the second round of the PGA Championship. He had mistakenly tried to drive past a police stop following an accident that resulted in the death of a spectator.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"DBZIHCR4INGERNYH4R5FUY7N6M","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500710},"content":"June","type":"header"},{"_id":"HOVU7N57IREVXMZ3EATFREQEUE","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500711},"content":"“I went out on that track today super nervous but with a plan and a mission and that was to hear Amhrán na bhFiann. When I was getting boxed in I thought I had nowhere to go, but I didn’t grow up playing camogie to get boxed in.” <b>Ciara Mageean doffing her cap to her first sporting love for helping her battle her way to European Championship gold in the 1500m.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"CITCKLFED5E6HIOHUAEXJHO6NU","additional_properties":{"_id":"6TUG4RZ55VHD5ATNMXQ35T6K64"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"6VKCSB65PRBENL5XNI2BHS6RX4","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500713},"content":"“The Picasso of the radio.” <b>Tomás Ó Sé's tribute to Micheál Ó Muircheartaigh who died at the age of 93 in June.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"XAM2H2HQLRF7ZBVJYB3V5Y4HMM","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500715},"content":"“If it was an old dog, the GAA would be telling us that good old hurling was being taken to live on a lovely farm in the country, while texting the local vet about having it put to sleep.” <b>How happy was Dónal Óg Cusack with the GAA’s promotion of his beloved game? Not a lot.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"HBSSMOWJ55HHVP7UFWCXVQO554","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500717},"content":"“Yesterday was a tough day, probably the toughest I’ve had in my nearly 17 years as a professional golfer. But I’ve shown my resilience over and over again and I will again.” <b>Rory McIlroy on that crushing conclusion to the US Open, three bogeys in his final four holes handing the title to Bryson DeChambeau.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"WKIOT73JRFE4DE55R7BBM6WJ4U","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500719},"content":"July","type":"header"},{"_id":"MKRI45KNZJCRBGOGVHZE4JCVXU","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500720},"content":"“It’s nearly destroying it talking about it, we should just shut up and watch.” <b>Dónal Óg Cusack calling for silence from the RTÉ panel so they could just quietly marvel at Tony Kelly’s other-worldly All Ireland final goal for Clare.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"KQKABSSXLBGKTOLK63U22TWTMM","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500722},"content":"“What can I say? We’re All-Ireland champions and Olympic gold medallists – what a great county!” <b>Daniel Wiffen on Armagh striking gold twice in the space of three days thanks to himself and their footballers.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"IYILG65UKVG3XOID32HNPMH4RI","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500724},"content":"“I’d rather ate cowshite. Don’t let him near the place.” <b>Former Galway goalkeeper James Skehill somewhat ruling out working with Davy Fitzgerald if Fitzgerald was appointed boss of his county. (He wasn’t, he took over Antrim instead).</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"75NAMY4RAXU2VVZIUMGSHVMJLA","additional_properties":{"_id":"3HDPPMFF3VCO5MWSMCSKOXGXJQ"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"XXRGTRMUBVBHZFDGUVP2NECSGU","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500726},"content":"“My brother texted me and said, ‘if 14-year-old Kellie had thought she’d be here now she probably never would have believed it’. I forwarded the message to my mam. She said, “No, you’re right, you were a little shit back then! Still a little shit now but you have two Olympic medals!’ <b>Kellie Harrington on her loving messages from home after guaranteeing herself at least a bronze in Paris.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"FLR3EELDGRARDCIVBV5NASTHEY","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500728},"content":"“Days like this felt a very long way away. I started crying on the podium, it’s just unbelievable, it’s the pinnacle of sport to have all your hard work pay off in something like this.” <b>Mona McSharry on her bronze in the Olympic 100m breaststroke final, not even her goggles filling up with water could thwart her.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"ECZBYYRMCBC7RPVMKO63MHMGWI","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500730},"content":"August","type":"header"},{"_id":"4VFRHXBLGZDWVNM5OYLBZETWLQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500731},"content":"“It feels like a dream, but it’s a dream well earned. If I fell on my bum today, I still would have loved this journey, every second of it. But I didn’t and today I’m walking away with an Olympic gold medal.” <b>Rhys McClenaghan on his golden day in Paris.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"R6U7HGITEVC47N6PEIU3VLO3QU","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500733},"content":"“The first impression is that they are really good team players, really good characters… maybe a little bit too nice. Sometimes you need a bastard in your team. I am looking for him. Maybe we can develop him.” <b>New Republic of Ireland gaffer Heimir Hallgrímsson on the hunt for a ruffian in green.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"MCEA264IB5DPJPHYKBPVM7PDCE","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500735},"content":"“It was really hard because we couldn’t really focus on the race. We had to focus on not swallowing water. I saw some brown things…. I hope it’s not what I thought it was.” <b>Hungarian marathon swimmer Bettina Fabian on the joys of taking to the Seine at the Olympics.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"N2FJPDQT7NAVJAEIBOCZVD36WI","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500737},"content":"“That’s it, done, dusted, there are no more mountains to climb. I’ve nothing more to prove, not even to myself, which is the most important thing. The next chapter is going to be my life chapter.” <b>Kellie Harrington signing out in some style, as a two-time Olympic champion.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"NGIOIAGK3JGJLNISWXCGSIFBVA","additional_properties":{"_id":"JIQYMFB2AFE23EXG6URNHNYN4A"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"EHSIU2ENLZCSNF2WOGYZ4FGIWU","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500739},"content":"“Seventh? Yeah, something like that. But I think I was dragged along by other people for most of them.” <b>Boastful as ever, Paul O’Donovan loses count of how many World Championship golds he’s won – it was number seven in Canada along with Fintan McCarthy, just three weeks after he became the first Irish athlete to medal in three successive Olympics.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"ULRTTU76T5F2NGD5HRVRKLNSEI","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500741},"content":"September","type":"header"},{"_id":"XPOZMGNMCJDXLA6466SNYDDDQY","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500742},"content":"“I had a little cry in the call room. It’s a really emotional day, this is coming to an end. Winnie the Pooh said it best when he said, ‘how lucky am I to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard’.” <b>Ellen Keane on ending a sparkling swimming career at the Paralympics in Paris.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"JPPJH77NJX7D5MB3YJ3D7U2TZE","additional_properties":{"_id":"K7TWUHM5KZANZEI4JXLMVDHQ3Y"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"AIV27MRA5JCEFLVDTVCRQ56A4M","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500744},"content":"“Lee Carsley needs to zone out of his Irish republicanism and learn to sing God Save the King. Otherwise, no one will believe he cares about the England team he wishes to lead.” <b>Renowned football pundit Jacob Rees-Mogg getting hot under the collar after Carsley, 2024′s Wolfe Tone and England’s interim coach, revealed that he’s not an anthem singer.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"G2UUONRMTZHTBDVXCPOYMYRRHA","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500746},"content":"“Why didn’t you win the gold?” <b>Rower Daire Lynch, who won Olympic bronze with Philip Lynch, on the first question he was asked by youngsters on his tour of his native Clonmel’s schools. Harsh.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"ZJ7TQAZZZFA3VOLC3GKLLNAGHA","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500748},"content":"“I couldn’t work out whether Ireland are more similar to Andorra, San Marino or the Faroe Islands.” T<b>ony Cascarino a touch unimpressed by Ireland in their 2-0 defeat by England in Dublin. To be honest, he probably ended up offending Andorra, San Marino and the Faroe Islands.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"PK774ZLTLRCSBKR3JTNXC56OPM","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500750},"content":"October","type":"header"},{"_id":"I3Z2NTMN7JH4HLTPQEYSCFUWTM","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500751},"content":"“This is a guy that was all man. When he took showers with the other pros, they came out of there and said, ‘oh my God, that’s unbelievable!’” <b>Donald Trump telling his supporters at a rally in Arnold Palmer’s Pennsylvania home town about the magnitude of the late golfer’s, em, manhood. Why? No clue.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"FN7V4DT2U5BRNKAPAYNHWFHD44","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500753},"content":"“How can a foreigner urge Englishmen to do or die on football’s battlefield…. rouse the troops like King Henry V when he implored his men: ‘On, on unto the breach dear friends or let close the wall up with our English dead.’ This is a dark day for English football.” <b>The Daily Mail’s Jeff Powell welcoming the appointment of German Thomas Tuchel as England gaffer.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"VFSSPZLWSJGPRDCPLPPNL2LY3M","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500755},"content":"“My maths wouldn’t be great, so I was struggling to figure out what the score was.” <b>Man of the match Rian O’Neill admitting that he had no clue whether Ulster were winning or losing to Connacht in the final of the interprovincial series thanks to the rule-tweaking two-point arc and four-point goal.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"QU7R4EKK5SKCTFQT4ZVHUDIVBY","additional_properties":{"_id":"NXQKIDCIR5AVHJUBNQ7YUVE3PI"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"ZDJKX25XDRAZRHUDO3IW2CJE24","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500757},"content":"“My conker was obliterated in one hit, and that just doesn’t happen – I’m suspicious of foul play.” <b>Alastair Johnson-Ferguson suggesting that 82-year-old David ‘King Conker’ Jakins might have used a steel nut to win their World Championships final. Jakins was indeed found with one in his pocket, but happily he was cleared of actually using it to obliterate anyone’s nut.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"BLLOB3DSGBHPHCERQGDQYJHZAA","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500759},"content":"“I’ve had many challenges growing up, I think that just made me very resilient. A broken collarbone and illness? I was like, ‘oh, I’ve gone through much worse than this’. When you stand on that top step of the podium, you forget about all the bad times, they just melt away.” <b>Katie-George Dunlevy reflecting on a September that saw her win … deep breath… Paralympic gold with Linda Kelly, Paralympic silvers with Kelly and Eve McCrystal, and two World Championship golds with Kelly.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"EA2VBIZ4XRGSTMZWV2P2VB6D6Y","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500761},"content":"November","type":"header"},{"_id":"4RO3GRGMDNBNPN4E6HAIJA4QCE","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500762},"content":"“It is amazing, a letter addressed to “Pat the b******s, County Kerry” posted in Armagh arrived in the door. It just goes to show how good the postal service is in Ireland.” <b>Pat Spillane saluting his postman for somehow delivering a love letter from up north.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"BY2PEG5KQNASNJJJ6ZHFFYSBLY","additional_properties":{"_id":"2QKZGCRB35EJPPLDSNTOFK3WRE"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"VBHGFM7KOVF7DOBFFU4UIXDKTA","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500764},"content":"“Congratulations to Katie Taylor. Tempers are flared when you’re in the heat of battle and you say things you shouldn’t say. She and I are cool outside the ring and the best dance partners in it. Whenever our teams can agree on a trilogy, I’ll be ready.” <b>Amanda Serrano withdrawing her allegation that Taylor intentionally head-butted her during their fight for the ages in Texas. Round three coming up?</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"7PQKSPC54FHSTPXBJDZJ3BPSYY","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500766},"content":"“He has a Boost, a meal deal, a curry and a couple of those little half pink and half white sweets – Squashies – and he walks up there and smashes me like that. This boy is a joke. He is absolutely awesome.” <b>Martin Lukeman on the darts sensation that is Luke Littler after the 17-year-old beat him 16-3 in the Grand Slam of Darts final.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"R5WWLF2UZFA7VENUUQEFYLW3WE","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500768},"content":"“It’s not done and dusted yet. Things can change very quickly in the Keane household, let me tell you.” R<b>oy Keane on being asked about his “future son-in-law” Taylor Harwood-Bellis after he scored against Ireland on his debut in England’s 5-0 win at Wembley.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"KBBKGY3ZI5E2BNWXVW4BC3AVFU","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500770},"content":"December","type":"header"},{"_id":"L6HBXQPBKJFBTIJ5ZF2L4M7M24","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500771},"content":"“I don’t mean to be disrespectful, but Leinster are up there with the National Children’s Hospital for returns on investment – no one has seen anything.” <b>Donncha O’Callaghan being a touch naughty about Leinster’s European woes.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"KZB2PFJMBVD6PBMWNIQOMTUJZM","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500773},"content":"“Dessie has always been like a second father to me. It’s like breaking up with someone. There were two days of tears. There was a week of carnage. The dust is settled now. Life moves on and the world spins, and you’re out.” <b>Dublin legend Brian Fenton on breaking the news to manager Dessie Farrell that he was retiring from intercounty football.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"DFLRN5BM2FIR7Y56UDJJ5NG7OU","additional_properties":{"_id":"ZWH25BXQVRHQLNH3WT26UKQ7H4"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"HO3CXD3YV5FQNPT43OQW7LXPNM","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500775},"content":"“I remember when teams started warming up on the field before a match and Willie Duggan turned around to me and said, ‘listen, I can do the warm-up or I can play the match, but I couldn’t do both’. It’s come a long way.” <b>Donal Lenihan on rugby before all this training intensity lark.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"X5FW3ZXF25DXLNJUP3ZAV5PGTQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500777},"content":"“I drove here with my dad beside me and he kept looking down at me with no trousers on. Mam was in the back with the needle and thread.” <b>Damien Duff completing a memorable year by splitting his pants en route to the SSE Airtricity/Soccer Writers awards where he won the Personality of the Year gong. Mercifully, his Mam had mended them by the time he took to the stage.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"2GXCE3WWBFB5HMA633J74CMKE4","additional_properties":{},"type":"list"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"metered"},"credits":{"by":[{"additional_properties":{"original":{"byline":"Mary Hannigan"}},"name":"Mary Hannigan"}]},"description":{"basic":"The winning quotes of the year in sport"},"display_date":"2024-12-28T06:00:00Z","headlines":{"basic":"The year in sports quotes: The wit and wisdom - from Damien Duff to Daniel Wiffen, Kellie Harrington to Rory McIlroy","native":"The year in sports quotes: 'I wish it was my wife leaving me and not Jurgen'"},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"5469"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"DA4ZQGRCJKYZYEYL3D2LJL3XSU","auth":{"1":"801519a89ae0021fbd58aacd87d7db63523e392a7aca59af3670df8f27529ff0"},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/DA4ZQGRCJKYZYEYL3D2LJL3XSU.jpg"}},"subtype":"feature","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Soccer"},{"name":"Athletics"},{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Cycling"},{"name":"Gaelic Games"},{"name":"Golf"},{"name":"Hockey"},{"name":"Racing"},{"name":"Rugby"},{"name":"Sport"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/sport/soccer/2024/12/28/sports-speak-2024-the-wit-and-wisdom-from-damian-duff-to-daniel-wiffen-kellie-harrington-to-rory-mcilroy/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/sport/soccer","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Soccer"}}}},{"_id":"BT2Y52F465ADNLYZF65OWCPTRQ","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":464,"audio_url":"https://beyondwords-h0e8gjgjaqe0egb7.a03.azurefd.net/audio/projects/8948/podcasts/97785bfe-3dbe-400b-a5b0-d748dd018b8f/versions/1734973228/media/75985a8960081d6f9f0a09d3466626b9_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/sport/boxing/2024/12/26/four-of-irelands-top-five-most-admired-sports-people-2024-are-women/","content_elements":[{"_id":"OEH2J7WYDBBNTIXI6NBRCRHQ44","additional_properties":{"_id":1734960082414},"content":"This year delivered incredible performances across the board in Irish sport, but it was our female athletes in particular who provided so many of the standout moments and achievements.","type":"text"},{"_id":"PYMSEIEQYBEYDER55YVM6FSJ2Q","additional_properties":{"_id":1734960082415},"content":"Significant history was made over the past 12 months. <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/kellie-harrington/\" target=\"_blank\">Kellie Harrington</a> was the first Irish woman athlete to win back-to-back gold medals at <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/olympic-games/\" target=\"_blank\">Olympic Games</a> and <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/rhasidat-adeleke/\" target=\"_blank\">Rhasidat Adeleke</a> was the first Irish woman to make an Olympic sprint final, claiming an incredible fourth place. Ireland’s 4 x 400m relay team obliterated their national record to claim silver in the European Championships in June, qualify for the Olympic final and claim fourth place there. Incredible, inspiring performances – which have come to be expected by the Irish public.","type":"text"},{"_id":"2S4E5ONOFFCVHDTIKRWLZQZBBU","additional_properties":{"_id":1734960082416},"content":"These performances, and many more, have been clearly recognised in the annual <a href=\"https://sportforbusiness.com/team-ireland-and-katie-taylor-top-teneo-public-survey-2024/#:~:text=The%20TSSI%20is%20a%20comprehensive,sport%20and%20their%20sporting%20heroes.\" target=\"_blank\">Teneo Sport and Sponsorship Index</a> (TSSI). This 1,000-person, nationally representative piece of research has been exploring Irish people’s attitudes towards sport and sponsorship for 15 years and has had a particular focus on women’s sport since 2018.","type":"text"},{"_id":"EXNQ3S2BTBACZAKTOU5QSYKMPI","additional_properties":{"_id":1734960082417},"content":"Women athletes claim four of the top five spots when it comes to our “most admired” athletes in 2024. <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/katie-taylor/\" target=\"_blank\">Katie Taylor</a>’s dominance at the top continues; she occupies the number one spot for the eighth year in a row, having garnered 15 per cent of the vote.","type":"text"},{"_id":"GUNYPF4CRBFRNFXLHPSJ7FYHLU","additional_properties":{"_id":1734960082418},"content":"The person who looks most likely to topple her in the coming years is Adaleke, who is Ireland’s second most admired athlete (11 per cent) followed closely by Harrington (10 per cent). Adaleke is a new entry to the top five, and with the most votes from 18-24 year-olds, her popularity is clearly on the rise.","type":"text"},{"_id":"3LPYW7YS5BFSRNJDLKEHM53ZZQ","additional_properties":{"_id":"VJ6TO4ECSFGNDGTFHNEEZMNC3Q"},"content":"Irish Times Sportswoman of the Year Awards: ‘The greatest collection of women in Irish sport in one place ever assembled’","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"HUJMK5LMTVBWPFSMSQ2N6UODYI","additional_properties":{"_id":1734960082419},"content":"Rachael Blackmore continues to make her mark; she is in fifth place, on 5 per cent of the vote. These athletes’ performances over the last 12 months have been world class, regardless of their gender, and Irish people recognise this.","type":"text"},{"_id":"FKFQUFXVJJGJVDN5DGHI4JU2YA","additional_properties":{"_id":1734960082420},"content":"Appreciation for our female athletes because of their sporting achievements is also evident in other areas. Katie McCabe (3 per cent) is our most admired footballer, with Evan Ferguson following her closely on 2 per cent, while Leona Maguire is Ireland’s joint-second favourite golfer with Shane Lowry (2 per cent) – our favourite being Rory McIlroy (3 per cent).","type":"text"},{"_id":"5C4QDYYDNRC55AEZL5Y4O6XW2U","additional_properties":{"_id":"BRS3CUSOLFDDNOWXK35CBZPGAY"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"4BXCPARIIZFW3OXIAC2OT3ACTI","additional_properties":{"_id":1734960082421},"content":"When looking at Team of the Year, the Irish Women’s 4 x 400m relay team were voted third favourite (14 per cent) and the Irish women’s rugby team were recognised in fifth place following their qualification for the 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup and famous win over New Zealand.","type":"text"},{"_id":"UJDQ24ZA6BBL3ADMHK2EPEYC6E","additional_properties":{"_id":1734960082422},"content":"These results show that Irish people recognise and admire sportspeople for their achievements, and these achievements in 2024 certainly have a female bias.","type":"text"},{"_id":"NMVVGCBGTNC7VOMZJRJI6FTKEI","additional_properties":{"_id":1734960082423},"content":"Media and attendance","type":"header"},{"_id":"PIUYF5INZNCVRJQO53I6P2XULM","additional_properties":{"_id":1734960082424},"content":"These athletes have commanded significant media coverage for their performances, with the Olympic and Paralympic Games dominating both the news and sports-news cycles for much of the summer. RTÉ figures show that the most viewed Olympic events were the finals that included Kellie Harrington, with a peak of 1.4 million viewers, and Rhasidat Adeleke, with a peak viewership of 926,000.","type":"text"},{"_id":"7OKW6X5P7CMFEYBO7WO2DWI4CU","additional_properties":{"_id":"TVE3EXEMW5GBBOCV3PNDVQ6U2E"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"PXGSPJOWBRBZNC3POZ4IKCCGVU","additional_properties":{"_id":1734960082425},"content":"Even with these significant viewership figures, the number of those who said they watched a female sporting event either on TV or online has remained fairly static year-on-year, with 55 per cent saying they did so in 2024, a slight decrease on 2023, which was at 59 per cent.","type":"text"},{"_id":"GH3CGD4YVVB6BFUWO57S3VKGUQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1734960082426},"content":"A concern consistently raised by Irish people is around sports coverage, with only 43 per cent saying women’s sport received sufficient media coverage in 2024, although three-quarters say that both the quality and volume has improved in the past 12 months. It is an area that needs constant monitoring and awareness, but things are going in the right direction.","type":"text"},{"_id":"Z5QE2AL7BBFENDH7VNZJKQ4ILQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1734960082427},"content":"When it comes to attending in person, again the numbers are much the same year-on-year – this time last year almost a quarter of people said they intended to go to a women’s sports event in person while the reality was that 16 per cent of people did. This jumps to 24 per cent for those aged 35-44, which is the cohort who attended female sports events the most, and by a significant margin.","type":"text"},{"_id":"A7W4Y7N6V5DSHN3BZHL6GXYAXA","additional_properties":{"_id":1734960082428},"content":"We have seen major women’s sports events incorporate other types of entertainment to enhance the product – Tom Grennan performing at the AIG Women’s Open being a good example of this. But, when the question was asked about what else would encourage Irish people to attend a women’s sports event one in three, which was the majority, said they wanted to attend “only for the sport”. Discounted ticket prices, which we can see in the likes of the National Women’s Soccer League in the United States, would add extra motivation to one in four people.","type":"text"},{"_id":"XC5645CLHFGSTFVTXCNAY5W32I","additional_properties":{"_id":"WRQCTZXIIVA57LGXKWUVSDZCBI"},"content":"The top 25 women’s sporting moments of the year: top spot revealed with Katie Taylor, Rhasidat Adeleke and Kellie Harrington featuring","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"F3AZPK4BNNH7REA5FFW22VBPA4","additional_properties":{"_id":1734960082429},"content":"Another clear sign to me of the progress being made regarding women’s sport is the Women’s Uefa European Championships being in the top five events that Irish people are most looking forward to next year, even though we aren’t competing in it. This again shows that Irish sports fans appreciate and recognise high performance sport, regardless of the gender.","type":"text"},{"_id":"RSRF44CJUVDD7AADBA6CBRSOS4","additional_properties":{"_id":1734960082430},"content":"Gender balance in leadership","type":"header"},{"_id":"AGSJHPEOVZA4RGDS5RPSAPLXIM","additional_properties":{"_id":1734960082431},"content":"Those at the top of their game are making a significant mark; breaking boundaries and inspiring generations of boys and girls. A significant amount of work has been put in, particularly by organisations such as Sport Ireland, to ensure these athletes have the right environments and resources to excel. But what about those leading the various sports in Ireland?","type":"text"},{"_id":"HS2GM3JLMJG5ZJMVV5G7VM34EQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1734960082432},"content":"Sport Ireland achieved a significant objective in 2024 with the overall percentage of women on boards in the Irish sports sector standing at 48 per cent in December. While this demonstrates that Sport Ireland and the Government’s approach has worked, the next important step will be maintaining this level into the future.","type":"text"},{"_id":"62CBBBJQJVHKVNKBXZZAEEHLYU","additional_properties":{"_id":1734960082433},"content":"In order to do this I believe it is important that women put themselves forward for voluntary positions at grassroots level so that they can progress through the boards, committees and systems which ultimately lead to leadership positions at provincial and national levels.","type":"text"},{"_id":"PP4CGF6V5VCZBBPKKSHQM5JAUY","additional_properties":{"_id":1734960082434},"content":"As it stands our research shows that currently only 16 per cent of women volunteer, compared to almost a quarter of men. This figure needs to change if we are to maintain the ambition of meaningful gender balance on boards at a national level.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ZFHZTO7HKFBTRNQHCNKVXPKSB4","additional_properties":{"_id":1734960082435},"content":"The primary motivations for women volunteering are to support their club in its development and growth (54 per cent), to give back to their community (48 per cent) and because their children are involved (43 per cent). It is imperative that those who are volunteering because of their children are motivated to stay on even when their children have graduated.","type":"text"},{"_id":"PPRTFYGDCVAQBFKAU56TKFIRGE","additional_properties":{"_id":1734960082436},"content":"Our elite athletes and their outstanding performances on the world stage in 2024 have had a large impact on Irish sport, not just Irish female sport.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ZYBEEPD4LNF27KFH546ADUBJ7Y","additional_properties":{"_id":1734960082437},"content":"Attendance at and media coverage of women’s sporting events continue to need attention but with the Irish system producing world-class athletes there is no doubt that these areas will change for the better.","type":"text"},{"_id":"MVA7CM6WEFEU3MM52WYZB77I2U","additional_properties":{"_id":1734960082438},"content":"This, coupled with gender balance in leadership of our sports organisations, means that women’s sport in Ireland is on solid ground and the future for all involved and those they are inspiring is very exciting.","type":"text"},{"_id":"YCDY6C2IB5FUNMX3YVDX7FFP3I","additional_properties":{},"type":"list"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"metered"},"credits":{"by":[{"additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Kelli O'Keeffe"}]},"description":{"basic":"Survey shows big performances mark major milestones in a historic year for women in Irish sport"},"display_date":"2024-12-26T06:00:00Z","headlines":{"basic":"Four of Ireland’s top five most admired sports people in 2024 are women","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"8948"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"IDQX2YMNI5GQCQRS3AAMZYGC64","auth":{"1":"9850d1433a0fe2a6c6b5516f4057a180d28aebddb0c54ad7f71d2390da8b607c"},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/IDQX2YMNI5GQCQRS3AAMZYGC64.jpg"}},"subtype":"default","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Soccer"},{"name":"Rugby"},{"name":"Golf"},{"name":"Gaelic Games"},{"name":"Cycling"},{"name":"Athletics"},{"name":"Sport"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/sport/boxing/2024/12/26/four-of-irelands-top-five-most-admired-sports-people-2024-are-women/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/sport/boxing","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Boxing"}}}},{"_id":"6MIFR53ODRB2PJORRM5EJENXUA","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":268,"audio_url":"https://beyondwords-h0e8gjgjaqe0egb7.a03.azurefd.net/audio/projects/8948/podcasts/3716ffe0-337d-4349-815b-d1308576b35f/versions/1734870711/media/8e182eed627519832009584a7b04a6f4_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/sport/boxing/2024/12/22/i-won-that-fight-tyson-fury-rejects-defeat-as-judges-christmas-gift-to-oleksandr-usyk/","content_elements":[{"_id":"SD7YR4XFZ5EE3FFGHT3YF6DXQQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1734869680574},"content":"<a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/tyson-fury/\" target=\"_blank\">Tyson Fury</a> described <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/oleksandr-usyk/\" target=\"_blank\">Oleksandr Usyk</a>’s victory over him as a “Christmas gift” from the three judges who all scored the fight 116-112 in favour of the world heavyweight champion. The verdict was justifiably much more clearcut than the split-decision ruling that gave Usyk victory in May.","type":"text"},{"_id":"FIK2NBBMSRC5BDJ7EJNU3A2WPQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1734869680575},"content":"But Fury offered his contrasting belief at the post-fight press conference: “I thought I won that fight. I thought I won both fights but I’m going home with two losses on my record. There’s not much I can do about it. I can just fight my heart out.","type":"text"},{"_id":"S4CKXUWF6BGFFNLMKKYMR7JCTQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1734869680577},"content":"“I will believe til the day I die that I won that fight. I was aggressive, on the front foot all night, landing to the body and head. Frank Warren [his promoter] had me three or four rounds up. A lot of people had me at least two rounds up. But I’m not going to cry over spilled milk. I can’t change the decision. When you don’t get the KO this is what happens: you can’t guarantee a win.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"5RDMBF4P3FHTHNIV7MFUNFU6LE","additional_properties":{"_id":1734869680578},"content":"Asked by a Ukrainian journalist if he agreed that Usyk was inspired by the defiant spirit of his war-torn country, Fury said dolefully: “I didn’t feel no spirit. I felt a bit of Christmas spirit in there and think he got a Christmas gift from those judges.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"QHBIMT6R25G2DLHLGDANXYX5XM","additional_properties":{"_id":1734869680579},"content":"Fury was told that even the experimental use of artificial intelligence had gone against him. The AI “judge” recorded a score of 118-112 to Usyk. Fury responded amusingly when he considered his view of AI. “By the review of that, absolutely shit,” he said. “Fuck all the computers, keep the humans going. More jobs for humans, less jobs for computers. Fuck electric cars too, while we’re at it.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"D6CR27KMSBEAFCC5W6ERZQLA4U","additional_properties":{"_id":1734869680580},"content":"He was asked what he would like to do next. “Go home and have a good Christmas. I’ve been away 12 weeks working for this fight. I’m gonna go home now and enjoy it. We go home to a new year. Let’s see what it brings.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"WJ4HMVSKWJECTDEQIN4NSM5B44","additional_properties":{"_id":1734869680581},"content":"Warren later spoke of his bemusement with the judges’ scorecards. “How did Tyson only get four rounds in this fight? It’s impossible,” he told Dazn. “Only four rounds. Each of them gave him four rounds, four different rounds. I’m not saying this because I’m biased, but everyone along the front there all thought it went the same way.","type":"text"},{"_id":"LR3ZD7OVGZGMVCANFHRT4UMIZU","additional_properties":{"_id":1734869680582},"content":"“It’s nuts. It’s nuts, I don’t get it. I’m really disappointed with that. I thought he was in control of the fight and boxed extremely well. Usyk was on the back foot for most of the fight, but it is what it is.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"5CTORIWQZFFSXDF36NFQZ5VFLI","additional_properties":{"_id":1734869680584},"content":"Fury’s future now comes into question following a second successive defeat to Usyk, but Warren declined to speculate on what he might do. “I don’t know. He’s very disappointed, like I am as well. It’s up to him,” Warren said. “It’s too early, just after a fight. Obviously emotions are running high. We’ll have to wait and see what happens for Tyson in the future. He’ll have to make up his mind.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"LH2F47NCGRH3JJUJ4LG4DJXJMU","additional_properties":{"_id":1734869680585},"content":"Usyk is the only man to have beaten Fury, who began his professional career 16 years ago this month, but the British fighter remained grudging in his praise. He would not even accept that Usyk is the best man he has ever faced. “Not really. In that fight he never hurt me once. I’ve got a few flesh wounds – and they’ll be gone in a few days. I know what’s happened and that’s it.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"A5UWW6XB7FAQXPC6LU27KUF7NU","additional_properties":{"_id":1734869680586},"content":"Fury repeated his belief that “in my opinion it was a Christmas gift. It’s not Oleksandr’s fault – congrats to him and his team.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"GZWJDKFTANAHBDCTSALKKJI2XM","additional_properties":{"_id":1734869680587},"content":"Usyk, typically, was far more gracious towards Fury: “He is a great fighter. He is a great opponent. He gave an unbelievable 24 rounds for my career. 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There was no pathway laid out for her, no fast-track to success. No slow-track, for that matter. It wasn’t just unlikely that she would end up becoming the first Irish boxer – male or female – to win back-to-back <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/olympic-games/\" target=\"_blank\">Olympic</a> gold medals. It was, by all measures, unimaginable.","type":"text"},{"_id":"G22XDSFRF5CSZMTTHXAEGQSMI4","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530769392},"content":"Who would waste time, breath or synapses on a dream like that?","type":"text"},{"_id":"CHL3STQIVZBONFMWQNG5XG7Z6M","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530769393},"content":"Spin the tape back to Harrington as a young teenager, the girl her mam sent away to live in England for a while to keep her out of trouble. The girl who dropped out of school, who was lost, who felt like she didn’t belong anywhere. Nobody was predicting this life for her, least of all herself.","type":"text"},{"_id":"CA4GA6JFZJAEZLMZNI2HQ2BHYE","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530769394},"content":"Yet there she was on a Tuesday night in August, with the whole country bobbing and weaving on their couches. Her <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/boxing/2024/08/06/kellie-harrington-makes-history-as-she-wins-a-second-olympic-gold-medal-in-paris/\" target=\"_blank\">Olympic final against China’s Yang Wenlu</a> was the last bout of the night, delayed by a schedule that went long, meaning it didn’t start until just short of 10.30pm Irish time. And still, the viewing figures said 1.3 million people hung on to watch her. For context, the Toy Show got 1.6 million.","type":"text"},{"_id":"YUPDRXLU3ZHKJIQB2KN2ZK5MNQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530769395},"content":"Think about that. This wasn’t an Ireland team in action. It wasn’t one of the big four sports. It wasn’t, frankly, a popular sport at all. For all our rich boxing history, it’s still a pretty niche pursuit in Ireland – the women’s side of it even more so. But that night, for those 11 minutes, 83 per cent of everyone who was watching a television in Ireland was watching Kellie Harrington.","type":"text"},{"_id":"N6GFURAF55A27KLOREMXAJH7BQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530769396},"content":"Never mind when she was a teenager – she would have had trouble imagining that for herself as recently as April of this year. At the European Elite Championships in Belgrade, Harrington lost to Natalia Shadrina, a Russian fighter who declared for Serbia in 2021. It was the Dubliner’s first defeat in three years and the Olympic opening ceremony was 92 days away.","type":"text"},{"_id":"QG466CXRPVESRFT553VJOVOBTU","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530769397},"content":"Sport owes you nothing. Olympic sport, even less. Katie Taylor did more to get women’s boxing into the Games than any fighter alive and still her Olympic journey ended with a split-decision defeat in her opening bout in Rio. Harrington had been the best fighter in Tokyo in 2021 but had made no secret of the fact that <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/paris-2024/\" target=\"_blank\">Paris</a> was to be her last run on the hamster wheel. Dream endings are incredibly rare for a reason.","type":"text"},{"_id":"5C4QDYYDNRC55AEZL5Y4O6XW2U","additional_properties":{"_id":"YPKORJMA2FG4TNGVAFPVQCMIHA"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"FFFCMPXL2RGU5PYJ2EBEESEXOE","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530769398},"content":"And of course, you had to throw into the mix the fact that Harrington had endured a torrid year out of the ring, entirely of her own making. A stupid tweet, <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/boxing/2023/03/28/kellie-harrington-says-she-is-all-about-diversity-after-refusing-to-answer-questions-about-immigration-and-her-deleted-tweet/\" target=\"_blank\">a disastrous interview</a>, an online viral shitstorm – it took a mental toll on her that raised huge doubts over what version of her would glove up in Paris. She had always used the backing of the Irish public as the coal in the stove. Now she wasn’t sure how much of it lay in ashes.","type":"text"},{"_id":"QY3DW2EGNZFUNNKB37L6UZABTY","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530769399},"content":"The thing with Kellie Harrington is that she finds it hard to wear a mask for long. She’ll do it when she needs to but it will take a supreme conscious effort on her part. It’s like she’s always pinching herself on the inside of her leg, reminding herself that she needs to keep a lid on the freewheeling, fandango part of her personality. Just for a little while longer.","type":"text"},{"_id":"K3TK7HIUUVDC3CIM4LZDYQXIEQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530769400},"content":"That’s who she turned herself into throughout the Olympics. For whatever reason, the organisers put the early stages of the boxing tournament in the most run-down venue at the Games. It was held in an out-of-the-way industrial estate on the north of the city. Versailles, it was not.","type":"text"},{"_id":"KHRBNAW5RNHUZHWKTEI4XOWA4M","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530769401},"content":"But in a way, that suited Harrington. Her whole approach to the Games was to isolate herself, to keep the outside world out, to plunge herself into a tunnel of her own making that let in no light until she was standing on the podium at the end. She kept her post-fight interviews clipped and po-faced, ignoring the fact that the rest of the Irish boxing team was collapsing in a heap around her.","type":"text"},{"_id":"2DMWDHRCHJGPHK25YONVUH66VI","additional_properties":{"_id":"2TJOZ4VPQBERTFY5RM2YDZRA4I"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"2OON33LCK5CKZDXHO3HF5BKEVM","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530769402},"content":"She kept the main thing the main thing. She put Alessia Mesiano and Angie Valdes away with perfunctory ease in her opening two bouts. She put on a show against world champion Beatriz Ferreira in an exhilarating semi-final, turning what had been a close fight her way in the final round, which she won on all judges’ cards.","type":"text"},{"_id":"HUULIHNGRNFGDAQDT54I7H5LTY","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530769403},"content":"It meant a second straight Olympic final – and a change of venue. But Harrington couldn’t have been less interested in the fact that her final was going to take place in the gilded surrounds of Court Philippe-Chatrier at Roland Garros. Novak Djokovic had won his gold medal on the same court just 36 hours earlier – the boxing had to start so late because the stadium had undergone a total refit in a day and a half.","type":"text"},{"_id":"NC3BDM3SARAYNCF443OCXGMEN4","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530769404},"content":"None of it mattered. She turned up and fought and took all the drama out of the night. She won the first round, she won the second. Three of the judges had her in an unassailable 20-18 going into the final stanza. All she had to do was stay standing upright and the gold medal was hers. She knew it too – she let Yang do all the running and gave up a split decision along the way but none of that mattered.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ORC4KW3WR5HPLOHA6FGAIMHAN4","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530769405},"content":"Gold. Again.","type":"text"},{"_id":"IXPLIX7NEJGJXNKBBA27UCCRCY","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530769406},"content":"Life goes on, of course. She is adamant that she has <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/2024/08/08/kellie-harrington-confirms-boxing-retirement-ive-nothing-more-to-prove-not-even-to-myself/\" target=\"_blank\">retired from international boxing</a> but anyone snooping around her social media will see she hasn’t entirely given up on the life. It would be no shock to see her turn up at the nationals one of these years, just for the kicks of it. Her next act will be fascinating, whatever form it takes.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ZFD66U7XY5FDRAGZJPVPJ2362E","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530769407},"content":"Double Olympic champion. The greatest Olympic boxer Ireland has ever known. Nothing left to prove to anyone.","type":"text"},{"_id":"2GXCE3WWBFB5HMA633J74CMKE4","additional_properties":{},"type":"list"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"metered"},"credits":{"by":[{"additional_properties":{"original":{"byline":"Malachy Clerkin"}},"name":"Malachy Clerkin"}]},"description":{"basic":"Back-to-back Olympic champion achieved the most coveted sporting triumph of all, going out on a high"},"display_date":"2024-12-21T06:00:00Z","headlines":{"basic":"Kellie Harrington fought hard for the dream ending she well deserved","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"5469"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"NEIDXA4O6ZEZFKBLAYUR47HVAQ","auth":{"1":"49d55fc49eaa10e33ff99bf4aec417c2dfbe26703f0c704c6869212c6f8344e5"},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/NEIDXA4O6ZEZFKBLAYUR47HVAQ.jpg"}},"subtype":"feature","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Sport"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/sport/boxing/2024/12/21/kellie-harrington-fought-hard-for-the-dream-ending-she-well-deserved/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/sport/boxing","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Boxing"}}}},{"_id":"DEABPEXLZJD5TPMAQIYO6XMO5A","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":319,"audio_url":"https://beyondwords-h0e8gjgjaqe0egb7.a03.azurefd.net/audio/projects/5469/podcasts/1e6d8529-a74a-4fef-bc23-1b01f2382c8b/versions/1734718099/media/40f78f945d2886fda1e7599d22c01695_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/sport/2024/12/20/irish-times-sportswoman-of-the-year-awards-the-greatest-collection-of-women-in-irish-sport-in-one-place-ever-assembled/","content_elements":[{"_id":"4CI3TZHN45CSPPXVGXZZAJKUJ4","additional_properties":{"_id":1734716199712},"content":"The journey through the past year, especially, has been hugely satisfying for so many of Ireland’s elite sportswomen and the final few steps – fittingly enough, climbing red-carpeted steps into the Shelbourne Hotel in the heart of Dublin city – had that sort of glitz and glamour far removed from the punishing training regimes of blood, sweat and tears that brought many such honour.","type":"text"},{"_id":"VE4X4TMHMFGGVIUBGL3QH4GPOM","additional_properties":{"_id":1734716199713},"content":"So it was that those on their final Friday of Christmas shopping or preparing for a long lunch or later nights stopped and stared. Mobile cameras were raised. <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/kellie-harrington/\" target=\"_blank\">Kellie</a>. Ciara. Mona. Louise. First names that have found a way into the heart and soul of Irish sporting life through their deeds in the ring, on the track, in the pool, on the pitch. Fingers pointing at them, shouts of recognition from women and men, girls and boys stopped in tracks.","type":"text"},{"_id":"2BSNHXKJLFGLTJONTU5IT5KXLA","additional_properties":{"_id":1734716199714},"content":"The Irish Times/Sport Ireland Sportswoman of the Year Awards were celebrating a 20th year since its inspired conception and the mood inside the old ballroom of the hotel was festive and celebratory with those honoured rightly enjoying their moments, a time to acknowledge and be acknowledged with mutual respect from one sportswoman to another.","type":"text"},{"_id":"EAHJ6KQJF5ECJHDNYGUMXEOOQU","additional_properties":{"_id":1734716199715},"content":"“The greatest collection of women in Irish sport in one place ever assembled, there is greatness everywhere,” is how Master of Ceremonies Des Cahill of RTÉ informed one and all of those present.","type":"text"},{"_id":"YFPSXHHPZZFLHMTGUMWNHNNZNE","additional_properties":{"_id":1734716199716},"content":"Some, unfortunately, couldn’t make it. But there were good reasons. Swimmer <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/roisin-ni-riain/\" target=\"_blank\">Róisín Ní Riain</a>, the double medallist at the <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/paralympic-games/\" target=\"_blank\">Paralympics</a>, had a college exam. Sevens rugby player Lucy Mulhall is on honeymoon. <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/katie-taylor/\" target=\"_blank\">Katie Taylor</a> was unable to attend. <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/rhasidat-adeleke/\" target=\"_blank\">Rhasidat Adeleke</a> was away with her sister Latifah.","type":"text"},{"_id":"RK7PPOED2PZTJ4RVG6PPDAC6QQ","additional_properties":{"_id":"QG3GW5KDBJCJDBX63VPCUPIMME"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"ZCTORDJOLFHYXIAVOFBIXMYFQ4","additional_properties":{"_id":1734716199717},"content":"But Rhasidat’s mother, an emotional Ade, stole the show in accepting the monthly award for May on behalf of her daughter and of her pride, while revealing the heartache of seeing her daughter come so close – fourth – to a medal at the <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/Paris-2024/\" target=\"_blank\">Olympics</a>.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ULQZXTAK4ZFCJKH44GPQKSB7Y4","additional_properties":{"_id":1734716199718},"content":"“Can you feel the love?” Des asked her.","type":"text"},{"_id":"GRSZZHPOQ5CSLBBQYM6LGJ5MKY","additional_properties":{"_id":1734716199719},"content":"“I know,” she replied, the tears coming.","type":"text"},{"_id":"T6GKSYUC4FDP3EV222GNXIWYRI","additional_properties":{"_id":1734716199720},"content":"“I’m sorry, I don’t have a tissue,” whispered Des.","type":"text"},{"_id":"BVX7UD7X35G57MMZECQZ5DM7RI","additional_properties":{"_id":1734716199721},"content":"Silence, though, was a rare commodity on the day that was in it with Olympic double medallist Kellie Harrington showing the way in whooping and hollering as European 1,500 metres champion <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/ciara-mageean/\" target=\"_blank\">Ciara Mageean</a> was called to collect her June award for her magnificent victory in Rome.","type":"text"},{"_id":"UPT5IX5OURH5LCZSBG32ANGP5Q","additional_properties":{"_id":"JLUKWD6ERJAQ3JHJWMI7KP7YEM"},"content":"Two-time Olympic champion Kellie Harrington named Irish Times/Sport Ireland Sportswoman of the Year 2024","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"U2ULH525ONEUDLA2HMOICL3YXA","additional_properties":{"_id":1734716199722},"content":"Ciara was one of the very few who hadn’t donned high heels. Having undergone surgery on her ankle three months ago, the more comfortable – and sensible – option of trainers were the Co Down star’s choice of footwear.","type":"text"},{"_id":"6KTHEXA2MZFEBPILSBHFMSC5EI","additional_properties":{"_id":1734716199723},"content":"First things first, however, Ciara – following Ade to the stage – spoke through the crowds and the round tables to Rhasidat’s mother.","type":"text"},{"_id":"23H6SZXBVFC33FBEX7MKYX3HNA","additional_properties":{"_id":1734716199724},"content":"“I can sit here as a 32-year-old athlete and say that Rhadisat is so young and we all know the future that she has in the sport, it is so bright so I know that even when my spikes are hung up I am going to be watching her bringing medals home,” said Mageean, to widespread roars of approval from those gathered.","type":"text"},{"_id":"G3C6LCKWENEIZGFFVEUDIASVHM","additional_properties":{"_id":1734716199725},"content":"Of her own moment of glory in Rome, Mageean – who seems to have a smile permanently fixed to her face (unless, as Des reminded us, she’s pitchside at a hurling match!), revealed that it’s not all glamour. She’d to go for a drug test post-final and by the time she got out to her family the celebrations involved “cold pizza and a can of coke.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"NO4CLR4J2YFZPPX4G4EIU4JR6I","additional_properties":{"_id":"IHMNYCN5YZHN5LXIYRUGEMRXWE"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"BAC6PKGAABBBXLBEZDTBNMUB4Y","additional_properties":{"_id":1734716199726},"content":"Mageean has moved back home to Ireland and has no plans to hang up the spikes just yet, as she revealed: “I am looking forward to this next chapter on Irish soil. I have my eyes firmly set on getting ready for the World Championships in the summer and another four year cycle towards LA (for the 2028 Olympics).”","type":"text"},{"_id":"T6ZSHMO2ZFBCXFMSFJTVNMT34U","additional_properties":{"_id":1734716199727},"content":"Katie Taylor couldn’t make it but another Katie – the legendary <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/katie-george-dunlevy/\" target=\"_blank\">Katie-George Dunlevy</a> – certainly was, in a year of years where she overcame a shattered shoulder blade to recover and win Paralympic and World gold medals in taking the award for September. If that was a great year, it was made even better in being named along with her pilots Linda Kelly and Eve McCrystal as the recipients of the Team of the Year award.","type":"text"},{"_id":"BULCGU3XDBFJFOOM3OLEE7FBDU","additional_properties":{"_id":1734716199728},"content":"The broad range of sportswomen excelling on the international stage is, surely, quite extraordinary. <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/rachael-blackmore/\" target=\"_blank\">Rachael Blackmore</a>’s win in the Champions Chase at Cheltenham – her mother Eimir revealed she’d gone to the restrooms and put on the hand drier so she couldn’t hear the race, only emerging for the final few fences – added to her great career CV, while Louise Ní Mhuircheartaigh’s brilliance in the Kerry jersey in leading her side to the All-Ireland title after 31 years was celebrated in her August award.","type":"text"},{"_id":"4KMXIWN65VHRLOGJ62Z5RDOQ5Y","additional_properties":{"_id":1734716199729},"content":"“Gorta mór,” said Louise of the time away from the Brendan Martin Cup.","type":"text"},{"_id":"FMUMQL3EQJEBPK5547JHZGUM44","additional_properties":{"_id":1734716199730},"content":"This, for sure, was another celebration of Irish sportswomen where, it seems, the bar is raised ever higher each year.","type":"text"},{"_id":"C72HGQKSS5CHDPUYTD7A6BW2PQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1734716199731},"content":"And in accepting her award as the Sportswoman of the Year, Harrington, another with a tear in her eye, had a special word for all of the mammies of Ireland. “Win, lose or draw, just keep on doing what you are doing (in encouraging daughters to achieve in sport) ... because it’s great!”","type":"text"},{"_id":"2GXCE3WWBFB5HMA633J74CMKE4","additional_properties":{},"type":"list"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"metered"},"credits":{"by":[{"additional_properties":{"original":{"byline":"Philip Reid"}},"name":"Philip Reid"}]},"description":{"basic":"Kellie Harrington named Irish Times/Sport Ireland Sportswoman of the Year for 2024"},"display_date":"2024-12-20T18:03:06.099Z","headlines":{"basic":"Irish Times Sportswoman of the Year Awards: ‘The greatest collection of women in Irish sport in one place ever assembled’","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"5469"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"SSSW3LZ77BC3ZLSQ3WEWCGHWII","auth":{"1":"92ba5d2de7376199be3b6c4e82d180c82c3403294597350d54e3eb4d80419e5b"},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/SSSW3LZ77BC3ZLSQ3WEWCGHWII.JPG"}},"subtype":"feature","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Sport"},{"name":"Soccer"},{"name":"Rugby"},{"name":"Racing"},{"name":"Golf"},{"name":"Gaelic Games"},{"name":"Cycling"},{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Athletics"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/sport/2024/12/20/irish-times-sportswoman-of-the-year-awards-the-greatest-collection-of-women-in-irish-sport-in-one-place-ever-assembled/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/sport","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Sport"}}}},{"_id":"56EDKMB2IFG27BAV7NAIQY5YGM","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":272,"audio_url":"https://beyondwords-h0e8gjgjaqe0egb7.a03.azurefd.net/audio/projects/5469/podcasts/370675ba-4460-40f1-8019-ac01fc1a5cfd/versions/1734719946/media/32643e5ff13f768115172dd215c1a87e_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/sport/2024/12/20/two-time-olympic-champion-kellie-harrington-named-irish-timessport-ireland-sportswoman-of-the-year-2024/","content_elements":[{"_id":"BTMNICXND5HEPLHQ4L65TCKRBY","additional_properties":{},"content":"Right to the very end of the year, <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/kellie-harrington/\" target=\"_blank\">Kellie Harrington</a> still had them out of their seats – this time after she was named Irish Times/Sport Ireland Sportswoman of the Year for 2024.","type":"text"},{"_id":"QIO2L7TILZA45OXPUQH7ELTE4I","additional_properties":{},"content":"When <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/ciara-mageean/\" target=\"_blank\">Ciara Mageean</a> walked up to accept her monthly award an hour earlier, Harrington roared from the table, ‘Go Ciara.’ Game recognising game. ","type":"text"},{"_id":"IXSLN7OP3RFS3MRYRFTAUCWEDA","additional_properties":{},"content":"But who has had more game than Harrington in 2024? When she was announced as the overall winner those in the function room of The Shelbourne Hotel rose simultaneously.","type":"text"},{"_id":"MPU54ISDYVD4FDDVYP7MNS4DJE","additional_properties":{},"content":"Mageean, <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/mona-mcsharry/\" target=\"_blank\">Mona McSharry</a>, Sonia O’Sullivan, the great and the good. All spontaneously out of their chairs. Harrington is adjusting to life as a former boxer these days, but double <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/olympic-games/\" target=\"_blank\">Olympic</a> champions don’t bow out unnoticed.","type":"text"},{"_id":"VENCJ46V2NCIPHAACVDW7AKEIQ","additional_properties":{},"content":"In the lobby afterwards, one of the first people over for a photo was <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/rhasidat-adeleke/\" target=\"_blank\">Rhasidat Adeleke</a>’s mam, Adewumi Ademola. They enveloped each other in a long, warm embrace beforehand. Others followed. Her achievements in Tokyo and <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/paris-2024/\" target=\"_blank\">Paris</a> have set her apart. This is who Harrington is now, and forever will be, the Irish boxer who retained her Olympic gold medal. Unprecedented stuff.","type":"text"},{"_id":"YQZECB3RZVAMHINBTQWLQUTYHE","additional_properties":{},"content":"The Team of the Year award was won by Paralympic cyclists <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/katie-george-dunlevy/\" target=\"_blank\">Katie-George Dunlevy</a>, <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/linda-kelly/\" target=\"_blank\">Linda Kelly</a> and <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/eve-mccrystal/\" target=\"_blank\">Eve McCrystal</a>.","type":"text"},{"_id":"UXP7HZ3FOY25SBWG7YM6RZMGUU","additional_properties":{"_id":"3RJFWYWCMBCYZLA6VF6QD5JS4U"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"BK23FAJ43NBDNOC4S54LEAWXZY","additional_properties":{},"content":"For Harrington, it has been a challenge adjusting to life outside the bubble of being an athlete. ","type":"text"},{"_id":"5622IAOBSZGOZCR3MVQJWUFGAI","additional_properties":{},"content":"“Part of that is probably because I am usually so focused on what’s next,” she said.","type":"text"},{"_id":"R7QCJ45ETBBZ3EGGHVOLEBQLEE","additional_properties":{},"content":"“And now I just don’t know, I’m in limbo land – I don’t know what I’m doing, I don’t know where I’m going, I don’t know who I am, I don’t know anything. I’m just taking the rest of this year off to enjoy doing nothing, and it feels so strange. ","type":"text"},{"_id":"CYEVYPKKPJH47N4FWUGBTK5OFU","additional_properties":{},"content":"“It really feels so strange to not have to get up and go training, not to have to check my weight every morning, not to try and think of what things I want to work on in training.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ZY67UUW46BGGHOEDZUZEUTS5AY","additional_properties":{},"content":"“I would be constantly always thinking about stuff like that, thinking about how I can get better, what’s that one per cent that I can work on today. But now it’s like, ‘What am I going to have for my breakfast today – will I have porridge or will I have a fry?’ I definitely miss it.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"2LJWW5JJKFGOHMH3C7HVDO5AHA","additional_properties":{},"content":"But to help with the transition, she has kept her eye in – popping out to Abbottstown to train in the high-performance unit.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ENWLLUXAK64PWGKOJIVWGZIRGA","additional_properties":{"_id":"3YKAN46LXZHOVJRDG4MXEZN63Q"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"VNDA6VLBPRBO5KRLMTST2B3YDY","additional_properties":{},"content":"Zaur Anita has even suggested she join the team when they travel to China in February, to help prepare the boxers with some sparring. She might. But there is no grá within her to become a coach. ","type":"text"},{"_id":"2ENKSH2L4NGXHGR7TDIGVOKMSU","additional_properties":{},"content":"“I don’t think that’s me. I think if I was to go to a coaching role I’d probably lose my cool. But I do think there is something there that I have to give back, but I just don’t think it’s in a coaching role, not to the extent that is in the high performance.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"MH6NYGFWFBESXDSNR4WXHDCMY4","additional_properties":{},"content":"She recently moved back to Portland Row with her wife Mandy, buying a house just a quick shuffle away from Harrington’s childhood home. They’ll be hosting Christmas dinner this year. Life moving on, as it should.","type":"text"},{"_id":"BACGUGQIEVCEDDTXWLJ52WEHUQ","additional_properties":{"_id":"QLTQWYVTVNGDDCODYGBCYYYRQA"},"content":"Irish Times Sportswoman of the Year Awards: ‘The greatest collection of women in Irish sport in one place ever assembled’","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"TVIE6YRCYZCPPL5DKOBEZDLAB4","additional_properties":{},"content":"“I feel this is a new chapter for the two of us.” ","type":"text"},{"_id":"AB7ORZ5ANJE5VKDFGDVLIUP37U","additional_properties":{},"content":"But sport will remain an important part of her life.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ZJ4AWFXYB5DFZDGHC3NDGJPIQU","additional_properties":{},"content":"“Every woman or man who get up in the morning and are trying to do something in sport, they are already winning because somebody is looking up to them, it could be their niece, nephew, cousin, their next-door neighbours’ kids – somebody is looking up to them. ","type":"text"},{"_id":"A2VQPDR3HVEHLFWTE6SOKB2R5A","additional_properties":{},"content":"“Whether you are winning on the field or the pitch or whatever, you are winning at life and that’s the most important thing.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"7IWQDPLEXNF5TGIVITVBUOXYCU","additional_properties":{"_id":"5TONMUAWZNBHLCUAAZDRZUP2AQ"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"GIEH224W4VCANMMHF5SRZUBS3A","additional_properties":{},"content":"It’s that same perspective that will see Harrington pull the front door behind her on Christmas Day for a few hours and travel the short distance to Fairview Hospital to punch in for work. ","type":"text"},{"_id":"OIKCYSXY2BDBJMX4HAFOJQU25A","additional_properties":{},"content":"","type":"text"},{"_id":"AQEVZ4ITGBDN7C3P6WDCIR4XPE","additional_properties":{},"content":"“In the past I used to have the ward and I used to have all the patients in the ward and it would be absolutely magical. On Christmas Day I would bring them all in presents and we’d open them together, I just used to love it,” she said.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ESI3NYPEI5FBDCPFIQ3O7GXLVI","additional_properties":{},"content":"“Work is not the same at the moment because the hospital is bit by bit closing down, all the patients on my ward have been moved to nursing homes. ","type":"text"},{"_id":"YIQILTOU25HB3IFDC2IK5QOUDE","additional_properties":{},"content":"“They are going to build a new hospital, so I’m holding out hope that I will still be there when they do build the new hospital and we’ll go back to the way it was on the ward with the patients. It won’t be the same patients, but I’ll still give them all the love that I have.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"FOK2ZEUVMFARDEBYGTQYTOHCPQ","additional_properties":{},"content":"As Kellie Harrington found out in The Shelbourne on Friday, the love flows both ways.","type":"text"},{"_id":"2GXCE3WWBFB5HMA633J74CMKE4","additional_properties":{},"type":"list"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"metered"},"credits":{"by":[{"additional_properties":{"original":{"byline":"Gordon Manning"}},"name":"Gordon Manning"}]},"description":{"basic":"Olympians, paralympians, All-Ireland winners and more celebrated at annual awards in Dublin"},"display_date":"2024-12-20T15:23:13.504Z","headlines":{"basic":"Two-time Olympic champion Kellie Harrington named Irish Times/Sport Ireland Sportswoman of the Year 2024","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"5469"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"3WGEYMS3OVGNLEGBX7B3YR62XU","auth":{"1":"5a314a12da2be568d0316df7f8b96d3ce69e0834443189433278ec8e237eda1d"},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/3WGEYMS3OVGNLEGBX7B3YR62XU.jpeg"}},"subtype":"default","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Sport"},{"name":"Soccer"},{"name":"Rugby"},{"name":"Racing"},{"name":"Golf"},{"name":"Gaelic Games"},{"name":"Cycling"},{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Athletics"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/sport/2024/12/20/two-time-olympic-champion-kellie-harrington-named-irish-timessport-ireland-sportswoman-of-the-year-2024/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/sport","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Sport"}}}},{"_id":"DQAELRV525FLNFNQ7AIDGQABSI","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":414,"audio_url":"https://beyondwords-h0e8gjgjaqe0egb7.a03.azurefd.net/audio/projects/5469/podcasts/7cb2f2fa-9f55-4de9-bd5d-985fd8082241/versions/1734626899/media/6902c2c6c0c1cf0733d1abab16df061a_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/sport/2024/12/20/sportswoman-awards-preview-celebration-of-womens-achievements-hits-its-20th-year/","content_elements":[{"_id":"VECWODI5UJBCVBJ7WAJJFNCXSI","additional_properties":{"_id":1734622075243},"content":"When we launched the <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/sportswoman-of-the-year-award/\" target=\"_blank\">Sportswoman of the Year</a> awards back in 2004, it’s arguable that just two of the people on the list of monthly winners, Sonia O’Sullivan and Cora Staunton, were household names.","type":"text"},{"_id":"CIMZZXJB3JEHVK6JGC3H6MHKQU","additional_properties":{"_id":1734622075244},"content":"Fast forward to 2024 and our list of contenders for the overall award doesn’t just feature names well known to us, it’s sprinkled with some of the biggest stars in Irish sport – among them <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/kellie-harrington/\" target=\"_blank\">Kellie Harrington</a>, <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/rachael-blackmore/\" target=\"_blank\">Rachael Blackmore</a>, <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/rhasidat-adeleke/\" target=\"_blank\">Rhasidat Adeleke</a>, <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/ciara-mageean/\" target=\"_blank\">Ciara Mageean</a>, <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/katie-george-dunlevy/\" target=\"_blank\">Katie-George Dunlevy</a> and <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/katie-taylor/\" target=\"_blank\">Katie Taylor</a>.","type":"text"},{"_id":"E233IJNLSBCHJK6FALWWNJJKSU","additional_properties":{"_id":1734622075245},"content":"That is, of course, a measure of the depth of their achievements, all of them once again treating us to unforgettable moments through the year, but it is also a sign that they are finally receiving the recognition they deserve.","type":"text"},{"_id":"6QYH7LQQSVH2NJQBCLIKRRNN5E","additional_properties":{"_id":1734622075246},"content":"And that was our chief hope back in 2004 when the awards got under way, that they would help shine a light on the largely underreported feats of our sportswomen.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ZAVDG7TX6ZHI5LB5M22D57Z5LI","additional_properties":{"_id":1734622075247},"content":"A lot done, more to do, as they say, but there has, undeniably, been progress – and how could there not be when these women have produced some of the most memorable moments in Irish sport over the last two decades?","type":"text"},{"_id":"VA6RJAUPE5ATLGK5XDTNTOZLF4","additional_properties":{"_id":1734622075248},"content":"It’s been a thrill and a pleasure for us to report on their feats, a scroll through our list of overall winners a reminder of just how many magical days they have given us – from Katie Taylor’s gold in London, to Rachael Blackmore’s Grand National triumph, to Fiona Coghlan captaining Ireland to a Grand Slam, to Kellie Harrington retaining her Olympic title. Days we’ll never forget.","type":"text"},{"_id":"RVZTYY6NORCATLFMIPSOP2XE3U","additional_properties":{"_id":1734622075249},"content":"In all, 147 sportswomen have won monthly awards through the years, and at least a dozen more deserved one in 2024, but such was the quality of the list of contenders, our judges were spoilt for choice.","type":"text"},{"_id":"QV7F42OHB5EVVITCLUWGKFCA54","additional_properties":{"_id":1734622075250},"content":"Here’s to another 20 years of such excellence, and many more magical moments. We won’t be short of them, we can be sure. – <b>Noel O’Reilly, Sports Editor</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"JX56IFAQ5FBWTIHNVH4JYBKJ7Y","additional_properties":{"_id":1734622075251},"content":"<b>Monthly Winners</b>","type":"header"},{"_id":"WUWEDV6HXBFWNPITNI7JL3GQHU","additional_properties":{"_id":1734623739017},"content":"<b>December – </b><mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>Fionnuala McCormack</b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"YYSLDJLZ45AXNCYWJPXA2PFRMU","additional_properties":{"_id":1734623739018},"content":"<b>Athletics</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"NCJAXYVN3YQMOTINXHHQDEG64U","additional_properties":{"_id":"CBOHHTXE4VBJJMEQF5HTEN5UYI"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"PP3PX62OWRHEFEYFLXSYD2UHK4","additional_properties":{"_id":1734623739019},"content":"It was in December of last year that McCormack became the first Irish woman to qualify for a fifth successive Olympic Games when she ran inside the required mark at the Valencia marathon. Before making history in Paris, McCormack finished just 18 seconds away from a medal at the European Cross Country Championships and ended her year by running the fastest marathon of her career.","type":"text"},{"_id":"IGP3Z6ZUT5BRPGIA3VBELPBUF4","additional_properties":{"_id":1734623739020},"content":"<b>January – </b><mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>Lucy Mulhal</b>l</mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"6OZQAJZEHZBING35YV476HA7YA","additional_properties":{"_id":1734623739021},"content":"<b>Rugby</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"VXL647LOZ5FPXFIYXAVFVCZY3E","additional_properties":{"_id":"4PNATCWTNREQRLUDNTBEYYZLMM"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"HZE6VS6V3VBNBO7GO33WNJTGUU","additional_properties":{"_id":1734623739022},"content":"It was a memorable year for our Sevens side who made their Olympic debut in Paris where they reached the quarter-finals. But it was back in January that captain Lucy Mulhall led them to their first World Series gold medal when, after seeing off Britain in the semi-finals, they beat Australia in the final with the help of Mulhall’s player-of-the-match display.","type":"text"},{"_id":"HRRGHQITCNDKTBVR7HWUSUWIGI","additional_properties":{"_id":1734623739023},"content":"<b>February – </b><mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>Mona McSharry</b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"3PEKLH35QRAHFDDTH7PV6Z5GAU","additional_properties":{"_id":1734623739024},"content":"<b>Swimming</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"M5BGHX4PGP4SKQBIQP4VFAVL3Q","additional_properties":{"_id":"7CT4TJ52EZB4FKE3VD5VC2U5QM"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"42QWYBMT7BHRVGF64W2M3NDZGM","additional_properties":{"_id":1734623739025},"content":"Even before Mona McSharry became the second Irish swimmer to win an Olympic medal, her name was on our monthly list of winners. On returning from her strong performance at the World Aquatics Championships in February, she became the second woman in history to break the 56-seconds mark in a 100m breaststroke medley relay. Then came that magical moment in Paris when she took bronze in the 100m breaststroke.","type":"text"},{"_id":"Z5P7IWBCH5FCRPQYAJFLMUFXXM","additional_properties":{"_id":1734623739026},"content":"<b>March – </b><mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>Rachael Blackmore</b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"UM5QYKVPPVBIHH2UUDJJK4O4DE","additional_properties":{"_id":1734623739027},"content":"<b>Horse Racing</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"FC6LHF4CXH5GDV4AAJG7P4LIQU","additional_properties":{"_id":"BQLEJO7WNRF25CW7EZYG5CK25I"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"3YPKI3J34NDWZF7NJXUGFD5F5I","additional_properties":{"_id":1734623739028},"content":"Cheltenham was already a special place for Blackmore, but in March she had yet another day to remember there when she won the Champion Chase on Henry De Bromhead’s Captain Guinness. Having already won the Gold Cup and two Champion Hurdles, that completed the Festival’s Triple Crown for the brilliant Tipperary jockey.","type":"text"},{"_id":"HNWSFHCYJ5GPLEWQUMPQDJGRZ4","additional_properties":{"_id":1734623739029},"content":"<b>April – </b><mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>Róisín Ní Riain</b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"M73JSM2JGBH7JI4B7TQ6M62OEQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1734623739030},"content":"<b>Swimming</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"NPDBQJIVZPNSJ6C7NMW5KXQPVE","additional_properties":{"_id":"N27J5P3VVRFTRHHCTP3H2FT4AA"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"NHOZF4I2MJAHBFK5SDWPMTO4PI","additional_properties":{"_id":1734623739031},"content":"Another of our monthly winners who excelled before Paris came around, Ní Riain returned from the European Para Swimming Championships in Portugal in April laden with five medals, among them two golds. And the Limerick teenager completed an outstanding year by winning silver and bronze at the Paralympics, in the 100m backstroke and 200m individual medley.","type":"text"},{"_id":"IO62J7XGJVEYTEGY36KO4W5M5U","additional_properties":{"_id":1734623739032},"content":"<b>May – </b><mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>Rhasidat Adeleke</b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"Q2GOJ4WKDVAITMYJMTSY2DH3RU","additional_properties":{"_id":1734623739033},"content":"<b>Athletics</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"MFBRF6KPKO6XHVLWPVH2LUSMJU","additional_properties":{"_id":"ZRLAVJQPONGKHCYZOUJRUZT3JE"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"47TNCO25DVBQLK32VFS4ID6OYM","additional_properties":{"_id":1734623739034},"content":"Adeleke’s year began with a spate of record-smashing, and among the highlights thereafter were three medals at the European Championships: gold with the mixed 4x400m and silver with the women’s 4x400m relay teams and silver in the individual 400m. And agonising as they were, those fourth-place individual and relay finishes at the Olympics only served to underline the 22-year-old’s promise.","type":"text"},{"_id":"AEQQFQ3PD5BVPORPISZYT2X6IE","additional_properties":{"_id":1734623739035},"content":"<b>June – </b><mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>Ciara Mageean</b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"S3IN32RJQ5E5LBJALON6RF756A","additional_properties":{"_id":1734623739036},"content":"<b>Athletics</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"TMMQJWXQHNBPLO6ALPI25YYBTY","additional_properties":{"_id":"2WVU2U7ZCBATXFYGHX4SQQLKJE"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"33U7HBPV7NE5RKB67MILEYWM5I","additional_properties":{"_id":1734623739037},"content":"She was left heartbroken when injury forced her to withdraw from the Olympic Games, but by then Mageean had produced the performance of a lifetime at Rome’s Stadio Olimpico, a brilliant finish down the homestretch seeing her win gold in the 1,500m. It was just the third gold medal for Ireland in the 90-year history of the European Championships.","type":"text"},{"_id":"SS6HFZEEUVEERBOIFFUBTLL6EM","additional_properties":{"_id":1734623739038},"content":"<b>July – </b><mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>Kellie Harrington</b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"KJO4WTHAU5HWDBOYPA44Y6JI34","additional_properties":{"_id":1734623739039},"content":"<b>Boxing</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"RB3OHD7EPZDVBK5NLYZDBM3BCU","additional_properties":{"_id":"ROPA7JS445CD7NO3EBFT7DYF6A"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"DI7JDGBWDFDV5PPRVRCMHAIR5I","additional_properties":{"_id":1734623739040},"content":"Harrington was already a history maker before she took to the ring for her Olympic final in August – when she won her quarter-final she became the first Irish woman to win medals in two Olympic Games. And come that unforgettable night at Roland Garros, in front of a (mainly Irish) crowd of 15,000, she retained her Olympic crown with a 4-1 win over China’s Wenlu Yang.","type":"text"},{"_id":"QBNP3WMAHVAD5DJOQVOWFQQZFI","additional_properties":{"_id":1734623739041},"content":"<b>August – </b><mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>Louise Ní Mhuircheartaigh</b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"3WJ47MCLWJEDRH62MHLJY63P4M","additional_properties":{"_id":1734623739042},"content":"<b>Gaelic games</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"MGJUF4FSYXUKCOPOJHKUQMICUM","additional_properties":{"_id":"NC5ICXZJXZDNBBFZE6FUI7TFF4"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"QRRKH7EWWFGYTKUZNMZ3T5QKJY","additional_properties":{"_id":1734623739043},"content":"To her immense relief, Ní Mhuircheartaigh will never again be asked how it feels to be one of the greatest footballers of all time never to have won an All-Ireland. That question became obsolete when Kerry ended a drought that stretched back to 1993 by beating Galway in the final. So, she’s now one of the greatest footballers of all time with an All Ireland winner’s medal.","type":"text"},{"_id":"3BNL55WRQREEBDGX47WAIJN45Q","additional_properties":{"_id":1734623739044},"content":"<b>September – </b><mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>Katie-George Dunlevy & Linda Kelly</b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"EKBDYHMFF5GOJGHGZHFXXFYSWI","additional_properties":{"_id":1734623739045},"content":"<b>Paracycling</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"DGMJ42HTO2SPYMI5GPTNEXS5HE","additional_properties":{"_id":"SL43G5QTOZELVJJIIBNR5GE54Q"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"JUQICRLM7FDJZFH5ZOUNC747IA","additional_properties":{"_id":1734623739046},"content":"September 2024 is a month Dunlevy and Kelly won’t forget in a hurry. In the space of 25 days they won Paralympic gold and silver in Paris and two World Championship golds in Zurich. And, for good measure, Dunlevy also won Paralympic silver with her long-time pilot Eve McCrystal. Considering the number of injuries and illnesses Dunlevy and Kelly suffered through the year, their achievements were remarkable.","type":"text"},{"_id":"5PBVHAMWZZEOBKGY5LSBSTEGZE","additional_properties":{"_id":1734623739047},"content":"<b>October – </b><mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>Lara Gillespie</b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"KL6RZHHTVJASJM36YSBCPRYSL4","additional_properties":{"_id":1734623739048},"content":"<b>Cycling</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"SNI53BQQRBMGNJPKYXKFAESVXM","additional_properties":{"_id":"JE2WOY7T2JGFBKFJZRRGMWE2KY"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"LCL6RWLBFZHSPLA7Y3Y4GHK7OI","additional_properties":{"_id":1734623739049},"content":"Another of our sportswomen of the year who has had to battle through illness and injury, Gillespie put it all behind her in a year that culminated in a bronze medal at the Track World Championships. By then she was part of the first Irish team pursuit squad to qualify for the Olympic Games, she won the Giro Mediterraneo Rosa and the Antwerp Port Epic, and was awarded a contract that saw her step up to World Tour level.","type":"text"},{"_id":"KJW6UGSGZZHCNFNEHQEHNCQKPE","additional_properties":{"_id":1734623739050},"content":"<b>November – </b><mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>Katie Taylor</b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"RMWI4R4KW5BZDGHHHMAAXADDD4","additional_properties":{"_id":1734623739051},"content":"<b>Boxing</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"BY2PEG5KQNASNJJJ6ZHFFYSBLY","additional_properties":{"_id":"HJKD7FFLFNCMLHA5M2LFIRTMNQ"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"CZNIU7Z3OJAB7K5CA4J2PQHJ5I","additional_properties":{"_id":1734623739052},"content":"Our five-time Sportswoman of the Year was involved in yet another fight for the ages with Amanda Serrano, four years after they first met at Madison Square Garden. Nobody ever thought that contest would be topped, but somehow the pair achieved the feat in front of a crowd of over 60,000 in Arlington, Texas. Taylor got the nod from all three judges who each scored it 95-94.","type":"text"},{"_id":"2GXCE3WWBFB5HMA633J74CMKE4","additional_properties":{},"type":"list"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"metered"},"credits":{"by":[]},"description":{"basic":"Monthly winners this year included Kellie Harrington, Rachael Blackmore and Rhasidat Adeleke"},"display_date":"2024-12-20T06:00:00Z","headlines":{"basic":"Sportswoman of the Year Awards: Celebration of women’s achievements hits its 20th year","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"5469"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"4J3O26TQR5DMBHC6KORXGDKR4U","auth":{"1":"c53a284a1bd1b7fae6664f39905f28896f1fd2eba62b20eed520a7ef34dd452b"},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/4J3O26TQR5DMBHC6KORXGDKR4U.jpg"}},"subtype":"default","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Sport"},{"name":"Soccer"},{"name":"Rugby"},{"name":"Racing"},{"name":"Gaelic Games"},{"name":"Cycling"},{"name":"Athletics"},{"name":"Boxing"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/sport/2024/12/20/sportswoman-awards-preview-celebration-of-womens-achievements-hits-its-20th-year/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/sport","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Sport"}}}},{"_id":"ZEKHGS36NNAMBEM45FLEOXFEFY","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":68,"audio_url":"https://beyondwords-h0e8gjgjaqe0egb7.a03.azurefd.net/audio/projects/5469/podcasts/abb574d8-b1d4-496e-aa37-f5e664392fbf/versions/1734456099/media/947d3af925b7e3e89efda74fa6d0a330_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/sport/boxing/2024/12/17/conor-mcgregor-says-he-is-in-preliminary-agreement-to-fight-logan-paul-in-india/","content_elements":[{"_id":"PTMT6DTQ65AXHNFNET3H2GLQJY","additional_properties":{"_id":1734454780901},"content":"Conor McGregor has reached a preliminary agreement to fight American social media influencer turned fighter Logan Paul in an exhibition boxing match, the former UFC champion said on social media on Tuesday.","type":"text"},{"_id":"JMXO2FW3DBDWRFJ3W52FDCCVOY","additional_properties":{"_id":1734454780902},"content":"McGregor, who was ordered to pay almost €250,000 in damages last month after a jury in a <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/crime-law/courts/2024/11/22/conor-mcgregor-to-pay-almost-250000-damages-to-nikita-hand-after-jury-finds-he-assaulted-her-in-dublin-hotel/\" target=\"_blank\">civil trial at the High Court found he assaulted Nikita Hand in 2018</a>, said the fight would take place in India but did not specify when it would potentially occur.","type":"text"},{"_id":"F6IEIQOUBVHX3IARZNBKKOCMXA","additional_properties":{"_id":1734454780903},"content":"“I am in preliminary agreements with the Ambani family to face Logan Paul in a boxing exhibition in India. I have agreed,” McGregor wrote on X. I will then seek my return to the Octagon.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"VQN6MT3IMBAKNFZCSDGUEVUUTQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1734454780905},"content":"Paul, whose 27-year-old younger brother Jake fought 58-year-old former heavyweight champ Mike Tyson in a widely watched Netflix event that strained the streaming platform's servers, has few fights under his belt.","type":"text"},{"_id":"IL25EQJFDVA67C5OAN2M5NYKRI","additional_properties":{"_id":1734454780906},"content":"The 29-year-old American survived eight rounds against retired five-division champion Floyd Mayweather, who is 18 years his senior, in an exhibition fight three years ago.","type":"text"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"metered"},"credits":{"by":[]},"description":{"basic":"McGregor says he will plan a return to the octagon after he meets the social media influencer in an exhibition boxing match"},"display_date":"2024-12-17T17:16:33.918Z","headlines":{"basic":"Conor McGregor says he is in preliminary agreement to fight Logan Paul in India","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"5469"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"L4Q6NEJUULDNZUUWVFSC4OPATE","auth":{"1":"f459ecece45eb93f31f4ef25b9c1a47a15c8395f6e604b7991fbae2d1c9c46f4"},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/L4Q6NEJUULDNZUUWVFSC4OPATE.jpg"}},"subtype":"default","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Sport"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/sport/boxing/2024/12/17/conor-mcgregor-says-he-is-in-preliminary-agreement-to-fight-logan-paul-in-india/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/sport/boxing","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Boxing"}}}},{"_id":"Q5MUCM2WGRC4RKY2HNQAK376TM","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":262,"audio_url":"https://beyondwords-h0e8gjgjaqe0egb7.a03.azurefd.net/audio/projects/5469/podcasts/76fc8f60-e520-4528-b73a-74ee6e46c785/versions/1734444396/media/8b86c59792fb36ccecc0b2b3cbe67beb_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/sport/boxing/2024/12/17/iba-sticking-with-gazprom-sponsorship-as-boxing-still-in-limbo-at-2028-olympics/","content_elements":[{"_id":"DUQ7CO3HOBFK7C5HL6VPKGQ25Q","additional_properties":{"_id":1734443067162},"content":"The International Boxing Association (IBA) is still taking sponsorship money from the Russian state energy supplier Gazprom but could still play a role in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games, its chief executive has said.","type":"text"},{"_id":"TAYQYRW3DZCEDM2E7AGP4EDHOY","additional_properties":{"_id":1734443067163},"content":"Chris Roberts, the former British army officer who has led the IBA since September last year, said he was looking to diversify the sporting body’s sources of funding but that “the Gazprom thing is still there”.","type":"text"},{"_id":"W4DNWKEGRNB2ZNXKHQEUUGP2BQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1734443067164},"content":"The International Olympic Committee (IOC) ran the boxing events at the Paris Games after withdrawing recognition from the IBA as a governing body due to governance, finance and corruption issues. The IOC has said it will not organise the boxing events at the LA Olympics, raising concerns that the sport will not feature at the 2028 Games unless a deal can be struck with an alternative organiser or a compromise with the IBA can be found.","type":"text"},{"_id":"IEDVP7TZHNGUHKHO4EWSSO37KY","additional_properties":{"_id":1734443067166},"content":"Roberts said that his organisation remained in receipt of funding from Gazprom but that he had no doubt that boxing would feature at the next Olympics, adding that talks were already under way with IOC officials about his organisation’s status. The IOC president, Thomas Bach, with whom the IBA’s leadership has repeatedly clashed, is due to stand down next year.","type":"text"},{"_id":"U626RZVIIVHOBD4UZ43TNISR5U","additional_properties":{"_id":1734443067167},"content":"Roberts said: “There are some negotiations happening already. The IBA has a lot of friends in the IOC. Let’s say ‘bye bye’ to Thomas Bach. ‘Thank you very much, go retire somewhere. Thank you.’ We continue to see a bright future. We have a really good financial package behind us.","type":"text"},{"_id":"47QVVGY5BRG57JY5CGIEAEKNZI","additional_properties":{"_id":1734443067168},"content":"“I think this myth about the boxing not being in the 2028 Olympics is just another shift to try and get people to jump camp [to another boxing federation]. ‘Oh, it might not be happening’. Course it’s gonna happen. Course it is.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"4KBWITQOYRCW5IGNPATBZFWYEU","additional_properties":{"_id":1734443067169},"content":"An IOC spokesman said: “There are no conversations with the IBA about its involvement in any future Olympic boxing competitions or about any other topic. The IOC Session withdrew the IBA’s recognition in the summer of 2023 with an overwhelming majority and only one no-vote, and this decision was upheld by the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Thus, IBA plays no role whatsoever in Olympic boxing any more.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"23PADIYZTRFJ7J6QSCHP244G4A","additional_properties":{"_id":1734443067170},"content":"Gazprom became a “general partner” of the IBA – the president of which is Umar Kremlev, a Russian national – in 2021. The energy company was then targeted by western financial sanctions following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. In May last year, Kremlev announced that its contract with Gazprom had ended but Roberts said that the company remained a sponsor. He declined to comment on the level of the funding.","type":"text"},{"_id":"NE3ZVLYL2ZAJVEFLOXIVFOTDMM","additional_properties":{"_id":1734443067171},"content":"“We are looking for alternatives,” he said. “We have alternatives, and we are moving forward. We are still in negotiation, because we have, obviously, contractual stuff with Gazprom, you know. You look at the sponsorship agreements. We want to become more independent internally. We are not sure yet [if the IBA will end the relationship]. We keep the door open. We are still working on various things at the moment. The Gazprom thing is still there.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"QL45CQNZJ5FQNIL6Q6DIO5Q7FM","additional_properties":{"_id":1734443067172},"content":"A new organisation called World Boxing is seeking the support of national bodies to replace the IBA as the organiser of Olympic events and governing body of the sport at an amateur level. World Boxing suffered a blow last month when the 25 members of the Asian Boxing Confederation voted down a proposal to break from the IBA during an extraordinary congress held in Bangkok.","type":"text"},{"_id":"RCTHKU53O5F2TJHGEQ5M6RXOTE","additional_properties":{"_id":1734443067173},"content":"At a forum in Dubai this month, the IBA changed its constitution to allow national bodies to be members of multiple sporting federations. Roberts said this was due to some national Olympic committees withholding funding from national bodies who remained affiliated to the IBA rather than World Boxing.","type":"text"},{"_id":"BQCFLI7TNNGBNDL53XJDFUMI3U","additional_properties":{"_id":1734443067174},"content":"He added that the rival organisation had “lost momentum” while the IBA was planning to double the level of prize money at its world championships. He said: “They’re [World Boxing] coming into our nest, you know, trying to steal our members, to pull them across. You know, at the end of the day, I’m focused on what we want, what we’re doing, what the IBA is doing.” – Guardian","type":"text"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"metered"},"credits":{"by":[{"name":"Daniel Boffey Chief reporter"}]},"description":{"basic":"International Olympic Committee has said IBA will not organise boxing at LA Games"},"display_date":"2024-12-17T14:01:30.813Z","headlines":{"basic":"IBA sticking with Gazprom sponsorship as boxing still in limbo at 2028 Olympics","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"5469"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"YXENU3JOVVF4VKTK53AVMVG2RE","auth":{"1":"25afb5cb8047aa6ed684aa19ed0a3bdfb699f3a9566136fd0fff0446e2160fcc"},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YXENU3JOVVF4VKTK53AVMVG2RE.jpg"}},"subtype":"default","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Sport"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/sport/boxing/2024/12/17/iba-sticking-with-gazprom-sponsorship-as-boxing-still-in-limbo-at-2028-olympics/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/sport/boxing","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Boxing"}}}},{"_id":"X36PCAD5SFASBAJDNFO6DXQSGY","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":1512,"audio_url":"https://beyondwords-h0e8gjgjaqe0egb7.a03.azurefd.net/audio/projects/8948/podcasts/33a8f3a1-cc8d-4871-880d-ee5e88e49df8/versions/1734267416/media/0c0814b808337616ea37194927e1d502_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/sport/boxing/2024/12/14/a-stellar-year-for-irish-women-in-sport-kellie-rhasidat-katie-mona-and-so-much-more/","content_elements":[{"_id":"4F3IJ7QFMFEK5IZG7DSKEJCTIU","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038643},"content":"<mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>25 Danielle Hill’s Gold in 50m backstroke at European Championships</b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"XXZ6TF5ORM5CPNGZ5WM7JAZYGI","additional_properties":{"_id":"7S2QQW5CJNA6BKBEIC7AQTXHP4"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"RZ3DVHXIHBGLHPZ3I7NU3A6WJU","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038644},"content":"2024 was a remarkable year for Ireland in the pool. Belfast’s Danielle Hill is one of three swimming entries on this year’s list, the 25-year-old earning her spot after ending Ireland’s 27-year wait for a European long-course medal.","type":"text"},{"_id":"UD336RFAHJCYPKVZJ35SYYLO2U","additional_properties":{"_id":"KV4HGZZYMVF63KJFSMBVOMKRLQ"},"content":"Danielle Hill wins backstroke gold at European Championships","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"JMGOROKKGZC35KLG7HNROTTSSY","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038645},"content":"In Belgrade, Hill hit the wall in 27.73 to win gold in the 50m backstroke, an event in which she holds one of her four individual senior Irish records. Two days later, she was back in the pool to take silver in the 100m backstroke, just four-tenths of a second off gold. <b>MD</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"W64DQETZR5EBZDKYGM45GOWKEE","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038638},"content":"<mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>24 Vikki Wall’s performance in AFLW grand final for North Melbourne</b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"OEE7B647Y2NAWXWU77PITARB5I","additional_properties":{"_id":"JXDNLBRR6FA33OHYJSLL45N4OA"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"TZSHR4P7JBGOLM5YOVX5AZZ24Y","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038639},"content":"Aussie Rules is one of the great appreciators of Irish talent, and Vikki Wall’s performance in North Melbourne’s triumph over Brisbane to win the club’s first AFLW title was a showcase of just how successful the “Irish experiment” has been.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ETYU56VKJRD2PGW7X65VMPV27Y","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038640},"content":"The Meath two-time All-Ireland winner – part of a three-strong Irish contingent in the Kangaroos alongside Cork’s Erika O’Shea and Tipperary’s Niamh Martin – scored two goals in last month’s grand final.","type":"text"},{"_id":"6I2M3PX2TFDK3B27Y3XW4327NI","additional_properties":{"_id":"43FTTQM2DBD57LUEOMVXXSN2ZM"},"content":"From missing out on the Olympics to winning an AFLW title, nobody had a year like Vikki Wall","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"6DUPCTF6IRBDDK4M6XIAFUBVBM","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038641},"content":"And an honourable mention must go to Tipperary’s Orla O’Dwyer and Dublin’s Jennifer Dunne, who both put in characteristically solid shifts for the Lions in the decider.","type":"text"},{"_id":"4WXYX56STNDARGB7HJIZ6Z24GQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038642},"content":"Exceptional talents at home and away. Sorry, I’ll see myself out. <b>MD</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"F2I32EPCMRD37F4ZK2WEFRHWOU","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038634},"content":"<mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>23 Cork senior camogie team retain O’Duffy Cup</b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"I7NFMLSM7JH3LE7F7SYHUCDOFI","additional_properties":{"_id":"4F3DAFPM4VASXOCFQKWQNAGMU4"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"ZYXAY5YCGFCMDNWJBVZOUNAEPM","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038635},"content":"Does winning ever get old? For the Cork senior camogie team, it’s fairly safe to say the answer is no. A record-breaking 30th title was likely just as sweet as the county’s first back in 1934.","type":"text"},{"_id":"TDWK4LCV7ZFDPOVIDWTTTTUYLI","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038636},"content":"A goal, albeit a contested one, was the difference between the Rebels and old foes Galway, the counties having met in nine previous All-Ireland finals, the most recent of which – in 2021 – went the way of the Tribeswomen.","type":"text"},{"_id":"INGV7OZH5FAGZK3VXD3NXBSCUY","additional_properties":{"_id":"Y3YVUSYEE5DEPHQ6XF72CUZ2U4"},"content":"Cork record 30th senior camogie title as they see off Galway fightback","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"7E2GSEJTUZHYRASM5VTNZRF5EE","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038637},"content":"In a fiercely close decider, Cork had that little bit extra to seal the win as the clock ticked to the death, sending the O’Duffy Cup back to the Leeside for another year. <b>MD</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"ANEEQTOV7JHIDCKS6PVQXNRUWE","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038631},"content":"<mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>22 Ireland play Israel in basketball</b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"V7SGZNWBOFEHNKNDWMYN3QHMWY","additional_properties":{"_id":"RCYXQXPPHBGFVP46RX7GC7ASIE"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"44MJRFRCPFEY3AOIQGEFEFIUGQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038632},"content":"The Ireland team found themselves in an impossible situation in February. With the war in Gaza playing itself out in grim dispatches every night on the news, a EuroBasket qualifier against Israel in Latvia was always going to present a huge quandary for them.","type":"text"},{"_id":"FA2M6OVTCFFR5PJVXJCP2AQCZY","additional_properties":{"_id":"ZHLGMDT56ZCLFBRL6PQB7YLLME"},"content":"How did the Irish women’s basketball team become embroiled in controversy over Israel?","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"5HGBC6RTW5DVZCNH7FZH2IPSRU","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038633},"content":"A boycott would result in a welter of fines and suspensions. Playing the game would result in accusations of supporting the Israeli regime. In the end, they ended up taking criticism from all sides. They went ahead with the game but refused to shake hands, in protest at an Israeli player baselessly calling them antisemitic. Israel got the result but nobody won. <b>MC</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"G7CQS5OQL5D23KR4G5IFAEPT2Q","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038628},"content":"<mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>21 RTÉ Investigates abuse of players by coaches</b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"P3BWHOLSFZC5NKRLBZ3HV4L7HI","additional_properties":{"_id":"HHQOBSEUKZC6NBBDCQL7PJCYYU"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"PZXCMZS3XNAYBD6WVXA7HIP57A","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038629},"content":"If it was a grim year on the pitch for Irish women’s football on the senior international front, it was worse still off it, the lowest moment coming back in July when Marie Crowe and Mark Tighe teamed up for an RTÉ Investigates probe in to what female players had endured at the hands of some of their FAI coaches in the 1990s.","type":"text"},{"_id":"QW55HDMPJRGO5MJ3GCT563T2OI","additional_properties":{"_id":"N4WHH7YRUNBUTMN5JFVTVXABXI"},"content":"FAI coaching allegations: There is no resolution to this story, no happily ever afters. Careers were stalled, trauma inflicted","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"EDY3NJ6QGND73NY7PZYS3YVCU4","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038630},"content":"Multiple players alleged they had been subjected to sexual advances, some describing how their international careers were impacted – or ended – by standing up to their abusers. The FAI said they were “shocked and appalled” by the allegations, all of which were deeply depressing. <b>MH</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"OGSXRTRDYVFWXFONWQIDW4UJWM","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038625},"content":"<mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>20 Ireland win a first ever World Series title in rugby sevens</b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"BZQXAJIMXJFPZFCDWV3CMYT7FE","additional_properties":{"_id":"OUBHUPFX4ZBD7OY34J7CNW6K3Y"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"PM4DPDWGDJH5BJW2DKNMCIOSSU","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038626},"content":"This was Lucy Mulhall’s final year with the sevens squad – the Ireland captain retired after the Olympics, capping a decade-long career in which sevens went from a curio that nobody really had much interest in to something far more solid on the sporting landscape.","type":"text"},{"_id":"XVGMM5LWGFGGFHL7JGXDLIHRT4","additional_properties":{"_id":"VV4XZSTSLRC3TLAXSCLBVQIWHE"},"content":"Ireland women win first ever World Series rugby sevens gold medal in Perth","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"4P6PGJV7JREHFGZSPTKARDJ4RE","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038627},"content":"This World Series win in Perth in January was unimaginable for most of Mulhall’s career but they pulled it off with wins over Fiji, Great Britain and Australia. The final against the home side – and World Series leaders – was a stunning effort, all coming down to Eve Higgins’s late try to seal the 19-14 win. The high point of the sevens year. <b>MC</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"WR7ZKFJ5ARE2ZEKEEURZBW5FSM","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038622},"content":"<mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>19 Athlone Town win league title </b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"NMFAJTYTRMZICNE5IR3PJ7GXVI","additional_properties":{"_id":"LXGNMTQ2RZDOFNROU7CGYQTNLA"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"LQAGYBA2MFFFVCZLWNTWPN7VQE","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038623},"content":"Some story, this. It was only in August 2020 that Athlone Town played their first ever senior League of Ireland game, but just over four years later they only went and won the title, wrapping it up on home turf with a 2-0 win over Bohemians. A humdinger of a title battle it was too, with Shelbourne and Galway United pushing them all the way.","type":"text"},{"_id":"HWGJNNS3SREIBC4O5Y4LOV5I5A","additional_properties":{"_id":"GBVZ23SHQZFZ7CT7442OBFDAIM"},"content":"Athlone Town complete fairy-tale by winning Premier Division title","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"TPVGIGIHJNDULPXTDUFRBYAADM","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038624},"content":"Athlone’s dreams of a double were, though, well and truly crushed by Shels who beat them 6-1 in the FAI Cup final, after which Athlone manager Ciarán Kilduff stepped down from his role, later appointed boss of Dundalk’s men’s team. Still, a hell of an achievement by a club that should, strictly, still only be finding their feet at this level. <b>MH</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"KPZBTGMNJVFK5JQO4IEZL3AQWY","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038619},"content":"<mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>18 Missing out on Euro 2025</b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"BKIAJ6LZPXRWX6YKT67Q7UPPTM","additional_properties":{"_id":"ILPDJDFGUFBDHKGLFF6PEUZIBI"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"23NBRSU5F5CVFMA2IOYAW5W324","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038620},"content":"Not one of the happier moments from 2024, but it was a painfully significant one. After making their World Cup debut in 2023, the hope was that the Republic of Ireland would push on and make qualifying for major tournaments a habit. But a calamitous night in Dublin in December put paid to that ambition.","type":"text"},{"_id":"GTAGOLABXVEFPBHQLJC5KEJSCU","additional_properties":{"_id":"TR4HVULOLVDYPNOC5RW6PVEPGI"},"content":"Ireland let glorious Euros opportunity slip from their fingers after heartbreaking Welsh defeat","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"JDTRGIGU2NGURHDBDWYUORKSTI","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038621},"content":"The killer moment in the second leg of the play-off, the first having ended 1-1 in Cardiff, came in the 67th minute when Wales doubled their lead on the night through Carrie Jones. Anna Patten’s late reply was too little, too late. There’ll be no trip to Switzerland next summer, then, a horror of a conclusion to a difficult year for the national team. <b>MH</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"PWLHOP2KXRC4TA6GDQ4MCIHFDE","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038615},"content":"<mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>17 Orla Prendergast leads way in win over England</b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"SBSMN5GWJLT7UJABT45C7FXXVE","additional_properties":{"_id":"W3B2DT76HBBL3PUC7EHTDGUKZU"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"ARDJ5RS2YJAI3GL3VNUTNWHRGQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038616},"content":"The Irish cricket team concluded a year sprinkled with memorable moments by beating Bangladesh 3-0 in their T20 international series, but nothing quite topped that September day in Clontarf when they got the better of England for the first time in the same format.","type":"text"},{"_id":"6T4Y2B44LNGOLI56664WSS4K5Y","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038617},"content":"Once again, Orla Prendergast demonstrated what a world class cricketer she is when she scored 80 runs off 51 balls, despite suffering from a badly grazed hand, her innings interrupted when she had to have the wound cleaned and dressed.","type":"text"},{"_id":"C7M66VDFQFEWJO7YBAYL7VD7K4","additional_properties":{"_id":"V65KOK5B5RCEPA7G2OG5VONZLM"},"content":"Ireland secure first win against England in 20-over women’s cricket at Clontarf","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"YHIF7ANRMZCU7CGEOSE73XEWEQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038618},"content":"Having already played her part with the ball, the all-rounder taking two key wickets in England’s innings, Prendergast then stepped up with the bat, her thrilling knock, which featured 13 boundaries, sending Ireland on their way to a famous victory. <b>MH</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"JHJHYMWEKJCPHHP6SG3UKG7BQ4","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038612},"content":"<mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>16 Lara Gillespie wins bronze at the World Championships</b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"B3N7P6XMEBFVVCOXVT2HXAJ4LQ","additional_properties":{"_id":"XKSA2GWHJZEEXPHH236CN5YAS4"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"N3IZI6VHFFBA5BYGN5KNPGA34U","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038613},"content":"Katie-George Dunlevy described cycling as a “sufferfest”, and Lara Gillespie can attest to that. No more than Dunlevy, she’s been through the mill, her well-documented battle with a debilitating gynaecological condition followed by a heap of injuries, among them a dislocated collarbone and broken shoulder.","type":"text"},{"_id":"OSMAFVBUERECPE3DVF3S6O2VTI","additional_properties":{"_id":"2TP276473ZBLRDNV5QHZPGAKXA"},"content":"Lara Gillespie speeds to bronze medal at track world championships","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"XPA47O4K6ZAK7NZACIFFV6V27I","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038614},"content":"Despite it all, the Wicklow woman can reflect on a sparkling 2024 that saw her being part of the first Irish team pursuit squad to qualify for the Olympic Games, win the Giro Mediterraneo Rosa and the Antwerp Port Epic, and being awarded a pro contract that saw her step up to World Tour level. And, to round her year off, she won bronze at the World Championships in Denmark. <b>MH</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"2M67TFM2LRHZFG35YH5GUK2OWI","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038609},"content":"<mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>15 Ireland beat New Zealand at the WXVI</b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"QC3CKJGREDQXEK6WSHXDTNV5FY","additional_properties":{"_id":"4L4YM4G3HJB4ZCD66RGPDWWVWA"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"WDR7AYM6DBHYRI2NYEZYINU6P4","additional_properties":{"_id":1734023074590},"content":"It’s fair to say the WXV tournament hadn’t particularly caught the attention of the Irish sporting public ahead of this, its second year. Nothing like a win over New Zealand to change minds on that score. Ireland qualified for the top tier of the competition by coming third in the Six Nations and hit the ground sprinting in Vancouver with this 29-27 win over the Black Ferns.","type":"text"},{"_id":"5AP3Y3ZDC5BZHJKS3SPPIXFGDU","additional_properties":{"_id":"3IUILCMKUZCO7C25UCLCGXPDJU"},"content":"Ireland stun world champions New Zealand with win in opening clash","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"EPDXRTRW4NDXXJYYWOYTXMSQ2E","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038611},"content":"Aoife Wafer snagged two first-half tries before substitute Erin King announced herself with a couple of her own in the closing quarter-hour, a performance that went a long way to earning her the World Rugby Breakthrough Player of the Year award. <b>MC</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"RYXJZM6ZCNGNHJVHXG2HQEDFFM","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038605},"content":"<mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>14 Fionnuala McCormack</b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"ZRU3KUYVW5GCNJ6WSN3AGUPSAI","additional_properties":{"_id":"HKSEMOLENJEY7ED745INEMARCQ"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"W4AQCKAEDFE5ZELVORLLFW3A24","additional_properties":{"_id":1734023074595},"content":"It’s a whole 18 years since the names of two Wicklow women first appeared on our monthly roll of honour: Fionnuala McCormack and a certain Katie Taylor. Since then? Not just longevity, but excellence too. With a large dollop of history-making thrown in.","type":"text"},{"_id":"VIODSRDECFHQFNMILBYZSL7OPY","additional_properties":{"_id":1733867243223},"content":"It was this time last year that McCormack, now 40, became the first Irish woman to qualify for a fifth successive Olympic Games when she ran inside the required mark at the Valencia marathon. She was far from happy with her 28th place finish in Paris on a course she described as “torture”.","type":"text"},{"_id":"II2WDAWLV5DGNJGQX57ZPYDR7E","additional_properties":{"_id":1733867243224},"content":"<a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/athletics/2024/08/11/fionnuala-mccormack-finishes-28th-in-olympics-marathon-as-sifan-hassan-makes-history/\" target=\"_blank\">“But at least I’m still alive,” she concluded.</a>","type":"text"},{"_id":"HIXA3RABLBH4LMYKDIVC3OQTC4","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038608},"content":"Is she done? Is she heck. On the first day of this month she returned to Valencia where she ran the fastest marathon of her career, taking 12 seconds off her previous best. <b>MH</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"UKOHFCZJNJBZHHHVVXAWGVHXFY","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038601},"content":"<mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>13 Louise Ní Mhuircheartaigh – Kerry’s first All-Ireland senior title since 1993</b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"OBX72PLQKRBR3P37WSQQJ4R2YM","additional_properties":{"_id":"NQHBUKHIMJEITNKK7SHRZ36D5U"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"GMYCW7SDDZB7RABMVJY3AK3RDQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1734020550393},"content":"For the Kerry footballers, 2024 proved some things are worth the wait, finally coming good against Galway to end their 31-year wait to return the Brendan Martin Cup to the Kingdom. Their emphatic win marked the end of an era for Louise Ní Mhuircheartaigh; no longer would she bear the burden of being the greatest player without an All-Ireland medal for her 17-year service.","type":"text"},{"_id":"DTNPHZF3JRE4BCCB37YXW7XCLQ","additional_properties":{"_id":"YEX6JZO6HZA4FIZ3YE6TZ7IUSU"},"content":"Kerry finally make their All-Ireland dream come through after years of heartache","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"JFIM3XT6RJFUDJDBO4DXWFUFXA","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038604},"content":"Ní Mhuircheartaigh supplied six points on Kerry’s way to victory at Croke Park, her free-taking a study in composure, stamping her name on her fifth All Star. Of the numerous All-Ireland medals that have found a home in Kerry, Ní Mhuircheartaigh can be counted among the most deserved recipients. <b>MD</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"I7AH6BXMY5CQZMTQTTFK5LUVZQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038598},"content":"<mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>12 Bohemians v Palestine</b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"ZK3EARD6B5HFPMJLED2CTUBTDU","additional_properties":{"_id":"RRE334LLYBDYFJAGAF52DSGNJY"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"QNHXKGQ5SNER7MEVZIZ6PZR6W4","additional_properties":{"_id":1734023074606},"content":"It’s unlikely that there were any more emotional days in the Irish sporting year than when the women of Palestine took on Bohemians at Dalymount Park in May. It was the first match played in Europe by any senior Palestine national side, Bohs inviting them to Dublin as an act of solidarity in light of the carnage inflicted on their homeland.","type":"text"},{"_id":"RKXWW6AIPNDM5EFOA3AMIPI45A","additional_properties":{"_id":"W2IDVR5C4NHDBMPTS46Y243LOE"},"content":"Bohemians v Palestine: ‘In Gaza, our fields and our stadiums have been demolished’","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"VRRD5D3GKZG4RGEYT6GZW7Y7AU","additional_properties":{"_id":1734023074607},"content":"A full house welcomed them to Dalymount, the team having been received at Áras an Uachtaráin by President Michael D Higgins, the players overwhelmed by their reception in Ireland. “In Palestine we’re not even allowed to fly as many of our flags as we’ve seen flying here,” said their manager Deema Said. <b>MH</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"FU4PBHSFGJGCPM5Y4NKUUUSXAM","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038594},"content":"<mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>11 Orla Comerford – Paralympic bronze</b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"C3GBQ57GFCG423YCGYNWNSC5Z4","additional_properties":{"_id":"URUCYJERBVFBHE6PJYCEFKTNXE"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"YUPGXQQY4NEN5OIZNICHBBWE6A","additional_properties":{"_id":1734023074611},"content":"Orla Comerford had barely stepped off the track at the Stade de France having earned her first Paralympic medal – bronze in the T13 100m final – but her mind had already turned to LA 2028. The Dubliner banished any lingering doubts from Tokyo to take third in a race in which both the gold and silver medallists ran under the world record.","type":"text"},{"_id":"TB7J6EMDYBEGFIMX5C7METPXFY","additional_properties":{"_id":"NUBRWQGDTRHSNGTTHXX4XSNVCQ"},"content":"‘There is lots more in the tank’: Orla Comerford happy with Paralympics bronze, for now","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"DKZKX5UME5EJPKPLPOEB767V5I","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038597},"content":"Beaming with her medal around her neck, Comerford said her initial feeling after crossing the line was disappointment, although the reality of her achievement quickly set in to turn that to delight. Still, there’s little doubt as to what medal she has her eye on next time. <b>MD</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"6LGMYFKHYJAQVBNWWCX4DMBTXE","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038590},"content":"<mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>10 The 4x400m mixed relay team</b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"TRUHODS3NZBGNCWMKSNXSAX7SQ","additional_properties":{"_id":"T7PVX2BKSFEUDBYL5WYAW7XO54"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"2RZZBXTJ2RHV5GHQ7W7CXDE72A","additional_properties":{"_id":1734023074616},"content":"Ah, what a night at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome, Chris O’Donnell, Rhasidat Adeleke, Thomas Barr and Sharlene Mawdsley combining to produce 3:09.92 of pure gold in the 4x400m mixed relay final.","type":"text"},{"_id":"TAU7F4VUKRD4VGO3PBZTYJ3JLA","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038592},"content":"Before that evening, only Sonia O’Sullivan had ever stood atop the podium for Ireland at the European Championships, but there had been a hint of what was to come in Nassau the previous May when the team – Cillin Greene in that line-up instead of O’Donnell – triumphed at the World Athletics Relays.","type":"text"},{"_id":"GA7PKPEG2FHYXN7UF3M67M5NVI","additional_properties":{"_id":"POZJDMEIVJDOPBBLDLFDVRBQGE"},"content":"Ireland win gold in 4x400m mixed relay at European Athletics Championships","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"5FWY4LXADBEPFD4KZTRIKM4HL4","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038593},"content":"They turned up trumps in Rome, O’Donnell and Barr doing their bit, Adeleke blitzing the second leg, before Mawdsley’s stunning anchor leg. Magical. <b>MH</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"EDBKV735AFCERA22BLZXOO2TII","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038586},"content":"<mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>9 Róisín Ní Riain – Five medals at European Championships and two at Paralympics</b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"HZEZCOW76267YJSVJBTILKYOS4","additional_properties":{"_id":"G5GIJH26DFBPZKNQBKMPERXVOE"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"CDL2TYAL5BDR3BWZM3TOX52PXA","additional_properties":{"_id":1734023074622},"content":"Not since Atlanta 1996 (remembered with fondness or regret, you decide) would the pool have been considered Ireland’s arena of choice, but 2024 did mighty work to help change that. Róisín Ní Riain stormed the European Para Swimming Championships in Portugal back in May, claiming five medals – two gold, two silver, and a bronze – from her six events.","type":"text"},{"_id":"IMMA7PXTWRHSRKBLAAAS64CUGA","additional_properties":{"_id":1733917509168},"content":"As Paralympic warmups go, you couldn’t ask for better. Paris was the Limerick woman’s second games having been Ireland’s youngest Paralympian in Tokyo, and she walked away with silver in the 100m backstroke and bronze in the 200m IM. More to come in LA perhaps? <b>MD</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"KBK3XP4V6VEMDAMF2QOWVPSAB4","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038583},"content":"<mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>8 Rachael Blackmore completes the Cheltenham triple crown</b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"VCBK5YEX5W42IKYCNBAEMXL534","additional_properties":{"_id":"E64GPPIHOZGGBA4KW42MMADY24"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"VEBIEEH4HRD73L6763PGRCTHQU","additional_properties":{"_id":1734023074626},"content":"In the past 50 years of the Cheltenham festival, only eight jockeys have put together the elite triptych of Gold Cup, Champion Hurdle and Champion Chase. It goes without saying that Rachael Blackmore is the first and only woman on that list.","type":"text"},{"_id":"QCZPQTGK5RDCXF32IQMLDJYJVQ","additional_properties":{"_id":"6WXKN2MW7RDX7G6V2WOVWZFZRU"},"content":"Cheltenham: Captain Guinness and Rachael Blackmore secure Queen Mother Champion Chase","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"LGBZM66CVZFVNICXJBVPE4F2IU","additional_properties":{"_id":1734124713474},"content":"Captain Guinness’s victory in the Champion Chase was her 16th festival winner. In an event-filled race, she steered Henry De Bromhead’s horse to a hard-earned victory, staving off a late challenge from Mark Walsh on Gentleman De Mee. It was everything we’ve come to expect from her – unflappable, expertly timed, imperious. She makes it all look routine, which of course it isn’t. MC","type":"text"},{"_id":"E5FQDQ6KEVG3TKDK4HL25YMXUA","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038580},"content":"<mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>7 4x400m women’s relay team - silver at the European Championships, fourth at Olympics</b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"HNQZLVUSSTQOKMBO6POCJEFNLQ","additional_properties":{"_id":"LVCBP2IMING4RHT7EJ5EUGIHFM"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"KQO3VKGWUFAGHGIDFF4HVMNYPA","additional_properties":{"_id":1734023074631},"content":"The quartet of Sophie Becker, Rhasidat Adeleke, Phil Healy and Sharlene Mawdsley have done an almost unheard of thing in Irish life. They’ve colonised the imagination of the general public in a team sport that doesn’t involve a ball.","type":"text"},{"_id":"NOPUTCCXGFF4XCU2P5TBNS35NY","additional_properties":{"_id":"SMNEEIO73JHHPJL4P7522CISUY"},"content":"Ireland women claim silver medal in 4x400m relay at European Athletics Championships","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"SSNJMFVZ75CPHJCVC6ESIJPISM","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038582},"content":"They did it first in Rome in June by winning the silver medal at the European Championships. Then they followed it up in Paris in August when they came so close to an unprecedented Olympic medal, with Mawdsley only just run out of it in the dying yards. It was emotional, inspirational, heartbreaking stuff and it held the nation captive in a way no relay team has ever done. <b>MC</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"G45ED4HGUZCZFGEOAD22WPHJHU","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038577},"content":"<mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>6 Mona McSharry’s Olympic bronze</b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"KKYVEMVD5FEIVXVWPXUANBEILE","additional_properties":{"_id":"TAW4I5F6NFDJXPAOXIC35U3CPA"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"UM6GTEZWAVFSBGFVD36P4DN4WE","additional_properties":{"_id":1734023074636},"content":"By her own admission, <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/2024/07/30/how-mona-mcsharry-went-from-hating-swimming-to-a-remarkable-olympic-bronze-medal/\" target=\"_blank\">Mona McSharry hadn’t just fallen out of love with swimming, she was beginning to hate it</a>. The sport had been at the centre of her life for as long as she could remember, but she was beginning to feel like it wasn’t giving back anything close to what she was putting in.","type":"text"},{"_id":"L5VYXDZRDFBCZCMIXO6RAM5DXY","additional_properties":{"_id":"QPGIJNGBNFAZTPAYWE6WOOSVCI"},"content":"In pictures: Mona McSharry secures famous bronze medal for Ireland in the pool","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"FRVMNE7KBJC7HPOT5LIOWVAYRQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038579},"content":"Then came that July day in Paris when she stood on the podium after the 100m breaststroke final with a bronze medal draped around her neck, having become only the second Irish swimmer to medal at the Olympics (a certain Daniel Wiffen made it three the day after). Not even her goggles filling up with water prevented her from finishing third in a race that featured four of the event’s finest specialists. Her tears flowed. The sport had finally given back.<b> MH</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"IKZ2FM757FDHBC6O3NIMTKB6TE","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038569},"content":"<mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>5 Katie-George Dunlevy and Linda Kelly win Paralympic and World Championship golds</b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"V4MCCYVEGF6ZJCKNWG6X3BCSIE","additional_properties":{"_id":"VSKNZ6DIQNHYTLVKZDFHFT5SXM"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"CKJNNR2WDJBRLDDIIWA5HLKXGM","additional_properties":{"_id":1734023074641},"content":"Even before September came around it had already been a fruitful year for Katie-George Dunlevy and her pilot Linda Kelly, but then they went into overdrive by winning two Paralympic and two World Championship medals in the space of just 25 days – three of them gold.","type":"text"},{"_id":"765XLTMYA5GXBA44W474LFTLRQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038571},"content":"What made their achievements all the more remarkable was what the pair had had to endure through the year in terms of injury and illness – concussion, a broken collarbone, leg and arm infections, and two bouts of Covid. And that was only the half of it.","type":"text"},{"_id":"P6VIUTSJKFEDRHCXC3UOAY4XPI","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038572},"content":"They’re made of steely stuff, though. Dunlevy, for example, got back on her bike after a crash in a qualification event in Italy and finished fourth – and only later learnt that she’d done so with that broken collarbone. But as she put it herself, “if I’m not in a world of pain and am not falling off the bike at the finish, I haven’t worked hard enough”.","type":"text"},{"_id":"S5NJ7VSDVBCO3MOUE56XCK24RU","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038573},"content":"The rewards were great come Paris, Dunlevy bringing her tally of Paralympic medals to eight, two of them won with Kelly, and one with her long-time pilot Eve McCrystal who was making her final international appearance.","type":"text"},{"_id":"RYMFG46INFBGFAXWVVC2AJQXUM","additional_properties":{"_id":"5LABKF45WZBTHKY2RDRDKCMYEM"},"content":"Paralympic cyclist Katie-George Dunlevy: ‘I want to inspire visually impaired children and the LGBT community to not give up’","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"KERH4DEDN5HQ3FUCJUGTIVWZ64","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038574},"content":"It was her gold with Kelly, though, in the individual time-trial that meant the most, Dunlevy successfully retaining her Tokyo title and Kelly winning the first Paralympic medal of her career just two years after taking up tandem riding for the first time.","type":"text"},{"_id":"VVL6UYDBFFAV5DJW4OITXDUCSA","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038575},"content":"It was a stunning victory by the pair who had trailed Sophie Unwin and Jenny Holly by over 10 seconds at the first split, but produced a surge thereafter that saw them overtake and hold off the Britons, winning gold by 1:23.60 seconds.","type":"text"},{"_id":"C5CLLNOSN5HC5EUR27QRU5ODAY","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038576},"content":"And lest they be accused of being lazy, they were back in their saddles a fortnight later for the World Championships in Zurich where they only went and won gold in both the time-trial and road race. A September like no other. <b>MH</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"5DPTLIITUVEZ3A562J3OXQQ274","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038560},"content":"<mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>4 Katie Taylor beats Amanda Serrano</b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"5XUEVLO6FULTTWGJBL7IQAD3TY","additional_properties":{"_id":"PS466OIORVE5ZOOJHTALWCOTFE"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"IIKOMSMYMJGOPM5YGTAK3ZIFTM","additional_properties":{"_id":1734023074651},"content":"What is a list of Irish women’s sporting moments without Katie Taylor?","type":"text"},{"_id":"KC5CENWQUNAMPJHJ2H6SEZVLWU","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038562},"content":"A performance to warrant her inclusion in this year’s iteration may have been delayed by forces beyond her control, but by god did she end up earning her spot.","type":"text"},{"_id":"SNBFNDSK65FSDBKW5VLPYR4QD4","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038563},"content":"In November, the Bray fighter returned to the ring for a rematch against Amanda Serrano, the pair having previously met in a history-making fight at Madison Square Garden in New York in 2022, the first women’s fight to headline the iconic venue.","type":"text"},{"_id":"WS3JTA2G2VBLDA3G6FEA2F35OE","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038564},"content":"Taylor won that bout on a split decision to retain her lightweight titles, her hand hardly raised above her head before the Puerto Rican fighter sought a rematch. Given the show they put on it was a dead cert, promoter Eddie Hearn bigging up the idea that the second instalment could be a homecoming for KT, floating Croke Park as a potential venue.","type":"text"},{"_id":"AOUX2VCVHZBJBOBSJOAP4I55GM","additional_properties":{"_id":"ZERPI5R23FALTKHATLZ3XHU42Y"},"content":"Katie Taylor narrowly defeats Amanda Serrano in brutal contest","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"O5MIRUG7ABFXBMHMLV73UJWS54","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038565},"content":"Alas, not to be, and instead it got wrapped up as a co-main event in the glorified vanity project that was Mike Tyson v Jake Paul (the event delayed from May due to a Tyson illness), providing the only shred of true sporting action on an otherwise ridiculous night in Texas.","type":"text"},{"_id":"KC6JTAHXDRBABNZU6FFK3C3RWY","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038566},"content":"Just as they were at MSG, Taylor and Serrano were remarkably evenly matched. After 10 pummelling rounds, the judges had their verdict: 95-94 unanimously for Taylor. Serrano and her team didn’t like it (shooting off some nasty accusations that Serrano later retracted), the crowd didn’t like it, Netflix’s bumbling commentators didn’t like it – but that doesn’t make the decision wrong. A modicum of impartiality would have gone a long way at AT&T Stadium, but rage gets better ratings.","type":"text"},{"_id":"OKQIVQQCDFD7ZPVUXOK2MJD2RY","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038568},"content":"Despite the mudslinging, Taylor was the ever-gracious champ, rising above the painful pageantry of the wider occasion and going home with her light-welterweight titles intact. Long may she reign. <b>MD</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"QCFXPJHO3NDU7IF4NQI4S4O7EM","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038553},"content":"<mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>3 Ciara Mageean becomes European 1,500m champion</b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"24D2MKEYFZBQZMQR4JK3ZFA5E4","additional_properties":{"_id":"2NUL2UNAXBBG5LFZMBRHCIVUYY"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"2T2XRTOETVBELI3OWHRVYROQLE","additional_properties":{"_id":1734023074661},"content":"Paris was a disaster for Ciara Mageean. The Achilles injury she has been carrying for most of the past decade picked the exact wrong time to flare up, causing her to pull out on the eve of the games. The timing couldn’t have been worse – she was in the form of her life.","type":"text"},{"_id":"NGEHLVY6OJD27NHQQZPVIV5YSY","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038555},"content":"That was clear to everyone at the European Championships in Rome just six weeks earlier. Throughout her career, Mageean has been there or thereabouts at European level in the 1,500 metres. She won bronze in Amsterdam in 2016, silver in Munich in 2022. She went to Rome as one of the medal contenders in everyone’s book, even though her injury profile means you’re never too sure how much hope to hold out.","type":"text"},{"_id":"OLMLAP5GNBGPXO7MP53QXBDBYM","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038556},"content":"As it transpired, she was the best of the field. She ran three-and-a-half laps on the shoulders of British pair Georgia Hall and Gemma Reekie, waiting until the top of the final bend before grabbing a gap between them and striking for home.","type":"text"},{"_id":"MZ2HXLSZXJCEHCRVUVJ66XVHNY","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038557},"content":"She ran with a confidence that very few of us who were in the Stadio Olimpico shared, certain in herself that she had the kick to take the gold. When she crossed the line, she flung her two arms in the air, the pinnacle of her career reached at last.","type":"text"},{"_id":"C3ALCATGKJEYJKWKCCPFG4KGEM","additional_properties":{"_id":"TPMEZCXOM5FD5FM53FQKZZ6HVU"},"content":"Ciara Mageean: ‘I just felt numb. It wasn’t even sadness, it was just emptiness’","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"6CE5G2PKOFAZZJHMSKKCGUX62Y","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038558},"content":"At that moment, everything else fell away. All the bad days, all the dashed hopes, all the ups and downs of a career where the occasional fragility of Mageean’s body has betrayed her. It would turn traitor on her again in the weeks that followed, meaning that 2024 will always be unavoidable bittersweet in her memory.","type":"text"},{"_id":"I4YWNQMG4ZCH3HDADN3HEATEAU","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038559},"content":"But for that night in Rome, nothing else mattered. She got what she deserved, finally. And what a beautiful thing it was. <b>MC</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"RZUASPNFSNFCTFPFSX2TWWIXKQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038545},"content":"<mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>2 Rhasidat Adeleke’s record-breaking year</b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"AYK6YOCOBYTB5PHIIYD5V3QFZA","additional_properties":{"_id":"EERMLXTPANFXDEYY3SDBG4C4LA"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"HXIAVYIIEFDEXOVQW6CCMSDZJM","additional_properties":{"_id":1734023074670},"content":"Another remarkable year for Rhasidat Adeleke gave us any number of moments to warrant her inclusion. Despite heartbreak in Paris, 2024 proved the Dubliner’s star remains firmly on the rise.","type":"text"},{"_id":"6UBY7PP3VJDQJE2LRSLCHVB65A","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038547},"content":"If you want cold, hard figures, how’s nine for you. That’s the number of Irish records the 22-year-old holds at year end – seven individual, two relay.","type":"text"},{"_id":"VHN6OQZ6N5BQ5GCAQT4VJUCDGQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038548},"content":"By <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/athletics/2024/01/21/rhasidat-adeleke-breaks-two-irish-indoor-records-with-first-races-of-2024/\" target=\"_blank\">mid-February Adeleke had already bettered three of her Irish indoor records over 60, 200 and 300 metres</a>. Then in May, <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/athletics/2024/05/05/sensational-rhasidat-adeleke-leads-irish-relay-teams-to-paris-olympics-on-the-double/\" target=\"_blank\">she put in masterful runs at the World Athletics Relays to help Ireland qualify for the Olympics in both the women’s and mixed 4x400</a> metres relays, taking bronze in the mixed relay final for good measure. Not a bother to the girl from Tallaght with the ribbons in her hair.","type":"text"},{"_id":"U554VLU2JFBHDFA2MLDL4M2YGI","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038549},"content":"But the zenith of Adeleke’s year was yet to come. June saw her travel to Rome as part of an Irish contingent that claimed a record haul of medals at the European Athletic Championships.","type":"text"},{"_id":"NPL3Y4N3ZRAVPP3OIWNN2K5GXI","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038550},"content":"Of Team Ireland’s four medals from the competition, Adeleke was party to three. She <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/athletics/2024/06/07/ireland-win-gold-in-4x400m-mixed-relay-at-european-athletics-championships/\" target=\"_blank\">first took gold with the 4x400 metres mixed</a> relay team (besting their Irish record from May), before her solo silver in the 400 metres which so nearly could have been gold (again smashing her own Irish record in the process), following it up with silver in the women’s 4x400 metres relay.","type":"text"},{"_id":"K2O7F24ABNA7VFIYGA3POKD3KI","additional_properties":{"_id":"LJR7E5CQMREWBNHDSFJMY3WWNA"},"content":"Rhasidat Adeleke takes silver in 400m at European Championships","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"Q4F4H6X7XZATNNIUB66K4GIDSM","additional_properties":{"_id":1734267574130},"content":"From that high, an Olympic medal looked within her reach. The agony comes in the narrow margin by which it ultimately didn’t come to pass. Fourth in both the 400 metres and the women’s 4x400 metres relay finals (another Irish record performance) spelled heartbreak in the city of love, an unfair takeaway given the glittering year she’s had. But perhaps that’s the mark of her talent, and our collective anticipation that her race is far from run. <b>MD</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"ZSUN3SCS2BHBPI4VSYXR5ZSRDE","additional_properties":{"_id":1734018546322},"content":"<mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>1 Kellie Harrington wins Olympic gold</b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"BEXMKBEZL5AXPEKPIW5ML3T3VE","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038537},"content":"There has never been an Irish Olympic boxer to compare to Kellie Harrington. Over the course of a century, 116 fighters wore the Ireland singlet at the Olympics. Of those 116, 19 fought at more than one games. Of those 19, eight won fights at multiple games. Of those eight, just two medalled twice. Whittle further and Harrington has history all to herself, <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/boxing/2024/08/06/kellie-harrington-becomes-double-olympic-champion-with-display-of-pure-gold/\" target=\"_blank\">the only Irish fighter with two Olympic gold medals</a>.","type":"text"},{"_id":"32P3SJPJGNDK7FMT3OV5DXAQXY","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038538},"content":"As the rest of the Irish boxing team fell around her like skittles this summer, she forged her own path, oblivious. There were 10 Irish boxers in Paris but the tournament was mostly a disaster. They came home with just five wins between them – Harrington was responsible for four of them.","type":"text"},{"_id":"C67DGGTMPSXZ7AMOE2DWS22ONI","additional_properties":{"_id":"KBYF2GN2NVGB7AWN7XM4UGVCUA"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"A5KQH7JG2VBG5JYK2IUB5GGBXE","additional_properties":{"_id":1734023074681},"content":"Her Olympic gold medal was a mental triumph as much as it was a physical one. She began the year unsure of herself, worried about her place in the Irish public’s affections, counting the days until her Olympic final when it would all be over and she could get on with her life. In the Olympic village, she ate alone and retreated to her own solitude. All in service of the four fights it took to make her champion again.","type":"text"},{"_id":"3OKPEIVAN5BIJOU5EI346HTFAM","additional_properties":{"_id":"LHLGZVADR5AJNJOF52H2P4T4TQ"},"content":"Kellie Harrington stands alone, the first Irish woman to win gold medals at two Olympics","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"KLC2U3COMZDBRHFADZ3MUSBVWU","additional_properties":{"_id":"6LC6Z6TH4NFP7GKIJDVXNXP2WY"},"content":"In Pictures: Kellie Harrington savours another golden moment as she makes Olympic history","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"VRRD5D3GKZG4RGEYT6GZW7Y7AU","additional_properties":{"_id":1734023074682},"content":"If there was a signature performance, it was the semi-final against Beatrice Ferreira of Brazil. Ferreira is a professional world champion who was out for revenge after Harrington had beaten her in Tokyo. But though it was a virtual tie going into the final round, Harrington produced a masterclass of movement and hitting to launch herself into the final.","type":"text"},{"_id":"NE3HZ3HJMRE6HISAYDJ2EUI2GM","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038542},"content":"When she got there, she built an unassailable lead over the first two rounds and kept us all safe from heart attacks. It meant that between Tokyo and Paris, her full record read: Two Olympics, Two gold medals, eight fights, eight wins, for a combined score of 36-4 on all judges’ cards.","type":"text"},{"_id":"DIRWOUMZSNEMLGFGPVAPAOC3FU","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038543},"content":"She is immortal. <b>MC</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"YCDY6C2IB5FUNMX3YVDX7FFP3I","additional_properties":{},"type":"list"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"metered"},"credits":{"by":[{"additional_properties":{"original":{"byline":"Mary Hannigan"}},"name":"Mary Hannigan"},{"additional_properties":{"original":{"byline":"Muireann Duffy"}},"name":"Muireann Duffy"},{"additional_properties":{"original":{"byline":"Malachy Clerkin"}},"name":"Malachy Clerkin"}]},"description":{"basic":"Our countdown of the 25 moments that defined women’s sport in Ireland this year"},"display_date":"2024-12-15T13:02:44.606Z","headlines":{"basic":"The top 25 women’s sporting moments of the year: top spot revealed with Katie Taylor, Rhasidat Adeleke and Kellie Harrington featuring","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"8948"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"RJRNMNWN2RBZPAXU46HL35OYHE","auth":{"1":"02a0e639f68bf5c96f93239c3c81ca8213de5f2682853df450d3579a75ca3ea5"},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/RJRNMNWN2RBZPAXU46HL35OYHE.jpg"}},"subtype":"feature","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Soccer"},{"name":"Rugby"},{"name":"Racing"},{"name":"Gaelic Games"},{"name":"Cycling"},{"name":"Athletics"},{"name":"Sport"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/sport/boxing/2024/12/14/a-stellar-year-for-irish-women-in-sport-kellie-rhasidat-katie-mona-and-so-much-more/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/sport/boxing","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Boxing"}}}},{"_id":"D3LGC6MQWVDPXAV2V2LSERITA4","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":77,"audio_url":"https://beyondwords-h0e8gjgjaqe0egb7.a03.azurefd.net/audio/projects/8948/podcasts/bdefe1be-5cf1-4281-bc5e-a42cafa0863c/versions/1733937246/media/2fceda90bebbcdf0e47a63a581e36f22_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/sport/boxing/2024/12/11/katie-taylor-vacates-wbc-lightweight-belt-handing-it-to-caroline-dubois/","content_elements":[{"_id":"E22CWUMBHRGJBCSMNQLMDXD6FQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1733935358764},"content":"<a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/katie-taylor/\" target=\"_blank\">Katie Taylor</a> has vacated her WBC lightweight belt, handing the belt to Britain’s Caroline Dubois, sister of IBF heavyweight world champion Daniel.","type":"text"},{"_id":"Q5GZSVNKHRD4XA3UWZNSA7WIXA","additional_properties":{"_id":1733935358765},"content":"Dubois was the interim champion and will make a first defence of the world title on January 11th, her 24th birthday, against Canada’s Jessica Camara in Sheffield.","type":"text"},{"_id":"FI6VPIU2L5D6FFT6POVJTTSEQE","additional_properties":{"_id":1733935358766},"content":"The British boxer was given the belt by WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman, who was re-elected for a new four-year term, at the body’s annual convention in Hamburg.","type":"text"},{"_id":"SOFT3DBZHNG5NLXMJBR7BB2WLA","additional_properties":{"_id":1733935358767},"content":"“It’s always been my dream to become world champion, and this is just the start of the journey for me,” said Dubois, who turned pro after the 2022 Tokyo Olympics and has a record of 10-0.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ISD4LLWUYJA4DKEGYSJTWZR7PE","additional_properties":{"_id":1733935358768},"content":"Taylor, the 2012 Olympic gold medallist and WBC’s super-lightweight champion, had held the belt since 2019 but the Bray boxer had not fought at lightweight since 2022.","type":"text"},{"_id":"62J2VJZU4RFLVLJADP74JTYXHE","additional_properties":{"_id":1733935358769},"content":"Daniel Dubois was promoted from interim status to IBF heavyweight world champion after Ukraine’s Oleksandr Usyk shed the title. He successfully defended it against compatriot Anthony Joshua last September.","type":"text"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"metered"},"credits":{"by":[]},"description":{"basic":"Dubois was the interim champion and will make a first defence of the world title on January 11th"},"display_date":"2024-12-11T17:08:53.473Z","headlines":{"basic":"Katie Taylor vacates WBC lightweight belt, handing it to Caroline Dubois","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"8948"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"2X4PH4VEXOFP6LQLVUD7ZGTSJE","auth":{"1":"4bbc3f5365580895b51c2134f188d8485b2fbb08919ac3c89116621114740d23"},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/2X4PH4VEXOFP6LQLVUD7ZGTSJE.jpg"}},"subtype":"default","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Sport"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/sport/boxing/2024/12/11/katie-taylor-vacates-wbc-lightweight-belt-handing-it-to-caroline-dubois/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/sport/boxing","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Boxing"}}}},{"_id":"FRVODTUM2VGCVK2EBRWTBMKC2Y","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":268,"audio_url":"https://beyondwords-h0e8gjgjaqe0egb7.a03.azurefd.net/audio/projects/8948/podcasts/f7fd021a-b454-4dd3-b35f-7b7a344f8535/versions/1733487807/media/72817bf45ad3b94ba7d79d3c974afccd_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/sport/boxing/2024/12/07/katie-taylor-named-sportswoman-of-the-month-for-december/","content_elements":[{"_id":"MPB3FBDSLNBI7FHGOPUU4UJKEA","additional_properties":{"_id":1733431694402},"content":"<b>The Irish Times/Sport Ireland Sportswoman Award for November: Katie Taylor (Boxing)</b>","type":"header"},{"_id":"X52TRHNLEVFEXF5G2NV5HDHVJY","additional_properties":{"_id":1733424772572},"content":"Last but not least on our 2024 roll of honour: <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/katie-taylor/\" target=\"_blank\">Katie Taylor.</a> And no annual roll of honour would look quite the same without our five-time Sportswoman of the Year.","type":"text"},{"_id":"IZQZQUAZCVBWDFWQDSJ2KSSUAE","additional_properties":{"_id":1733424772573},"content":"Once again, she was involved in a fight for the ages against Amanda Serrano, four years after they first met at Madison Square Garden. Few would have imagined that duel being topped, but somehow the pair achieved the feat in front of a crowd of more than 60,000 in Arlington, Texas in November.","type":"text"},{"_id":"2XDKFOEOYVG6VKZ6CGQBOEQWFE","additional_properties":{"_id":1733424772574},"content":"It was, wrote The Irish Times’ Keith Duggan, who was there that night, a <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/boxing/2024/11/16/katie-taylor-narrowly-beats-amanda-serrano-in-a-contest-wreathed-in-greatness/\" target=\"_blank\">“contest wreathed in greatness”</a>. And for those who spent a good chunk of those 10 rounds, no end of them blood-soaked, peeking from behind a cushion, it’s hard not to agree with his view that it was “difficult to watch” but “impossible to look away”.","type":"text"},{"_id":"S3I2YPWFVZBGJNICYHT36JP2VQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1733424772575},"content":"There was always a good chance that the card-topping Mike Tyson v Jake Paul ‘fight’ was going to be a farce, and that it proved, but the quality of Taylor and Serrano’s battle put it in an even dimmer light. Roy Jones Jr was on commentary duty for the bout and described their rivalry as “the Ali-Frazier of female boxing”. Few could dispute that tag.","type":"text"},{"_id":"TRPJRVNNDNHQXFSAJYXQMYGBTY","additional_properties":{"_id":1733424772576},"content":"We’re accustomed to seeing Taylor dig deep when she’s up against it, but there haven’t been too many times when she had to dig as deep as this. “The thought crossed our minds that this might be it for Taylor, but even in the depths of exhaustion the dazzling hand speed never failed her,” wrote Duggan.","type":"text"},{"_id":"5XUEVLO6FULTTWGJBL7IQAD3TY","additional_properties":{"_id":"K2ZPJODU6FENLEUTBKRJFPNHDI"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"FEVFXH2Y2NFYFM6UYOK7YB4GIM","additional_properties":{"_id":1733424772577},"content":"There was, of course, no little controversy, Taylor docked a point after she opened up a deep gash above Serrano’s right eye with her head, leading to post-fight <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/boxing/2024/11/17/it-is-a-rough-sport-katie-taylor-floats-above-dirty-tactics-allegation-after-win-over-serrano/\" target=\"_blank\">accusations from the Puerto Rican that the Bray woman was a “dirty” fighter</a> who has the habit of “leading with her head”.","type":"text"},{"_id":"UT2YGCSUIVFJ5FNTQTTO3TUEM4","additional_properties":{"_id":1733424772578},"content":"And Serrano’s camp was even less impressed with the verdict: Taylor got the nod from all three judges who each scored it 95-94. It was her 24th victory in the 25th fight of her professional career, but so epic and tight was it, a third encounter seems inevitable.","type":"text"},{"_id":"7WH737N7FRFGBOOASMM73HSAPA","additional_properties":{"_id":1733424772579},"content":"Croke Park? We’ll see. At 38, many of her most passionate admirers would love to see her walk away now from the sport, she owes it nothing, but Taylor is the best judge of what she has left in the tank. So we should leave it up to her.","type":"text"},{"_id":"U4EWKEEPVFFHBFK3NPZSUH3EGE","additional_properties":{"_id":1733424772580},"content":"She is, then, our final monthly winner in the 2024 awards, which run from December 2023 to November 2024. And looking through the names that didn’t make that list simply confirms what a remarkable year it was.","type":"text"},{"_id":"NKVQXULVDVDMBHMASNOSLR7WSY","additional_properties":{"_id":1733424772581},"content":"And we note a slight Wicklow annexation going on this time around, a third of this year’s winners hailing from that very county – Taylor, Fionnuala McCormack, Lucy Mulhall and Lara Gillespie.","type":"text"},{"_id":"Y7J6WZCVKRDZRJKZ7G7EZTB5VY","additional_properties":{"_id":1733424772582},"content":"Poor Dublin won only two – Rhasidat Adeleke and Kellie Harrington – the Garden County proving to be rather greedy more than the last 12 months.","type":"text"},{"_id":"W6IAVO5Y5FGWLHEKHJCL2472AA","additional_properties":{"_id":1733424772583},"content":"A measure of the length and excellence of Taylor’s career is that another of our monthly winners, swimmer Róisín Ní Riain, was just two when Taylor was first crowned our sportswoman of the year back in 2007. Adeleke was a rusty old five. That’s some career.","type":"text"},{"_id":"UWXXDTETLRAPFBBGWVTJRPZFL4","additional_properties":{"_id":1733424772584},"content":"And so, the completed list of runners and riders for the 2024 sportswoman of the year award:","type":"text"},{"_id":"N3IFDHUTJNFWRIJJBK6ODC7FXY","additional_properties":{"_id":1733424772585},"content":"<b>December</b>: Fionnuala McCormack (Athletics); <b>January</b>: Lucy Mulhall (Rugby); <b>February</b>: Mona McSharry (Swimming); <b>March</b>: Rachael Blackmore (Horse racing); <b>April</b>: Róisín Ní Riain (Swimming); <b>May</b>: Rhasidat Adeleke (Athletics); <b>June</b>: Ciara Mageean (Athletics); <b>July</b>: Kellie Harrington (Boxing); <b>August</b>: Louise Ní Mhuircheartaigh (Gaelic football); <b>September</b>: Katie-George Dunlevy and Linda Kelly (Paracycling); <b>October</b>: Lara Gillespie (Cycling); <b>November</b>: Katie Taylor (Boxing).","type":"text"},{"_id":"WE6JTJ7LMBA37NLBTQYMLTLANI","additional_properties":{"_id":1733424772586},"content":"Thoughts and prayers to the judges.","type":"text"},{"_id":"YCDY6C2IB5FUNMX3YVDX7FFP3I","additional_properties":{},"type":"list"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"metered"},"credits":{"by":[{"additional_properties":{"original":{"byline":"Mary Hannigan"}},"name":"Mary Hannigan"}]},"description":{"basic":"Bray boxer’s win over Amanda Serrano sees her complete the 2024 Sportswoman of the Year roll of honour"},"display_date":"2024-12-07T06:00:00Z","headlines":{"basic":"Katie Taylor named Sportswoman of the Month for November","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"8948"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"IDQX2YMNI5GQCQRS3AAMZYGC64","auth":{"1":"9850d1433a0fe2a6c6b5516f4057a180d28aebddb0c54ad7f71d2390da8b607c"},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/IDQX2YMNI5GQCQRS3AAMZYGC64.jpg"}},"subtype":"default","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Sport"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/sport/boxing/2024/12/07/katie-taylor-named-sportswoman-of-the-month-for-december/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/sport/boxing","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Boxing"}}}},{"_id":"T3WHJZPDIVCZVB6Q3UXQVAWBFQ","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":263,"audio_url":"https://beyondwords-h0e8gjgjaqe0egb7.a03.azurefd.net/audio/projects/5469/podcasts/31795647-0c51-499a-9f87-0d82fa9e18cb/versions/1733436882/media/e281f6034b03d4ea1957f8c3b259d74b_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/sport/boxing/2024/12/06/johnny-watterson-backing-for-gerry-hutch-symptomatic-of-inner-city-alienation/","content_elements":[{"_id":"CN6QD7GJARAWTAKMFDRJYRSUZY","additional_properties":{"_id":1733422000659},"content":"In the course of the recent election, Corinthians Boxing Club emerged as one of <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/gerry-hutch/\" target=\"_blank\">Gerry Hutch’s</a> primary connections with the local community in inner-city Dublin. The club was a hub for the election campaign and members openly supported his candidature.","type":"text"},{"_id":"KAQCDB7V65BWBGCWMKZGVUVSZM","additional_properties":{"_id":1733422000661},"content":"They spoke about Hutch’s largesse and his light touch sponsorship which has helped keep the boxing club alive. Hutch didn’t frequently go to the club but whenever he did, he was pleasant and welcomed.","type":"text"},{"_id":"VJZZWBMARZEBJESNLYQUQHQ5GQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1733422000662},"content":"Theorists could say it was conscience money from a wealthy man for a community incarcerated in multigenerational poverty, one that has, more than most, suffered from his gangland line of work.","type":"text"},{"_id":"AKVRXW4O5FHDJP4TU7O7QL5UZI","additional_properties":{"_id":1733422000663},"content":"But that doesn’t explain why the boxing club were adamant about his sincerity and why they spoke about his popularity and acceptance.","type":"text"},{"_id":"N6ICZ5FJANCP7NLCZ5BVAIWZYI","additional_properties":{"_id":1733422000664},"content":"Interviewed on Newstalk’s Hard Shoulder in November, Kevin Corcoran, a coach at the club, described how Hutch bought the building 25 years ago and handed it over to the boxing club.","type":"text"},{"_id":"3GR2UY4DC5DYRDX25J2PCWHEYM","additional_properties":{"_id":1733422000665},"content":"“One euro a year’s rent, that’s all we have to pay,” said Corcoran. “He gave us the building to run as a boxing club free of charge.” Corcoran, who respectfully referred to Hutch as “Gerard” and “Mr Hutch”, was asked if the boxing club could exist without the building.","type":"text"},{"_id":"OT4FCAZ55VBNZMKIAIBXDTYI5E","additional_properties":{"_id":"MNVYUMDKCBFKLGXTTT2RRLO5EE"},"content":"How did one of Ireland’s most notorious gangland criminals almost take a seat in the Dáil?","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"SI6HGGUSCRAFZA7MZWVVDE6XVI","additional_properties":{"_id":"7YOLZOU5EBCOBCQUCXS5FNMGCU"},"content":"For much of the time in the RDS, one of the big questions was: what the hell is going on?","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"PL6P3IKVWNHFVMFG2EZDEE7H44","additional_properties":{"_id":1733422000666},"content":"“Of course not, everybody knows rents, especially in the inner city, are crazy at the moment. We’d probably be paying two to four thousand euros a month for that building. We charge the kids €2 a night for training. We would never be able to afford a building like that.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"366AF45T4ZBB3JQNSJHYU44JEE","additional_properties":{"_id":1733422000667},"content":"The club is close to the childhood home of double Olympic gold medallist Kellie Harrington in Portland Row and is where she began her boxing career before going to St Mary’s BC in Tallaght.","type":"text"},{"_id":"KCLDBZC6MNAHHGAFMYHYAEYKHY","additional_properties":{"_id":1733422000668},"content":"The Tallaght club is no different from Corinthians or inner-city clubs in Limerick, Galway or Cork that live off scraps and are less easily spooked by people like Hutch.","type":"text"},{"_id":"XWVUTQ7DHFE6FBW636TUBEXYXM","additional_properties":{"_id":"7MDZ5IGU5NDU5LS5HJGT7GVNUQ"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"ZZ2ZIK67QJH7TL5R5JZIZMF5WE","additional_properties":{"_id":1733422000669},"content":"Towards the end of the count as the numbers began to stack up for him, there was considerable unease in establishment reaction as it collectively clutched its pearls.","type":"text"},{"_id":"BS75MTXRNND3VK46UW4UEX5MVE","additional_properties":{"_id":1733422000670},"content":"","type":"text"},{"_id":"YYU5PKNSYBGSRCCE7IWK547MSY","additional_properties":{"_id":1733422000671},"content":"The position of boxing in modern Irish sport has always been that of an outlier. It’s a sport in which many people can only see the distasteful side — a violent and dangerous blood sport with few redeeming qualities.","type":"text"},{"_id":"RGNJ4T5JJNEL5D4HCHBSUEGQNM","additional_properties":{"_id":1733422000672},"content":"It is also defined by two things — an ability to provide outstanding Olympic athletes and a demographic that takes in a large swathe of working-class and poor people.","type":"text"},{"_id":"YE7RHNYFY5CMNHSTALN6J3VZ5M","additional_properties":{"_id":1733422000673},"content":"Boxing picks them up, supports them, teaches them discipline and respect and makes no judgments on their religion, net worth, home address or ethnicity.","type":"text"},{"_id":"GUDFMQM6WNFLTFRSS4GGWOXOXY","additional_properties":{"_id":1733422000674},"content":"The sport has become used to disaffection and struggle. Those things are part of its DNA and they have given it sharp elbows and made it resilient. Boxing is rarely dissuaded by the higher-minded opinions of people who didn’t grow up in the area.","type":"text"},{"_id":"IQCTFL7KTNDNXIQLLBAXO5NJK4","additional_properties":{"_id":1733422000675},"content":"Very often it won’t be told what to do, even by Irish sport’s principal State agency wielding a large stick. Over the years that has been borne out in amateur boxing, which has been involved in an ongoing war with Sport Ireland.","type":"text"},{"_id":"KMY5WKDSMJDSXKN5XZP6BIB7EE","additional_properties":{"_id":1733422000676},"content":"In lightweight boxing against heavyweight government, there is only one obvious winner … and yet. Ignoring threats to stop the funding, boxing exists in a political space that would give more compliant federations anxiety.","type":"text"},{"_id":"7A2FBZF3NBB3NA6VTQLUPJZRTU","additional_properties":{"_id":"54JL63PICREDLDV57I65553ITE"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"5FOKELER5ZGJZBB6DBHG6G6XCE","additional_properties":{"_id":1733422000677},"content":"","type":"text"},{"_id":"AZTQQWLP4FCXRBD5DOLSFZWUGA","additional_properties":{"_id":1733422000678},"content":"The sport has always doggedly followed its survival instincts. It understands its folk and is compassionate about the flaws and venality that often come with those who step through the ropes.","type":"text"},{"_id":"PAWWXJ7KVVDIHDL7COWFNCKMP4","additional_properties":{"_id":1733422000679},"content":"Boxing has never allowed people who believe they know better tell it what to do. Sometimes that works for it, and sometimes it is destructive. Driving out Billy Walsh and Bernard Dunne as coaches were two poor choices.","type":"text"},{"_id":"V2UIKEYKE5CFTBHENXNUPXJ4XE","additional_properties":{"_id":1733422000680},"content":"But rarely does it stray from the one guiding principle: if it doesn’t help itself, not many others will.","type":"text"},{"_id":"IRHLADLFZJA7XMNZMDUOCDWXHQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1733422000681},"content":"Supporting a gangland figure like Hutch didn’t just come down to people doffing the cap to him for handing Corinthians boxing club a building, but to a community’s disenchantment, alienation and estrangement that has been allowed to fester for decades.","type":"text"},{"_id":"UW3ZRIGETBG23PEM62YYGFVVYA","additional_properties":{"_id":1733422000682},"content":"It wasn’t so much a thank you to Hutch for helping community boxing, but a protest and lament as to why he is the only one. Backing him should not have been a surprise to anyone.","type":"text"},{"_id":"U63PP6QYQZHLVOTXMPYRSKTEAE","additional_properties":{},"type":"list"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"premium"},"credits":{"by":[{"additional_properties":{"original":{"byline":"Johnny Watterson"}},"name":"Johnny Watterson"}]},"description":{"basic":"Hutch gifted building to Corinthians Boxing Club, which like clubs countrywide, receive little support from official Ireland"},"display_date":"2024-12-06T06:00:00Z","headlines":{"basic":"Johnny Watterson: Backing for Gerry Hutch symptomatic of inner-city alienation ","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"5469"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"5I7ONUE6DGLJSLQPJJ65SFJLIE","auth":{"1":"752d35c42ebb20415451ff308880cf788f504664f3e8a8726a497b8aabaddf94"},"focal_point":{"x":2635,"y":1080},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/5I7ONUE6DGLJSLQPJJ65SFJLIE.jpg"}},"subtype":"columnist","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Sport"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/sport/boxing/2024/12/06/johnny-watterson-backing-for-gerry-hutch-symptomatic-of-inner-city-alienation/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/sport/boxing","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Boxing"}}}},{"_id":"Q4G2IF4SXVDKJPWVFZXACAET7Y","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":991,"audio_url":"https://d22tbkdovk5ea2.cloudfront.net/audio/projects/8948/podcasts/1859e8dd-7cd8-4188-8030-54296c484099/versions/1732894086/media/523015459911082da761683a1fb82d8a_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/sport/tennis/2024/11/30/conor-nilands-the-racket-is-the-best-sports-book-in-a-year-dominated-by-autobiographies/","content_elements":[{"_id":"LTKY4SVQHJDGLFBENPT66TYHQ4","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218637},"content":"<mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>The Best</b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"QN6QDAYMLJDYNAWJKLUECCLDZE","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218638},"content":"<u><b>The Racket by Conor Niland and Gavin Cooney (Penguin, €15.99)</b></u>","type":"text"},{"_id":"T2NWODWUHZF5PN7MO34GXGVFEI","additional_properties":{"_id":"5OXDPQ6CZNGPFBIM4FUIB6254I"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"EAN677ZKUBF6DF54CEMCMMPXTY","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218639},"content":"We have had some brilliant Irish sports books over the past decade, without having all that many stone cold classics. This is a stone cold classic. The story of Conor Niland’s life in professional tennis, told along with Gavin Cooney of The 42, recently became the third Irish book ever to win the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award. And deservedly so.","type":"text"},{"_id":"LIPELKNKRRBBFL5RTJBANJMJSI","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218640},"content":"Niland is the best Irish tennis player of the open era. He was born six weeks after Roger Federer – not for nothing is the book subtitled On Tour with Tennis’s Golden Generation – and the other 99%. The story, then, is one of getting closer than almost everyone on the planet to the sport’s gilded inner sanctum without ever quite making it.","type":"text"},{"_id":"MMDC5ERAXBGQFBPRGH4QFBYQCQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218641},"content":"Some of it would break your heart. The drip-drip of him throwing away his one match at Wimbledon after leading 4-1 in the final set is harrowing, all the more so because the prize for winning would have been a Centre Court match against Federer. The travel, the injuries, the grimly observed differences between the haves and have-nots – all of it would grind anyone down.","type":"text"},{"_id":"7NUQ6YQRP5DDPJAVZHJAXT4G3Q","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218642},"content":"But this is no misery lit adventure. It’s very funny throughout because Niland and Cooney have packed a lifetime’s absurdity in here too. Like the time he played a set against the 15-year-old son of one of this sponsors, the weirdest match of his life. “Am I really allowed to beat up on my sponsor’s son? Or will he wonder why he’s spending his money on a guy who can’t beat his son easily?”","type":"text"},{"_id":"AXPCU2NTC5HZFNTTCUNI6A5W4I","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218643},"content":"Niland retired in 2012, injuries finally calling a halt. The fact that he has let a decade pass before writing this book has done it a world of good. The tone isn’t bitter or maudlin – Niland has more perspective than that. He has painted a wonderfully detailed picture of a world most sports fans know next-to-nothing about and kept his sanity while doing so. That’s a win, all by itself.","type":"text"},{"_id":"XXMVENZ5CBEC7CT3CFDRFTJAZM","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218644},"content":"<u><b>Obsessed by Johnny Sexton and Peter O’Reilly (Penguin, €24.99)</b></u>","type":"text"},{"_id":"3ZJYIDVQQ5BSTDQSWRCJ7M6DFA","additional_properties":{"_id":"EO6FGPFXLZFRJMGQ537GN3MG7U"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"MRF4QB2UYVE2NM54LUIB2JNI3Y","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218645},"content":"There is a fantastic tension that runs throughout <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/johnny-sexton/\" target=\"_blank\">Johnny Sexton</a>’s autobiography, made all the better for the fact that he probably would have got away without dwelling on it at all. On the one hand, he was (is) a demonic competitor, a relentless setter of standards, a person who calls out deficiencies when he sees them. On the other, that doesn’t always make for a particularly pleasant person to be around.","type":"text"},{"_id":"UPP44OW6HFBTVPSGWWIOG2ZFD4","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218646},"content":"In someone else’s hands, that side of his character could have been dealt with in a single chapter of a book that, let’s not forget, chronicles one of the greatest ever Irish sporting careers. Sexton and Peter O’Reilly could have thrown in a couple of anecdotes of him losing the rag, leavened it all with a bit of self-deprecation and moved right along to telling everyone about his drop goal against France in Paris.","type":"text"},{"_id":"WF37N3XB4JH25D43KDMC2OZKG4","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218647},"content":"But what makes this such a rewarding read is that fact that Sexton is willing to paint himself in an often unflattering light. His spikiness, his abrasive nature, his unwillingness to float along – these are a feature of his make-up, not a bug in the system. So much of the book is him wrestling with this side of himself. How did he get like this? Why does he have to be this way?","type":"text"},{"_id":"2ZKCU2MIHVC3POXAXEGQG25DFY","additional_properties":{"_id":"W4PYHJY4BJDJZLKVPNK6ZG7BJE"},"content":"Obsessed. The Autobiography by Johnny Sexton: One of the best Irish sports books ever written","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"R2A52XEAJBCGDJPVGYYPLTG4EM","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218648},"content":"“Be yourself everyone – except you, Johnny,” was <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/andy-farrell/\" target=\"_blank\">Andy Farrell</a>’s instruction at one point, making it clear to Sexton that he had to change his nature as Ireland captain, become more of a chameleon, work out who he can’t lose the rag with and who needs to be spoken to more softly. In the next breath, Sexton growled at John Cooney for a mistake in training but later rang him to apologise – “Though it went against every fibre of my being”.","type":"text"},{"_id":"7ERBXONWKRGHLJGVKW3OJKV5UM","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218649},"content":"The push-and-pull of that, the constant unsparing questioning of himself, lifts this book above the vast majority of the autobiographies of his contemporaries. A brilliant portrait of one of Ireland’s most fascinating people.","type":"text"},{"_id":"4ZPMZNNSHFECFPK2S3DA7HT6RU","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218650},"content":"<u><b>My Story by Joe Canning and Vincent Hogan (Gill Books, €21.99)</b></u>","type":"text"},{"_id":"6HAXHRPFUZBNBEJQVCHM3B5DWI","additional_properties":{"_id":"Q2M6K7KI7JF6VDQODF5E7SCJ54"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"T6FR676VXRDFFGH3V7IWF4PNLU","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218651},"content":"<a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/author/joe-canning/\" target=\"_blank\">Joe Canning</a>’s father, Seán, has the best line in the former Galway hurler’s autobiography. At one stage, Canning is writing about the fact that he has kept a number of critical articles and headlines on his phone, years after they were written. He accepts that this doesn’t really say anything good about his ability to let things go.","type":"text"},{"_id":"WGID42VM3NADNHUQ56PZ2RQ24U","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218652},"content":"“My father has this expression when he hears me giving out,” Canning writes. “‘Christ Joe, everybody can’t be a prick!’”","type":"text"},{"_id":"7PEH5QJMPRFI5OHDWO2T5Q3GMA","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218653},"content":"This is not to say that Canning’s book is a whingefest or an exercise in score-settling. It’s not that at all. The picture of Canning that emerges from his autobiography is of a man who has always known that his talent would mean finding an accommodation with the outside world – and one whose instinct is to feel uneasy about striking that bargain.","type":"text"},{"_id":"HOJQHVQGOJFMVJKACDW6K67CZE","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218654},"content":"Consequently, there is a sometimes contradictory sense about him. He has always battled to retain his own privacy and to keep his head generally down. But at the same time, he’s not one bit shy about loading up both barrels and picking off targets when he feels the need.","type":"text"},{"_id":"HH7WMH7WVNDHDGUMFTAKLODTBI","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218655},"content":"Ger Loughnane gets a clip or two unloaded on him here, various clubs and county board members in Galway as well. Even Micheál Donoghue and his backroom, the men with whom Canning won his All-Ireland – catch a few strays in the book’s closing chapter, on account of them taking over Dublin and coaching against Galway in the championship.","type":"text"},{"_id":"L2XX2H5S4FEJ3B5TMJXDTV7C3M","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218656},"content":"Expertly put together along with Vincent Hogan, the picture of Canning that comes out of the book is someone who got everything out of his hurling career while staying true to himself along the way. That was never a given.","type":"text"},{"_id":"KKEKOL5G4BB2XAYBNBHGCG4WJQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218657},"content":"<u><b>Whatever It Takes by Richie Hogan and Fintan O’Toole (Gill Books, €21.99)</b></u>","type":"text"},{"_id":"BQLLHPV6NNANXINX2BJEOYOQOE","additional_properties":{"_id":"4LOINULKFBD6RGPQXXTKLBAM6Y"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"L54HZ2YG5ZGLJJDLPTZP6MDQCM","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218658},"content":"Richie Hogan doesn’t have a lot of time for waffle or flannel or even really shades of grey. Right throughout this pacy, enjoyable autobiography that he has written with the help of Fintan O’Toole of The 42, Hogan is at all times admirably straightforward. You prepare, you hurl, you win or you lose. You go again.","type":"text"},{"_id":"WHYSCQA5EJGTPIDT2TWJKWAGQY","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218659},"content":"That’s why it feels such a betrayal towards the end of his years with Kilkenny when, after a few dire seasons with injury, he is back fit and firing but can’t get on the pitch. It doesn’t seem to matter that he is lighting up training – Brian Cody and his management can’t be convinced he’ll last the pace. Hogan has it out with Cody – he eventually gets on for the last 10 minutes of the 2022 final and scores his last ever point in Croke Park.","type":"text"},{"_id":"WAVANMH26VEPZDFE6ICQBBKENM","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218660},"content":"That Hogan’s back dogged him throughout the second half of his career will come as surprise to nobody. But the extent of it and the lengths he had to go to in order to be able to train and play is jaw-dropping at times. His back spasms have left him lying on the ground in the middle of the street or panned out on the cold floor of a dressingroom toilet, just to be able to get in position for throw-in.","type":"text"},{"_id":"W2OYPRFKDJAEPI5ZBNV5UJ5FLA","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218661},"content":"His relationship with Cody is fascinating. He’s not shy about expressing his frustration that Kilkenny never developed along with the game’s tactical changes and confronts the Kilkenny boss on a few occasions in the book with the sort of candour that others would have baulked at.","type":"text"},{"_id":"C7NPDEUMFJBQ7ITPC3ALMVMHQI","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218662},"content":"Throw in some very funny moments – Cha Fitzpatrick’s Cancún adventures would make for a screenplay in and of themselves – and it’s a highly entertaining addition to the Kilkenny canon.","type":"text"},{"_id":"6OS7IWXRM5H65NKAATNWOOTQCM","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218663},"content":"<u><b>States Of Play by Miguel Delaney (Seven Dials, €15.99)</b></u>","type":"text"},{"_id":"DNPGCL2IWFA5LABBT76UYAW2S4","additional_properties":{"_id":"GPTVHHATINC23NQXEE6XIEVTUU"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"RUEBPOSWDBEKZOQWSC6G6J3ATI","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218664},"content":"The boiling frog analogy can feel a little overplayed these days but sometimes needs must. The hijacking of professional football by corporate greed and state-aided finance has been such a gradual process that it can often be difficult to assess exactly where we stand with it all. That’s what makes a book like this so necessary.","type":"text"},{"_id":"YF26YOBFQBG3TKQJPW5M34E5HE","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218665},"content":"Miguel Delaney is the chief football writer for the Independent in London and his book is an exhaustive account of how the game got itself into state it’s in. It charts the rise of uber-capitalism within soccer, initially in England but throughout Europe and the world as well. The changes over the past 30 years, from the setting up of the Premier League to the involvement of nation states are all in here, expertly gathered into a coherent timeline.","type":"text"},{"_id":"CMLAUX6N65E4DA47NMPIGNOALM","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218666},"content":"How Sportswashing Took Over Football is the subtitle but it feels like the term is there as a hook, rather than the whole. While the story of the involvement of the oil nations of Middle East is told here in great detail, it’s only one part of the overall disaster. Football was never meant to be about geopolitics and yet here we are.","type":"text"},{"_id":"BSQNGCJAEJFHXN7TAZRKRCT5XE","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218667},"content":"“There can sadly be no illusions about [football’s] role in the 21st century,” Delaney writes towards the end. “It has been a force for autocracy, populism, vested interests, commercialism, hyper-capitalism, ultra-liberalism, the fragmentation of the working classes, the overclass, culture wars, tribalism, soft power and hard power ... It doesn’t need to be like this, though.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"AIVNU2IMDJCXZLGRSZTMLVL3XI","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218668},"content":"Football needs this book to be read and heard. Part-investigation, part-primal scream, it’s a monumental piece of sports journalism.","type":"text"},{"_id":"LTKY4SVQHJDGLFBENPT66TYHQ4","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218637},"content":"<mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>The Rest</b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"EADASPVDK5HTLAHNM5MFCWVTOQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218671},"content":"With integration (apparently) coming down the tracks, the 50th anniversary of the founding of the LGFA is as good a time as any for <b>Unladylike by Hayley Kilgallon (New Island, €23.99) </b>to hit the shelves. An in-depth history of women’s Gaelic football, it is rich in detail and beautifully illustrated.","type":"text"},{"_id":"QNGV2XL2TVFT5F2VTYOTAFE3KA","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218672},"content":"On a completely different historical plane is <b>Lost Gaels by Peadar Thompson (Merrion, €28.99)</b>. A meticulous and heartfelt work, it is a collection of accounts of the lives of GAA members who died during the Troubles. Like all matters to do with the conflict, it is a complex book about which readers are entitled to have mixed feelings. A vital slice of oral history, all the same.","type":"text"},{"_id":"STFALYRARZCUDCPRBPHHETRJF4","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218673},"content":"Two other GAA books are worth a look. <b>The Epic Origins of Hurling by Joeys Alumni (MCH, €32.00)</b> is a translation of scholarly Irish work done by Brother Liam Ó Cathnia of St Joseph’s in Fairview, Dublin in the 1980s, tracing the initial stirrings of the game back in the 1700s. And <b>Our Finest Hour by Edwin McGreal (Mayo Books, €28.00)</b> is a phenomenal collection of yarns gathered in across every club in Mayo (47 football and five hurling), each telling the story of the greatest day in their history.","type":"text"},{"_id":"WZVXNKQIIRHP7GPYKMVL7MT6GM","additional_properties":{"_id":"RH2WQ5MOARFIBIRYGEWIJKMEGY"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"RDNSCO3AERE23DNPMD3QYJ3G4A","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218674},"content":"On the soccer front, <b>Munichs by David Peace (Faber & Faber, €23.20)</b> is a fictional retelling of the 1958 Munich air crash and its aftermath. Epic in scale and depth, it has been gloriously reviewed in most quarters. Turning real life into a novel isn’t to everyone’s taste – and Peace’s insistence on repetition as a writing flourish can be a bit grating at times. But there’s no denying his sincerity in honouring the men who were lost.","type":"text"},{"_id":"QUUHWDOOOJHVJFJ747TTJ5CVIY","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218675},"content":"Elsewhere, two titans of the TV football game have books out. <b>The Hamilton Notes by George Hamilton (Merrion, €22.99)</b> is the great commentator’s follow-up to his 2021 memoir. His sunny, warm character shines through a collection of travelogues, anecdotes and recollections.","type":"text"},{"_id":"HF53VK64FNEQPE5ELICDDWXPH4","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218676},"content":"In a similar vein, <b>Saturday Afternoon Fever by Jeff Stelling (Headline, €15.99)</b> is a delightful jaunt through the Sky presenter’s career and if the yarns maybe aren’t always as funny as Stelling himself imagines, there’s more than enough of them to keep the whole show rolling along.","type":"text"},{"_id":"53XDJHKRHZBNFDSTU4IRTX6PNU","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218677},"content":"This being the 150th year of the IRFU’s existence, a couple of timely skips through history have hit the shelves. <b>Blood And Thunder by Liam O’Callaghan (Penguin, €22.99)</b> is the livelier of them, a deeply-researched social history of the game in Ireland that isn’t afraid to poke at the stuffed shirts that have run the game over the years. <b>Together Standing Tall by John Scally (Gill, €27.99)</b> is a more official affair, an oral history covering the games and players from down the decades.","type":"text"},{"_id":"KFFJ4INJNRFUPAKB7GDWKML2FI","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218678},"content":"Next, two very different autobiographies by two very different Irish sports personalities. <b>Bend, Don’t Break by Frank O’Mara (O’Brien, €17.99)</b> is the former middle-distance runner’s story of his fight with Parkinson’s disease. Though it’s a bracing, uncomfortable read at times, you are left in total admiration for O’Mara in his battle.","type":"text"},{"_id":"DOWBQ6EF2VGJFKM7RESFYN7Z3M","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218679},"content":"Davy Russell hasn’t faced serious illness but like most jockeys he’s had no shortage of injury to overcome down the years. They’re a feature of <b>My Autobiography by Davy Russell and Donn McClean (Eriu, €22.00)</b>, along with the people he’s fallen in with and out with over the course of a long career. Russell has always been one of the most interesting jockeys in the weigh room and the sense you get here is that he leaves it with very few regrets.","type":"text"},{"_id":"2VVTPGKIE5BPBGZTXTIYBBFRLM","additional_properties":{"_id":"GTGG5KL36JCYBONA6PV5SI3YTU"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"SP36BI3MGZA2XJZBTGECWBZ2YY","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218680},"content":"To finish, some books that are mercifully NOT autobiographies. <b>Death Of A Boxer by Pete Carvill (Biteback, €23.20)</b> is not quite This Bloody Mary Is The Last Thing I Own but it’s fishing in similar waters to Jonathan Rendall’s 1997 classic. Carvill interrogates boxing and specifically he goes rooting around in the psyche of those who get into the ring, even though they know it can end in their death. Even if it’s a little disjointed at times, it’s always thoughtful and always probing, chasing the elusive why.","type":"text"},{"_id":"77IJR6ZO3VDGXF4YNAVEH4OVRI","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218681},"content":"<b>A Farewell To The Fairways by Dermot Gilleece (Red Stripe Press, €19.99)</b> is a gorgeous sign-off from the doyen of Irish golf writers. Gilleece graced the pages of just about every paper in town over the course of six decades and this is his reflection on it all. The words are exacting and precise now as they ever were, needless to say.","type":"text"},{"_id":"CMJRM72JIBC7TDKAAWFWLXULAQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218682},"content":"On which note, <b>The Year’s Best Sports Writing 2024 edited by Jane McManus (Triumph Books, €24.00)</b> isn’t to be missed. Get it for the Sally Jenkins masterpiece on Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert – Bitter Rivals. Beloved Friends. Survivors – which genuinely worth the cover price all by itself.","type":"text"},{"_id":"LTKY4SVQHJDGLFBENPT66TYHQ4","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218637},"content":"<mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>The Kids</b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"HSCMGTWYTJBNXHVKXVGVVOUYAM","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218685},"content":"Never has there been a greater spread of sports books aimed at young people, from illustrated histories to biographies to YA novels and beyond. <b>The Story of Irish Rugby by Gerard Siggins (O’Brien, €19.99)</b> is the perfect primer for a young person just getting into the game, artfully written by Siggins, author of the popular Rugby Spirit series. Beautifully illustrated by Graham Corcoran, it’s a must for any rugby mad youngster.","type":"text"},{"_id":"MLRSKZ6KWNGQDJKXNCXOGKDOPY","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218686},"content":"<b>Ireland’s Call by Paul O’Flynn (Gill, €14.99) </b>is a lightly fictionalised retelling of the 2024 Grand Slam, aimed at the 8-11 year-old age range. It keeps to the general story of the Six Nations campaign and scatters a few imagined conversation between players and coaches throughout.","type":"text"},{"_id":"M5XFAKKDRNCR7DGYXYMDFOR6ZQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218687},"content":"And for younger readers – or older ones who want to read to them – <b>‘Twas The Match Before Christmas by Julianne McKeigue (O’Brien, €16.99)</b> is a lot of fun. A reworking of the most famous Christmas poem of them all, it’s set in Croke Park and illustrated by Brian Fitzgerald. Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!","type":"text"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"metered"},"credits":{"by":[{"additional_properties":{"original":{"byline":"Malachy Clerkin"}},"name":"Malachy Clerkin"}]},"description":{"basic":"Johnny Sexon, Joe Canning and Richie Hogan all have highly readable offerings and Miguel Delaney’s book on the hijacking of modern football is not to be missed"},"display_date":"2024-11-30T06:00:00Z","headlines":{"basic":"Sports Books of the Year: Conor Niland’s The Racket the best in a year dominated by autobiographies","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"8948"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"HSQIAFL7CBDJFPMAUYCWFBEUM4","auth":{"1":"57955f1488272f7f96f48ea653fd839cbf4942161db89faa479143c41e53601b"},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/HSQIAFL7CBDJFPMAUYCWFBEUM4.jpg"}},"subtype":"feature","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Tennis"},{"name":"Athletics"},{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Cycling"},{"name":"Gaelic Games"},{"name":"Golf"},{"name":"Hockey"},{"name":"Racing"},{"name":"Rugby"},{"name":"Soccer"},{"name":"Sport"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/sport/tennis/2024/11/30/conor-nilands-the-racket-is-the-best-sports-book-in-a-year-dominated-by-autobiographies/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/sport/tennis","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Tennis"}}}},{"_id":"G24KP7LDSBBO5JUOTBJYYSDF3M","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":829,"audio_url":"https://d22tbkdovk5ea2.cloudfront.net/audio/projects/8948/podcasts/539f9165-1a54-4053-b528-c104d7e5c49d/versions/1732272511/media/e2cf7ae506a15e6ba525b76df89c757e_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/sport/gaelic-games/2024/11/23/the-bird-shaped-obsession-that-drives-james-crombie-one-of-irelands-best-sports-photographers/","content_elements":[{"_id":"WPTQVDNLEZCPJJVT7A6GYB3NZE","additional_properties":{"_id":1732207571234},"content":"James Crombie knew nothing about birds when this all started. Couldn’t have told you a starling from a swallow. When a friend told him he should take some pictures of the murmurations around Lough Ennell, his first job was to go away and google what the hell a murmuration was.","type":"text"},{"_id":"YDXBPRGVFBHPJP5NM7MIMKUTKY","additional_properties":{"_id":1732207571235},"content":"That was four years ago. Ireland was in the maw of the pandemic and the normal run of his day job as a sports photographer had slowed to a crawl. He was looking for something to divert himself and also to distract his buddy, who had recently been through a family tragedy. And so began, in December 2020, a project that would produce the most famous photograph he is ever likely to take.","type":"text"},{"_id":"7YHHZAMPCNB43OVG4KHQMIXGPA","additional_properties":{"_id":1732207571236},"content":"Crombie’s astonishing bird-shaped murmuration didn’t just go viral, it went global. It appeared first on the front page of The Irish Times on March 4th, 2021 and from there, it went everywhere. To parts known and unknown – National Geographic, CNN, The New Scientist, everywhere else.","type":"text"},{"_id":"KZNPGYDFNBHR5PGRKXD4HZYCOI","additional_properties":{"_id":"2LWP7EWSTFATFKEGLSXGGOGWIY"},"content":"Lough Ennell murmurations seen on video just as James Crombie captures the famous photo","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"I3REI6Z5INC7FAQZQGTK4ZF2KQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1732207571238},"content":"“In the three years since I took it, I’d say not a day goes by without someone mentioning it to me,” Crombie says. “I’ve taken pictures since then that I personally think are better but they will never get the attention that that picture got. I go to the UK and run into photographers over there and they go, ‘Here’s the Bird Man’. Every weekend, it happens somewhere.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ZKGCAZR765DNBEXXXWW25XDJUY","additional_properties":{"_id":1732207571239},"content":"“Which is fine and great – it’s not as if I’m hiding from it. I’m publishing a fecking book off the back of it! But it is funny trying to live up to it. And I don’t think I ever will or ever can, really. I spent the year after I took it half-annoyed because I was going, ‘How am I going to get the next thing that causes that sort of reaction?’ I felt this pressure to deliver something else as good as it.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"6OAGE3QJUJATZILFW5VIH2KU6U","additional_properties":{"_id":1732207571240},"content":"But as everyone who ever did anything good knows, reaction is an unstable pleasure. It’s a dopamine hit. It doesn’t last and it can’t be why you do it. Crombie took The Bird photo on his 50th night going to Lough Ennell. He kept going back for another 250 nights over the following three years. Why?","type":"text"},{"_id":"3PI6MUVQPKXVYUPQAJVZYBHDVQ","additional_properties":{"_id":"2L4SUKSP55C7NCO4QYRJJJESQ4"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"JT3P5DQV3ZHVFAYL6VEZ54664U","additional_properties":{"_id":1732207571241},"content":"Well, he did it because it became a way to spend time with his friend. He did it because he made another friend, a local farmer, along the way and the three of them became ever so slightly obsessed with these birds. He did it because it was a change of pace too, because there’s only so many kicks you can get from the rolling schedule of live matches.","type":"text"},{"_id":"BDFEAKMND5CZ5OQW4VSOMRWKJA","additional_properties":{"_id":1732207571242},"content":"“It’s funny because I get completely consumed by sport. Last weekend I was at the Aviva and there were 50,000 rugby fans there. And then I was in Twickenham with 82,000 people and then I was in Cardiff with 52,000 people. So at the weekend, I worked in front of nearly 200,000 people.","type":"text"},{"_id":"3XPKJFAWRRDQPMCKCVLSQBNZYU","additional_properties":{"_id":1732207571243},"content":"“And then on the Tuesday night I went to the lake where there was nobody. It was quiet and peaceful and I just thought, I love the contrast in that. I kind of need that as well. Because you go from game to game, they often just become the same thing at a different venue. I’m as mad into it as I ever was but I know it’s not possible to produce amazing photographs from every event you go to. I know that sometimes you do a match in cruise control.","type":"text"},{"_id":"4FIMLZ7OPJG2RJDZ2VLCCRFNZY","additional_properties":{"_id":1732207571244},"content":"“So to go down to the lake and just be there, knowing that nobody is going to care what I produce or if I don’t produce anything, I like that. I’m there on my own, I’m not on the phone, there’s no pressure.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"JLGWYMQDGZD6LCL7BWRZWIBX3A","additional_properties":{"_id":1732207571245},"content":"Crombie has won plenty of awards down the years, twice taking the overall PPI Photographer of the Year gong. And yet, much like with the starlings, he ended up being a snapper almost by happenstance. He did an aptitude test in secondary school and somehow the career guidance answer that came back said he should be a fishmonger. He ended up in IT and went to London for three years, working in a bank. That was never going to be it, either.","type":"text"},{"_id":"5SNCONO2LVHJY4RC7QVZUAJAUQ","additional_properties":{"_id":"5PGTKKJSEZFXJMJDMSLUFIRGNA"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"CCDEAOW35FEXNFL7ZOXPZ3IXQQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1732207571246},"content":"All the while, he was interested in photography, as a hobby as much as anything. He came back to Ireland and tootled about in a couple of other jobs for a while until a chance came along to take part in a reality TV series called No Experience Required. The idea was that various companies – among them the Inpho sports photography agency – would audition people who had never worked in a particular area before and at the end, take them on to the staff for six months.","type":"text"},{"_id":"HT73SWP3MNGIFODXJTSM5TW7KA","additional_properties":{"_id":1732207571247},"content":"“I always joke with Billy [Stickland, founder of Inpho] that if I hadn’t won that show, I’d be earning 300 grand a year now and have a second villa down in Spain. But no, I chose sport and photography instead. And it’s been amazing.","type":"text"},{"_id":"J63UGHRMHZG4NMYDLHGSYMRQ5I","additional_properties":{"_id":1732207571248},"content":"“I would say it took me 10 years to get comfortable with it. I was obsessed from the start. For most of that first six months, I was sitting in the office obsessed with how the other lads were cropping pictures, obsessed with settings, obsessed with the equipment. Eventually, near the end, one of them said to me, ‘Here, are you not going to go out and take any pictures? They won’t keep you on if you don’t.’","type":"text"},{"_id":"O5Y6JHVT7RHR5LEM2E4HGFT7EA","additional_properties":{"_id":1732207571249},"content":"“It nearly hadn’t occurred to me that I could go out and take them, weird as that sounds. I half-thought I had to stay in the office. So I went out every night to a different football match – Dublin championship, intermediate games, junior games, down to Wicklow for more games then. I still have those pictures and they’re brutal. But that’s how it started.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"2WBDUKYNAZFAVGKTUWNKKOY7SI","additional_properties":{"_id":1732207571250},"content":"The bulk of the job is matches. Rugby, soccer, hurling, football, wash, rinse, repeat. He brings an analogue radio with him to every match – digital radio commentary is always about 40 seconds behind the action. It means that he can be looking around during a game, staying engaged but still able to find pictures away from the pitch.","type":"text"},{"_id":"5Z5KWLJQGVFRBLH3ABMB27QFNM","additional_properties":{"_id":"4WK5YTBCLJBCXPOVFBWEBPZUAQ"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"SX3G4MQSENFHPDC6JHRXIALT7E","additional_properties":{"_id":1732207571251},"content":"“I think you need to keep some element of nervousness when you go to games. You don’t want to be too comfortable. If Dublin or Limerick are attacking in the last play of an All-Ireland final, your nerves have to be high because you don’t want to miss the shot.","type":"text"},{"_id":"M56DQVFNCZHSRFV5WIXMY3L5VE","additional_properties":{"_id":1732207571252},"content":"“I remember this year with Clare and Cork in the All-Ireland final, the Clare guy pulled the Cork guy’s jersey – I got a great shot of it. The jersey is nearly off him. I really thought, ‘How is that not a free?’ This is going to be the pivotal shot. And it didn’t become the pivotal shot because the free wasn’t given.","type":"text"},{"_id":"L7HYUXRLKBE5TL3ANMYUONBF6Y","additional_properties":{"_id":1732207571253},"content":"“Those last shots are where you have to be nervous. I’d say something like that happens maybe 10 times in a year. You know it, you can feel it in the stadium, the last play is so important and you don’t want to mess it up. You need that little bit of edge.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"GINBGRWVKZCDHFL25TXYHDGOKY","additional_properties":{"_id":1732207571254},"content":"The murmuration project was entirely without edge, of course. Which was kind of the point. Crombie is married to Ann – they’ve been together since they were teenagers and have four kids. Having a day job that takes him away at weekends and sometimes for weeks at a time is bad enough. Heading off to hang out with a couple of thousand starlings for 300 nights over four years requires a fair bit of understanding on the home front.","type":"text"},{"_id":"OFBPU25H6VBFRCA6OWVP4DLRZE","additional_properties":{"_id":1732207571255},"content":"“I would definitely say it’s selfish on my part. I’m gone a lot with sport in the first place. And then to find another reason to be away, it’s a lot. But I met my wife when we were 17. We know each other that long. She manages me, as much as people would have managed Paul McGrath back in the day. Occasionally she’ll say, ‘Right, cop on here.’ But she knows me better than anyone.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"2O726S5CQRCTRLICMWPKWS6ZJE","additional_properties":{"_id":"RGDSYRHTXJA5VPGTIHHQ76YMGQ"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"UTPUWOGV4NBT5DTXS2YT3K7MKM","additional_properties":{"_id":1732207571256},"content":"When the book arrived a couple of weeks back, Crombie’s initial reaction surprised him a little. Delighted and all as he is with it, he couldn’t help being sad at the whole thing coming to an end. Or at least an end of sorts.","type":"text"},{"_id":"TAFXVJWI45FQNG2NYRHSGNLDLA","additional_properties":{"_id":1732207571257},"content":"The starlings have been coming to Lough Ennell to roost in winter for as far back as anyone can remember. It’s about half an hour’s drive from his house. He’ll never not be able to head out with his camera to shoot them. Will he ever snap another picture like the one he did three years ago? Probably not. Will he ever stop being asked about it. Equally probably not.","type":"text"},{"_id":"PRS4ORNROZAGLOCVHHYO6KOT7M","additional_properties":{"_id":1732207571258},"content":"One answer that has never been properly nailed down is the why of it. Why did those thousands of starlings form themselves into the shape of a bird of prey that evening in April 2021? Murmurations are for protection, that much is well known. But why that particular shape for that particular millisecond? Pure coincidence? Or something deeper?","type":"text"},{"_id":"LRV42PVP3FBF7HLACXOQJPLKJA","additional_properties":{"_id":"GCCIAYMVNBBKZKOJJ6FOXMYT3A"},"content":"How Ireland won relay gold in June 2024: Ten photographs that tell the story of a golden night for Irish athletics","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"6YJALFHY3FCFNI2V6EIM5ISCNM","additional_properties":{"_id":1732207571259},"content":"“I’d like to think it’s something deeper,” Crombie says. “There was another shape that looked like a water wren that same night, within three or four minutes of the one I got. But I’m pretty sure it’s just by chance. I’ve had comments over the years saying it’s a sign of the end of the world, praising Allah, praising God, whatever else. I don’t know.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ZBH6HLWSENCPVC3FO7YGWPMCNI","additional_properties":{"_id":1732207571260},"content":"“I don’t think they did it on purpose. If I was standing at a slightly different angle, it wouldn’t have looked like a bird. We just happened to be at the exact perfect angle. So I don’t know. It was probably just pure chance.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"5GFT2JUJNVFYZP2SKHN6ERPVSM","additional_properties":{"_id":1732207571261},"content":"♦ <i>Murmurations by James Crombie is published by Lilliput Press</i>","type":"text"},{"_id":"QPPNCSYXZJCMJJMHPPFHFGBFBU","additional_properties":{"_id":1732207571263},"content":"<mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><u><b>The art of sports photography: How It Works</b></u></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"WAK347OGJ5H2LOGAVRX6YNAKLU","additional_properties":{"_id":1732207571264},"content":"<mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>Fionn McGivern (2) watches Kilkenny v Clare, July 2023</b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"C3ZS43T4DFGZVJL7NZT2UAMP7I","additional_properties":{"_id":"TANYOHGPHZGN7HFGMJIPNK5ZK4"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"GY6OIZLS5VAUJJDU7OTXJSORCE","additional_properties":{"_id":1732207571265},"content":"I was watching this little kid for about seven or eight minutes while the game was going on. I was very relaxed that day. I was looking for something different and I remember spotting that little kid out of the corner of my eye. I had the game going on in my little analogue radio so I knew I could turn and get anything if I needed to.","type":"text"},{"_id":"KQXRS2RJTVF5NMEXUWDDZRMD5A","additional_properties":{"_id":1732207571266},"content":"But this little lad was just there and I followed him for about seven or eight minutes, maybe nine. Just waiting for him to get into that perfect stance, the way he is in the shot. I got a great buzz out of it.","type":"text"},{"_id":"T6RVSHG7E5CHTGM65P6ZFZSXJ4","additional_properties":{"_id":1732207571267},"content":"The kid was from Antrim. His parents were massive Kilkenny fans. They were down for the game. Somebody found them afterwards and did a story on them and they ended up getting tickets for the final because of it. The kid ended up being interviewed on Kilkenny radio. That one was good fun.","type":"text"},{"_id":"TERUBBZQXBBW5OJGWMT7TATVMA","additional_properties":{"_id":1732207571268},"content":"<mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>Supporter at Covid-era club championship match, September 2020</b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"WKYH26EULJC53CBW5ZMXK5X7DQ","additional_properties":{"_id":"7DJA2QWJBRBK5DUT6ZA6FBTSDM"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"ZPRHSIW7UZBHRLWTFZ5TIZJZUY","additional_properties":{"_id":1732207571269},"content":"Sport had just started back but no crowds were allowed at games yet. This was a Roscommon semi-final between St Brigid’s and Boyle. I was taking pictures of it when I saw this head poking up over the wall behind the goal. So I said I’d go out and have a look.","type":"text"},{"_id":"OGSLXOEIQFCPTPTRDCXSFC5Z6Y","additional_properties":{"_id":1732207571270},"content":"I got out into this graveyard behind Dr Hyde Park. This guy had carried his ladder all the way through the graveyard and propped it up. I didn’t want to disturb him in case he fell off so I took a few snaps and happened to get this one just as Boyle scored.","type":"text"},{"_id":"SWVPBHFZUFGJRNZHRQRS54QIIU","additional_properties":{"_id":1732207571271},"content":"I went over to him then and asked could I publish the photo. “Oh Jesus no,” he said. “I’m not supposed to be here.” There were still restrictions at that stage on how far from your house you were allowed to go. But I said I wouldn’t use his name and would only show him from the back so he was okay with it.","type":"text"},{"_id":"7MJDUH5N6FDD3IWQ4VG52CWUQQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1732207571272},"content":"A few weeks later, his daughter got on to me and asked could she get the original. Apparently it went viral and everyone recognised him. He ended up doing a two-page spread in the Roscommon Herald.","type":"text"},{"_id":"JUQWNP6PJVGELOVE3YBLGZB4PQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1732207571273},"content":"<mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>Connacht bench at a Challenge Cup game in Siberia, January 2016</b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"OU3RZX3H5VFNPJ345V6ZT5KFK4","additional_properties":{"_id":"BOQMHUSUFVAD3LPVGMOXNYIVAM"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"AFPKXQKOWRFEFOGF62HR3CMJMA","additional_properties":{"_id":1732207571274},"content":"This was a mad adventure. Enisei-STM were the first Russian club to play in the Challenge Cup and Connacht went to Siberia for the game. We were told there could be up to 30,000 at it – we turned up and there were about 400 there. It was the coldest I’ve ever been, the harshest conditions I’ve ever seen a match be played in.","type":"text"},{"_id":"3T2VO6K5ENF6DN4MCXLU5LLDRI","additional_properties":{"_id":1732207571275},"content":"I had about a dozen layers on me and I was still frozen solid. I saw the Connacht bench from the far side of the pitch but it took me about 10 minutes to walk around because I nearly seized up with the cold. They had blankets and hot water bottles and hot chocolates for when they came off the pitch.","type":"text"},{"_id":"XLAHJY22SZAXDDO3E25X46IWSY","additional_properties":{"_id":1732207571276},"content":"It took us about a week to get home. The charter plane Connacht had hired hadn’t moved for four days and was completely frozen solid when we got back to it. So we had no way of getting out of there. By the time we did, our five-day visas had run out. We had to fly to Moscow to get our visas renewed just to leave the country. Players got processed first, officials next. I’d say I was pretty much the last one out.","type":"text"},{"_id":"YCDY6C2IB5FUNMX3YVDX7FFP3I","additional_properties":{},"type":"list"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"metered"},"credits":{"by":[{"additional_properties":{"original":{"byline":"Malachy Clerkin"}},"name":"Malachy Clerkin"}]},"description":{"basic":"It started as a pandemic distraction but ended up producing probably the most famous photo the Westmeath man will ever take - the murmuration that went around the world"},"display_date":"2024-11-23T06:00:00Z","headlines":{"basic":"The bird-shaped obsession that drives James Crombie, one of Ireland’s best sports photographers ","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"8948"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"XRDS27Z7URWUAPI5LG2H6L7FUI","auth":{"1":"9c9585a82889598a9b724aeaa7c117136eb5fae92b5527345c4515158f27bbc0"},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/XRDS27Z7URWUAPI5LG2H6L7FUI.jpg"},"lead_art":{"_id":"XRDS27Z7URWUAPI5LG2H6L7FUI","type":"image"},"overline_logo":{"_id":"XRDS27Z7URWUAPI5LG2H6L7FUI","auth":{"1":"9c9585a82889598a9b724aeaa7c117136eb5fae92b5527345c4515158f27bbc0"},"url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/XRDS27Z7URWUAPI5LG2H6L7FUI.jpg"}},"subtype":"feature","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Gaelic Games"},{"name":"Rugby"},{"name":"Racing"},{"name":"Golf"},{"name":"Cycling"},{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Athletics"},{"name":"Sport"},{"name":"Soccer"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/sport/gaelic-games/2024/11/23/the-bird-shaped-obsession-that-drives-james-crombie-one-of-irelands-best-sports-photographers/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/sport/gaelic-games","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Gaelic Games"}}}},{"_id":"TPTJUGLZEJCPJMFBDBNYYASDJ4","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":284,"audio_url":"https://d22tbkdovk5ea2.cloudfront.net/audio/projects/5469/podcasts/644033c1-3305-4d74-98bf-4382f437ad50/versions/1731853549/media/3fcc2c66dc65b89ea6d31569e76a8042_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/sport/boxing/2024/11/17/it-is-a-rough-sport-katie-taylor-floats-above-dirty-tactics-allegation-after-win-over-serrano/","content_elements":[{"_id":"44MITXRZSNFMBG6GOT2HJW5ILQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1731851883488},"content":"After midnight now in Dallas Cowboys arena with its photos of local gods past – Jerry Jones and Jimmy Johnson and Troy Aikman on the wall – when <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/katie-taylor/\" target=\"_blank\">Katie Taylor</a> comes in bearing two bruised eyes and a swollen cheek and a sweet smile of quiet satisfaction. Outside, the big arena is deserted except for the small army of cleaning staff. The Cowboys are back here Monday night.","type":"text"},{"_id":"VJNLS5TLCBGPLPT5QJUM23FX24","additional_properties":{"_id":1731851883489},"content":"Maybe you had to be there but it felt as if this was Taylor’s apotheosis: <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/boxing/2024/11/16/katie-taylor-narrowly-beats-amanda-serrano-in-a-contest-wreathed-in-greatness/\" target=\"_blank\">her true-grit night of nights</a> in an alien and hostile environment. Still the champ. And 38 years old now. More questions. Will she fight again? And if so, who? And where? Because magnificent as this fight was against Amanda Serrano, it happened while Ireland slept.","type":"text"},{"_id":"C7JNHDM3TBGO3FAKNVRV4L5BIU","additional_properties":{"_id":"J3N7IERAWFGSNH7T7VTKMQPBTY"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"WYMYMG62E5DOBBG6BAVQGLKQU4","additional_properties":{"_id":1731851883491},"content":"The depth of what she achieved here may not have fully registered as a genuinely great moment for Irish sport. And it carried a bitter afternote. Taylor’s reputation was besmirched here. It happened in the immediate aftermath when Jordan Maldonado lost his composure and flung a few choice insults around the arena already convinced that Taylor had intentionally headbutted Serrano in the fourth to open up a deep gash which bled throughout despite the efforts of her cut man. “She’s so dirty. She leads with her head. It’s her best attribute,” he said in a live interview during the fight.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ATLTQMXJDFAAXDNYHQYBTTWSVI","additional_properties":{"_id":1731851883492},"content":"Given that Taylor was, during the roiling, crazy final rounds when both fighters just stood and traded blows and ignored the pain, showcasing her lightning and superior hand work, it was a nasty thing to say. Afterwards, promoter Nikisa Bidarian doubled down when he appeared alongside Jake Paul.","type":"text"},{"_id":"UESQL65QHBASVPLM42Y6JLEB24","additional_properties":{"_id":"DPXE3TDJVFELVNVAKIJT46G6XU"},"content":"Katie Taylor narrowly defeats Amanda Serrano in brutal contest","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"LW7D4TKRAFDZLL4SMXRH5VWE7U","additional_properties":{"_id":"BD6W7QMT55AALPLM3DDAGEBCBM"},"content":"Jake Paul beats Mike Tyson in manufactured mismatch as Father Time comes calling","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"BGNDXJT2QNHLNISAIYUNPAV2V4","additional_properties":{"_id":1731851883493},"content":"“I would like to point out that the betting markets in the 10th round had it at -350 for Amanda to win,” he said, out of the blue.","type":"text"},{"_id":"FPPRXN5QZVDYXBHTWRRKMCI2EY","additional_properties":{"_id":1731851883494},"content":"“I thought in the first round if there was 15 seconds left Katie Taylor was dropped and done. I thought she implemented her game plan well but it was a dirty fight. She used her head to lead every single minute of every round and Amanda did her best to fight back but she was at a disadvantage and the ref didn’t stop the headbutts. He took a point away way too late and she continued to do the headbutting and the holding. She felt the ref didn’t protect her and they should have taken away more than one point for what that woman did in the ring tonight.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"BY2PEG5KQNASNJJJ6ZHFFYSBLY","additional_properties":{"_id":"YJKS4EMZ5ZEP5AGMCKXG3DEYEU"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"BVCAGPPZMZBBFBUPWLREN6Z7QE","additional_properties":{"_id":1731851883496},"content":"Bidarian was excited: the night had been a thundering commercial success. But he should have had the clarity to understand that Taylor-Serrano had rescued it from farce. And as he said himself, he is four years involved in boxing. Taylor has been dedicated to the sport for her entire life. Bidarian hasn’t earned the right to offer that sort of criticism. When Taylor was asked about it, she returned to her post-match habit of floating above the noise.","type":"text"},{"_id":"PSVDH2XU5RG5VOZS3OK2RWON4E","additional_properties":{"_id":1731851883497},"content":"“It just happens sometimes when you fight a southpaw especially. The fighters come in close and it just happens. It was completely accidental. I am in there fighting like she is and it is a rough sport and sometimes you get head clashes. I think it was a very different fight than the first time. I started off a bit slow and changed it up in the second half where I just stood and fought with her but I definitely think I did bring my punches to land. And that is what won the fight in the end, I feel. But another really close fight, two epic fights and close decisions and I am just proud.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"2CTLHX4DX5AQXAIRAGTEG6HN4U","additional_properties":{"_id":"MHZ5MWGIUFE4THHSXJQWH5OFB4"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"DJCGCI4E5ZEBBN77AWIASIZQ6I","additional_properties":{"_id":1731851883499},"content":"But weirdly, it fell to a quintessential Englishman, promoter Eddie Hearn, to defend Taylor in the aftermath of it all. Hearn belongs to the rich school of East London fast talkers but when he reflected on Taylor last night, he meant it. You could hear it in his voice. During the fight, he had, like many fight enthusiasts, lost himself in the depth and quality of the courage with which Taylor had boxed.","type":"text"},{"_id":"6FY5YADPIVCANGCMBPICMNX7CY","additional_properties":{"_id":1731851883500},"content":"“For me she is the greatest female fighter of all time. She is the one who when boxing was banned in Ireland, and girls weren’t allowed to fight she put her ponytail under her headguard and walked in pretending she was a boy. She was K Taylor in the amateurs. She was the one who convinced the IOC to allow boxing for females, the one who won five World Championship amateur titles, six European amateur titles, Olympic gold, undisputed lightweight world champion, undisputed super lightweight world champion. Sold out Madison Square Garden. Sold out the arenas in Ireland. Wembley in front of 90,000.","type":"text"},{"_id":"A4YXVT2LEBB5XKEIA5NMV66SUM","additional_properties":{"_id":1731851883501},"content":"“For me – I’m biased. And she is so humble. But it goes beyond the achievements. It is down to the legacy. I see it with my own daughters. For me, it is no competition.”","type":"text"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"premium"},"credits":{"by":[{"additional_properties":{"original":{"byline":"Keith Duggan"}},"name":"Keith Duggan"}]},"description":{"basic":"Because of the timing, the depth of what Taylor achieved here may not have fully registered as a genuinely great moment for Irish sport"},"display_date":"2024-11-17T14:20:39.63Z","headlines":{"basic":"‘It is a rough sport’: Katie Taylor floats above ‘dirty’ tactics allegation after win over Serrano","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"5469"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"IENT6FCZZZDFDE4LYPROOT6ZYU","auth":{"1":"7f256dbb6728005e76d65cd93924ecbac6604ea9651bbd6b8ab1b795bfed9914"},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/IENT6FCZZZDFDE4LYPROOT6ZYU.jpg"}},"subtype":"default","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Sport"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/sport/boxing/2024/11/17/it-is-a-rough-sport-katie-taylor-floats-above-dirty-tactics-allegation-after-win-over-serrano/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/sport/boxing","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Boxing"}}}},{"_id":"OBLYFEZHUFEZHG4RRXFRMNPAWY","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":447,"audio_url":"https://d22tbkdovk5ea2.cloudfront.net/audio/projects/8948/podcasts/98206a71-06a6-46f1-bb39-fdc32fd86f87/versions/1731849799/media/0ebaa858aaa42abcbb844f644b05f562_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/sport/boxing/2024/11/16/mike-tyson-couldnt-turn-back-time-but-he-knew-that-all-along/","content_elements":[{"_id":"FWONZJSTD5BORBAPER3UYEYWC4","additional_properties":{},"content":"It wasn’t until he made the long walk from the dressingroom across the floor of Dallas Cowboy’s football stadium that it became clear what 70,000 paying customers and the millions watching – or, due to technical issues, not watching – around the world were hoping to see from <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/mike-tyson/\" target=\"_blank\">Mike Tyson</a>. They were tuning in to see the one magic act that everyone knows to be impossible. The rewinding of time.","type":"text"},{"_id":"MVOE6GGKJVCJ7A5ZKJ74EEPO2U","additional_properties":{"_id":1731834386830},"content":"In Dallas, the fans paid up under the wilful delusion that the old, long gone Mike Tyson would somehow materialise before them because they wished it to be so: alive again at 58 with the murderous intent and combustible fighting power with which he attacked the world from the age of 18.","type":"text"},{"_id":"NKN3YJEXDVG6ZD7Q4XJPN6S54U","additional_properties":{"_id":1731785828880},"content":"The night was a strange combination of old boxing glamour and the uneasy sense that this fabricated headline fight between Tyson and <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/jake-paul/\" target=\"_blank\">Jake Paul</a> was, at heart, a betrayal of the sport. Everyone was dressed in their best and the bartenders were busy dispensing cocktails to the beautiful people. As a spectacle in sound and vision, it was stunning and the expensive seats glittered with a random selection of celebrities – big Shaquille O’Neal strode the floor like a behemoth, Ralph Macchio and Charlize Theron beamed in a touch of Old Hollywood and Rob Gronkowski, the retired NFL star (and madcap enough to become sucked into this new fad of celebrity-fighting) was bouncing around. And it was the allure of seeing Mike Tyson that made the occasion.","type":"text"},{"_id":"FOJ4OXGHUNHPJGUDRMHNG2B36U","additional_properties":{"_id":1731834386832},"content":"The anticipation, in the minutes before the fight started, was genuine. Many of the fans here were not even born when Tyson was in his pomp. But they had seen all the old clips: not just the swift rage with which he dispensed of a long line of forgotten opponents but the disturbing interviews, the photos of Mike walking his pet tiger; of Mike quoting Wilde’s Ballad of Reading Gaol, of Mike facing the cops having bitten off a piece of Evander Holyfield’s ear. In short, they wanted for themselves a taste of the wilder unreachable world of the 1980s and 1990s.","type":"text"},{"_id":"2LUUSHJW5JBSZBQB3EQLBHTBGI","additional_properties":{"_id":1731785828881},"content":"And when Mike appeared in his customary black, unadorned cut-off warm up smock and began his slow-blank eyed walk to the ring, the people went berserk. For those few seconds they could fool themselves that they were about to witness the real thing; that Iron Mike could shake off two decades of inactivity and inhabit that untamed spirit.","type":"text"},{"_id":"MYAD3O42UKRJLPAZJHV7YSSZ54","additional_properties":{"_id":"HHYX42PWABDT7BTKR6EIOGQAXQ"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"6OWURZTHG5BD7FMUO3Y2CBWBAA","additional_properties":{"_id":1731834386835},"content":"From the first bell, the delusion began to fade. The eight rounds were a dud. It didn’t help the occasion that the previous fight, between Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano had been lit with electrifying, constant menace and danger and that the pair had produced a fight for the ages.","type":"text"},{"_id":"PG2INHKYCFEV3JZ6WQ62GK2M6M","additional_properties":{"_id":1731834386836},"content":"Tyson threw a paltry 27 punches over the entire contest and spent the rest of the time moving and bobbing and keeping out of harm’s way. By the last round, the booing was sustained and lusty and thousands exited before the announcer confirmed that the winner, by unanimous decision, was Jake Paul. The big Rust Belt YouTube celebrity seems to skateboard through life with a blithe indifference to public opinion and leaned into the fact that everyone in the stadium was hoping to see Tyson knock the living daylights out of him. But he is a canny operator. And he knew. As did Mike Tyson.","type":"text"},{"_id":"KX7APFYOIVFNLPQHML2WHR3XLY","additional_properties":{"_id":1731834386837},"content":"On Wednesday, Tyson sat through the official press conference in a mood of baleful silence. At the time, it was optimistically interpreted as a signal that Tyson had pulled up the drawbridge and retreated into the bleak interior place where he becomes a machine born to inflict physical damage on his opponents. But as he moved stiffly back to his corner after each harmless, pointless round, the truth presented itself. Tyson remained silent because he knew what would happen here in Dallas on Friday evening. He promised he would “bring the devil himself” and he was true to his word. He made his deal, took the money and, well, hobbled, rather than ran.","type":"text"},{"_id":"FLHI6EDWDBBAZKZUAEHI2LG2RE","additional_properties":{"_id":"ODRVRV7MQRHZNCT2HNLRK46TVI"},"content":"Katie Taylor narrowly defeats Amanda Serrano in brutal contest","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"N5UFXG2AF5ASZLOQ533KDHFLKE","additional_properties":{"_id":1731785828884},"content":"Of all the advance clips pushed by Paul’s promotions company in the lead up to the fight, nothing came close to capturing Tyson like the short clip of a young girl interviewing Iron Mike and asking him what type of legacy he would like to leave when he is done.","type":"text"},{"_id":"BMC3Q3KTBNCAZAKRCM7W2OYA6M","additional_properties":{"_id":1731834386840},"content":"“Well I don’t believe in the word legacy. I think that’s another word for ego. That’s just some word that everybody grabbed on to. Now, it is used every five seconds. It means absolutely nothing to me. I’m just passin’ through. I’mma die and it’s gonna be over. Who cares about legacy after that? I am nothing. We are dead. We’re dust. We are absolutely nothing.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"DRBLDOS74JFJPHIHRVQSWIXZCI","additional_properties":{"_id":1731785828886},"content":"“Thank you such for sharing that,” the young interviewer staring unblinkingly at the baddest man on the planet through her large spectacles. “That’s something I have not heard before.” But others have. It was a riff on Tyson’s favourite theme: the big nothingness of it all.","type":"text"},{"_id":"DSDNMJ6HORKWIZAR3XIEB7QYQY","additional_properties":{"_id":"MDC5ESB6BRDBPFL44T7B7WS4MM"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"54A6PCN3URD4VBVYXYB3KH3TEY","additional_properties":{"_id":1731834386843},"content":"For a man who has been brutally tough in his verbal onslaughts towards other people, he has always reserved a sentimental spot for himself. And so, this humiliation against Jake Paul, a terrific promoter and, one suspects, a good hearted-Midwestern boy beneath the bluster and boasting, but an absolute no-mark in the realm of fighters Tyson has faced: it all fits perfectly with Tyson’s world view.","type":"text"},{"_id":"BQ7K4FMPR5AYNGEMR7Z3WQBXJM","additional_properties":{"_id":1731834386844},"content":"His final moment in boxing would be one of abasement: a living shadow of his former self enduring this parody of a fight and the growing disenchantment of the people who were there to see him. Afterwards, he muttered a few distracted words to the commentator and vanished. He did not appear for the midnight interviews in the Cowboys’ conference room, leaving his coaching staff to talk up the occasion.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ICHG2ASLGRHPJKCHVGIUB5P4DI","additional_properties":{"_id":1731785828887},"content":"“We worked for seven months for this moment. I really believed we had this victory before the fight. He never asked to give up,” his trainer, Rafael Cordeiro, said.","type":"text"},{"_id":"6YD7LGKC7NHVLN4ME6ID5XD7NI","additional_properties":{"_id":1731785828888},"content":"“He is the people’s champion. He has inspired many people outside the ring. Most importantly, Mike comes home to his loved ones,” he added.","type":"text"},{"_id":"4GT3JPNXRBF5VNVQ5XMHJC7GPI","additional_properties":{"_id":1731785828889},"content":"And that much is true. In a weird way, Mike Tyson had executed his last, bleak magic act. He is hitting 60 and has banked $20 million for one night of vaudeville. Insiders say that Tyson the man is more content now than he has ever been: just another man in late middle age drifting towards eccentricity. That’s not a bad story where the afterlife of a heavyweight boxing champion is concerned.","type":"text"},{"_id":"4JDHO3DD3NFFRICBG7KMU6DVCA","additional_properties":{"_id":1731785828890},"content":"But what happened in Dallas on Friday night, well, that was a death ritual. What the bored crowd saw was the endnote on that other Mike Tyson with that fearsome public image.","type":"text"},{"_id":"JLFWLFN6HRETPBF4FMLX3CHLVM","additional_properties":{"_id":1731785828891},"content":"“I’mma die. I’m just passin’ through.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"HBET35CSOZEVLIO3TW7IKDLI4M","additional_properties":{"_id":1731785828892},"content":"And so it went. Just dust. Absolutely nothing.","type":"text"},{"_id":"YCDY6C2IB5FUNMX3YVDX7FFP3I","additional_properties":{},"type":"list"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"metered"},"credits":{"by":[{"additional_properties":{"original":{"byline":"Keith Duggan"}},"name":"Keith Duggan"}]},"description":{"basic":"The former heavyweight boxer was defeated by YouTuber Jake Paul by unanimous decision, but conjured up one last bleak magic act"},"display_date":"2024-11-16T20:03:37.391Z","headlines":{"basic":"Mike Tyson couldn’t turn back time, but he knew that all along","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"8948"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"JNAGWWD2NHL3KDLJWESKC6WXRQ","auth":{"1":"07383631d2cf21479dd890e6e023c5f53b47b2e7d4f9745d13bbd975dea677e6"},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/JNAGWWD2NHL3KDLJWESKC6WXRQ.jpg"}},"subtype":"feature","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Sport"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/sport/boxing/2024/11/16/mike-tyson-couldnt-turn-back-time-but-he-knew-that-all-along/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/sport/boxing","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Boxing"}}}},{"_id":"HRYSWD4LHVFCFL25CANFK2KM4I","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":391,"audio_url":"https://d22tbkdovk5ea2.cloudfront.net/audio/projects/8948/podcasts/82599923-6faa-49f5-a55c-7efb89be188b/versions/1731746524/media/1620895e5367a8c1affec1562d68473c_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/sport/boxing/2024/11/16/jake-paul-beats-mike-tyson-in-manufactured-mismatch-as-father-time-comes-calling/","content_elements":[{"_id":"EB634AVEGRCGXEAB5OUZXES3QE","additional_properties":{"_id":1731745585259},"content":"<a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/jake-paul\" target=\"_blank\">Jake Paul</a>, a 27-year-old social media huckster, beat a 58-year-old man with a long history of health problems, both physically and mentally, in a boxing ring late on Friday night. The fact that <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/mike-tyson\" target=\"_blank\">Mike Tyson</a> was defeated so comprehensively on points was meant to give Paul a semblance of authenticity in the unforgiving business of boxing. But it didn’t mean much in the end.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ZXJFAF666BDFZNR527VEHCE57M","additional_properties":{"_id":1731745585260},"content":"Tyson is the former world champion who, in the mid-to-late 1980s, spread awe and terror as he tore through the heavyweight ranks. But, in the dog days of 2024, Tyson was trying to overcome years of abuse, after far too many drugs and far too much drinking, as well as recent troubling issues with a bleeding stomach ulcer and acute sciatica. Two years ago Tyson was in such pain that he had to be pushed around in a wheelchair and, this May, he threw up so much blood on a flight that his manufactured scrap with Paul had to be postponed for six months. He now looks like he also has a bad right knee.","type":"text"},{"_id":"UJ6CXMONGVCWNGR64ZOGMWLE3Y","additional_properties":{"_id":1731745585262},"content":"This was Paul’s opponent in a sad and abject bout. The fight had been reduced to eight rounds, lasting just two minutes each, and that relative brevity offered a modicum of relief. Paul received the unanimous verdict by two scores of 79-73 and a shutout 80-72.","type":"text"},{"_id":"UB5532V4TFA43IBTV6T4TFTD3U","additional_properties":{"_id":1731745585263},"content":"The near sold-out crowd at the AT&T Stadium was fiercely partisan in their early support of Tyson. Ninety minutes before the ring-walks, footage of Paul’s arrival was greeted with a muted hum. But we then saw Tyson walking slowly to his locker room. His jacket was emblazoned with his famous old boxing alias: “Iron Mike”. The huge and sustained roar was strangely moving.","type":"text"},{"_id":"34DSXLOQMNHQDE4KIQRDYRNFFU","additional_properties":{"_id":1731745585264},"content":"Jake Paul and his brother Logan were driven to the ring in a customised Chevy low-rider, instead of making the traditional fighter’s walk, to a stale old Phil Collins track. Tyson made a sombre, brooding trudge, wearing a stark black top in a deliberate attempt to echo the menace which once defined him. It was the high point of a long night for the once formidable Tyson. He looked weathered and aged as he was introduced in the middle of the ring.","type":"text"},{"_id":"PJY6K32PVBB2ZHOZIUVB2JI4EI","additional_properties":{"_id":1731745585265},"content":"Tyson came out with a modicum of intent and he soon caught the retreating Paul with a clipping left and a glancing right. He ducked under a few swinging punches but Tyson was then tagged by a much sharper right to the head. It was already plain that any vague hope of Tyson being able to summon his once trademark ferocity belonged to a forlorn fantasy. The two-minute round ended with Tyson, wearing a brace on his dodgy knee, trying slowly and unsuccessfully to close the distance between him and a cheerfully back-peddling Paul.","type":"text"},{"_id":"U7TLURZD4VCKBAIV7EQAAQ3F5A","subtype":"twitter","type":"oembed_response"},{"_id":"XBOPRCHQBFCLRLWLKVRBBEJS7A","additional_properties":{"_id":1731745585266},"content":"The second round was dulled by pedestrian exchanges, with Tyson looking bereft of any real intent while Paul landed a few decent punches. But the former world champion was soon in trouble when he was rocked to the soles of his black boots by a stream of left hands. Decades ago, Tyson would have been far too fast and elusive for such a telegraphed series of blows. He would have slipped under them and then punished and dropped a boxing novice for his audacity. But Tyson’s speed and ring savvy is long gone and he took his shots with bleak stoicism.","type":"text"},{"_id":"WSKKJIOASFH4PCRHODJ22QIYGI","additional_properties":{"_id":1731745585267},"content":"Paul cruised through the remaining rounds, winning them with little obvious effort. If he really did make $40m it must have felt easier than some of his teenage YouTube stunts which made his name and early fortune.","type":"text"},{"_id":"F7UV5NXUDZAGHCSFI5KHWBOYE4","additional_properties":{"_id":1731745585268},"content":"A muted, almost resigned atmosphere settled around the stadium. It was in stark contrast to the deep engagement the crowd had felt during the magnificent fight which Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano had produced. The two women showed the meaning of elite boxing while Paul and Tyson plodded on through their tedious exhibition of fisticuffs.","type":"text"},{"_id":"OYKK6VNUDJFFZLAA6QEJYXPGMM","additional_properties":{"_id":1731745585269},"content":"Booing resounded in the last two rounds as if the crowd finally accepted the bitter truth that this had never been a real fight. People headed for the exits even before the predictable scorecards were read out.","type":"text"},{"_id":"H33G7XT35VG43PRR4NNXRXIZMM","additional_properties":{"_id":1731745585270},"content":"Tyson had already put the result, as well as the protracted and ridiculous hype surrounding the circus, into bleak context the previous night. Dragooned into an interview with Jazlyn Guerra, a 14-year-old social media personality who tags herself as Jazzy’s World TV, Tyson was withering in the way he dismissed the fight and his historical reputation. His words carried a dark meaning which ridiculed his contest with a YouTuber.","type":"text"},{"_id":"CXVNABP2OFD5FNSLMWX24LPWI4","additional_properties":{"_id":1731745585271},"content":"Guerra, who appears to be an accomplished teenager, was initially gushing in her enthusiasm for the bout after the weigh-in on Thursday night. She said it would provide “a monumental opportunity for kids my age to see the legend Mike Tyson in the ring for the first time. So after such a successful career what type of legacy would you like to leave behind when it’s all said and done?”","type":"text"},{"_id":"QIQWWDNID5NDOHRYWP4TIUCNIQ","additional_properties":{"_id":"HHOCKTNKDJCIRC6SDBEDGJABRY"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"PAO3E4PNCRASHCH3MIRNNCJQBM","additional_properties":{"_id":1731745585272},"content":"Tyson paused. It wasn’t a terrible question but he was in the mood to dole out a grim truth. “Well, I don’t believe in the word ‘legacy’,” Tyson said. “I think that’s just another word for ‘ego’. Legacy means absolutely nothing to me. I’m just passing through. I’m gonna die and it’s gonna be over. Who cares about legacy after that? We’re nothing. We’re dead. We’re dust.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"AKK4N4KEUBEQPPILLZ42MTHNRE","additional_properties":{"_id":1731745585274},"content":"Guerra, to her considerable credit, was gracious. “Well, thank you so much for sharing that,” she said. “That’s something I’ve not heard before.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"PSB3QV6A6RHLXMNRV3PF3LTOYQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1731745585275},"content":"Tyson wasn’t done. “Can you really imagine someone saying I want my legacy to be this way or that?” he continued bluntly. “You’re dead. What audacity is that – to want people to think about me when I am gone? Who the fuck cares about me?”","type":"text"},{"_id":"GPFISS364VH35AA5EI62DDHZPI","additional_properties":{"_id":1731745585276},"content":"It was hard to care about anything in regard to this stunted show – apart from a sincere hope that Tyson did not suffer much damage from the blows he took. Walking out into the black Texas night, and away from such a contrived and cynical business, it felt like freedom to escape the madness and the sadness. – Guardian","type":"text"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"metered"},"credits":{"by":[{"name":"Donald McRae at AT&T Stadium"}]},"description":{"basic":"Social media personality defeats former world champion by two scores of 79-73 and 80-72 in tedious exhibition of fisticuffs"},"display_date":"2024-11-16T08:41:05.195Z","headlines":{"basic":"Jake Paul beats Mike Tyson in manufactured mismatch as Father Time comes calling","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"8948"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"JGVYEHU56Z4JETKIWXTBBNZ24U","auth":{"1":"99ed001b4babd2901a4cf9bbd11b57f56370a24163fd1354c2f8f282ae1b4070"},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/JGVYEHU56Z4JETKIWXTBBNZ24U.jpg"}},"subtype":"default","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Sport"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/sport/boxing/2024/11/16/jake-paul-beats-mike-tyson-in-manufactured-mismatch-as-father-time-comes-calling/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/sport/boxing","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Boxing"}}}},{"_id":"2QKVSJMYBFDOLHLVCR7N2VUY7M","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":396,"audio_url":"https://d22tbkdovk5ea2.cloudfront.net/audio/projects/5469/podcasts/2b118828-acf6-4b77-8ce5-8c578d9d7020/versions/1731739236/media/59468b83a43242f81c4dfa7d26fadc0f_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/sport/boxing/2024/11/16/katie-taylor-narrowly-beats-amanda-serrano-in-a-contest-wreathed-in-greatness/","content_elements":[{"_id":"344444WXLFBX3E3AU5SAMCVTP4","additional_properties":{"_id":1731737120954},"content":"‘Lawdy, Lawdy.’ Joe Frazier’s old refrain came whispering out of the decades here in Texas. The turf in this vast stadium where the Dallas Cowboys ply their trade is accustomed to bouts of violence but the latest meeting between <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/katie-taylor/\" target=\"_blank\">Katie Taylor</a> and Amanda Serrano, late on Friday night, served up a sustained and brutal 20 minutes of non-stop close-quarter fighting that was simply of a different nature.","type":"text"},{"_id":"Y4X2XN2ZCRESJIEHRR7BHUT5ZY","additional_properties":{"_id":1731737120955},"content":"Both fighters went beyond the normal realms of sport here, or the normal human limitations, to inflict physical punishment, to deliver an exhibition in fighting that easily eclipsed anything that the three male bouts could hope to reach. Given that both are figureheads of women’s sport and were fighting in the same ring where the 58-year-old <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/mike-tyson/\" target=\"_blank\">Mike Tyson</a> would make a glowering and much-anticipated return, it was a significant moment.","type":"text"},{"_id":"XJ7H4726I5DC3OJVXNHNFHZAI4","additional_properties":{"_id":1731737120956},"content":"There must have been 70,000 people here in the stadium in Texas and the audience of hundreds of millions around the world complained bitterly of delays in their live stream. Those who got to watch it live were treated to something unforgettable.","type":"text"},{"_id":"SNRSEQSDFVDQ3DDGG7XUSBGXAY","additional_properties":{"_id":1731742280822},"content":"When it was over, the battered fighters stood side by side and heard that all three judges – Jeremy Hayes (Canada), Nate Palmer (Indiana) and Jess Reyes (Texas) – scored the contest 95-94 unanimously. “And still” ... the booing drowned out the confirmation that Katie Taylor had retained her title. Serrano is a graceful competitor and hugged the Irish woman afterwards but her corner team offered a bitterly accusatory comment that Taylor is a dirty fighter who leads with her head.","type":"text"},{"_id":"JXV6FRCREJEVXIYXCWQS4GZCGM","additional_properties":{"_id":1731737120957},"content":"Feelings were running high, but it was still a nasty allegation to throw at one of the most decorated and respected boxers in the sport. But Taylor was too exhausted, too happy and too proud to care.","type":"text"},{"_id":"VF5RBNOX45DYZBBFR5ZRR4N4G4","additional_properties":{"_id":1731737120958},"content":"“It’s hard to score and fight the fight. I knew it was an absolute war in there,” she said through a swell of boos bouncing around the roofed in stadium.","type":"text"},{"_id":"VQZFAWWSBJHPZNG7JCFNH4W43E","additional_properties":{"_id":1731737120959},"content":"“Congratulations to Amanda, she’s a fantastic champion. We’ve agreed to 12 three-minute rounds in the next fight, so the triple is on. She’s a hard puncher and a tough warrior, so I was prepared for that. I don’t care what the commentary team or the crowd say, all that matters is the judges around the ring.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"4E23DKJHYFE53OU6OATB7XEDXM","additional_properties":{"_id":1731737120960},"content":"Asked what she thought about the claim that the head clash was deliberate, Serrano didn’t disagree. “I think 100% cos she does it in every fight. It’s not the first fight. She kept headbutting me. But we knew that from the very beginning, from the first fight. That’s what they do. She did it not only in my fight, she did it with Chantelle Cameron.","type":"text"},{"_id":"HDF7XOUBQNAE7EFH5B7V5MXIIM","additional_properties":{"_id":1731742280827},"content":"“Listen, I’m a Boricua. I’m going to die in this ring no matter how many cuts I have in my face. Everyone said the judges was gonna be a little shady but listen, I came here. I chose to be great. I went up three divisions. I dare to be great tonight. I am the featherweight champion of the world and I want to be great.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"7GDUL4432BKFZULPROBWFXOJYA","additional_properties":{"_id":"22LAQ45PYZBTFNHZYL344ELCHQ"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"IVZYVDCYZJGFNFWAHXGCIGXWGY","additional_properties":{"_id":1731737120961},"content":"The contest was wreathed in greatness. It will become a famous boxing match. By the end, the tied-back hair of both fighters was matted with blood and sweat and their faces were swollen, blood smeared. Taylor had a gash on her left eye while Serrano somehow managed to box through a fountain of blood pouring from the deep welt caused by Taylor’s head.","type":"text"},{"_id":"GMCC62Y4ZJHQ7PEZ5XKCGNWKCM","additional_properties":{"_id":1731742280830},"content":"The Irish woman was docked a point by the referee for headbutting and during a break in round nine, he was heard to warn her: “You better change something.” Going into the final two-minute round of 10, Taylor was told by trainer Ross Enamait to chase it. “You gotta hustle. Everything you got. We need this f***king round, you understand me. And you gotta get it.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"KFHDR52WNBCY5IGNZYHMDJ7Y24","additional_properties":{"_id":1731737120962},"content":"It is hard to know how deeply Taylor had burrowed into herself at this point. Although there were a few Tricolours scattered around the ground, she was on hostile terrain here and once the replays of Taylor’s head clash were replayed on the big screen, the boos rang around the AT&T Stadium. All through her extraordinary fighting life, Taylor has had a large cavalcade of devoted Irish fans. But this was a new frontier in every sense. She was entirely alone.","type":"text"},{"_id":"63Y7RBVDJBD33MILUQ2J2MJKC4","additional_properties":{"_id":1731737120963},"content":"This was a darker fight than the original meeting between Taylor and Serrano in Madison Square Garden four years ago. That night had an identifiable rhythm and plot line and revolved around Taylor’s depthless courage and conditioning which enabled her to climb out of a hole in round five. This contest became defined by increasing brutality and a kind of wildness that was redolent of the old days of boxing.","type":"text"},{"_id":"Y7IQPXQQQBDM7HTZXNXGLAGJVM","subtype":"twitter","type":"oembed_response"},{"_id":"64YY7GJMVRCCZHAT6G5Q6FTMQQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1731742280833},"content":"From the beginning, Serrano sought to attack and trap while Taylor was elusive and content to pick off shots until a slinging, flailing left hook from Serrano caught her flat-footed and a fleeting, stunned look crossed her face. They were evenly matched for the first half of the fight but after that grotesque cut opened up on Serrano’s face during the fourth-round collision – deepening with the choice jabs Taylor picked off as the fight wore on – both boxers punched and dragged and willed themselves to raise what is an exceptional rivalry on to a higher plane.","type":"text"},{"_id":"TK2ZHO5UMREJ5NPQ27DTNAIUT4","additional_properties":{"_id":1731737120964},"content":"It was difficult to watch and impossible to look away. There were several moments when Irish fans must have worried that this would be the night that Taylor finally met a hill she couldn’t summit. In the commentary box, Roy Jones Jr was moved to call the rivalry “the Ali-Frazier of female boxing” and that seemed about right. In round seven alone, they threw 170 punches at each other and 89 landed. And that wasn’t even the most memorable round of the fight. There were a few moments when the thought crossed our minds that this might be it for Taylor but even in the depths of exhaustion, the dazzling hand speed never failed her. The demand for a third encounter with Serrano will be deafening after this.","type":"text"},{"_id":"IDQX2YMNI5GQCQRS3AAMZYGC64","additional_properties":{"_id":"A2WOXAMWR5D7DF4LOY3PNBO5SQ"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"3TS75UH7SN377W3D46F6KNNOCY","additional_properties":{"_id":"2EP2WGVBYBC2DEMKYIX2QKIAEY"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"H6Y4PC5CQJHGLFVDAWMCDQAE7E","additional_properties":{"_id":1731737120965},"content":"And it wasn’t until the mega-hyped final bout of the night between Tyson and <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/jake-paul/\" target=\"_blank\">Jake Paul</a> started that the true, shocking brilliance of what they had just witnessed from Taylor and Serrano began to dawn on the crowd.","type":"text"},{"_id":"PRSUECDAC5GC5ADW6AS7KS63MA","additional_properties":{"_id":1731742280838},"content":"An old boxer, however magnetic his dark aura, against a non-boxer could never compare. They were unwilling – and perhaps unable – to seriously lay a glove on one another. It became a parody of an event, won unanimously by Paul on scores of 80-72, 79-73, 79-73, and by the last round, the booing started up again but this time it was because all they had been promised never materialised.","type":"text"},{"_id":"SBCP6DOAQBFT5CY23GO3CH4NOA","additional_properties":{"_id":1731742280839},"content":"Tyson-Paul was a non-event and it was shown up by following a match that stands as a shocking masterpiece. Boxing has been a male preserve for centuries but on a wild night in Texas, it was the women’s contest between Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano that took it to the rare place where only the greats reside.","type":"text"},{"_id":"UHY57VX7IJHN5KEBWW4UBDN2FA","subtype":"twitter","type":"oembed_response"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"metered"},"credits":{"by":[{"additional_properties":{"original":{"byline":"Keith Duggan"}},"name":"Keith Duggan"}]},"description":{"basic":"Irish boxer booed by crowd after head clash during controversial bout in Texas"},"display_date":"2024-11-16T06:31:50.177Z","headlines":{"basic":"Katie Taylor narrowly defeats Amanda Serrano in brutal contest","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"5469"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"5XUEVLO6FULTTWGJBL7IQAD3TY","auth":{"1":"39106d968de07683e8ce2e7c1770545833f64154ffe1496fe1891da0453256e2"},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/5XUEVLO6FULTTWGJBL7IQAD3TY.jpg"}},"subtype":"feature","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Sport"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/sport/boxing/2024/11/16/katie-taylor-narrowly-beats-amanda-serrano-in-a-contest-wreathed-in-greatness/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/sport/boxing","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Boxing"}}}},{"_id":"IG4THTDYQ5A25GIYYJOMMINPBA","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":377,"audio_url":"https://d22tbkdovk5ea2.cloudfront.net/audio/projects/8948/podcasts/9be09342-3c95-4b66-b5d8-dafd0d291ffe/versions/1731611334/media/4a49f6168cbcf999707194621c6638f4_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/sport/boxing/2024/11/14/katie-taylor-and-amanda-serrano-set-to-show-true-boxing-values-at-strange-big-money-event/","content_elements":[{"_id":"HVH72FK7KJEFNLT6G5ACZBNGJQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1731607757104},"content":"The official line from <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/katie-taylor/\" target=\"_blank\">Katie Taylor</a> and Amanda Serrano is that they are thrilled to costar in the Friday night fights in the Dallas Cowboys stadium. But the unspoken truth is that the next chapter of their old-school boxing rivalry, based on ferocity and respect, has legitimised the strange and voyeuristic contest between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul, the social media celebrity who concocted the entire affair.","type":"text"},{"_id":"2B6FRGDYXNHGLN3ZOJQ24MHGGY","additional_properties":{"_id":1731607757105},"content":"The November evenings are chilly in Dallas and Paul, not for the first time, may have wildly overestimated his personal appeal by booking the AT&T stadium, home to the Dallas Cowboys, for an outdoor event that was originally scheduled for July. The promoters are claiming that 70,000 people will truck it out to the big field in Arlington for an event that will be streamed live on Netflix. But tickets are still available as the hours count down and prices have fallen radically: $420 was the standard-seat cost last July. Now, tickets are going for under $70 and ringside seats are available at $1,475, down from the initial pricing of $40,000, according to World Boxing News.","type":"text"},{"_id":"PTCX6CUVTVFWLDAD2YVHLQPPEM","additional_properties":{"_id":1731607757106},"content":"The fear is that a diminished crowd and a cool evening will come nowhere near matching the unforgettable, frenzied atmosphere that Serrano and Taylor generated in Madison Square Garden in April 2022. Their breathtaking exhibition of skill and raw, unfiltered courage in their 12 rounds of two minutes had, by the end, everyone in the arena on their feet and the closing passage was special. Both women were still throwing wild, heavy punches in the closing seconds and opinion is still divided on who won that night.","type":"text"},{"_id":"MREQW6XCKJGQXJXPHWEMMWLLV4","additional_properties":{"_id":"WGLNRPHQG5E6LFFY33BRYQRY4Q"},"content":"Katie Taylor v Amanda Serrano: Irish fight time, how to watch on Netflix and ring walk times for Paul v Tyson","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"F65RAQCUIBHMXNGWG3SLF3LYAY","additional_properties":{"_id":1731609797140},"content":"Taylor edged it on the judge’s scorecard – 94-96; 97-93; 96-93 – and the Puerto Rican New Yorker has never disagreed with assertions that victory was hers that night in Manhattan. Taylor, who sat through the hyped-up press conference spectacle on Wednesday evening with barely concealed impatience, was typically diplomatic when that view was put to her.","type":"text"},{"_id":"XIWV4T3AIRF3JJDQEWFIEPJSM4","additional_properties":{"_id":1731607757107},"content":"“Well, I believe that I won the last fight clearly. I just have to go in there on Friday night and beat her again. This is an amazing opportunity that we both have and I just can’t wait to step in there and showcase what I can do again and get another win.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"EK2XPLNCJZAYXGCHO2ZIMITJW4","additional_properties":{"_id":1731607757108},"content":"If the Tyson-Paul clash is based on entirely manufactured enmity and hot words dripping in testosterone, Serrano (36) and Taylor (38), speak of each other in words that never stray from cautious respect. Much of that surely emanates from the long road both have travelled to this multimillion dollar pay date but is more significantly attributable to their decades-long pursuit of boxing excellence. Their New York fight smashed ceilings in terms of quality and the old-fashioned thrill factor and both have a sharp eye on the lasting meaning of their contribution to the evolving story of women’s boxing.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ISYPXHXBUZLGDNFQKQSNDGCH5U","additional_properties":{"_id":"2AQFE7LQO5CQRDIS35NEDB5YTM"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"QAA5DK2UNBBPHNEDI5JF2EULSM","additional_properties":{"_id":1731607757109},"content":"“The question is always there when you are trying to be a face of a sport. But I feel like I am not just the face,” Serrano, the unified world featherweight champion, said.","type":"text"},{"_id":"EKCR5FUBHVHFPACL2XEKX2U6GM","additional_properties":{"_id":1731607757110},"content":"“There’s a lot of us that come together, we made history together. And I just have to go out there and make sure I perform like I did last time. I am going to do what I do best and that’s come to fight. Definitely legacy is very important – to motivate and inspire these young girls, the new generation in this sport that you can do anything you put your mind to. If you believe in yourself and have a great team, you can go far. When I say how much I make, it is not bragging. It is to show these women we can make it, we are capable of breaking records and just drive for excellence and you will achieve it.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"GVJK7LTTMNHDVJICUIYKINSTTY","additional_properties":{"_id":1731607757111},"content":"Their New York fight can be reduced to the relentless punishment Serrano piled on to Taylor through the two minutes of the fifth round during which time slowed down. The Bray fighter was out on her feet, her nose bloodied and her eyes glassy as she stayed upright through pure instinct and guts. “Katie looks dazed,” yelled the fight commentator. “We’ve never seen her like this.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"DV6VK34HIZD63EIZ77MISUPCG4","additional_properties":{"_id":"7JNUVQ7OQJCG3JOGKTVOE2GGSI"},"content":"Who is Jake Paul? The story of the YouTuber who will take on Mike Tyson","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"6RKY2QQC7ZGFXIIGCDFO3VCH2Y","additional_properties":{"_id":1731607757112},"content":"It seemed inconceivable then that Taylor would recover but within two rounds, she had transformed the fight from a brawl into her preferred state of a purist’s boxing match, hitting and moving and never allowing Serrano to corner her again.","type":"text"},{"_id":"TDP65E34INFEHOPF3O2QRKRCZU","additional_properties":{"_id":1731607757113},"content":"“I think for every fighter we are always prepared for moments like that,” Taylor said on Wednesday.","type":"text"},{"_id":"I4S4B7AVQ26K473BIC3R7WBUXU","additional_properties":{"_id":"NUI37QTC7BAWRGTW4FOWXPDR6Q"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"WYSQ3IVXBFFJRGDQ5XKNI3RVGU","additional_properties":{"_id":1731607757114},"content":"“It’s why we train so hard. When you are in shape, you’re fit, you recover so well from those moments and I take a lot of reassurance and confidence from that because I took her bigger shots and I wasn’t moved. I won the second part of that fight and I take a lot of reassurance going in because of that.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"PJEKYRHN4FCSZF5R2HJFJ5KBCA","additional_properties":{"_id":1731607757115},"content":"The rematch, which is expected to start at 3am on Saturday morning Irish time, has been set at a catchweight 138 pounds rather than the 140-pound limit super lightweight class of two years ago. Taylor has had just three fights since her last meeting with Serrano, including a defeat against Chantelle Cameron in May of last year, before she won the rematch six months later. Serrano has won five fights in succession since she met Taylor, her most recent being a second round stoppage of Stevie Morgan in July.","type":"text"},{"_id":"7Q5ORE2GH5EZDFDXN2M747ZWXQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1731609797152},"content":"For Serrano, the return fight gives her a chance to atone for the decision of two years ago while Taylor is intent on confirming her reputation as the pound-for-pound best female fighter in the world with a victory that is more decisive in nature.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ZIV74EKHUFFO7OJZ3EXEPC3HEE","additional_properties":{"_id":1731607757116},"content":"“I’ve put my body through the trenches over these last few months,” Taylor said, an understated message containing volumes.","type":"text"},{"_id":"V5NXJABHO5DNDL7YDOKXQKTUOQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1731607757117},"content":"Whatever about the other main event, Texas might be in for at least one touchstone sports event on Friday night.","type":"text"},{"_id":"YCDY6C2IB5FUNMX3YVDX7FFP3I","additional_properties":{},"type":"list"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"premium"},"credits":{"by":[{"additional_properties":{"original":{"byline":"Keith Duggan"}},"name":"Keith Duggan"}]},"description":{"basic":"Mike Tyson and Jake Paul top the bill in a voyeuristic contest whose appeal may have been overestimated"},"display_date":"2024-11-15T12:22:10.954Z","headlines":{"basic":"Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano set to show true boxing values at strange big-money event","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"8948"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"CMTUDZU3EIFD3IQK3JKL2SJ4OM","auth":{"1":"2a25404f7478a8016a0eaa42605a64a8d922db32db1a9fd9e3c37084449f1d7b"},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/CMTUDZU3EIFD3IQK3JKL2SJ4OM.jpg"}},"subtype":"analysis","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Sport"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/sport/boxing/2024/11/14/katie-taylor-and-amanda-serrano-set-to-show-true-boxing-values-at-strange-big-money-event/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/sport/boxing","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Boxing"}}}},{"_id":"IVA5JUV3FJBCTPY7OWXHV5DJNQ","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":408,"audio_url":"https://d22tbkdovk5ea2.cloudfront.net/audio/projects/8948/podcasts/2d59d926-5648-4f15-b395-2592bd5b60be/versions/1731599262/media/365c9d1256e360c197f03328ca29473d_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/sport/boxing/2024/11/14/who-is-jake-paul-the-story-of-the-youtuber-who-will-take-on-mike-tyson/","content_elements":[{"_id":"JFIVIEGQ7VAZ5LDNF5FUVGBZ5U","additional_properties":{"_id":1731597100272},"content":"Jake Paul is having his hands wrapped in the locker room as his older brother, Logan, who also became rich and famous on YouTube, speaks earnestly to him. “You’ve expanded your mind, your circle, your emotional intelligence and your capabilities,” Logan tells Jake.","type":"text"},{"_id":"BSMWHDTFS5A4DD34YZZHJQD6SU","additional_properties":{"_id":1731598920542},"content":"“From making silly home videos to changing the entire landscape of combat sports. Everyone in this room knows just how powerful a being you are and that’s why we’re all here, including Netflix. One day, if I run for president, I’d be honoured to have you as my vice-president or maybe secretary of defence. You’ll be in charge of the red button. The all-powerful nuke that also happens to be at the end of your right hand.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"KU5H4ETNXRD6TN2BM76B2WNV7A","additional_properties":{"_id":1731598920543},"content":"At least Jake laughs softly when his brother mentions the absurdity of running for president on a gleaming new Netflix documentary. It leads the splurge of content which Netflix hopes will entice millions of viewers to watch Jake Paul’s embarrassing fight against the 58-year-old Mike Tyson on Friday night in Arlington.","type":"text"},{"_id":"KYIJFUDVPZFTJCVKSFZQYKU5GE","additional_properties":{"_id":1731598920544},"content":"In this sun-kissed corner of north Texas, a week after Donald Trump sealed his return to the White House, the hype intensifies. Jake and Logan, two brothers from Ohio aged 27 and 29, are ardent Trump supporters and, like their political hero, they peddle a constant stream of bulls**t in the knowledge that some of it will eventually stick.","type":"text"},{"_id":"A2F5KLLEMRAVVNMRHIXDQA3RXU","additional_properties":{"_id":1731598920545},"content":"Jake can be heard proclaiming that “I’m a professional boxer, knocking people the f**k out” and “I could become the next Muhammad Ali”. His big brother shrugs: “Of course he’s delusional. We all are. It’s why we are where we are – until it becomes a reality. That’s the beauty of Jake Paul.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"XM4R3WHVZNEG3EGTSKQY347YJA","additional_properties":{"_id":1731598920546},"content":"Delusions of grandeur can become a kind of grim truth. Maybe, with the world turned upside down, Logan Paul will become president one day. There is more chance of that happening than Jake becoming a great boxer. He has applied himself with some seriousness, and trains hard, but it is difficult to give any credence to Paul’s claims of boxing authenticity.","type":"text"},{"_id":"Q2DZQDXDTFGMBGTI2T2VYY6CIM","additional_properties":{"_id":"CUAAZSS6MVGAXEV7ZYALZ73FPU"},"content":"Mike Tyson’s glowering silence cuts through Netflix show noise","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"XR2IFWJVYFHUVE2LRJAP2AVGAU","additional_properties":{"_id":"PPXWLKSRMJGTTG6KP6YHBGADGU"},"content":"Dave Hannigan: Katie Taylor’s presence lends a modicum of dignity to sporting farrago","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"HKJNQMPPMNAW7A72YLVRYN2VRQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1731598920549},"content":"He has had 11 fights so far and only one of his opponents, Tommy Fury, was younger than him and a professional boxer. Paul lost that bout to an average scrapper whose boxing credentials rest on the fact that he is Tyson Fury’s younger brother. Tommy Fury is also famous for being a contestant on Love Island and, since beating Paul in February 2023, he has had only one further bout – against KSI, another YouTuber.","type":"text"},{"_id":"4YUEP4KY6JAR5IMW6YPAB4NWDM","additional_properties":{"_id":1731598920550},"content":"But there is a more meaningful story about Paul. In the Netflix documentary he alleges that his father was violent towards him. Greg Paul denies any wrongdoing but he also implies that his boys should be grateful that he was so tough on them. Logan agrees that Jake was traumatised by his childhood but, together, they began making YouTube videos as teenagers which soon drew in millions of subscribers.","type":"text"},{"_id":"2ZCWXVQYRJDOHJFJQ5ODEVAP5Y","additional_properties":{"_id":1731598920551},"content":"“We’re f**king media whores who make content on phones, edit it on iMovie, post it on the internet and get people talking,” Logan says. Jake, meanwhile, suggests: “When they made the word ‘influencer’ they were talking about us.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"RSSUCN4CWLABUSENYEYPKRM64M","additional_properties":{"_id":"ZTJBNZ64JBDCPNQKX7SEFE4S6Q"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"4Q5EENX5MJFNTIHK5KLTZ5CSDM","additional_properties":{"_id":1731598920553},"content":"At 18, Jake was rich enough to buy a house worth $7.4 million (€7 million) but trading on his infamy wore him down. His brother and father were concerned that Jake might take his own life but then, in August 2018, boxing apparently transformed him. The Pauls launched YouTube boxing when they flew to England and Logan drew with his British rival, the big-talking KSI. Jake and Deji Olatunji, KSI’s brother, fought on the undercard.","type":"text"},{"_id":"4PEUC7GQJFFIHBSZ6WXSDBUUFY","additional_properties":{"_id":1731598920554},"content":"Jake was being beaten up in front of a packed and baying Manchester Arena. He says: “I felt like I was dying … and I f**king loved it … some other element inside me took over.” He won the fight and, sick of making YouTube content and being hated, decided to become a professional fighter. “Boxing reinvigorated something inside me,” he said. “It made me feel alive again.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"HH7RCZRWMFF4LMGBLZLROTEYFQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1731598920555},"content":"Jake Paul seems sincere in appreciating the self-worth that boxing can instil and since then, while beating a series of former UFC fighters, he has built a 10-1 record which looks decent on paper and flimsy in a proper ring. But he is smart and grinned with delight when, having beaten the then 47-year-old MMA great Anderson Silva, he turned to the cameras to reveal that the pay-per-view buys had reached 1.3m at “$50 a pop”.","type":"text"},{"_id":"KA5KXP2TOJHAFH2Z3HJALWBNLE","additional_properties":{"_id":1731598920556},"content":"There are rumours that Paul could make $40m against Tyson, which is ridiculous money for a novice who has none of the talent or hard-won ringcraft of the world heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk. But rather than getting angry it’s best to move on with a little nod in acknowledgement of Paul’s business savvy.","type":"text"},{"_id":"7VHGHIWII5EDPNB7TSJWOKHSDY","additional_properties":{"_id":1731598920557},"content":"President Trump spews out racism and misogyny. At his recent election rally at Madison Square Garden, Trump was preceded on a stage by an aspiring joker who described Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage”.","type":"text"},{"_id":"HUNZV2C7TFDGHL3PILL6Y3B2VI","additional_properties":{"_id":1731598920558},"content":"Yet Paul loves living in Puerto Rico and he is also passionate about supporting women’s boxing. He promotes Amanda Serrano, a Puerto Rican woman born in New York, and her life has been transformed. She spent years earning peanuts and gaining little recognition, despite winning world titles at multiple weights. It is rumoured she will make around $8m on Friday night, with her great rival Katie Taylor earning a supposed $6m, as their rematch is the only fight which really matters on the Paul v Tyson card.","type":"text"},{"_id":"YAA2DTVZGJFVLDKVNHV6UDF26A","additional_properties":{"_id":1731598920559},"content":"Jake Paul might be a limited fighter trying to feel better about himself, while raking in obscene amounts of money, but he can feel proud of that. He won’t be the next Muhammad Ali and, hopefully, not the vice-president of the United States either, but he has created a legacy of lasting significance for women in boxing. We can cling to that truth as the circus grinds on in Texas this week. - Guardian","type":"text"},{"_id":"YCDY6C2IB5FUNMX3YVDX7FFP3I","additional_properties":{},"type":"list"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"metered"},"credits":{"by":[{"additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Donald McRae"}]},"description":{"basic":"Despite his absurd persona and obscene wealth, would-be boxer’s support of female fighters is worthy of note"},"display_date":"2024-11-14T15:37:32.57Z","headlines":{"basic":"Who is Jake Paul? 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Now, they go on forever.","type":"text"},{"_id":"F62KASEWXVGXJF73X4JUZ7MPII","additional_properties":{"_id":1731564364654},"content":"The Rolling Stones led the way of old old-stagers flying into their 80s like the attic portraits of themselves escaped and running amok, but still full of attitude and still able to transport their audience to the decades when their faces carried no lines of age. And still able to make music.","type":"text"},{"_id":"F2D6OQ3BTVFEFKCAN7QAFO2VYY","additional_properties":{"_id":1731564364655},"content":"Sport is a crueller form of expression. Years ago, playing a storming reunion gig at Electric Picnic, Andy McCloskey, the lead singer for Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, looked down on an ecstatic crowd after launching himself through another synth pop classic and uttered a blunt truth. “It doesn’t get any more f**ken dignified,” he said.","type":"text"},{"_id":"H3YE7NRSSBESNCJWBQZTAVHJK4","additional_properties":{"_id":1731564364656},"content":"It seemed, on the concrete fringes of Dallas on Wednesday night, as if <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/mike-tyson\" target=\"_blank\">‘Iron’ Mike Tyson</a> was reaching the same conclusion. He sat centre stage with the cast of boxers who will feature on Friday night’s streamed live show by <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/netflix/\" target=\"_blank\">Netflix</a>, which purports to be the future of boxing. And maybe it is.","type":"text"},{"_id":"TX526MDJOBF2JAUPBH6OGD6XRU","additional_properties":{"_id":1731576996164},"content":"Tyson will earn a reported 20 million dollars for his troubles. Not an eye-watering sum for a fighter who once bought the biggest house in Connecticut – 21 bedrooms, 25 bathrooms – just because, and later admitted he wasn’t sure he ever visited every room in the house. But not bad for 16 minutes (max eight rounds of two minutes) against a 27-year-old with a big attitude and bigger mouth. Jake Paul was forced to do all the talking for the pair in the hyped-up press conference because Mike, clad in dark denim, had reverted to impenetrable, monosyllabic silence.","type":"text"},{"_id":"WSHPNJPUSZEARDANVVEIKV2CUE","additional_properties":{"_id":1731564364657},"content":"“Is the old Mike back, is vintage Mike back?” asked the announcer Ariel Helwani excitedly.","type":"text"},{"_id":"NXVQOJAJOFHOPDTR6WLFU6RO74","additional_properties":{"_id":1731564364658},"content":"“You talkin’ to me?” Tyson asked.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ACIUYQFP2JC5HLOZ7APKYED7HA","additional_properties":{"_id":1731564364659},"content":"“I’m just happy to be here,” he said – and that was about as chatty as he got.","type":"text"},{"_id":"NBSOS2QNLFFPPLVUHV2HGTEELY","additional_properties":{"_id":1731576996168},"content":"When Bruce Carrington, the Brooklyn boxer thrilled to be on the same card as Tyson, offered an imitative reprise of a famous Tyson riff from back in the day, the older man sat in silence with no emotion.","type":"text"},{"_id":"XZFANTWQYZGS3MSU6NPNJORCMM","additional_properties":{"_id":1731564364660},"content":"“Well, it’s very eloquent” he said when asked for a reaction. “But that day, I was off my meds.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"THWUXVRPN77XJWTBWORLY5QQJQ","additional_properties":{"_id":"TR5T2DHHEFDN3PPWR26K5UGAM4"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"ZDBYKZ2GYFD5NIET32UM5AVZW4","additional_properties":{"_id":1731564364661},"content":"In such a relentlessly promoted environment, there was something piercing and uncomfortable about the line. Whether Tyson was hamming up the glowering, menacing figure of old for a new generation didn’t really matter. Throughout his life, Tyson has battled mental health issues and has spent the last two decades, in retirement, chronicling his worst fears and thoughts and self-loathing.","type":"text"},{"_id":"PGLAI2ME3NF47NGKRJS2OKRCPA","additional_properties":{"_id":1731564364662},"content":"“Yeah, it’s cute,” Jake Paul said of his opponent.","type":"text"},{"_id":"AZXOMH3EDNADTMOEB2HBCVMIMY","additional_properties":{"_id":1731564364663},"content":"“I fear no man, so I want him to be that old savage Mike. He says he’s going to kill me – is that what you are going to do Mike? Cos I’m ready, I want that killer. I want the hardest match possible Friday night and I want there to be no excuses from everyone at home when I knock him out. So, is that what you are gonna bring? Homicidal?","type":"text"},{"_id":"UU2YDE6XWFGI7IEHR6CRSGB4RA","additional_properties":{"_id":1731564364664},"content":"“I’m just ready,” Tyson replied in that whispery voice of his.","type":"text"},{"_id":"TQVABDLCMVAPZKPMG7LXZRFMX4","additional_properties":{"_id":1731564364665},"content":"There are several generations of fight fans for whom this spectacle is deeply dismaying. Paul is a s**t talker of the very first rank: he could chirp and chatter unpleasantries for hours. As a practitioner in pure commerce, he has managed to suck the old game of boxing out of its smoky, pinstripes-and-dames past and into Paul’s own world of “content” and “platforms” where everything is disposable. Still, he managed to stumble on the only relevant question of this bleak moment in sport when he asked Tyson: “So, is that what you are gonna bring?”","type":"text"},{"_id":"PWGFMK5NHFDWDABPPNULC7U55E","additional_properties":{"_id":1731564364666},"content":"Iron Mike, of course, ignored the question completely. It could be that he was just playing his part. And it could be that he simply doesn’t know the answer himself.","type":"text"},{"_id":"CSV6IN6FUBHZ7JFJ2ZPLVGRV7I","additional_properties":{"_id":1731564364667},"content":"Friday night’s live-stream fight card will feature a classic rematch in <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/katie-taylor\" target=\"_blank\">Katie Taylor</a> and Amanda Serrano.","type":"text"},{"_id":"BPLR5H4AEBBDFH6S3WYIYENALA","additional_properties":{"_id":1731576996178},"content":"The men’s main billing may have nothing to do with boxing but it has plenty to do with ageing. Almost 20 years have passed since Tyson ran out of all the old rage against Kevin McBride, a decent Monaghan man and an ordinary boxer, who met the legend on the right night in Washington. Tyson’s lightning right upper cut no longer carried the same lethal force. The stamina was gone. He was finished. And that was then.","type":"text"},{"_id":"SMGN5IDQBNBCJAX3SBXARJWRBA","additional_properties":{"_id":1731576996179},"content":"The price that Tyson may pay now for his lucrative pay cheque is the lasting ignominy of a defeat – and worse, a knock-out – against Paul, an opponent who doesn’t even qualify as a professional boxer.","type":"text"},{"_id":"RMIJZAMIRNBTFEN57ZGD74ELOQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1731564364668},"content":"“Just excitement,” big Jake said when asked what it is he feels he has to offer boxing.","type":"text"},{"_id":"VHO6KMTKH7CBYMHRMGUDJXQMDY","additional_properties":{"_id":"CHX2JUCP6RG63BSE4JLL6BD2IU"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"TSV2IN3SCRCRTLX6JW54YNIXSA","additional_properties":{"_id":1731564364669},"content":"“Big fights. Big knockouts. A lot of fighters go in there and they have boring-ass fights like Floyd Mayweather. I’ve brought a lot of excitement to the fights knocking people out on the biggest platforms possible, knocking out the biggest names and making match-ups that people want to see, crossover MMA fights, things like that. So, I am gonna continue to do the biggest fights and pay per views, the biggest streams across the board and people resonate with my content and promotional ability.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"LPXVIULOKJA3NBIIOQBO7CY6EY","additional_properties":{"_id":1731564364670},"content":"In other words, he can rifle through the faded treasure chest of 20th-century boxing and take whatever gem and costume he chooses to use in his ephemeral world of disposable clips, which millions around the world munch happily and quickly forget about.","type":"text"},{"_id":"CXPNQ3D3RJFI5KSBAQGI4JDULE","additional_properties":{"_id":1731564364671},"content":"And this is where Mike Tyson finds himself. Even in his younger days, when his edge and violence fascinated and appalled a more impressionable world, Tyson was quick to depict himself as a freak, as a nobody: as the John Merrick of his age. And he is such a smart and bleak observer of human behaviour that beneath his showtime glowering darkness in Dallas, it is possible that Tyson was absorbing the hollow fact that here he is again, back in that old place. Still the outsider, still the savage performer capable of drawing the diamonds-and-pearls-and-limos crowd. But 58 years old now.","type":"text"},{"_id":"PIS2YH75QVHRHGWCAV43YTLSGU","additional_properties":{"_id":1731564364672},"content":"And Paul’s instincts are right. Around the world, boozed and restless on a Friday night, millions will tune in to see what happens when you pluck a dark anti-hero from the old century of boxing and have him ‘fight’ against one of the original stars of online self-made personalities. Can Tyson shut him up, knock him out, make him scared?","type":"text"},{"_id":"FXSX2KMEYJGUXELPITSQ22VNNU","additional_properties":{"_id":1731564364673},"content":"Mike Tyson stared ahead and said nothing. In a mood like this, he has the eyes of a shark. Who knows what he was thinking.","type":"text"},{"_id":"YCDY6C2IB5FUNMX3YVDX7FFP3I","additional_properties":{},"type":"list"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"premium"},"credits":{"by":[{"additional_properties":{"original":{"byline":"Keith Duggan"}},"name":"Keith Duggan"}]},"description":{"basic":"Tyson is set to earn $20 million for fighting Jake Paul in live-streamed event that also features Katie Taylor-Amanda Serrano rematch"},"display_date":"2024-11-14T06:50:26.966Z","headlines":{"basic":"Mike Tyson’s glowering silence cuts through Netflix show noise ","native":"Keith Duggan: Mike Tyson’s massive payday for Jake Paul fight comes at a price"},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"8948"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"SHXLXBI5UJ7ZRCXDHMNPQOL2CA","auth":{"1":"ee4cd3d4720ceeaeb06c06b0e956364c0c814be6434fca5ccc3b31a48becb036"},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/SHXLXBI5UJ7ZRCXDHMNPQOL2CA.jpg"}},"subtype":"feature","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Sport"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/sport/boxing/2024/11/14/mike-tysons-glowering-silence-cuts-through-netflix-show-noise/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/sport/boxing","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Boxing"}}}},{"_id":"7OV7UKYEQBBRFHPQCL2SIUPVAQ","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":228,"audio_url":"https://d22tbkdovk5ea2.cloudfront.net/audio/projects/8948/podcasts/74740e84-d088-4cbe-a4a1-b1695702c1d6/versions/1731515783/media/677282d97cb6838dd7d480b2493b94cc_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/sport/boxing/2024/11/13/from-ali-v-inoki-to-mayweather-v-mcgregor-five-bizarre-boxing-bouts/","content_elements":[{"_id":"HWPHXNQ4CRGJVCGMKJTPUAJ2IU","additional_properties":{"_id":1731515059366},"content":"Floyd Mayweather v Conor McGregor","type":"header"},{"_id":"WEVSBH454FC3LPFMDFZB4MEQYY","additional_properties":{"_id":1731515059367},"content":"It’s August 2017 and the finest boxer of his generation, unbeaten in 49 paying fights in five weight classes, faces off against an opponent with no professional boxing experience but a big noise in mixed martial arts.","type":"text"},{"_id":"G4UINAXIYRFCJD4QO6FSL723CA","additional_properties":{"_id":1731515059368},"content":"Mayweather is lined up to pocket $100 million from the PT Barnum-style “superfight”, and announces his retirement from boxing straight after his 10th-round, 30-minute TKO victory.","type":"text"},{"_id":"5DWEN44VDZBERM5RKGVLBG5SJ4","additional_properties":{"_id":1731515059369},"content":"George Foreman v the Toronto five","type":"header"},{"_id":"SS2IHL3QHBHVFJFBBOZT3NATMY","additional_properties":{"_id":1731515059370},"content":"In 1975 the former heavyweight champion Foreman takes on five opponents on the same afternoon in bouts of three three-minute rounds each in Toronto.","type":"text"},{"_id":"2A74P3PFR5DVJFZFBSQDP3BRWM","additional_properties":{"_id":1731515059371},"content":"Muhammad Ali is ringside providing withering put-downs for the ABC television network six months on from their colossal “Rumble in the Jungle”.","type":"text"},{"_id":"BJ33OJJSJ5E4JOVBI5KJIEPCBI","additional_properties":{"_id":1731515059372},"content":"Foreman, who is attempting to rebuild his reputation, takes on respectable fighters in Alonzo Johnson, Pedro Agosto, Mac Foster, Terry Daniels and Boone Kirkman. To a background of booing, Foreman wins the lot.","type":"text"},{"_id":"2XHIZTIFMBDBDFH5F3G52E25A4","additional_properties":{"_id":1731515059373},"content":"“I’d put on a show. I’d fought five guys, and I’d made it through. 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But when the bell rings, we rumble. You’ve got some nerve. I’m not in shape to fight no Joe Frazier or Foreman, but I’m in shape for a football player.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"LB2ZRCMZJRCFVGKP2SVRRKW5AQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1731515059384},"content":"Amid all the blather, 15,000 turn up to watch, leaving 60,000 empty seats for a forgettable waltz around the ring that Ali struggles to take seriously.","type":"text"},{"_id":"B45NGFTETZAQTLQ6XVWVDTFLNU","additional_properties":{"_id":"LBGZMYQOLNEFXJT553J4BUNEEQ"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"SBP4NQFVT5F63NXUZ5CPAELYLM","additional_properties":{"_id":1731515059386},"content":"Shaquille O’Neal v Oscar De La Hoya","type":"header"},{"_id":"WGADUZAMMFA2PIZY3BJD2CS4OE","additional_properties":{"_id":1731515059387},"content":"The 2009 bout is part of a TV series called “Shaq Vs” where the basketball legend takes on other big sporting figures in the boxing ring. The fight takes place in Paradise, Nevada and consists of four two-minute rounds and a one-minute fifth round.","type":"text"},{"_id":"YCEKNXSHAFBGVCJKSOIPQNWVAY","additional_properties":{"_id":1731515059388},"content":"The undersized De La Hoya outboxes O’Neal and walks away with a unanimous decision, but the former LA Lakers great later says: “I held back ‘cause he was my friend.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"YCDY6C2IB5FUNMX3YVDX7FFP3I","additional_properties":{},"type":"list"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"metered"},"credits":{"by":[{"additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Andy Martin"}]},"description":{"basic":"Ahead of Mike Tyson’s controversial fight with the YouTuber Jake Paul, here are five other memorable oddities"},"display_date":"2024-11-13T16:31:10.29Z","headlines":{"basic":"From Ali v Inoki to Mayweather v McGregor: five bizarre boxing bouts","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"8948"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"QVA4FIW6HNGKFLVKKWPN7GN2ZY","auth":{"1":"2a90c4fe7f30cbda5c80686140a5f248fb00290e4b9349c976a03a4ed67c485f"},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/QVA4FIW6HNGKFLVKKWPN7GN2ZY.jpg"}},"subtype":"default","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Sport"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/sport/boxing/2024/11/13/from-ali-v-inoki-to-mayweather-v-mcgregor-five-bizarre-boxing-bouts/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/sport/boxing","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Boxing"}}}},{"_id":"XEWM3WCNFNDMBGG5PKRF7737ZU","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":330,"audio_url":"https://d22tbkdovk5ea2.cloudfront.net/audio/projects/5469/podcasts/5ad7b451-5e99-4dd7-b581-d28e1d25db5b/versions/1731428401/media/353e3a605caba812c47965017e4f2726_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/sport/boxing/2024/11/13/dave-hannigan-katie-taylors-presence-lends-a-modicum-of-dignity-to-sporting-farrago/","content_elements":[{"_id":"GQ7U3MG2MJD7RPV53UGBWATCAA","additional_properties":{"_id":1731414483109},"content":"Whindersoon Nunes is a 29-year-old Brazilian who has made a fortune as a streamer, comedian, actor and musician.","type":"text"},{"_id":"SSCCZ5FSC5H4VBYCQIFTSGLDSM","additional_properties":{"_id":1731427768856},"content":"His Wikipedia page also rather fancifully describes him as a professional boxer. A bit of a stretch. He lost his only paid four-rounder to My Mate Nate, another YouTuber prankster, by unanimous decision in Manchester last year. Evincing no real fistic talent, Nunes’s clash with Neeraj Goyat, an actual boxer, will take place a couple of fights before <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/katie-taylor/\" target=\"_blank\">Katie Taylor</a> squares off with Amanda Serrano at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas on Friday night.","type":"text"},{"_id":"NMXOO3KFYFC73EZMHVIMSXOT2M","additional_properties":{"_id":1731414483110},"content":"By dint of an Instagram following of 59 million, Nunes gets to make the same ring walk as a groundbreaker who fought in Ireland’s first sanctioned female bout at 15 and spent more than two decades shattering glass ceilings in her sport.","type":"text"},{"_id":"VGZ5NVHUVJF5DC5CDKY3YP3THQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1731427768858},"content":"To reach this impressive venue that will host 80,000 and a potential television audience of half a billion, Taylor honed her craft, put her body on the line, and battled prejudice while testing herself against some of the finest women’s fighters ever.","type":"text"},{"_id":"KMXTDHOEO5H57JUVUYHAT3F6UA","additional_properties":{"_id":1731427768859},"content":"Nunes got here by carving out a lucrative niche filming jolly japes like filling a square in Sao Paulo with fake statues and jumping in a coffin at a funeral.","type":"text"},{"_id":"C56XEZ52WRCHLHFC256E2GMHO4","additional_properties":{"_id":1731414483111},"content":"Not the first serious champion to end up having to participate in some grotesquerie to improve her bank balance, here’s hoping Taylor is taking home a reported $6.1 million purse. She’s earning every cent because her typically understated presence at this <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/netflix/\" target=\"_blank\">Netflix</a>-endorsed sporting farrago featuring <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/jake-paul/\" target=\"_blank\">Jake Paul</a> versus <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/mike-tyson/\" target=\"_blank\">Mike Tyson</a> lends it an air of dignity and credibility the promotion scarcely deserves.","type":"text"},{"_id":"5XTUEG7BWJBYJE52YCWYFU3HEU","additional_properties":{"_id":1731427768861},"content":"In what may well be her last fight, she is the warm-up act for a farce involving a professional irritant with a keen eye for turning a quick buck and a heavyweight great within touching distance of 60 who has not really mattered since 1990.","type":"text"},{"_id":"QSMBSPRQHBH6JNVIO72PLC6LDU","additional_properties":{"_id":"FYP4JZ22O5BVZGUK7LYOWQ6KHY"},"content":"Katie Taylor set for record payday on Tyson v Paul Netflix card that has baffled and dismayed many boxing insiders","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"WKMYTK653NCLFNM5Q5UJ7YYDZA","additional_properties":{"_id":1731414483112},"content":"Boxing has always been a fecund space for money men peddling freak shows to easily part fools from their money. This particular pantomime reeks of those 19th century carnival sideshows where ordinary Joes were invited to try to last a single round against some hard-up, senescent, one-time champ. Only the purses and the tent pole are bigger now, the big top drenched with the faux glitter of just-add-water celebrities. And still the rubes come.","type":"text"},{"_id":"AKD3CO5LYBDU3APZA3HUCZZA4Q","additional_properties":{"_id":1731414483113},"content":"“Jake Paul is an amazing businessman and it’s amazing what he’s done for the sport,” said Taylor, dutifully reciting the script upon arriving in Dallas last week.","type":"text"},{"_id":"7JS6D7QBHZAXHORSY2MVNC5RIM","additional_properties":{"_id":1731427768864},"content":"“He’s one of the biggest names in boxing. Myself and Amanda have this amazing opportunity as well. On Netflix, many people are going to see women’s boxing, maybe for the first time. I think the fight in Madison Square Garden was very historic and inspired a lot of young girls into the sport.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"3MWOMZJTOPTKLOFC3BWKRKRQZY","additional_properties":{"_id":"747P2KFDX5G5TOVQAYVCIUVS5A"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"33UY4LC7MRGJXJB6FSEBFL7LXQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1731414483114},"content":"Paul’s MVP promotional outfit are no doubt crowing that the Irishwoman’s rematch with Serrano is one of two women’s world title fights on the card as part of an evening they are billing rather ambitiously as “the most watched event in boxing history”.","type":"text"},{"_id":"EMO5XK2NWFHTRGHNVLS2LPHI2Q","additional_properties":{"_id":1731427768867},"content":"Certainly, Melinda Watpool and Shadasia Green doing battle for the vacant WBO super middleweight crown makes the whole affair seem quite progressive. Except it isn’t really. From Canada, Watpool is 35, took up boxing two years ago, and with seven wins from seven outings, is now, somehow, some way, on the cusp of becoming world champion.","type":"text"},{"_id":"JOZYSJ46OZEH7AQFPMFKQB6CJU","additional_properties":{"_id":1731414483115},"content":"Rising without trace, two of her victories came against opponents with one win to their name each, another was over a woman who has never won a fight. Before or since.","type":"text"},{"_id":"5RQLJDZWOVFTJAVDVAW7GPWMHA","additional_properties":{"_id":1731427768869},"content":"Watpool’s last bout in September was a trouncing of Natasha ‘The Nightmare’ Spence, a fighter who, belying her fearsome nickname, has not won a contest since 2016. Worse again, that was the second clash between the two women, 39-year-old Spence having previously lost to her compatriot just nine months before.","type":"text"},{"_id":"NNKWPF6GENHEZBOJ6PC3TJ3EIY","additional_properties":{"_id":1731414483116},"content":"Green can’t be considered a serious contender either. A scroll through her more substantive 14&1 pro ledger reveals her warm-up outing for this so-called world title fight was a victory over the unfortunate Spence back in July.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ENEAZHA7R5CQZJGBTLEQJWH7VU","additional_properties":{"_id":1731427768871},"content":"If this jokeshop contest shines a negative light on the distaff side of the sport, another undercard fight looks equally suspect. Mario Barrios puts his WBC world welterweight title on the line against Abel Ramos, the 61st ranked fighter in the division, somebody with no business vying for any belt. Quality matchmaking there.","type":"text"},{"_id":"SWABEYWP4NBGTI7JBISHBARDNU","additional_properties":{"_id":"IQFKRRKGM5FBHMJZKEP6D2DLMM"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"PI3UVWJ74JHQBA7G6R3F2TVIHM","additional_properties":{"_id":1731414483117},"content":"With plenty of scuttlebutt that Paul’s victory in the main event is predetermined in the contract, it’s almost like this is not a serious night of boxing at all. Just a sorry burlesque in which the rapist is supposed to be the good guy.","type":"text"},{"_id":"5JKNK5QJK5HUPEEBGIW73PF3XQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1731427768874},"content":"Over the past decade, Tyson’s 1992 conviction for attacking Desiree Washington seems to have conveniently slipped everybody’s mind. In a remarkable metamorphosis, he’s been reimagined by gullible media and fans alike as an almost cuddly, slightly comic grandpa figure. Witness Taylor gushing overmuch about him to journalists the other day.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ZZECBKJJUBBO7FGX66GOFUL5TI","additional_properties":{"_id":1731414483118},"content":"His history of sexual assault came back into focus this past week when it emerged another woman has refiled a lawsuit amending the date on which she alleges he raped her in 1990. Attempts by a reporter from USA Today to question Tyson about the case were quickly shut down because, presumably, Netflix didn’t want his horrific past intruding on what they are selling here. Whatever it is they are selling here.","type":"text"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"premium"},"credits":{"by":[{"additional_properties":{"original":{"byline":"Dave Hannigan"}},"name":"Dave Hannigan"}]},"description":{"basic":"Dubious bill in Texas topped by the clash of Jake Paul and Mike Tyson akin to one of those 19th century carnival sideshows"},"display_date":"2024-11-13T15:00:00Z","headlines":{"basic":"Dave Hannigan: Katie Taylor’s presence lends a modicum of dignity to sporting farrago ","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"5469"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"AKARPJEGYNB4PM5ZNQCQKK646A","auth":{"1":"837e4108669c0facae427ed72480c8e0cc8e616b425fe3493300d3303a904a1a"},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/AKARPJEGYNB4PM5ZNQCQKK646A.jpg"}},"subtype":"columnist","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Sport"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/sport/boxing/2024/11/13/dave-hannigan-katie-taylors-presence-lends-a-modicum-of-dignity-to-sporting-farrago/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/sport/boxing","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Boxing"}}}},{"_id":"P5FQEA52TZGWXA74JT3I6E2XAY","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":579,"audio_url":"https://d22tbkdovk5ea2.cloudfront.net/audio/projects/8948/podcasts/76342b7e-08b8-4ac7-bcd1-9f0a94d0795c/versions/1731516814/media/dbf61821c473069f9f836da433de04b6_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/sport/boxing/2024/11/13/katie-taylor-follows-path-of-pioneers-in-strange-boxing-alliance-with-mike-tyson/","content_elements":[{"_id":"2O2Y6XMTKVBYVPVJTPLVTOFFKQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1731477632496},"content":"What a place for <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/katie-taylor\" target=\"_blank\">Katie Taylor</a> to find herself: stepping into the ring immediately after <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/mike-tyson\" target=\"_blank\">Mike Tyson</a> for her open workout in a Dallas concert venue with a touch of the nightclub about it.","type":"text"},{"_id":"5E7ZYI4RRJCM5ETR46RZ7KZAKY","additional_properties":{"_id":1731480359056},"content":"The biggest payday of her life beckons and on Tuesday evening, she found herself torn between her two public guises: the cool professional face of women’s boxing and the fearless child of 20 years ago who chased what was, at that stage, an illusion.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ER4QPANJ55DYDJSO55BHMKW7CA","additional_properties":{"_id":1731477632497},"content":"“When I first started boxing as a nine- or 10-year-old I was the only female fighter I really knew of,” Taylor marvelled on Tuesday evening after going through the motions for the crowd. “And to go home now, every single gym in Ireland is full of female fighters and that to me is the absolute best.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"AXRQAQTJHVAHVJ4ZYW3BN3IURY","additional_properties":{"_id":1731477632498},"content":"Friday night’s <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/netflix/\" target=\"_blank\">Netflix</a>-sponsored event is a mad invention: proof that the streaming age reigns supreme. It showcases what will be a high-octane rematch between Taylor and Amanda Serrano, who served up the fight of the year in 2022 with their brutal, thrilling encounter in Madison Square Garden.","type":"text"},{"_id":"VDMZSIAOMJCKNCULRKAEDYMHAA","additional_properties":{"_id":1731480359059},"content":"But if that bout features two fighters at the top of their game, the main event, which pits the 58-year-old Tyson against the YouTube celebrity Jake Paul, has baffled and dismayed many boxing insiders.","type":"text"},{"_id":"O2OCQ2MK2VDPHKTEQBY7POV3QU","additional_properties":{"_id":1731480359060},"content":"As ever, Taylor has been diplomatic about the nature of the fight but is also unabashedly in awe of Tyson. In addition to starring on the same card as Tyson on Friday, she shares the volatile New Yorker’s love of boxing folklore.","type":"text"},{"_id":"YD3KMFK5K5BA5HYROPPBXP4YSY","additional_properties":{"_id":1731480359061},"content":"So, she was quick to take up the invitation to reflect upon a long-forgotten footnote in Tyson’s career during which he has burned through all of the excess and nihilism possible in the fight game and is now coming back for more, with the trademark tattoos and black trunks.","type":"text"},{"_id":"7UHV2VGCUBFZDMJTXPJR3OMNJM","additional_properties":{"_id":"BQNR7XNV4FAZ7MVNWOTWOXUIIU"},"content":"Dave Hannigan: Katie Taylor’s presence lends a modicum of dignity to sporting farrago","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"SAKKJKCHCI4DKSU6ZG7Z2E2D2U","additional_properties":{"_id":"AWCOYDYOXBEDXAJYNRTU37XXAU"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"SP7RLHZT6NE63F6RD43QW5VQWM","additional_properties":{"_id":1731480359062},"content":"In March 1996, when Tyson fought Frank Bruno in Las Vegas, Louth fighter Deirdre Gogarty met Christy Martin on the undercard. The fighters were paid a paltry sum. Taylor had not yet turned 10.","type":"text"},{"_id":"NFYAD3OIKZFLXDM3WKOXC3K3NY","additional_properties":{"_id":1731477632499},"content":"“Yeah they were pioneers of the sport and I don’t feel we would be in the position we are in today if it wasn’t for those women,” Taylor said.","type":"text"},{"_id":"KR6Y6MOB2NBOJBOOKNBFACTT7Q","additional_properties":{"_id":"4Q5ASSNY2JDBDJKZPEE3KZA6RM"},"content":"Katie Taylor v Amanda Serrano: TV details, fight time and all you need to know","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"NBO2DAJSUZD6LGAMWRDP6BWSSE","additional_properties":{"_id":1731477632500},"content":"“They were also on a Mike Tyson undercard and absolutely incredible ... I think they were getting booed going into the ring that day. But it was the fight of the night. On the way out they got a standing ovation. That was one of the biggest moments for women’s boxing for men, that moment alone.","type":"text"},{"_id":"7YJ4MKO6VRB7BCTEXTDUIXHPYE","additional_properties":{"_id":1731480359065},"content":"“I don’t think it gets talked about as often as it should, really. We talk about pressure. Those girls had pressure going into the ring that day and they came out as heroes. And I will be forever grateful for them because they are the reason we are here right now.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"HUHHQKIJVJHR7J5JDPSTU6XRD4","additional_properties":{"_id":1731477632501},"content":"Taylor will reportedly earn just over €6 million dollars from this fight. It’s a sum she could hardly have imagined when she turned professional after her tortuous exit at the Rio Olympics. Asked about what it was like to have her mother, Bridget, as her constant companion, Taylor started to respond.","type":"text"},{"_id":"S6QSLM4KAJBCDE72WRRYNISYEI","additional_properties":{"_id":1731477632502},"content":"“Well, it’s amazing,” she began. “She is my biggest support.” And then, distracted by whatever torrent of memories, Taylor was overcome and started to cry. We can only guess what the Taylor women have gone through to arrive at this moment in Dallas. The Serrano camp has claimed that their fighter’s purse will exceed even the Irish fighter’s: a far cry from the $1,200 Serrano says she earned for her debut back in 2009.","type":"text"},{"_id":"BAEX23QAYZEMLFPRBR4DMNGZ4Y","additional_properties":{"_id":1731480359068},"content":"The wild and all-but-inseparable New York duel between the two served to announce women’s professional fighting as an entertainment that can draw crowds and Taylor acknowledged that their individual boxing characteristics cause rare sparks to fly in the ring.","type":"text"},{"_id":"YA2QZLYHQZGYTOOXC6CVOXOXQE","additional_properties":{"_id":1731477632503},"content":"“Yeah that’s exactly what it is. You have to have a good dance partner. And myself and Amanda’s name will be embedded forever in the history of the sport. And we are doing it again on Friday night. Hopefully this one won’t be as close as the last one and hopefully it won’t be as exciting.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"2CNFDXP355FTFI5TP6LQNOERGE","additional_properties":{"_id":1731477632504},"content":"The Taylor-Serrano fight speaks for itself. What, then, are we to make of the co-main event – Mike Tyson versus Jake Paul – other than that as further evidence of a fallen world?","type":"text"},{"_id":"VMGQDKUOJFFBFEGMLIEMWENUF4","additional_properties":{"_id":1731480359071},"content":"The meeting of the 58-year-old former heavyweight champion and Paul, a 27-year-old boxing novice, has scandalised many in the world of boxing – which is not a world easily scandalised.","type":"text"},{"_id":"KM4FEWI36FDN5IGHVKUT6B6XH4","additional_properties":{"_id":1731480359072},"content":"There is the complaint that the match brings the noble art into disrepute. There is also the danger to the combatants: you can find plenty arguing that it is wrong to allow a man of Tyson’s years back into the ring – and that it is equally wrong to allow a callow amateur into the ring with the most destructive boxing force of the colour-television era. There is, finally, the unspoken possibility that neither man is currently capable of doing any damage and will thus bore the worldwide Netflix audience to death.","type":"text"},{"_id":"COVJDZQC2RE3XDG35MYQ6YUNNI","additional_properties":{"_id":1731477632505},"content":"Paul is a Clevelander who, 10 years ago, found himself a pioneer of YouTube content celebrity by posting personal videos, promptly made himself a millionaire many times over and now finds himself destined to wander through the hinterland of American success as restless as the fictional Tom Buchanan, “forever seeking, a little wistfully, for the dramatic turbulence of some irrecoverable football game”.","type":"text"},{"_id":"QAOUO5SLWJBAVODD4MNYI3OX7Y","additional_properties":{"_id":1731477632506},"content":"Or in this case seeking, a little violently, the ghost of the most feared boxer of the television age. In the three-part Netflix advertorial, Paul comes across as amicable with an inexplicable surfeit of confidence and is given to outbursts of mind-numbing earnestness. Which is a tough station when your dramatic lead is Tyson, who will never tire at looking back at his stunning emergence from the ghetto of 1980s Brownsville in astonishment.","type":"text"},{"_id":"4EIWRMXE3BAZRJI5WPXJ6UXQ74","additional_properties":{"_id":"2QGXZXZUJVESNKJEZ5CGEM5CDY"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"AYNNNCJ3HRGVJB5U4YUCO7XNBA","additional_properties":{"_id":1731480359075},"content":"There is a genuinely poignant moment in the documentary when the crew has Tyson return to his childhood apartment, which in his eyes remains a rat-infested nightmare. In tandem with the city, it has become modernised and gentrified. But part of Tyson remains locked into that period of vicious New York and to the ferocious animalistic fighter who thrilled and appalled boxing afficionados of the mid-1980s.","type":"text"},{"_id":"TRLYACIL6RHSZHGWOJBJHHHLZ4","additional_properties":{"_id":1731480359076},"content":"“People are branding this as potentially the biggest fight ever,” Paul, who rose to online fame along with his brother, tells Tyson at some stage.","type":"text"},{"_id":"CQOYQEIHQZETJJ2GTPMSY6FWSU","additional_properties":{"_id":1731477632507},"content":"“Stop,” Tyson says lispily. “The”.","type":"text"},{"_id":"IBBSATZBANBJ5GDPIQZXCVNN6I","additional_properties":{"_id":1731477632508},"content":"“The biggest fight ever.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"2AVUG24ATVD5NF3OZPTFXSBDF4","additional_properties":{"_id":1731477632509},"content":"Tyson is one of the most dedicated boxing historians out there. He knows this is nonsense. And those of us who were in the Capitol arena in downtown Washington on a May night back in 2005, when Tyson’s wild and wildly uneven career ended as he remained on his stool when the bell sounded for the eighth round of his fight against Clones man Kevin McBride, could not have believed then we would see Tyson in gloves again. Iron Mike was spent, hollowed out that night. He looked the same but the kryptonite was gone. McBride was ecstatic and the occasion was graced by one of the final public appearances of Muhammad Ali, there to see his daughter Laila fight on the undercard.","type":"text"},{"_id":"YMNNQBOG3ZHG3MLYOVWEURWTCM","additional_properties":{"_id":1731477632510},"content":"Now, when he took to the ring in the Music Factory, a determinedly soulless venue in concrete-and-highway heartland between Fort Worth and Dallas, Iron Mike still looked the part. There is something of the timeless comic-book anti-hero about Tyson in silhouette: the broad frame, the chiselled skull and the classic stance when he slips into his dark, skulking version of the orthodox stance.","type":"text"},{"_id":"4OMLT7PB75EPRD6PYWNCRZI5QQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1731480359081},"content":"Paul, at 6ft 1in, is athletic in a cumbersome sort of way and has come through a series of respectable exhibition fights and is the right age. But there is no question that if he met Tyson in his prime he may have lost his life. The mystery over how much – if any – of that animal coldness Tyson still possesses is what lends this odd exhibition the necessary allure of danger.","type":"text"},{"_id":"EBTAQVEI3JBFTFYULZ6M7XNR54","additional_properties":{"_id":1731477632511},"content":"To many, it is a dismaying spectacle. But boxing has a reputation for killing its darlings. It doesn’t do to become too sniffy. Boxing left poor Joe Louis to live out his twilight as a Vegas greeter, left the beloved Ali a diminished figure and ushered Tyson’s personal hero, Sonny Liston, out of the world as soon as he was done in the ring.","type":"text"},{"_id":"DVZBZ4OJLNFQTDXPM2K2XI5GDM","additional_properties":{"_id":1731480359083},"content":"Tyson was hardly out of his teens when forecasts of his inevitable path towards self-destruction were made, most frequently by himself. But here he is in a strange boxing alliance with Ireland’s most famous sportswoman and in for a multimillion dollar payday as he approaches the age of 60. Many old champions would have jumped at the chance.","type":"text"},{"_id":"JE3XAE3RF5E3LELXPC7VXE4UYU","additional_properties":{"_id":1731477632512},"content":"The venue was becoming quiet when Tyson was asked, theatrically, if he would be bringing the familiar darkness with him into the ring on Friday night. “Better again,” he answered, the voice turning suddenly icy.","type":"text"},{"_id":"GDRKRBX7T5ACDHSFTRC7LPLPLM","additional_properties":{"_id":1731477632513},"content":"“I’m gonna bring the devil himself.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"YCDY6C2IB5FUNMX3YVDX7FFP3I","additional_properties":{},"type":"list"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"metered"},"credits":{"by":[{"additional_properties":{"original":{"byline":"Keith Duggan"}},"name":"Keith Duggan"}]},"description":{"basic":"Irish fighter’s biggest payday beckons as she fights Serrano on the undercard of the Netflix-sponsored Tyson-Jake Paul fight"},"display_date":"2024-11-13T07:00:00Z","headlines":{"basic":"Katie Taylor set for record $6m payday on Tyson v Paul Netflix card that has baffled and dismayed many boxing insiders ","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"8948"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"7XF7LNRV65UO47CV77U7JDLERM","auth":{"1":"d9681aecd23f2341335d8e6cc7fa6b6d61f20ab9c24b13825483eb5aac5817e7"},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/7XF7LNRV65UO47CV77U7JDLERM.jpg"}},"subtype":"default","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Sport"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/sport/boxing/2024/11/13/katie-taylor-follows-path-of-pioneers-in-strange-boxing-alliance-with-mike-tyson/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/sport/boxing","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Boxing"}}}},{"_id":"W5IUAMUUWVHGRILFHBWVSL3C7M","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":503,"audio_url":"https://d22tbkdovk5ea2.cloudfront.net/audio/projects/8948/podcasts/045f00c2-984c-4a7e-b51e-e716a16acdf9/versions/1731446450/media/6dfa44604c680a698225f1a478a7191d_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/sport/boxing/2024/11/12/katie-taylor-if-youre-a-boxing-person-it-really-matters-mike-tyson-does-well-against-jake-paul/","content_elements":[{"_id":"YSA5BBLNVRBLJEMLCQ3PPFHPLA","additional_properties":{"_id":1731430488991},"content":"When <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/katie-taylor/\" target=\"_blank\">Katie Taylor</a> and Amanda Serrano were locked in battle during the last round of their first <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/boxing/\" target=\"_blank\">fight</a> at <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/other-sports/taylor-stands-tallest-on-a-magical-night-at-the-garden-1.4866855\" target=\"_blank\">Madison Square Garden in April 2022</a>, I could not help myself. Alongside an entire row of ringside reporters, I stood up to watch the final minute of a riveting contest. ","type":"text"},{"_id":"24BSB3JMXNCLPGYJPZJSHO65VU","additional_properties":{},"content":"Suddenly oblivious to the march of our urgent deadlines and the etiquette of remaining above such raw human emotion, we were swept away by the courage and determination of both women in one of the greatest fights ever staged at the Garden.","type":"text"},{"_id":"BGNZSJE3BZHUBPKU4WOK3EWQDM","additional_properties":{"_id":1731430488992},"content":"“It was only afterwards, when you’re looking back and hearing people’s reactions that you think: ‘Gosh, that was a huge moment for women in boxing’,” Taylor says now. “You’re hearing stories of young girls being inspired by that night and how people are calling it historic. It’s then that you just say: ‘Wow, that was an amazing night.’”","type":"text"},{"_id":"BHR3FEVJEZBNJI46MHBLG7PNA4","additional_properties":{"_id":1731430488993},"content":"It seems bizarre that their long-awaited rematch should now take place on Friday night as the main support to a circus stunt in Arlington, Texas, which sees a 58-year-old Mike Tyson fight Jake Paul, the 27-year-old YouTube influencer who is trying to become a boxer. ","type":"text"},{"_id":"MXURCBIV6VFWNFWIV4TEOIFHXM","additional_properties":{},"content":"Tyson last fought professionally more than 19 years ago, when he was beaten up and stopped by Kevin McBride, an Irish journeyman, and his lifestyle since then has been typically wayward, marked by continued drink and drug problems. The scrap between Tyson and Paul would be laughable if it did not carry a serious risk.","type":"text"},{"_id":"J3CE5IJVIZBSPII7GECXD7IWRI","additional_properties":{"_id":"FS2I3PC7RVA7VGSGF36M6WS43U"},"content":"Katie Taylor v Amanda Serrano: TV details, fight time and all you need to know","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"OZZ5AUZBBBBNBO4ODGTLJ3PPKY","additional_properties":{"_id":1731430488994},"content":"In stark contrast, the first fight between Taylor and Serrano captured all that is best about boxing – and the rematch is full of intrigue. Taylor lost her long unbeaten record in May 2023, when she moved up in weight and Chantelle Cameron won a majority decision against her in Dublin. ","type":"text"},{"_id":"LJGQKH4SVFDMZJKVKZNIU6K3CA","additional_properties":{},"content":"It was suggested then that Taylor, who is now 38, should retire after her long and glorious amateur and professional career. Taylor was quietly indignant and, a year ago, she became the undisputed world super-lightweight champion when she outpointed Cameron in the rematch.","type":"text"},{"_id":"2LPLXMY7LNEKPJK33EQ3OCDBJM","additional_properties":{"_id":"FFP4AVRE7RA3TA42HKL2C4BGH4"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"6J3K6D7W4NCWBFXQLKJP6W5MZU","additional_properties":{"_id":1731430488995},"content":"She and Serrano were due to meet in Texas this July but the entire promotion had to be postponed after Tyson fell ill because of a flare-up of his stomach ulcer. It was another sign that Tyson-Paul should be scrapped but, with hundreds of millions of dollars being generated on Netflix, the entire show was rescheduled for this week.","type":"text"},{"_id":"E2VIZ3XHPRGDRBRVGHWGUJT7ZA","additional_properties":{"_id":1731430488996},"content":"Taylor generally avoids interviews but it helps that we have spoken often over the years. She is typically friendly and polite and in a positive mood. She, understandably, has also chosen to be a diplomat while focusing on the undoubted chance for her and Serrano to display their grit and skill to a completely new audience. ","type":"text"},{"_id":"AY4FPRGMJZATPEIA7VSQ4SPSS4","additional_properties":{},"content":"“It’s an amazing opportunity because millions of people will be tuning into this fight,” Taylor says. “I think people are going to see women’s boxing at its very best.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"654IIE5H7ZAPXAMBK7ATJNKJNA","additional_properties":{"_id":1731430488997},"content":"Taylor listens to my misgivings about the night at the AT&T Stadium, the home of the Dallas Cowboys, and the fact that Tyson should not be allowed back in the ring for a competitive fight. ","type":"text"},{"_id":"EC5LR242LJAP7BKONLN3TLPAEM","additional_properties":{},"content":"“I have those same concerns,” she admits, “but he did look very good against Roy Jones [in a drawn eight-round exhibition in November 2020]. He hasn’t lived the cleanest life since then but I think over the last few years he’s cleaned himself up. We’re hoping that shows through on the night, but he obviously has amazing experience and nothing is going to faze Mike Tyson.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"E7K76P2FZVD4BIHBIPBHQK6Z7I","additional_properties":{"_id":1731430488998},"content":"Taylor is an ambassador for the old-school boxing company, Everlast, which has been making fight clothing and equipment since 1910, and aligns herself firmly with traditionalists of the ring. Taylor clearly loves the sport with an enduring fervour and sounds hopeful when I ask if Tyson could beat his much younger rival. “I’ve seen clips of him training recently and he looks very good on the pads. But Jake is a fit man, a young man and a good athlete as well. He seems to have an OK punch and he’s starting to prove himself as a fighter. It’s very interesting.","type":"text"},{"_id":"JB3MXGINMBDKTGPAMMHGBLFEKY","additional_properties":{"_id":1731430488999},"content":"“I think if you’re a boxing person, it really matters that he does well and hopefully wins because Mike Tyson is an absolute legend in sport. He was once known as the baddest man on the planet. He’s super exciting to watch. I have so much respect for what he did in the sport and I’d hate for a legend like him to lose a matchup like this. He’s a hero to many of us fighters.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"3MWOMZJTOPTKLOFC3BWKRKRQZY","additional_properties":{"_id":"F5RFN5F2NJB4BBBAYMYAXQ2H5M"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"MX7MI6V2ZFCKXJRRZTOF5V4DPM","additional_properties":{"_id":1731430489000},"content":"Taylor and Tyson are seen as the away fighters on the bill as Serrano is promoted by Paul – whose company is staging the event in conjunction with Netflix. Their kinship has been strengthened by a long exchange they had before the first press conference back in May. “We had a great conversation and his knowledge of the sport is second to none. He’s a great boxing historian so having a chance to sit down and speak to someone who is so knowledgeable, and has a great mindset, was pretty special for me.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"C4MQS5PVEZFNFFTN5D5EGQZWIY","additional_properties":{"_id":1731430489001},"content":"She hates talk of retiring but Taylor laughs when I ask if she could imagine doing something similar when she is 58? “No! Once I do retire from the sport that will be it. I’ve been punched enough over the last 20 years.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"KYCLUN5RPVGKBCHI2XROVOTOOE","additional_properties":{"_id":1731430489002},"content":"Some of us hope that Taylor will soon choose life on the safe side of the ropes. But she talks seriously, and passionately, about her desire to keep fighting for a few more years. She wants “a very special” decider in a trilogy with Cameron and, she says, “there definitely are other people I’d love to fight. Alycia Baumgardner and Caroline Dubois are both fantastic fighters as well.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"ZE6DTSERKVAT5A5N6HR6EFSQFQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1731430489003},"content":"Yet she now faces an extraordinarily difficult night against Serrano. Is she ready to go back into that dark and painful place where she was on that brutal night of their first fight? “I am very aware that I could go back into that place,” Taylor says. “That’s why I train so hard. I’m in dark places throughout training camp, and the male and female sparring partners that I’ve had over with me these last few weeks have been phenomenal.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"PSXBIYD74DRRYTEF6LEJVXV7FE","additional_properties":{"_id":"CYYVI7V4WZCTNIVYP2KAKQ776Y"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"KUA2YYWLYBBGJM5HWLHDM4D4TA","additional_properties":{"_id":1731430489004},"content":"Midway through the first fight, Taylor was in such trouble that it looked as if Serrano was about to stop her. “Afterwards people were talking about the fifth round and I was like: ‘What happened?’” Taylor says with a complicated smile. “I was lost in the fight and, really, I’m just there to throw punches. But at the end of that fifth round, I was throwing punches back at her. My head soon cleared and I won the second half of the fight.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"W7TANHLNCJGXBMAQP4VS3LX6H4","additional_properties":{"_id":1731430489005},"content":"Taylor loves to fight in the trenches but she has the skill to outbox Serrano if she follows a more tactical approach. “I just have to be more disciplined in doing it and that’s something that I’m trying to focus on.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"HAUNEWTB5ZCQPBOP74CBTFHYDU","additional_properties":{"_id":1731430489006},"content":"She grins wryly but then shakes her head when I ask if she is concerned how the fight may be judged as this is a Jake Paul promotion in Texas. “That’s not something I ever think of,” she says. “My job is to fight and you hope and pray that the judging is very fair.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"S6TVYX5QRJHV7OVK4NUX3IAC7E","additional_properties":{"_id":1731430489007},"content":"There is a purity about Taylor’s love of boxing and she approaches the fight game very differently to most. It’s striking that she and Brian Peters, who has managed Taylor since she turned professional in 2016, have never signed a contract to cement their working relationship. They prefer to rely on their mutual trust.","type":"text"},{"_id":"FBZUB3S57RGGNFV4ZUFVKCDVIA","additional_properties":{"_id":1731430489008},"content":"So it is easy for Taylor, who is deeply religious, to rise above the charade of Tyson against Paul and revel in the gravitas of her own fight. “I think our styles mix very well,” she says of Serrano. “Both our mentalities are that we’re going to do whatever it takes to win the fight so it’s going to be another explosive night. I’m just excited to go in there and perform because I think my best will beat Serrano’s.” – Guardian","type":"text"},{"_id":"YCDY6C2IB5FUNMX3YVDX7FFP3I","additional_properties":{},"type":"list"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"metered"},"credits":{"by":[{"additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Donald McRae"}]},"description":{"basic":"World super lightweight champion faces Amanda Serrano in Texas on Friday night"},"display_date":"2024-11-12T21:15:44.053Z","headlines":{"basic":"Katie Taylor: ‘If you’re a boxing person it really matters Mike Tyson does well against Jake Paul’","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"8948"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"AZ3ANUOB6JGBBOXLYWGY4YDYDA","auth":{"1":"ff98f6448f11face33048c8cfbe9cd46b01ccb460d14bef2d580f54f62f73461"},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/AZ3ANUOB6JGBBOXLYWGY4YDYDA.jpg"}},"subtype":"default","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Sport"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/sport/boxing/2024/11/12/katie-taylor-if-youre-a-boxing-person-it-really-matters-mike-tyson-does-well-against-jake-paul/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/sport/boxing","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Boxing"}}}}],"count":383,"_id":"73b3e1551f8a5e779dc41ab1758ef22638686f39970ee6e8b71a43faa513433f"},"expires":1742870088421,"lastModified":1742869788045},"{\"feedOffset\":0,\"feedSize\":50,\"includeSections\":\"/sport/boxing\"}":{"data":{"content_elements":[{"_id":"4VYRTGP2YBEF3H4XONJHGJAQ4M","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":678,"audio_url":"https://beyondwords-cdn-b7fyckdeejejb6dj.a03.azurefd.net/audio/projects/8948/podcasts/bff6936b-2aae-4e4a-a2ad-d9d3bf4ec230/versions/1742207491/media/1114b6c707ddbd76d4c71c787a5554ca_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/culture/books/2025/03/23/when-muhammad-ali-came-to-ireland-how-a-splendid-spoofer-from-kerry-planned-to-lure-the-boxer-to-dublin/","content_elements":[{"_id":"2LDCBM5OUVFRVG7XQI6LSSN6IA","additional_properties":{"_id":1741967126935},"content":"On a tour of England in October, 1971, <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/muhammad-ali/\" target=\"_self\">Muhammad Ali</a> visited The Wellington, strongman Butty Sugrue’s pub in Shepherd’s Bush, <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/london/3/\" target=\"_self\">London</a>. At one point in the festivities, the <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/kerry/\" target=\"_self\">Kerryman</a> and Ali had a one-on-one chat during which the landlord asked the former heavyweight champion of the world to consider a fight in Ireland, the profits from which would go to a charity close to his heart.","type":"text"},{"_id":"I7X2CJYRGZE7ZHYHJESEZ6RF2E","additional_properties":{"_id":1741967126936},"content":"“Like Joe Louis, he is deeply interested in the welfare of the mentally handicapped,” said Sugrue. “So, I put the idea to him and asked him would he fight in Dublin. He told me he would go anywhere at any time to fight for the mentally handicapped children, and he promised me then to do this fight for £100,000.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"O7667JLDRNFJNNX64VDIG5L5QA","additional_properties":{"_id":1741967126937},"content":"Whether Ali made any personal assurances about a future bout for any charity is open to question but there is no doubt the idea of him boxing in Ireland seems to have been born during that encounter. Not that this kind of forensic detail mattered to the sceptical media in Ireland. They were not convinced by Sugrue’s announcement in March 1972 that the most famous athlete in the world would be coming to Dublin that summer. As if a former circus strongman could pull off such a feat.","type":"text"},{"_id":"2MKSZDGYMVBI5NSBCBTPO5OHIU","additional_properties":{"_id":1742466757937},"content":"‘Can Butty Produce Ali Here?’ asked The Irish Press, the incredulous tone of the headline setting the tone for much newspaper coverage about that possibility over the next few weeks.","type":"text"},{"_id":"GTQONDUCMBCTJG4JY5O4DSKQ4M","additional_properties":{"_id":1741967126939},"content":"A master at garnering cheap publicity, Sugrue enjoyed a reputation as something of a carnival barker, often guilty of delivering less than he promised, forever enmeshed in madcap ventures designed to drive up revenue at one of his establishments. Barely four years had passed since he had last made international headlines. In his second attempt at one of the lesser spotted world records, he persuaded Mick Meaney, a Tipperary-born barman at the Admiral Nelson, a pub he then ran in north London, <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/abroad/generation-emigration/the-story-of-the-irishman-buried-alive-in-kilburn-1.2463196#:~:text=Meaney%20bedded%20down%20for%20the,opened%20onto%20bags%20of%20lime.\" target=\"_blank\">to spend 61 days in a coffin, buried 11ft below the surface</a>.","type":"text"},{"_id":"RZLJHOGF6ZA3XIVQMTBYBH5Y2Y","additional_properties":{"_id":1741967126940},"content":"A classic slice of Sugrue grotesquerie. Before the burial, he organised “The Last Supper”, a meal at which Jack Doyle, one-time heavyweight contender turned cabaret act, sang songs. Meaney was then placed in his “all-mod cons” coffin. Watched by large numbers of Irish expatriates wearing solemn black suits and gleaming white shirts, he was passed through the window of the bar and lifted on to a flatbed truck-cum-hearse that took him to his “final” resting place at Mick Keane’s building yard. When Meaney finally emerged from his subterranean spot more than two months later, it was to a kiss from the glamorous figure of Diana Dors, and the soundtrack of the London-Irish Girl Pipers.","type":"text"},{"_id":"7LU3TZBJRNAI5HJCXRB3BMKFGQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1742466757942},"content":"Questions were subsequently raised about the nature of that enterprise in the House of Commons, a measure of how well Sugrue sold the stunt to the media and how famous he had become in Britain. It was all a long way, literally and metaphorically, from Gortnascarry, the townland near Killorglin in southwest Kerry where Michael (his official name) was born on July 24th, 1924. One of the six children (three sons and three daughters) of Daniel and Anna Sugrue, he earned the sobriquet “Butty” early on due to his short, thick build and prodigious strength.","type":"text"},{"_id":"6IQFQRUGSNH5ZPOBT562YITCR4","additional_properties":{"_id":"N2MO7RZOGNGP7B24JMKGS3UCSM"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"KUH5KGUL733IROXI6QVSLPZN6A","additional_properties":{"_id":1742466757949},"type":"image"},{"_id":"6LJI43V4BJEJXNF5SCZTRHRC7M","additional_properties":{"_id":1742466757944},"content":"In his youth, he had been an amateur boxer at a time when budding Killorglin pugilists fought in a ring set up in the fabled Oisin Ballroom on Iveragh Road. Alongside his brother Tim, known to all as “Fly”, he also travelled to compete at tournaments in Cahersiveen, Tralee and Castleisland. Around then he started to gain a reputation for being abnormally strong. Popular lore in the area held that his power was down to the amount of goat’s milk he drank in his formative years. English newspapers, prompted by his own anecdotes, later attributed his brawn to an idyllic rural childhood spent chasing wild rabbits and eating them raw.","type":"text"},{"_id":"UYMCKIA2ONGUZGU3NRRQ3KNJGQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1741967126943},"content":"Variously described as somewhere between 5ft 5in and 5ft 8in in height, with a few stubborn wisps of hair clinging to his otherwise balding pate, he was a small, squat man blessed with incredible power. As a young lad during a stint working the peat bogs in Offaly, he entertained larger colleagues by hoisting them over his head and holding them there. In the pre-television era, that gift was remarkable enough for him to eventually parlay it into a modicum of fame. Leaving the turf-cutting behind, he spent much of the 1940s and early 1950s traversing the country as a headline act with Duffy’s Circus.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ZKBFP5M7U5G3TDSOTGARIVNZVA","additional_properties":{"_id":1741967126944},"content":"Most evenings, he entered the ring to the sound of his colleague Michael Doyle fingering the accordion, the audience gasping the instant they realised the musician was perched atop a chair that Sugrue held between his teeth while walking along. Posters declared him “Ireland’s Strongest Man!” and few quibbled with the billing. Those who did were invited into the spotlight to see if they could match his feats. Usually, he lifted four 56lb shop weights attached to a steel cart axle (also 56lb) above his head and then watched the doubters and naysayers fail one by one to replicate his action.","type":"text"},{"_id":"I4WH72FYNNGRTK6FAKF5TCFQXM","additional_properties":{"_id":"ADACVSGGMRADZEEPDVMCTIDYPQ"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"TNKIDCR32FENZCBD2ZPUIEX6JI","additional_properties":{"_id":1742466757948},"content":"Another trick was to sit 10 men on a trailer before dragging it around the big top with a rope clenched between his teeth. Typical sideshow fare, the kind of act that the people of a town remembered, and it made Sugrue nationally famous. When the adults repaired to the pubs afterwards, they spent hours figuring out how such a small man could be so strong. At school the next day, kids talked of little else. Over time, his legend grew and grew and the story about him tugging a double-decker bus across O’Connell Bridge in Dublin with those ever-resilient gnashers became national lore.","type":"text"},{"_id":"LR4JLHOQ75AGXLCA6RU2WZHBOM","additional_properties":{"_id":1741967126946},"content":"Emigrating to London in the early 1960s, Sugrue arrived in a city teeming with Irish and opportunity. A teetotaller, he got involved in the pub business, an industry where his name recognition and flair for promotion brought exiled compatriots flocking to his bars. If his quiet manner and gentle ways belied his illustrious past as Ireland’s strongest man, customers caught glimpses now and then of his remarkable abilities. Troublemakers left his establishments in a hurry. He wouldn’t fight anybody, he’d just grab at them, and once he’d gained a substantial hold, the miscreant was bodily lifted from the premises and warned not to return.","type":"text"},{"_id":"PSLURCRHGZBXZND6MW7Q3ZYGYY","additional_properties":{"_id":1741967126947},"content":"Not long after Nelson’s Pillar was blown up on O’Connell Street in Dublin in 1966, Sugrue put the word out that the head of the statue would be making an appearance in the Admiral Nelson on a certain night. The place was packed to the rafters when the proprietor announced that, unfortunately, some ne’er-do-wells had stolen the head from a wheelbarrow in the backyard the previous evening. Only Sugrue could get away with disappointing people on that scale.","type":"text"},{"_id":"H4MSKLNVAFEOFIPOYH65LOSFLY","additional_properties":{"_id":1742466757946},"type":"image"},{"_id":"QRXO5X3GJ5CXLDHBQPDUEWTWHU","additional_properties":{"_id":1741967126948},"content":"For all these misadventures, stunts and half-truths, Sugrue’s friends regarded him as intensely loyal, and he had an admirable history of assisting Irish people in London, most especially Doyle, an increasingly pathetic alcoholic. If the Corkman needed a place to stay, he knew his Kerry pal would come through for him. Once, he accompanied the former contender to Elstree Studios for a summit with <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/marlon-brando/\" target=\"_self\">Marlon Brando</a>, who had sent his Rolls-Royce to ferry them to the set of The Countess of Hong Kong. Both men had been married to Movita Castaneda, a Mexican film star, and Brando wanted information from Doyle to help him negotiate his divorce. Sugrue tagged along as security in case the discussion between the ex-husband and the wannabe ex-husband turned ugly. It didn’t. The trio got on so well that Sophia Loren stood in for a photograph with them that day.","type":"text"},{"_id":"TC5AVYTU2FCBLIVREI7QISKLYA","additional_properties":{"_id":1742466757960},"content":"10 things about Marlon Brando that might just surprise you . . . or will they?","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"WHFLH2LIAZCV5OZYTM55TTCHKE","additional_properties":{"_id":1741967126949},"content":"For the rest of the decade, Sugrue became such a staple in London tabloids that one columnist affectionately dubbed him “the splendid spoofer”. Photographs of somebody sitting on a chair that he was clasping in his teeth or shots of him grimacing while holding back a revving motorcycle (a stunt he enacted on the Tonight with Dave Allen television show) were regular features in the English press. Yet, the showbiz persona was very different from his private self. Noted for his charity and generosity to those struggling, he once performed his strongman act for the delighted inmates of Maidstone Prison.","type":"text"},{"_id":"c699365c-b05e-46de-a9cd-c7c8a4b5aaae","additional_properties":{"_id":1742466757943},"subtype":"irish-times-video","type":"video"},{"_id":"CLUYGOCVDFCY5ORV3WIFIXWBAI","additional_properties":{"_id":1741967126950},"content":"In 1970, he pulled together a star-studded evening at the Royal Albert Hall in aid of “the National Society for Mentally Handicapped Children and St Patrick’s Island”. With the Irish tenor Josef Locke as the headliner, support acts included The Johnstons (featuring Paul Brady), the New Faces and an up-and-coming singer called <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/david-bowie/\" target=\"_self\">David Bowie</a>, strumming a 12-string, and singing Space Oddity. Quite the line-up.","type":"text"},{"_id":"GIRUAXZ4HJD7ZOSUP7RI44FQYE","additional_properties":{"_id":1741967126951},"content":"Wanting to help kids was a typically noble project of his but the St Patrick’s Island aspect of the fundraising was more dubious. The previous year, in a supposed move to stop it being <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/heritage/the-way-we-were-hippies-with-plans-for-skerries-1.3758949\" target=\"_self\">taken over by hippies</a>, he had purchased this tiny islet off the coast of north Dublin. He wanted to build a spiritual and health retreat facility there, a place where “slim men will grow big and big men will grow slim”. There may have been truth to that intention but, not long after the announcement, Mick Jagger had to deny newspaper reports he had bought the 16 acres located 1.5km from the mainland off the Kerryman.","type":"text"},{"_id":"PL5BAB5B7FEYLBBXOZ76YPY364","additional_properties":{"_id":1741967126952},"content":"“I’m not in the business of buying islands,” said Jagger. “What’s more, I have never heard of Mr Sugrue.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"HRO7BGJLWZE3ZGTGMZQP5YP264","additional_properties":{"_id":1741967126953},"content":"That would have made the Rolling Stone unique because Sugrue was an extraordinarily adept self-publicist and stories about him were legion. He once challenged the combined Oxford-Cambridge boat race crews to a tug of war. They demurred. He regularly called out publicans around the world, offering them £500, sometimes doubling that sum, if they came to London and matched his feats of strength. None ever took him up on the offer.","type":"text"},{"_id":"TSHYNUZ6GY6EZALUYACQ2DW5PI","additional_properties":{"_id":1742466757967},"type":"image"},{"_id":"AV6QVBYLDFEXPIJEGMVRCJGK2U","additional_properties":{"_id":1741967126954},"content":"This, then, was the picaresque character purporting to bring Ali to Ireland and many of the country’s sportswriters just could not reconcile his chequered history of bizarre exploits with his present lofty intentions. Yes, Sugrue had succeeded in bringing Louis on a tour of Ireland in 1966, as a cabaret act, not a fighter, and inevitably bragged he had lifted the former heavyweight champion in a chair clean off the ground with his teeth. But that promotion lost money and turned into a farce. And, while getting a superannuated boxer decades removed from his pomp to sing at The Arch Ballroom in Tallow, west Waterford, was a singular achievement, it was not the same as trying to import the most box-office athlete on Earth to fight. Surely he was not seriously going to try to do this ...","type":"text"},{"_id":"6YCPCZFNSNANPAQRN5ZCKVIXNM","additional_properties":{"_id":1742466757969},"content":"Muhammad Ali: the man who became king of the world","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"3ENK6AZEBNG7NK7HUCRA4TIRGI","additional_properties":{"_id":1742466757970},"content":"<i>The Big Fight: When Ali Conquered Ireland by Dave Hannigan is published by Merrion Press</i>","type":"text"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"metered"},"credits":{"by":[{"additional_properties":{"original":{"byline":"Dave Hannigan"}},"name":"Dave Hannigan"}]},"description":{"basic":"Kerryman Michael ‘Butty’ Sugrue was known as ‘the splendid spoofer’, so few believed he’d convince the most famous athlete in the world to fight in Croke Park"},"display_date":"2025-03-23T06:00:00Z","headlines":{"basic":"When Muhammad Ali came to Ireland: how a ‘splendid spoofer’ from Kerry planned to lure the boxer to Dublin","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"8948"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"NO3K35LUNWTQILKWHOYBC3SXWE","auth":{"1":"2e580b7e77a20913f9df76263274ad6cb08c813a1b0138ff1f5642eb5fc05127"},"focal_point":{"x":1150,"y":196},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/NO3K35LUNWTQILKWHOYBC3SXWE.jpg"}},"subtype":"feature","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Books"},{"name":"Sport"},{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Culture"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/culture/books/2025/03/23/when-muhammad-ali-came-to-ireland-how-a-splendid-spoofer-from-kerry-planned-to-lure-the-boxer-to-dublin/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/culture/books","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Books"}}}},{"_id":"JYNMU2YJORFJ5C7TWRZZQA5GNU","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":164,"audio_url":"https://beyondwords-cdn-b7fyckdeejejb6dj.a03.azurefd.net/audio/projects/8948/podcasts/178d2b43-8e74-46a0-9fa5-99fd69382b67/versions/1742664944/media/57c1b3c5fd6b2d9e7d9c1304ea5f3d14_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/sport/boxing/2025/03/22/when-george-foreman-visited-a-struggling-part-of-limerick/","content_elements":[{"_id":"JWNA42IPENEOLII6WKNT25KERY","additional_properties":{"_id":1742657976595},"content":"","type":"text"},{"_id":"GB47XP2GDFA5LPFUES7GKRWIUA","additional_properties":{"_id":1742663598504},"content":"In 1999 the deprived area of Southill in <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/limerick/\" target=\"_blank\">Limerick</a> was boosted by a visit from the former World heavyweight boxing champion <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/george-foreman\" target=\"_blank\">George Foreman</a>.","type":"text"},{"_id":"HKYK6EVPF5EX3M725OLS5FUWHY","additional_properties":{"_id":1742663598505},"content":"Six years previously, Foreman astonished the boxing world by winning the world title at the age of 45, knocking out Michael Moorer in the 10th round. He defended his title twice before retiring at the age of 48 in 1997.","type":"text"},{"_id":"WNAKYDYXSBFCPLIGM4EW47XU4U","additional_properties":{"_id":1742663598506},"content":"He arrived in Limerick with his friend George Kemble, the Boston journalist and Irish Times sports columnist.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ENXNOO2LGJFQ7C5H7HR7PSRDGM","additional_properties":{"_id":1742663598507},"content":"Their host, Father Joe Young, chairman of the local boxing club who first suggested the visit nine years earlier, said: “Every man, woman and child is here today to honour George. It is a milestone in the history of the community that has been devastated in so many different ways, mainly by unemployment.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"P35A7O2XNBCAPJB3NYWDF6MVLA","additional_properties":{"_id":1742663598508},"content":"","type":"text"},{"_id":"TVRKHBQY7FCYXFO4QIQTXIZUBM","additional_properties":{"_id":"XKFYNASP2NHKZDH3EDCWINPUIA"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"EV5AXSDL3NGVLJAMBW7MJGDZYU","additional_properties":{"_id":1742663598510},"content":"Foreman told the assembled young people to “get high on life not on drugs. Clean up your lives as I did. I myself came from the impossible and have dedicated my life to physical fitness. From a once hopeless position I have found it possible to reach happiness, become rich and famous and somebody my dear mother was proud of.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"IENLJTJP4VBSDG2ZDNZEBIEZ2A","additional_properties":{"_id":"6VS3Q34LX5AFROLVKYYAAUDDRE"},"content":"George Foreman: A life in pictures","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"XB6JDTLFAJH7FHDP2SOHMXXAWI","additional_properties":{"_id":1742663598511},"content":"People across the world have been paying tribute to Foreman, who died suddenly on Friday at the age of 76. Foreman was born in Texas. At the age of 19 he won the heavyweight boxing gold at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City.","type":"text"},{"_id":"AKLKVVVYINH3VL2W4Q5BG4XCWA","additional_properties":{"_id":1742663598512},"content":"He won 37 successive fights and was the hot favourite to beat Muhammad Ali in boxing’s most celebrated fight: the ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ in Kinshasa, now the Democratic Republic of Congo, in 1974. But he was beaten in the eighth round.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ZBKQAYUP5JCDNAFHPWIMZX3B7A","additional_properties":{"_id":1742663598513},"content":"He retired from boxing, took up preaching and then made a comeback 13 years later.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ZPYMHYUHAFAWNAKMEMZQ4HHM6M","additional_properties":{"_id":1742663598514},"content":"","type":"text"},{"_id":"I4IQYUKC5VEI3KP7E3BXKLZEH4","additional_properties":{"_id":1742663598515},"content":"","type":"text"},{"_id":"XQO6UCP5VJFBZLLN3UOUDEURMQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1742663598516},"content":"Former World boxing champion Barry McGuigan described Foreman as an “absolute gentleman” who was an “unbelievable human being” yet a “beast in the ring”.","type":"text"},{"_id":"Z2XMSVIQ5BB3BLKAFI46UMV4S4","additional_properties":{"_id":"UF7UFCLBXFCA3M2SJ5TLEN3XEE"},"content":"George Foreman: Heavyweight boxing champion dies aged 76","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"CXIYRRJJNJAORD2FJXUHH4GSGQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1742663598517},"content":"The Monaghan man told Newstalk he believes Foreman’s record of winning a world title at the age of 45 will never be beaten in the sport.","type":"text"},{"_id":"AP6WR7GYEREXFHECVHQPOBRUPU","additional_properties":{"_id":1742663598518},"content":"Former football manager Roddy Collins, the brother of the world Irish boxing champion Steve Collins, said he found Foreman to be “very humble” when he met him.","type":"text"},{"_id":"UQHSS2I3M5CATL47BBHU24R2EA","additional_properties":{"_id":1742663598519},"content":"“His hand was the biggest hands I had ever seen. He was 6ft 4ins, but he looked about 6ft 10ins. The way he won the title so late in his life was unbelievable,” Mr Collins told Newstalk’s Anton Savage programme.","type":"text"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"metered"},"credits":{"by":[{"additional_properties":{"original":{"byline":"Ronan McGreevy"}},"name":"Ronan McGreevy"}]},"description":{"basic":"Former Irish boxer Barry McGuigan says Foreman was a ‘beast in the ring’ but a ‘gentleman’"},"display_date":"2025-03-22T17:30:39.304Z","headlines":{"basic":"When George Foreman visited a struggling part of Limerick","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"8948"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"T3DGLAE65ZBV7JR2KO7EJ4ZKHY","auth":{"1":"ad0c22426bf88495b9dba8f66118d54a9022b788a0a65cb8544939019b4e58ea"},"focal_point":{"x":630,"y":250},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/T3DGLAE65ZBV7JR2KO7EJ4ZKHY.jpg"}},"subtype":"default","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Sport"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/sport/boxing/2025/03/22/when-george-foreman-visited-a-struggling-part-of-limerick/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/sport/boxing","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Boxing"}}}},{"_id":"XRAF5L4Y3JF3DIXP3Y3ZZSCXRE","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":59,"audio_url":"https://beyondwords-cdn-b7fyckdeejejb6dj.a03.azurefd.net/audio/projects/8948/podcasts/7ede7014-b15c-4d75-a110-1dd1d283d039/versions/1742651910/media/3c2049298452e71a60830dd8e10016c0_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/photography/2025/03/22/george-foreman-a-life-in-pictures/","content_elements":[{"_id":"YRIPS7M6VBB4DGH3O543SMJ46A","additional_properties":{},"content":"Former two-time world <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/boxing/\" target=\"_blank\">heavyweight champion</a> George Foreman <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/boxing/2025/03/22/george-foreman-heavyweight-boxing-champion-dies-aged-76/\" target=\"_blank\">has died at the age of 76</a>.","type":"text"},{"_id":"7BEFFENQ5NGPJAW5ZJNXY5YDKI","additional_properties":{},"content":"Foreman was an <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/olympic-games/\" target=\"_blank\">Olympic</a> gold medallist in 1968 before claiming his first heavyweight title with a stoppage win over Joe Frazier in 1973.","type":"text"},{"_id":"4CHEUMMA6BAQ7APACTS2D6SCD4","additional_properties":{},"content":"He lost the belt a year later to <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/muhammad-ali/\" target=\"_blank\">Muhammad Ali</a> in the “Rumble In the Jungle” bout held in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, then known as Zaire. His second championship came more than two decades later at the age of 45, with a stunning knockout win over Michael Moorer in 1994 making him the oldest heavyweight champion ever. ","type":"text"},{"_id":"QA7XRMURIVEKHKESQO6NXW6MWE","additional_properties":{},"content":"He retired from the sport in 1997 with a record of 76 wins – 68 by knockout – and just five losses. Foreman found tremendous success in the business world after his retirement, with his popular George Foreman Grill selling in the millions. – PA","type":"text"},{"_id":"5BODZHY2IRAFNMUVSS33LD4Z7I","additional_properties":{"_id":"DXIRGXGVUNA57BTKOZYZU4GNDQ"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"P3GTJDJ4TNALHCEIUAB26UK2F4","additional_properties":{"_id":"FXJZIRK6YVDVPJDVJFJMFYI2FM"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"WFXBAPXNPRCYJO6HZBUABCAMZ4","additional_properties":{"_id":"56AE5UE6PZHNLPPEWHS2DR7QMU"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"2Q7KJMWID5EP5AML6WJYFOG7YQ","additional_properties":{"_id":"ZULELPO2JRGT3JWJ3QQJL74SWA"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"LJ26BAK2PZD63C3NFYACUVSJI4","additional_properties":{"_id":"2X6DGHIPYJB4JBWI6N3BYPVVIY"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"D742EVYLVNFTBEQQT4M6DMILTY","additional_properties":{"_id":"MY2NO23UKRE6VIKGBHYROUSSJE"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"GCQYCYQRCVBHBHF6NN3FP4FIUU","additional_properties":{"_id":"ZOGEEIMMNJF6HBLY3IQTU4DT3E"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"MEV7HPGLVX2FDESHW24XWCAHKQ","additional_properties":{"_id":"HIZBUVAWPVE5HBPJJD4UQO6S3A"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"B4FL4RCO3BDOFK6LQ3GCWHJM54","additional_properties":{"_id":"F7GWGONY3BDDTJN4OTMHFQBBWA"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"7F4MY4IMMJDZ7OEWZXEY2VXLLU","additional_properties":{"_id":"4CVSW5TCGVH2FDBRCL2AG5FGAQ"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"7RTUGCEBPZCBXKX6L55U3HNVBQ","additional_properties":{"_id":"EMOXG4X7MBFWXNNZFICBRC3XME"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"TVRKHBQY7FCYXFO4QIQTXIZUBM","additional_properties":{"_id":"XCRGCIMQSFGDLA7H3HLELR6AOY"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"CZRGOGTBDBFRPOVEVA2XXSHFHU","additional_properties":{"_id":"J4QSONGDCZEJHAIVHSFDSBHEEY"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"4FJQASRHZJCEJDQ4NM564QKMSI","additional_properties":{"_id":"2LH6GS2ZJ5GEZPGHG3LHSHZMII"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"T3DGLAE65ZBV7JR2KO7EJ4ZKHY","additional_properties":{"_id":"WGXZHYC4RNHSBOSWJ2BFL7PE64"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"XRWB3SLKHRH5ZOFXBVOSHP3KEA","additional_properties":{"_id":"RMF7CTK5WZHVBF2EZDTYUO6A4E"},"type":"image"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"metered"},"credits":{"by":[]},"description":{"basic":"George Foreman, an Olympic gold medallist and heavy weight champion, was one of the great second acts in sports"},"display_date":"2025-03-22T13:53:25.29Z","headlines":{"basic":"George Foreman: A life in pictures","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"8948"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"GS6WS3LJDVE33E3L35YIHZD5IM","auth":{"1":"617e6c9a8b50a470d23499819c24fe389e51a96878b7d4a0e91fb8143cb22ff2"},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/GS6WS3LJDVE33E3L35YIHZD5IM.jpg"}},"subtype":"feature","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Photography"},{"name":"Sport"},{"name":"Boxing"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/photography/2025/03/22/george-foreman-a-life-in-pictures/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/photography","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Photography"}}}},{"_id":"C5S74JJ2KJD6LISSGEBMPYDD7M","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":283,"audio_url":"https://beyondwords-cdn-b7fyckdeejejb6dj.a03.azurefd.net/audio/projects/8948/podcasts/d24e5943-b49a-4b41-ae01-ea7f7eff9dc3/versions/1742651922/media/0ff97bb07089d0c919c08ed811861cec_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/sport/boxing/2025/03/22/george-foreman-heavyweight-boxing-champion-dies-aged-76/","content_elements":[{"_id":"O3S2SNPSZNCAPAXGQYGCZGJKNY","additional_properties":{"_id":1742627238493},"content":"George Foreman, one of the great second acts in sports, who reclaimed the heavyweight <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/boxing/\" target=\"_blank\">boxing</a> title at age 45 and became a celebrated product pitchman, died on Friday aged 76.","type":"text"},{"_id":"Z6M3LPX4NVEPTGFOFRJF237XNU","additional_properties":{"_id":1742627238502},"content":"“With profound sorrow, we announce the passing of our beloved George Edward Foreman snr who peacefully departed on March 21st, 2025 surrounded by loved ones,” his family said in an Instagram post.","type":"text"},{"_id":"JM7STGWMXZDUDHL6ZDRDA4FHUQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1742627238503},"content":"An intimidating, thunderous puncher who lost his first title to <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/muhammad-ali/\" target=\"_blank\">Muhammad Ali</a> in their famed “Rumble in the Jungle” in 1974, “Big George” was a more rotund, jovial figure when he knocked out Michael Moorer for his second crown two decades later.","type":"text"},{"_id":"WL5IEP6JUNBZLJIVACFF4L4NJI","additional_properties":{"_id":1742627238504},"content":"Foreman's comeback and the fortune he made selling fat-wicking electric cooking grills made him an icon of self-improvement and success for the Baby Boom generation.","type":"text"},{"_id":"JELDCPYZNFCE3EBSQDKNYSAAT4","additional_properties":{"_id":1742627238505},"content":"Born in Marshall, Texas, on January 10th, 1949, Foreman’s family soon moved to Houston where he and his six siblings were raised by a single mother. Growing up poor in the segregated American south, Foreman dropped out of junior high school and used his size and fists in street robberies.","type":"text"},{"_id":"OPM7WR24XBAQTLTILGJCEBT47Y","additional_properties":{"_id":1742627238506},"content":"“George’s journey from the streets of Fifth Ward to boxing and business success was an inspiration,” Houston mayor John Whitmire said in a statement.","type":"text"},{"_id":"5Y3NQZCN7ZBBFC2QRN2UYLGGUA","additional_properties":{"_id":1742627238507},"content":"“He never forgot where he came from ... Houston will forever be proud to call George Foreman one of our own.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"6NBGDQKDENC4NIPRLKOMGLLWIE","additional_properties":{"_id":1742627238508},"content":"The Job Corps, part of US president Lyndon B Johnson’s “Great Society” reforms, “rescued me from the gutter,” Foreman later wrote. Through the programme, 16-year-old Foreman moved out of Texas and was encouraged to channel his rage and growing bulk into boxing.","type":"text"},{"_id":"EZSW4OZSYBBN7EAQI7BOL2UAYA","additional_properties":{"_id":1742627238509},"content":"At age 19 and in his 25th amateur fight, Foreman captured the heavyweight boxing gold medal at the 1968 <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/olympic-games/\" target=\"_blank\">Olympics</a> in Mexico City. Turning pro, he won 37 straight matches on his way to face reigning champion Joe Frazier in Kingston, Jamaica, winning by technical knockout in round two.","type":"text"},{"_id":"RMSSS3DEFDSXDDJBXLMFG73ZL4","additional_properties":{"_id":"WRIGUVMEAFHZHAJWAM6V7RZWTA"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"HAT3BXOH7JAHLD5CRUNSU2VHGM","additional_properties":{"_id":1742627238510},"content":"Foreman defended the belt twice more before meeting Ali in Kinshasa, Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in one of the most celebrated boxing matches in history.","type":"text"},{"_id":"JLP54O3A3FF2TGXC2CELVT6AVY","additional_properties":{"_id":1742627238511},"content":"Ali had been stripped of his crown seven years before for refusing to be drafted into the Vietnam War and came into the match a heavy underdog against the bigger, younger champion. But for seven rounds, Ali laid against the ropes and fended off Foreman’s clubbing blows, tiring him before knocking him out in the eighth round.","type":"text"},{"_id":"7P5XKAHEH5BVBLLJZG5KCZXGP4","additional_properties":{"_id":1742627238512},"content":"“I was one strong heavyweight punching fighter,” Foreman told Reuters in 2007. “I was one punching machine and that was the first time I delivered everything I had and nothing worked.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"2UBM4YRDEVES3ITIJP3TRXTE3U","additional_properties":{"_id":1742627238513},"content":"The loss devastated Foreman. He took a year off before returning to the ring and then, after a second professional loss, retired in 1977 to become an ordained minister in the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ.","type":"text"},{"_id":"MEHQUOERY5HCRE6YTZAFMIFYOU","additional_properties":{"_id":1742627238514},"content":"A decade later and considerably heavier at 315 pounds (143kg), Foreman staged an unlikely return to the ring to raise money for a youth centre he founded in Texas.","type":"text"},{"_id":"2WPIGIMXX5DQ7GJXQD6X45YC4Y","additional_properties":{"_id":1742627238515},"content":"He went on to win 24 straight matches, gradually slimming along the way, before losing to Evander Holyfield in a 12-round decision in 1991. Three years later, he knocked out undefeated southpaw Moorer to become the oldest ever heavyweight champion at age 45.","type":"text"},{"_id":"R7ZTKGY46NCL7GLHTCKNYBXVHM","additional_properties":{"_id":"5B2LWRIMD5ASNBZ4MG7NOPFX5U"},"content":"George Foreman: Heavyweight boxing champion dies aged 76","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"X4LGSMCOMBHW3C4SDAFWLIDHKA","additional_properties":{"_id":1742627238516},"content":"Foreman's last match was in 1997, ending his career with a professional record of 76 wins and five losses.","type":"text"},{"_id":"MPDSC7DBMBDK3GXMFOYAZ3QZSA","additional_properties":{"_id":1742627238517},"content":"Foreman was married four times in the 1970s and 1980s. In 1985, he married for the fifth time to Mary Joan Martelly, with whom he remained for the rest of his life. He had five sons – all called George – five biological daughters, and two adopted daughters.","type":"text"},{"_id":"M2NWTAO6PJAGTP5MICKTWD463Y","additional_properties":{"_id":1742627238518},"content":"Throughout the 1990s and after retirement, he was an enthusiastic pitchman for various products, most notably an electric grill from home appliance maker Salton Inc. In 1999, the company paid Foreman and his partners $137.5 million to put his name on the grill and other goods.","type":"text"},{"_id":"TJRO2AZHKFGNZOF6DPYPBN4Q5M","additional_properties":{"_id":1742627238519},"content":"“What I do is fall in love with every product I sell,” Foreman wrote in his autobiography, “By George”.","type":"text"},{"_id":"BR6KLYN6VVDSLGUSUTX53ZB3CM","additional_properties":{"_id":1742627238520},"content":"“That’s what sells. Just like with preaching.” – Reuters","type":"text"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"metered"},"credits":{"by":[{"name":"Rocky Swift"}]},"description":{"basic":"Foreman, a two-time world heavyweight champion and Olympic gold medallist, retired in 1997"},"display_date":"2025-03-22T07:24:04.801Z","headlines":{"basic":"George Foreman: Heavyweight boxing champion dies aged 76","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"8948"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"4FJQASRHZJCEJDQ4NM564QKMSI","auth":{"1":"b6ade60e1fda61cc4722c3b3a537127a047bee4be5ecfaf495a8668e8d16694d"},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/4FJQASRHZJCEJDQ4NM564QKMSI.jpg"}},"subtype":"default","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Sport"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/sport/boxing/2025/03/22/george-foreman-heavyweight-boxing-champion-dies-aged-76/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/sport/boxing","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Boxing"}}}},{"_id":"KP3O3AHMDZF6VHPHCC5XLM3TNU","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":341,"audio_url":"https://beyondwords-cdn-b7fyckdeejejb6dj.a03.azurefd.net/audio/projects/5469/podcasts/2727b611-3b69-43a7-9282-235b38bec0c4/versions/1742502938/media/4b8dbd06d2db4634541493ebc90754e5_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/sport/athletics/2025/03/21/los-angeles-2028-is-where-inclusivity-implicit-in-the-olympic-charter-is-set-to-collide-with-reactionary-trump-agenda/","content_elements":[{"_id":"6Z75RGIFQ5HOTJMKTLA2CMJMKA","additional_properties":{},"content":"The most recent version of the <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/ioc/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\" title=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/ioc/\">Olympic Charter</a>, in force from January 30th, 2025, is not for the faint hearted. The first sentence of the first paragraph under the subheading Fundamentals of Olympism sets out the charter’s otherworldly vibe. ","type":"text"},{"_id":"WCRFE6N5M5GYZPSXFGV3R6RGGY","additional_properties":{},"content":"“Olympism is a philosophy of life, exalting and combining in a balanced whole the qualities of body, will and mind,” it says. Continuing, it speaks of “the educational value of good example, social responsibility and respect for internationally recognised human rights and universal fundamental ethical principles”.","type":"text"},{"_id":"AVO4EREWRJF4LD5GW6R45SFHDM","additional_properties":{},"content":"The Olympic Charter is a bubble bath of goodness, possibly one of the most aspirational documents ever written.","type":"text"},{"_id":"5MWUQYIYHJEZXLKTJWHUFODQLI","additional_properties":{},"content":"“The goal of Olympism is to place sport at the service of the harmonious development of humankind,” it says. It is wokeness in gold leaf. You get the picture. ","type":"text"},{"_id":"WGYTFJQNH5HM7C2X6V5EJKOCSA","additional_properties":{},"content":"Of course, it also talks of race, colour, sex, sexual orientation, language, religion, political and other opinion, national and social origins and birth.","type":"text"},{"_id":"5UUB5QPJCRAHTM2WNUC7GZ42PY","additional_properties":{},"content":"It ends by saying that belonging to the Olympic movement requires compliance with its doctrine.","type":"text"},{"_id":"5RVSJRJAXFDOPCRRGSD6AXEFB4","additional_properties":{},"content":"The <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/ioc/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\" title=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/ioc/\">International Olympic Committee </a>(IOC) takes the charter extremely seriously. It is their sporting bible, their sacred scripture.","type":"text"},{"_id":"FKH4Q7L2GND47K4V5UGIEEPZCY","additional_properties":{},"content":"That leads to the question – whither the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games in Maga (Make America Great Again) land? ","type":"text"},{"_id":"EB33TSAWXJEBZMAK6HHY2ZKGGI","embed":{"config":{},"id":"acast_podcast-36221","url":"/"},"subtype":"acast_podcast","type":"custom_embed"},{"_id":"YVG2YPEJHFES7AZIIRNMB42DUM","additional_properties":{},"content":"Three years away and already the Trump administration has trashed any pretence that it respects or cares about the Olympic Charter. The alarm bells have been ringing with Maga’s accelerated and carefree way of banging all things right out of shape. ","type":"text"},{"_id":"LC572IJYPBCS3GHUQDVEJTIOTM","additional_properties":{},"content":"The increasingly belligerent rhetoric and behaviour of the administration, and the recent rounding up of unidentified men in the US and their deportation to a jail in El Salvador without due process, is likely to send a shiver down the spine of new IOC president Kirsty Coventry, the first woman and African to hold the office in 130 years. ","type":"text"},{"_id":"7TLEA4MLDFHCVNMD5VGG533YEM","content":"<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Kirsty Coventry delivers her acceptance speech after being elected as the 10th President of the International Olympic Committee, and the first female President in IOC history. <a href=\"https://t.co/3BXf9kK0dI\">pic.twitter.com/3BXf9kK0dI</a></p>— IOC MEDIA (@iocmedia) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/iocmedia/status/1902747047989526646?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 20, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>","type":"raw_html"},{"_id":"T53GSLHTCZCJNJBJI43IHO34YI","additional_properties":{},"content":"It will especially resonate with the “s**thole” countries US president Donald Trump spoke about in 2018, referring to Haiti and African nations. Coventry might reflect on whether her country, Zimbabwe, was in his thoughts at the time. ","type":"text"},{"_id":"L6FNQL75LRGBBLDX2HUG6BTHIY","additional_properties":{},"content":"Another red flag went up last week when the New York Times reported on a draft list of countries the state department was proposing to ban from travelling to the United States. The list was, noted the newspaper, in circulation and in three sections: red, orange and yellow.","type":"text"},{"_id":"HPVC6GIYF5DLJLCPXRWKLIRBMA","additional_properties":{},"content":"The “red” list included 11 countries whose citizens would be forbidden entirely from entering the US: Afghanistan, Bhutan, Cuba, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Venezuela and Yemen. ","type":"text"},{"_id":"EUAOWNZTL5AG3OAEBJEDXCK3TE","additional_properties":{},"content":"If ratified, that would deny entry into the country of two IOC members, Afghan Samira Asghari and Cuban Maria de la Caridad Colon Ruenes as well as honorary IOC member Samih Moudallal from Syria.","type":"text"},{"_id":"CVTVZ5HKVFCRVJROWAZLUXOY5U","additional_properties":{},"content":"This week French newspaper Le Monde ran the headline, “Trump’s shadow looms over world sport.” ","type":"text"},{"_id":"TBEROMOBHVHGBM2MFR5U4RRJDE","additional_properties":{},"content":"Last month in the Los Angeles Times a letter to the editor was printed beneath the headline, “Will the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles become the ‘dictator games’?”","type":"text"},{"_id":"U4TOT6FISRCMFM4OHQ2G3TFYOI","additional_properties":{},"content":"In it, the author, from Boston, noted the extent of alienation and threat the administration has directed at US allies Canada, Denmark, Mexico, Ukraine and Panama and suggested that a boycott would be a reasonable response.","type":"text"},{"_id":"OQCR2QFLDUXOQZRNA27BHBTMHU","additional_properties":{},"type":"image"},{"_id":"PW4GRMRZDVFP7LC3YCCP6SKAYA","additional_properties":{},"content":"History has shown that the Olympic movement has a strong stomach for unsavoury characters. It ran the games in Hitler’s 1936 Berlin despite the threat of a boycott. Then IOC president Avery Brundage (American) was a Nazi sympathiser and stated publicly that Jewish athletes were being treated fairly and that the games should proceed as planned. In the end, 49 teams from around the world competed, more than in any previous Olympics.","type":"text"},{"_id":"RESB4GAXRNHZZNNNUPLI7BL4DM","additional_properties":{},"content":"In that, there is a lesson about the durability of the Olympic movement as much as the stance of athletes and nations. Also, that the old Olympics carapace has not changed much across 90 years. The message has not changed either. ","type":"text"},{"_id":"4CYELJA46FERHLOVFUXYH2OS24","additional_properties":{},"content":"On Tuesday, outgoing IOC president Thomas Bach spoke to CNN and advocated for the Olympics as a unifying force. Deploying his diplomatic skills, he praised Trump as “an outspoken supporter and promoter” of Los Angeles. ","type":"text"},{"_id":"DJ4GHMTEGFDYDKQMCZCFHNNNBM","additional_properties":{},"content":"Too astute for controversy over the proposed visa changes or that Trump had wrongly asserted that Paris gold medal-winning boxers Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-ting had “transitioned”, Bach knew those issues were at the mercy of a fractured American political landscape and a White House that prides itself on being a disruptive force.","type":"text"},{"_id":"U6OCI4H5Y5CTHJJUXR7D4D53T4","additional_properties":{},"content":"Five ring circus: Trump jnr squeezes in fake news with criticism of opening ceremony","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"ELKKJORPQRB3LO3ZSEEKP4PND4","additional_properties":{},"content":"This is an administration where nothing is too small and cruelty is sometimes the point. On Thursday French officials expressed dismay after one of their space research scientists was denied entry to the country. Immigration officers had found text messages containing a “personal opinion” about the Trump administration and its policies on scientific research. It begs the question of what chance a Palestinian athlete might have.","type":"text"},{"_id":"RE5U6ZTJLJF2DJNZBRJM7DPNAI","additional_properties":{},"content":"If there was one thing that may have dampened the spirits of Coventry as she walked from the luxury Greek resort of Cota Navarino on Thursday afternoon, it was the certainty that the next Olympic Games and its athletes will not be immune from the clash of cultures. ","type":"text"},{"_id":"6PF2JVXHVFDCXNQG44KJTXSMUU","additional_properties":{},"content":"Los Angeles 2028 is where Project 2025, the hard-right playbook for American government and society, meets the Olympic Charter’s mission statement of inclusivity and hope. It is a car crash in the making.","type":"text"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"premium"},"credits":{"by":[{"additional_properties":{"original":{"byline":"Johnny Watterson"}},"name":"Johnny Watterson"}]},"description":{"basic":"‘This is an administration where nothing is too small and cruelty is sometimes the point’"},"display_date":"2025-03-21T06:00:01Z","headlines":{"basic":"The Olympic charter and USA’s hard-right playbook are on a collision course for Los Angeles 2028","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"5469"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"5WWEXPJTUJPTOVXZSGW4FKVSLM","auth":{"1":"b390b68f09179fd81fea63cc65855994fe79c8d8bd3c489d2bb3c859605003bd"},"focal_point":{"x":2130,"y":1018},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/5WWEXPJTUJPTOVXZSGW4FKVSLM.jpg"}},"subtype":"columnist","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Athletics"},{"name":"Tennis"},{"name":"Soccer"},{"name":"Rugby"},{"name":"Hockey"},{"name":"Golf"},{"name":"Cycling"},{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Sport"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/sport/athletics/2025/03/21/los-angeles-2028-is-where-inclusivity-implicit-in-the-olympic-charter-is-set-to-collide-with-reactionary-trump-agenda/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/sport/athletics","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Athletics"}}}},{"_id":"UMAPDS6DGBBCFBYQ76ULKADCYM","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":374,"audio_url":"https://beyondwords-cdn-b7fyckdeejejb6dj.a03.azurefd.net/audio/projects/5469/podcasts/e3885a18-4dfd-4c39-ac30-0188c9ac34a7/versions/1742328452/media/21ba313e326a1862216959a43e5fd6e6_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/sport/athletics/2025/03/19/lord-of-the-rings-all-you-need-to-know-about-the-race-to-become-the-next-ioc-president/","content_elements":[{"_id":"3JXIIDNVRZBQ7KDBCLT23GHTAI","additional_properties":{},"content":"When Sebastian Coe added his name to the race to become the next president of the <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/international-olympic-committee/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"\" title=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/international-olympic-committee/\">International Olympic Committee</a> (IOC) last September, he was not thinking about finishing anywhere other than first.","type":"text"},{"_id":"2JK3CZYJUBBVTDFSQN7KEUPRIY","additional_properties":{},"content":"Often dubbed the Lord of the Rings, the IOC presidency is considered the most powerful position in global sport. The race to succeed Thomas Bach, who has been in power since 2013, will reach the finish line on Thursday afternoon at the suitably luxurious Romanos Resort in Costa Navarino, Greece.","type":"text"},{"_id":"BEO6ZACWI5FINIMQNBZSJWVTE4","additional_properties":{},"content":"The IOC don’t like to reveal much about the running of their business, and while Coe is seen as the favourite among the seven candidates, the opaque election process and notoriously nebulous IOC politics leave plenty of scope for a surprise.","type":"text"},{"_id":"SHZIQVKDEJC65L5G3Z6DMFZGBE","additional_properties":{},"content":"For Coe, the president of World Athletics, the stakes are high as he looks to become the first British man to hold the position and thus complete his rise through the ranks of sporting governance and power. ","type":"text"},{"_id":"WHQU5N3ET5DNRAPUVKC4AZUGFU","additional_properties":{},"content":"“I see this as another extension of the journey,” Coe said when launching his presidential manifesto last September. “It’s the dance I just couldn’t sit out.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"YC3L2HLOA5HINHUPH5W66JZXDA","additional_properties":{},"content":"The 144th IOC session gets under way on Wednesday, before Thursday’s vote among the 109 <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_members_of_the_International_Olympic_Committee\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"\" title=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_members_of_the_International_Olympic_Committee\">active IOC members</a>, made up of royalty, former athletes, sports administrators and politicians.","type":"text"},{"_id":"7WZLAOHQABBSFI7EYLUPLS3UZA","additional_properties":{},"content":"Why is Thomas Bach stepping down?","type":"header"},{"_id":"E2KPA4OOSVHTHJLQBU5H7IKJ4A","additional_properties":{},"content":"Only the ninth president in the 131-year history of the IOC, Bach secured his first eight-year term in 2013, and another four-year term in 2021. ","type":"text"},{"_id":"CCRUY452GRCAVFXE2XID4T7IKQ","additional_properties":{},"content":"“Change or be changed,” the 71-year-old Bach said when confirming his decision to resign from the IOC in August. “New times are calling for new leaders.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"CEURWCPM45EYXK4WUOANUFFNIU","additional_properties":{},"content":"The IOC confirmed the seven candidates in September, all of whom are IOC members and had to fulfil certain election criteria. Bach will officially step down on June 23rd, the new president assuming power the following day for an initial term until 2033.","type":"text"},{"_id":"5GWZODPDX5ECJNBCY5ORBX36QM","additional_properties":{},"content":"However, the IOC has set an age limit of 70 for presidents, with the possibility of extending this by a maximum of four years. If Coe wins, his term would probably be shorter, as he would be 74 in 2030.","type":"text"},{"_id":"JZVHQ34CCBGYHBQ7MLZVVU42PA","additional_properties":{},"content":"There have only ever been nine IOC presidents in 131 years?","type":"header"},{"_id":"N5OZP6A7GNCJZE6NOQJJMX7X4Q","additional_properties":{},"content":"Yes, that’s it, all nine from the western world, including <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/news/former-olympic-committee-president-dies-at-84-1.177799\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"\" title=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/news/former-olympic-committee-president-dies-at-84-1.177799\">our own Lord Killanin</a>, three of them being former Olympic athletes, and no women.","type":"text"},{"_id":"CZ2BIVLSNNH77GGB5DGOPZIZX4","additional_properties":{},"content":"They are Dimitrios Vikelas (Greece, 1894-1896), Pierre de Coubertin (France, 1896-1925), Henri de Baillet-Latour (Belgium, 1925-1942), Johannes Sigfrid Edstrom (Sweden, 1946-1952), Avery Brundage (USA, 1952-1972), Lord Killanin (Ireland, 1972-1980), Juan Antonio Samaranch (Spain, 1980-2001), Jacques Rogge (Belgium, 2001-2013), Thomas Bach (Germany, 2013-2025).","type":"text"},{"_id":"BTCWHDUL7VHETHLATVIFDXPXDI","additional_properties":{},"type":"image"},{"_id":"4LIJGF37AZAMPCFWL77VJG63DQ","additional_properties":{},"content":" ","type":"text"},{"_id":"4MEKQTTOTZGEXAPV44MX37LVYE","additional_properties":{},"content":"Who are the seven candidates?","type":"header"},{"_id":"RI23CJXBSRHYLDZ6B4RHDJ5NCU","additional_properties":{},"content":"<b>Sebastian Coe</b> (Great Britain, age 68). Seen as the front-runner, Coe’s record as an athlete and administrator sets him apart. As head of World Athletics since 2015 he’s helped revive the fortunes of that sport. His decision to award prize money at the Paris Olympics was not supported by Bach.","type":"text"},{"_id":"4PPQ3XNG7BBZDKSDMFQKFT3EXE","additional_properties":{},"content":"<b>Kirsty Coventry</b> (Zimbabwe, age 41). The most successful African woman in Olympic history, Coventry won seven medals in swimming and is looking to become the first woman and African to head the IOC. She’s been minister of sport in Zimbabwe since 2019. Her inexperience on the global administration stage may count against her.","type":"text"},{"_id":"N5CZ2TQTG5GO7MXWBCSVHCRFBA","additional_properties":{},"content":"<b>Juan Antonio Samaranch jnr</b><b> </b>(Spain, age 65). Son of the man who was IOC president from 1980-2001, transforming the Olympics into a commercial powerhouse. Samaranch jnr is in his second stint as an IOC vice-president, and has been on co-ordinating committees for three Winter Olympics.","type":"text"},{"_id":"Z2KVTFTFK5F6HLHICOUROOZVCU","additional_properties":{},"content":"<b>David Lappartient</b> (France, age 51). Despite only being an IOC member for three years, Lappartient has served seven successful years as president of the International Cycling Union and helped secure the 2030 Winter Olympics for France.","type":"text"},{"_id":"UNOSYJZA6NA33GVBSWIRGEAFYA","additional_properties":{},"content":"<b>Morinari Watanabe</b> (Japan, age 66). Currently president of the International Gymnastics Federation, Watanabe was on the executive board of the Tokyo Games organising committee, and part of the co-ordination commission for LA 2028. Seen as a traditionalist, he also opposed prize money at the Games.","type":"text"},{"_id":"63IEOG5RXJHVDKOKOO4YK6R4MU","additional_properties":{},"content":"<b>Prince Faisal al-Hussein </b>(Jordan, age 61). The younger brother of King Abdullah II, Prince Faisal has been an IOC member since 2010. Looking to become the first Asian president, he was part of the IOC executive board that approved controversial rules for the women’s Olympic boxing tournament in Paris.","type":"text"},{"_id":"V36V2IYJTNGSVASU4ROSNIADFY","additional_properties":{},"content":"<b>Johan Eliasch</b> (Sweden/Great Britain, age 63). The Swedish-born multi-billionaire businessman and environmentalist was elected as the International Ski Federation president in 2021, and only became an IOC member last July. He is seen as the outsider.","type":"text"},{"_id":"RX475J25RVBXHIDCCEU3WVPMSE","additional_properties":{},"type":"image"},{"_id":"EDR7ILOBIFBQHNQONT27LRJ2SY","additional_properties":{},"content":"How exactly will Thursday’s voting work?","type":"header"},{"_id":"X7DDO54LBRG2NM2OMFSBOMOZN4","additional_properties":{},"content":"Good question, given the IOC’s secret ballot and conclave voting structure dates back more than 100 years and is not too unlike the election process for a new pope.","type":"text"},{"_id":"QIEHLMGOTNG77ALPXLBYFA7QSI","additional_properties":{},"content":"Since 1925, candidates have gone through a series of rounds until one receives an absolute majority (more than half of the total votes) of the IOC members. In each round, the candidate with the least support is eliminated (in the event of a tie, an intermediate vote will split them).","type":"text"},{"_id":"3N3T7XP2R5BARFNE4L6275D3DY","additional_properties":{},"content":"The voting excludes IOC members from the same country as a candidate, unless already eliminated. There will be no disclosure on the nature of the voting in between rounds before the new president is declared by Bach himself.","type":"text"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"metered"},"credits":{"by":[{"additional_properties":{"original":{"byline":"Ian O'Riordan"}},"name":"Ian O'Riordan"}]},"description":{"basic":"Sebastian Coe is the favourite in a seven-strong field"},"display_date":"2025-03-19T06:00:01Z","headlines":{"basic":"Lord of the Rings: All you need to know about the race to become the next IOC president","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"5469"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"WQJZDPHN7FHR7B2QQYTUZKAJIM","auth":{"1":"406ffa355f583e333bdfe417a39e7b3d01d34a973feab4c07769dab60ddaa8a0"},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/WQJZDPHN7FHR7B2QQYTUZKAJIM.jpg"}},"subtype":"analysis","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Athletics"},{"name":"Tennis"},{"name":"Soccer"},{"name":"Rugby"},{"name":"Hockey"},{"name":"Golf"},{"name":"Cycling"},{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Sport"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/sport/athletics/2025/03/19/lord-of-the-rings-all-you-need-to-know-about-the-race-to-become-the-next-ioc-president/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/sport/athletics","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Athletics"}}}},{"_id":"XM6V3TBJZFGCTB5BOPY4VXCXQA","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":310,"audio_url":"https://beyondwords-cdn-b7fyckdeejejb6dj.a03.azurefd.net/audio/projects/5469/podcasts/9960a57c-434c-40bf-9259-074c5e814d97/versions/1742404002/media/d9b41fd0bb10d10b8ba12bc1dee505d2_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/sport/boxing/2025/03/18/what-the-latest-ioc-decision-means-for-irish-boxers-targetting-the-olympics/","content_elements":[{"_id":"CMGSVACAMBFAPG273XNMKYNADA","additional_properties":{},"content":"What has happened?","type":"header"},{"_id":"7LHILR6WPJFJPFIU42F6N53JEA","additional_properties":{"_id":1742325139046},"content":"This week the executive board of the <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/international-olympic-committee/\" target=\"_self\">International Olympic Committee</a> (IOC) recommended that boxing be brought back into the Olympic family, and included in the Olympic programme for <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/los-angeles/\" target=\"_self\">Los Angeles</a> 2028. That recommendation will be voted on at an IOC meeting in Greece.","type":"text"},{"_id":"JI2LMXP5KFEQZMMBQGAAIKMBSQ","additional_properties":{},"content":"Wasn’t boxing always in the Olympic schedule?","type":"header"},{"_id":"4HFXU34ZKFFU3EKLCRFIM7WBSI","additional_properties":{"_id":1742325139048},"content":"No. Boxing wasn’t on the Los Angeles roster following years of bitter exchanges between the International Boxing Association (IBA) and the IOC. Their disagreements became so toxic that in 2023 the IOC refused to recognise the IBA, citing financial obscurity, governance failure and ethical concerns about how the organisation was run. In the last two Games, Tokyo and Paris, boxing was organised by the IOC, not the IBA. Normally the international body would run the Olympic competition.","type":"text"},{"_id":"JICIXTPW65BADCNCSDCPZ5MRXU","additional_properties":{},"content":"Was the IBA so bad?","type":"header"},{"_id":"VVAVNV3DTFADPASJ6LZU64JQPM","additional_properties":{"_id":1742325139050},"content":"That depends on where you come from. The IBA president is a Russian called Umar Kremlev, while the Russian energy company Gazprom became a “general partner” of the IBA in 2021 before it was targeted by western financial sanctions following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. One of the things the IBA changed was awarding prize money. At last week’s IBA Women’s World Championships there was €100,000 (€91,600) for a gold medal, $50,000 (€45,800) for a silver and for bronze $25,000 (€22,900) from a $2.4m (€2.2m) prize fund.","type":"text"},{"_id":"IHWIGM2KXBHFPM56VWOEOKS5LY","additional_properties":{},"content":"So, the IOC and IBA were at loggerheads, then what happened?","type":"header"},{"_id":"D2MB6XTATZFTVLXVKXMHQRHJZA","additional_properties":{"_id":1742325139052},"content":"As the battle was raging, another entity, World Boxing, was set up in opposition to the IBA. In 2023 the new World Boxing body had 27 affiliated members and it now has more than 60. Last month, World Boxing was recognised by the IOC as the international governing body for boxing.","type":"text"},{"_id":"MCZUNTKURBGXJOEE4DEFPMKJGI","additional_properties":{},"content":"So we now have two governing bodies?","type":"header"},{"_id":"YXY7CPQXU5GQFAFRCJG3RD63UE","additional_properties":{"_id":1742325139054},"content":"Yes. One the IOC recognises and one it doesn’t.","type":"text"},{"_id":"YPXXXPZNZBFN5D564QOPEUIYQI","additional_properties":{},"content":"But the decision to guarantee boxing’s place in Los Angeles is good news for Irish fighters, right?","type":"header"},{"_id":"QJ75G3QUCZEIRMFCO3BAJINYUY","additional_properties":{"_id":1742325139056},"content":"It’s not that simple. Ireland is not a member of World Boxing.","type":"text"},{"_id":"SZPSAERSQ5HSNBFHQXFAJV7DDM","additional_properties":{},"content":"Oh?","type":"header"},{"_id":"L6JYC2CPMZBKNKJWBYKDOQTAFU","additional_properties":{"_id":1742325139058},"content":"","type":"text"},{"_id":"H7IO372UYVESXMTBM24XZKUA2Q","additional_properties":{},"content":"Yes. In a 2023 AGM the membership of the Irish Athletic Boxing Association (IABA) was asked to vote on removing IBA from the IABA constitution and had that passed affiliation to the new World Boxing body would have been put to them. They voted against it. Some saw that as a missed opportunity, not only for our Olympic boxers but also because getting in early could have allowed Ireland take up a leadership role in the new organisation.","type":"text"},{"_id":"QBHV342EIZAPDNJ32RZSEIXTF4","additional_properties":{},"content":"Is Ireland isolated, then?","type":"header"},{"_id":"S4ZKU2CELFEF5DN75DY7T7UAI4","additional_properties":{"_id":1742325139060},"content":"Well, Ireland, Spain and Portugal are the only federations in western Europe with no connection to World Boxing. There are 22 other European nations that are members while Britain is an associate member.","type":"text"},{"_id":"XZNM3ZLKE4FPOGG2KLNZGRPCIQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1742325139061},"type":"image"},{"_id":"4PNTIR2RH5A5LHCCO7LOKQ2TY4","additional_properties":{},"content":"So the good news about boxing being included for LA 2028 isn’t so great for Ireland?","type":"header"},{"_id":"XHCOVTIC6NHSLLSGZ5A4CUGRUI","additional_properties":{"_id":1742325139063},"content":"Irish boxing told its clubs on January 17th that they had applied to the IBA to activate what they called their dual membership mechanism. That mechanism came about when the IBA amended its constitution last December.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ALVDCRN3YVF5BH4WE4M3BUSAB4","additional_properties":{},"content":"So Ireland will seek to become members of both World Boxing and the IBA?","type":"header"},{"_id":"YN7GYU5I3BFDVAF2EI4JFYL5EA","additional_properties":{"_id":1742325139065},"content":"Exactly.","type":"text"},{"_id":"DYZ3SMGUIFGL7CFFNN4S6K2YLE","additional_properties":{},"content":"How does that work?","type":"header"},{"_id":"KAPSINJ5ZFBJTF7OVXRK3TX3CQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1742325139067},"content":"The IBA was due to have a board meeting during the recent women’s world championships. The IABA contacted the IBA on Sunday but got no response. The IBA have published no criteria for what they will accept for dual membership or what they will deny. There’s no appeal mechanism and any permission granted is temporary and can be revoked at any time. The Irish application has been in for a little more than eight weeks.","type":"text"},{"_id":"26NL3VF7TZC2TLUJIL5TOWTZ6Y","additional_properties":{},"content":"What do the IABA say officially?","type":"header"},{"_id":"JTFQ6WA5HRGNPJNUXXG5XECXZI","additional_properties":{"_id":1742325139069},"content":"“We applied to the IBA to activate its dual membership mechanism on January 17th. We have been in conversation and correspondence with the IBA since then, as recently as March 16th to seek an answer from them in the knowledge that the IBA board of directors was to meet during the course of the Women’s World Championships. We have had no response to date.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"6OSGOO26IVHI5C7AZLRQAM45SU","additional_properties":{},"content":"So what happens now?","type":"header"},{"_id":"KADBPJQMWRHK3AS6Y4VXMZ54ZY","additional_properties":{"_id":1742325139071},"content":"That is difficult to say and there is some guesswork here, as it is unclear whether the IBA will grant Ireland dual membership. What is clear is Irish boxers could miss out in competing in the inaugural World Boxing World Championships for men and women in Sheffield this September.","type":"text"},{"_id":"XE3BY7CRXVDS3LSCQYWDNHUROY","additional_properties":{},"content":"So, the bottom line is – Ireland’s participation in the Olympic Games in Los Angeles 2028 – may still be in play?","type":"header"},{"_id":"4TXGN56C7VANPF7GNRG2HRGGH4","additional_properties":{"_id":1742325139073},"content":"Yes. Ireland needs to affiliate to the IOC-recognised World Boxing before the qualifying process for the Olympic Games begins, probably about two years before the Games or Irish boxers will not be eligible to compete in Los Angeles 2028.","type":"text"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"metered"},"credits":{"by":[{"additional_properties":{"original":{"byline":"Johnny Watterson"}},"name":"Johnny Watterson"}]},"description":{"basic":"Boxing will be at the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles but Irish fighters' participation is not straightforward \n"},"display_date":"2025-03-18T19:00:01Z","headlines":{"basic":"What the latest IOC decision means for Irish boxers targeting the Olympics","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"5469"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"GQMAB3CIY5DCBKSAOKGMVC7KXE","auth":{"1":"711f2a3940a41f3350dcac80f83c84c77a2d7c8ca2ce9b7dcdb26116df7becb6"},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/GQMAB3CIY5DCBKSAOKGMVC7KXE.jpg"}},"subtype":"analysis","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Sport"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/sport/boxing/2025/03/18/what-the-latest-ioc-decision-means-for-irish-boxers-targetting-the-olympics/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/sport/boxing","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Boxing"}}}},{"_id":"JSKRFDZN2VDSPIIRMWMMMP7PHI","additional_properties":{},"canonical_url":"/sport/boxing/2025/03/17/olympic-status-of-boxing-on-verge-of-being-secured/","content_elements":[{"_id":"FJQRS7ELKNA4HHFYOQP5SJO5XE","additional_properties":{},"content":"Boxing’s Olympic status is on the verge of being secured after years of uncertainty. On Monday the <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/international-olympic-committee/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"\" title=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/international-olympic-committee/\">I</a><a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/international-olympic-committee/\" rel=\"\" title=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/international-olympic-committee/\">nternational Olympic Committee (IOC) </a>president Thomas Bach said that his executive board had recommended that boxing should be included in the 2028 games to be held in Los Angeles. It appears to be a formality that the IOC membership will ratify the decision in the coming days as Bach and his colleagues confirmed last month that they now recognise World Boxing as the sport’s new international federation.","type":"text"},{"_id":"EXBYOGDOFRGZHMTUTBX5I4I3PM","additional_properties":{},"content":"“After the provisional recognition of World Boxing in February we were in the position to take this decision,” Bach said at a press conference. “I’m very confident the [IOC] session will approve it, so that all boxers then have certainty that they can participate in the Olympic Games in LA2028 if their national federation is recognised by World Boxing.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"F3YZJQURDNFZTKXYYJCWKNZ7WQ","additional_properties":{},"content":"Boxing has featured in every summer Olympics since 1904, and great champions have emerged – from Cassius Clay (who became Muhammad Ali) and Sugar Ray Leonard to Katie Taylor and Oleksandr Usyk. Its permanent banishment from the Olympic movement would have had disastrous consequences for an already beleaguered sport.","type":"text"},{"_id":"WK4IRO3UYREMJKPZNQXRD5E2B4","additional_properties":{},"content":"In 2019 the IOC had suspended the former governing body, the infamous and Russian-dominated International Boxing Association, citing a lack of faith in its integrity after a series of controversies surrounding finance and the suspicious scoring of fights. After the IBA failed to meet any of the stipulations for change the IOC took the drastic step of removing boxing from the Olympic movement in 2023. It was made plain that unless a new regulatory body emerged boxing had no chance of appearing in any future Olympic Games.","type":"text"},{"_id":"UO5WWEBPCZGSVDADIOZYPBUUJE","additional_properties":{},"content":"The IOC had reluctantly run the boxing tournaments at the previous two Olympics, in Tokyo and amid controversy over gender eligibility tests in Paris, but they did not include the sport in the initial programme for Los Angeles. There were serious concerns that boxing would be marginalised permanently from Olympic competition but the emergence of World Boxing transformed the landscape.","type":"text"},{"_id":"5D2YGRMZEVGTLNDGOGAD5F36VY","additional_properties":{},"content":"Founded by Boris van der Vorst, the president of the Dutch boxing federation who began canvassing for support in 2022, World Boxing now has 84 member states with British and American administrators having also played key roles in setting up a credible alternative to the IBA.","type":"text"},{"_id":"HSMY27D4MFBMVDQQV7JQTATWXU","additional_properties":{},"content":"Reacting to Bach’s announcement, Van der Vorst said: “This is a very significant and important decision, and takes the sport one step closer to being restored to the Olympic programme. I have no doubt it will be very positively received by everyone connected with boxing who understands the critical importance to the future of the sport of continuing to remain a part of the Olympic movement. We hope for a positive outcome when the IOC session meets this week.","type":"text"},{"_id":"4LP2NSKLZJBHTMKIFN6FX6FVIU","additional_properties":{},"content":"“World Boxing understands that being part of the Olympic Games is a privilege and not a right. I assure the IOC that if boxing is restored to the programme for LA28, World Boxing is completely committed to being a trustworthy and reliable partner that will adhere to and uphold the values of the Olympic charter.” – Guardian","type":"text"},{"_id":"QSL2WIIHKFFFTK25EKOWKGJZOE","additional_properties":{},"content":"","type":"text"},{"_id":"JRTCV4R3R5CEJGEWIUV2KYUYLE","additional_properties":{},"content":"","type":"text"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"metered"},"credits":{"by":[{"additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Donald McRae"}]},"description":{"basic":"IOC president Thomas Bach says executive board has recommended that boxing be included in 2028 games in Los Angeles"},"display_date":"2025-03-17T18:07:34.804Z","headlines":{"basic":"Olympic status of boxing on verge of being secured ","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"5469"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"D5RXYUNLWFH7DDQWPGNQYY2NVU","auth":{"1":"da06a310255af9d6547d948b7bb338b99effdbdbec27e674eed6ea2fa4f9f213"},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/D5RXYUNLWFH7DDQWPGNQYY2NVU.jpg"}},"subtype":"default","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Sport"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/sport/boxing/2025/03/17/olympic-status-of-boxing-on-verge-of-being-secured/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/sport/boxing","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Boxing"}}}},{"_id":"66CY2RNQOVAB5PNEF7VS4MDUHY","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":207,"audio_url":"https://beyondwords-cdn-b7fyckdeejejb6dj.a03.azurefd.net/audio/projects/5469/podcasts/f6796db4-3d9e-4f73-b980-e72e443fee78/versions/1742156648/media/7b581276d655fb298269658d8be9b66b_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/sport/boxing/2025/03/16/orourke-sisters-take-silver-medals-at-world-championships-in-serbia/","content_elements":[{"_id":"DBBGINBMYFHYLJGW64TVO5JYJY","additional_properties":{},"content":"Two silver medals as well as $50,000 (€46,000) each in prize money will make their way back to Roscommon following <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/lisa-o-rourke\" rel=\"\" title=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/lisa-o-rourke\">Lisa</a> and <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/aoife-o-rourke\" rel=\"\" title=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/aoife-o-rourke\">Aoife O’Rourke</a>’s end to the World Boxing Championships in Nis, Serbia.","type":"text"},{"_id":"OSGVQ3WUPFDIDFIF7DM3BXO33U","additional_properties":{},"content":"Gold medals evaded both sisters in the end, the younger 22-year-old Lisa first and then 27-year-old Aoife, who had to step into the ring immediately after her younger sibling’s defeat. It was also boxing history as sisters had never made it through to finals night before at world level.","type":"text"},{"_id":"G3Y26X5NJ5DTPMX2CBZJQAUWDA","additional_properties":{},"content":"Lisa, who won the gold medal at the 2022 World Championships in the 70kg division, was beaten by Russia’s Elena Gapeshina by unanimous decision in the first of the evening bouts, again at light middleweight.","type":"text"},{"_id":"RERKU74FY5BCRM6ZHI6QK3JRGQ","additional_properties":{},"content":"Tall and rangy against a smaller sturdy Russian, O’Rourke opened her bout fighting from a distance and comfortably working off the back foot.","type":"text"},{"_id":"H2W5VHWR3FAYXP6A6ZOV5NVIEM","additional_properties":{},"content":"Although she landed some nice right hands and a combination in the opening three minutes, Gapeshina stayed composed and compact and always came forward. The judges saw her as the dominant boxer in the opening round with all five scoring it 10-9 in Russia’s favour for 5-0.","type":"text"},{"_id":"K3IJT3OPGFDBXLIY76EGNBL7TI","additional_properties":{},"content":"That was repeated in the second round, O’Rourke never taking a step back but many of her shots whizzing past her Russian opponent and not scoring. A right upper cut at the end of the round from Gapeshina would have caught the eye of the judges and again they scored the second round the same as the first, 5-0 for the Russian boxer.","type":"text"},{"_id":"R2MYLE6ECV2IWB35GJQWBCULUU","additional_properties":{},"type":"image"},{"_id":"BT46I7IM5VA6DO4OTL3M3JVBMA","additional_properties":{},"content":"There was no way back for the gutsy O’Rourke, who again fired everything she had at her opponent in the final round. But it was not enough to turn the fight with the bout awarded to the 27-year-old Russian by unanimous decision.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ADSRDPRVWNDZ7MQZJMQJZELUVI","additional_properties":{},"content":"Three-time European middleweight champion Aoife then stepped into the ring just as her sister was leaving the arena and faced an opponent, Anastasiia Shamonova, who she had beaten in the 2024 European final. The two knew each other well and that showed as the bout took off at a furious pace.","type":"text"},{"_id":"U2DGNFRGE5CDNC4JZSXIRIOXZE","additional_properties":{},"content":"O’Rourke was landing with jabs and back hands, but so was Shamonova. There were a few tangles in the first round but the judges sided with some cleaner shots to mark it 4-1 for Russia.","type":"text"},{"_id":"BD2AFXBAZBBQPHVSOK5VY7S7HQ","additional_properties":{},"content":"There was little in it with O’Rourke taking her high-tempo game to her opponent with even more aggression in the second round. But an early jab and a cross from the Russian indicated that she was opting for a less is more approach and with the cleaner shots and effective back hand.","type":"text"},{"_id":"DYNA6MW2FZGOZNB76NOMSGJW2Q","additional_properties":{},"content":"While O’Rourke was flooding the zone with punches and kept the tempo high and lively, it was Shamonova the judges scored higher. Although the second round was split again, it was 4-1 for the Russian fighter.","type":"text"},{"_id":"R3EGBJHQKVANLECIH3VHY5CZCY","additional_properties":{},"content":"It wasn’t as much as an uphill battle in the third as it had been for her sister just minutes before, but it was a big ask for O’Rourke to turn the final. Again, no quarter was given but every raid from the Irish boxer was countered by the Russian. Although O’Rourke landed some stiff scoring jabs and was unrelenting in her go-forward mindset, Shamanova remained composed under the pressure and was able to land scoring shots with the judges again siding with her with a points decision.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ILYE4I2ZSRDXRFM4BIW2LMYZBE","additional_properties":{},"content":"It was disappointment on the night, two defeats within 30 minutes for Ireland but a fantastic showing by the sisters from Tarmon and another expression of how Ireland can consistently compete at the highest levels of the sport. In all 239 boxers from 51 federations competed in the championships, with the O’Rourke sisters making it through to the last day from an Irish team of eight athletes.","type":"text"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"metered"},"credits":{"by":[{"additional_properties":{"original":{"byline":"Johnny Watterson"}},"name":"Johnny Watterson"}]},"description":{"basic":"Roscommon siblings both lose to Russian opponents in their gold medal matches "},"display_date":"2025-03-16T19:36:17.577Z","headlines":{"basic":"O’Rourke sisters take silver medals at World Championships in Serbia ","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"5469"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"MPHAR3YJ7FETXH2SJH52ZJMQSE","auth":{"1":"a003b60225d9e90fc54c58cc0c1b2a5f92f28fcd2b509dbd1eaf151921160c2b"},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/MPHAR3YJ7FETXH2SJH52ZJMQSE.jpg"}},"subtype":"default","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Sport"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/sport/boxing/2025/03/16/orourke-sisters-take-silver-medals-at-world-championships-in-serbia/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/sport/boxing","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Boxing"}}}},{"_id":"APND4E63EJA6DFFVPLFDJLXDA4","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":586,"audio_url":"https://beyondwords-cdn-b7fyckdeejejb6dj.a03.azurefd.net/audio/projects/5469/podcasts/b634a0ce-e88b-4e3a-b707-0c9fa0fef3b2/versions/1742111288/media/6d0b3fda992f8285df0885eb7d4c1761_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/sport/boxing/2025/03/16/donald-mcrae-boxing-makes-me-feel-so-fking-alive-i-wanted-that-back-because-i-didnt-want-to-wallow-in-grief/","content_elements":[{"_id":"NLLCPOVECJBMDGLV3PKUA3UIKE","additional_properties":{},"content":"Years ago, when he was just finding his way in the world of boxing writing, Donald McRae was in conversation with the greatest of them all, the late <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/hugh-mcilvanney-obituary-the-best-sportswriter-of-his-era-1.3770756\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\" title=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/hugh-mcilvanney-obituary-the-best-sportswriter-of-his-era-1.3770756\">Hugh McIlvanney</a>. He’s telling this story now down a Zoom line and makes sure to preface it by saying he won’t embarrass himself by trying the accent. ","type":"text"},{"_id":"DN4342EEJRDFHN6AVDROZKHTKI","additional_properties":{},"content":"But if you’ve read any McIlvanney or if you ever heard him speak when he was alive, it won’t be hard to imagine his warning to the younger McRae. “He said to me, ‘Ambivalence is going to be your constant companion,’” says the <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/south-africa/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\" title=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/south-africa/\">South African</a> author and journalist now. ","type":"text"},{"_id":"64RV4IHKGVET5NPGBIYWIN3NME","additional_properties":{},"content":"“Which is such a McIlvanney way of putting it. But it’s so pertinent because you’ve got to live with it in boxing. It’s that constant fluctuation between the good and the bad. The hypocrisy of it. Talking about the beauty of boxing and how it saves lives but at the same time acknowledging that it damages and maims and kills people.","type":"text"},{"_id":"YCQLM6OB6VHGHMI5FX6BVF2WDA","additional_properties":{},"content":"“I will get duped by it and think that this is actually going to make me feel so alive. And then a day later, it makes you feel so dejected and dirty. You think, ‘Why did I ever think it would be any different?’”","type":"text"},{"_id":"6QN6THVYZ5ANTNQU5TKP2BFA4U","additional_properties":{},"content":"All of which gives a flavour of how McRae finds himself in the here and now. Still in love with boxing, irredeemably and despite himself. But exhausted with it too. After the thick end of four decades of writing about the sport, he has released The Last Bell, which he says will be his final boxing book. ","type":"text"},{"_id":"ID2LAU7GPZGXTFFB7K6POKYN2Y","additional_properties":{},"content":"Millions of dollars ‘under the table’: Daniel Kinahan’s backroom role in boxing","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"NI3HMGATKNCTZBLKCLEGMG75NA","additional_properties":{},"content":"“In the six years of boxing that I covered for this book, so much happened,” he says. “The Kinahan saga, which I know had been going on for some time, became just impossible to ignore. And then all the positive drug tests and then the Saudis moving in – it just felt like one dark wave after another engulfing the business of boxing. ","type":"text"},{"_id":"O74KJYLIMBBEFJQFMWR2JFIQEM","additional_properties":{},"content":"“I got to the point where maybe I was worn out. I took genuine pleasure in Alexander Usyk because I like and admire him. But my excitement at seeing him become undisputed heavyweight champion of the world was minuscule compared to all the other feelings I had about the way boxing had gone and the way boxing and Saudi were now working so closely together especially. ","type":"text"},{"_id":"XTXCI55CARO3FC4AUNAI5D4GPY","additional_properties":{},"type":"image"},{"_id":"Q2HOFZ3ZVBCKLLYTD2C5MKH5F4","additional_properties":{},"content":"“So I think it’s got to a point where I will still follow boxing because I love to interview fighters. I will go to certain fights. But I think I’m going to limit my writing to journalism. And maybe I’ll become a better journalist now because perhaps I’ve been a bit too sentimental in my coverage of boxing. And maybe I can be a bit more forensic and a bit harder in my assessment of it.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"LK65TAM4YRH4FOVZN2XHIWDWWE","additional_properties":{},"content":"It is 29 years now since Dark Trade was published. McRae’s first boxing book remains one of the great journeys into the sport’s black heart and won him the first of two William Hill Sports Book of the Year prizes. Whatever beats The Last Bell to the prize this year – if anything does – will have to be pretty extraordinary.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ZMVENS4QAJG3XOK4W4JWNKVGJQ","additional_properties":{},"content":"Though it isn’t exactly a sequel to Dark Trade, it finds McRae back digging in the same sort of mines. It was a book he had in his head for a long time but really only found himself itching to get started in late 2018. By pure happenstance, it coincided with a time of terrible loss in his life – his sister who was only three years older than him died at just 60. Within the following 18 months, both his mother and father died back in South Africa. His wife’s mother died a year to the day after his own.","type":"text"},{"_id":"EMLFYBSIINBKXIPCYFEWOPNK7Q","additional_properties":{},"content":"All around him, the ravages of time and illness ground away. In December 2018, his family was as it had always been – himself, his sister and his parents. By mid-2020, only he remained. His father died in the teeth of the pandemic and he could only watch the funeral on a video feed in his house in London. He didn’t really know it but he needed boxing more than ever.","type":"text"},{"_id":"GBUVWZ7JRZCN5JQ5LJ43M3PSJ4","additional_properties":{},"type":"image"},{"_id":"N52H5XWZ7FCNNIRDPAAV3XPGEA","additional_properties":{},"content":"“The last time I saw my sister, she was in hospital and we had no idea then that she would die just a matter of weeks later. But I spoke to her then about the idea of starting this book and although she wasn’t a boxing fan, she loved the fighters. She said, ‘The stories are just amazing. You should do it.’ Once I lost her, even though I accepted her death, it did kind of unhinge me.","type":"text"},{"_id":"MOO3SYK3ANDZTHKKCB2NSJENTU","additional_properties":{},"content":"“Boxing is like all sport, at times it just all seems so unimportant. But I think there’s a line in the book where I say something like it makes me feel so f**king alive. Even though it’s silly. It’s when your senses are so heightened and you are pulsating with life like a teenager pulsating with acne. You just feel, ‘Wow.’ ","type":"text"},{"_id":"CE5DSQKUSJD3VJ5NAEWSERPZNY","additional_properties":{},"content":"“And I think I wanted that back because I didn’t want to wallow in grief. I kind of accepted what had happened. I know this comes to all of us. But I wanted that feeling of being lit up on the inside. Boxing does that to me. ","type":"text"},{"_id":"6H2EZLGD6ZDXJGXDMXLD6LRU2Y","additional_properties":{},"content":"“There are many fights that are covered in the course of the book, like Katie Taylor against Amanda Serrano in New York, where I was absolutely lost in however long that fight lasted. I was just lost in it and I didn’t think of anything else. So I guess that was kind of the pull for me because I thought I could just lose myself for a while in boxing again.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"JFJMKECC5JDBZI24UBSCW43ZWE","subtype":"pullquote","type":"quote"},{"_id":"GNYXFBJPOJA2PNYUBYYU34PVCU","additional_properties":{},"content":"McRae has made his name in journalism interviewing sportspeople of all kinds. The famous and the unknowns, all sports, all walks of life. But he has never made any secret of the fact that boxers sing to him in a key the rest can’t reach. And so he went looking for stories and again and characters again started to populate the book with them. ","type":"text"},{"_id":"KDXHRYTHX5H5LKBABVMOPKAAWE","additional_properties":{},"content":"In Isaac Chamberlain and Patrick Day, he found the side of boxing that is always shimmering with peril. In Andy Lee, he found boxing’s decency. In Tyson Fury, its madness. In Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano, its pure, uncut adrenaline hit.","type":"text"},{"_id":"4TTMU742HBJTZND67QHEEKZPRY","additional_properties":{},"type":"image"},{"_id":"YBW4NZCYO5DXBNLQZFETSK5DII","additional_properties":{},"content":"“Katie Taylor said to me that the Olympics when she lost in 2016, that’s still seared inside her, that defeat. And she just took it. You lose the Champions League final or World Cup final in football and of course it’s going to scar you a little bit inside. But in boxing, the scars and wounds are so much deeper. And when you get the opportunity to hear them talk about these things, and sometimes in quite poetic ways, as a writer you become such a sucker for it, don’t you?","type":"text"},{"_id":"7C366VA4RVDGZGB6GBE4PFEILQ","additional_properties":{},"content":"“The humanity of boxers is definitely the thing that draws me in. Because the way fighters talk about fear – and the best of them do say, ‘Of course I’m scared.’ They’re not so scared of being hurt. They’re scared of being exposed. ","type":"text"},{"_id":"J6U4VGTHLRBAHH3VFESFXSWSIY","additional_properties":{},"content":"“There’s something naked about being a fighter. I think that your emotions are stripped bare. It’s one thing to lose, but it’s another thing to be knocked out. Obviously it’s seen mainly as a masculine sport and for a lot of these guys, their masculinity is shredded when they get knocked down. ","type":"text"},{"_id":"Y65QPGKJUREOHFJKVUXXGDYBLY","additional_properties":{},"content":"“Obviously these sports carry danger, but boxing’s like nothing else in the sense that these fighters’ lives are on the line. And I think it forces them to look quite deeply into themselves, if you get them on a good day where they’re willing to talk about those deep emotions.","type":"text"},{"_id":"NLFNPTGFGNENXOVESQGQHGWWWM","additional_properties":{},"content":"“And you can get beguiled by that. Because then you sit down and watch a fight or you settle in for a night of fights and it turns out to be anything but amazing. I feel that so much. It lets you down so often. But the nights when it is good, it’s incredible.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"LLCTUX6RTNHBPJUMNUPVGBG2JI","additional_properties":{},"content":"Ultimately though, boxing is rotten. We know this. On so many levels and in so many different ways. The Last Bell covers the period over the past decade or so when whatever last scrap of dignity boxing had got washed away. ","type":"text"},{"_id":"RYQVKKWV75H3HHMTYUHLMOIP4Q","additional_properties":{},"content":"In Ireland, we were the canaries in the coal mine – when Tyson Fury announced on social media in June 2020 that Daniel Kinahan had made the deal for him to fight Anthony Joshua, the public revulsion here was instant. It turned out to be the beginning of the end.","type":"text"},{"_id":"TQOOB5EHKKCU4UZKAUEUPXKHIE","additional_properties":{},"type":"image"},{"_id":"RYQVKKWV75H3HHMTYUHLMOIP4Q","additional_properties":{},"content":"“It was a watershed moment, wasn’t it?” says McRae. “Because I’d begun to despair. In the UK, no one would speak in boxing about Kinahan. No one would talk about him. It was all, ‘Oh, you can’t talk about Kinahan, he’s too intimidating’. Or it was, ‘No one wants to hear about that.’ ","type":"text"},{"_id":"3TS2WT4EDZFWXAOJ2HNIO7LCEE","additional_properties":{},"type":"image"},{"_id":"WJ7WQKVGZJBSVPHNTB2FVCGEV4","additional_properties":{},"content":"“And it was the writers in Ireland who did their job. I loved it because they just never gave up. They kept coming back to Kinahan and the feud and the drugs, the death that stalked the streets of Dublin for a time. I think Tyson felt sort of untouchable and Kinahan maybe even felt untouchable because it looked like he could go on being in boxing with no consequence. But once Tyson made that video, it blew up then, didn’t it? And it was a big, big moment. And things did change.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"GDMFJFYF35HHVJCVVUUFOMM234","additional_properties":{},"content":"As the book goes on, more and more of what McRae loves about boxing feels like it gets further and further away. The increasing presence of Saudi Arabia, the seemingly unchecked levels of doping in such a dangerous sport – all of it becomes a cloud that gradually obscures the parts of boxing he loves. ","type":"text"},{"_id":"H4DFW44VXJFBTFNSPUYFYYZV64","additional_properties":{},"content":"“I always attempt to distinguish between boxing, which I love in terms of the fighters, the fights, the drama of it. I love that. I still do. But what I’ve come to loathe and actually, even though I hate is not a word I use because I tend not to hate things – but I did come to kind of hate the business of boxing.","type":"text"},{"_id":"3JPIL6B4YVDDDNLMKTOUIUNO54","additional_properties":{},"content":"“I’m still going to write about boxing for The Guardian. We’ll see how that goes because I’m now going to be focusing quite a lot on the business of boxing. But I’ll still continue doing the interviews for a long time hopefully. I feel my energy levels are as high as ever. And my curiosity is as deep as ever.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"YOBIJKMEDZBDZOZ6AFGYO6X5F4","additional_properties":{},"content":"<i>♦ The Last Bell by Donald McRae is published by Simon & Schuster and is out now</i>","type":"text"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"metered"},"credits":{"by":[{"additional_properties":{"original":{"byline":"Malachy Clerkin"}},"name":"Malachy Clerkin"}]},"description":{"basic":"The South African sports writer explains why he wrote what he says will be his final boxing book"},"display_date":"2025-03-16T07:42:52.365Z","headlines":{"basic":"Donald McRae: ‘Boxing makes me feel so f**king alive. I wanted that back because I didn’t want to wallow in grief’","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"5469"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"AZ3ANUOB6JGBBOXLYWGY4YDYDA","auth":{"1":"ff98f6448f11face33048c8cfbe9cd46b01ccb460d14bef2d580f54f62f73461"},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/AZ3ANUOB6JGBBOXLYWGY4YDYDA.jpg"}},"subtype":"feature","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Sport"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/sport/boxing/2025/03/16/donald-mcrae-boxing-makes-me-feel-so-fking-alive-i-wanted-that-back-because-i-didnt-want-to-wallow-in-grief/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/sport/boxing","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Boxing"}}}},{"_id":"BCUYXNF36BFLHGJEHPJPV5UXC4","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":153,"audio_url":"https://beyondwords-cdn-b7fyckdeejejb6dj.a03.azurefd.net/audio/projects/5469/podcasts/22a0ba62-6aa0-45ab-bb07-dce1ac91eca4/versions/1741982923/media/61445910213c8d00671d964b8020e6f2_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/sport/2025/03/14/aoife-orourke-eases-to-middleweight-final-at-world-championships/","content_elements":[{"_id":"FJQRS7ELKNA4HHFYOQP5SJO5XE","additional_properties":{},"content":"Ireland’s Aoife and Lisa O’Rourke have both upgraded their bronze medals to at least silver after winning their semi-final bouts at the IBA Women’s World Championships in Serbia.","type":"text"},{"_id":"P72GCBUXJBHTZE2BUVG4V7BZ64","additional_properties":{},"content":"The Roscommon sisters will fight for gold in their respective divisions on Sunday.","type":"text"},{"_id":"IHHR6ZTMR5HABMPBK62OA57IVY","additional_properties":{},"content":"In Friday’s early session, 27-year-old Aoife took a comprehensive victory over Serbia’s Nikolina Gajic in her middleweight semi-final.","type":"text"},{"_id":"REKN7SRTRFDNPLWUOJUZNBJOHA","additional_properties":{},"content":"O’Rourke, the reigning European champion, eased herself into the contest before coming to life midway through the first round. Landing a number of clean combinations before the bell, the judges scored the opener 3-2 in favour of the number-one seed.","type":"text"},{"_id":"47TV7JVKIFCLLNAAB34GYQC2XM","additional_properties":{},"content":"Carrying that momentum into the second, O’Rourke began to devastate the home fighter with a series of stinging left jabs.","type":"text"},{"_id":"NLIYURV64FGHZHGG6HK6CPQVNU","additional_properties":{},"content":"With Gajic quickly fading, the referee deducted a point from the Serb for excessive holding before stepping in to give the fourth seed a standing count 30 seconds from the bell.","type":"text"},{"_id":"OLSXVBFOOVFZHMC23CDOYWMIRQ","additional_properties":{},"content":"Utterly in control at this point, O’Rourke could afford to sit back for the third. Gajic had little left in the tank for the final three minutes, drawing a second standing count after O’Rourke nailed her with two quick left jabs to the chin.","type":"text"},{"_id":"6I2UWH4VURB3TLDN5K7JUIESJU","additional_properties":{},"content":"By the final bell, the result was clear, O’Rourke taking the win by unanimous decision.","type":"text"},{"_id":"VJ27JM6FMVEKZAVHBGIY4LPTUM","additional_properties":{},"type":"image"},{"_id":"LCRWYWNTBBGB3J6X4HN2RWZNOY","additional_properties":{},"content":"In the evening session, younger sister Lisa fought back from a difficult opening round to win on a split decision against Natalya Bogdanova of Kazakhstan in the light-middleweight division.","type":"text"},{"_id":"R67SX3KP6NCVJBMW5DT6OLIQGQ","additional_properties":{},"content":"The 24-year-old Irish champion struggled at the start, Bogdanova reading her shots well and responding with effective counter punches to see her take the round in the eyes of all five judges.","type":"text"},{"_id":"CWH356ADVVFW5GLSLBWPPSLNW4","additional_properties":{},"content":"Though messy in parts − both boxers were warned by the referee for flailing − O’Rourke capitalised when Bogdanova drew her in close, landing some huge right-handers to force the Kazakhstan boxer to take a backwards step.","type":"text"},{"_id":"3HDCV6EPDJFWPE55BVMSRWLOBY","additional_properties":{},"content":"Having won the second on a 3-2 split, O’Rourke was back in business, opening the final round with a series of successful left jabs.","type":"text"},{"_id":"3XFFXM23DVHCHFWTVN5GKTI2NY","additional_properties":{},"content":"In one of their many tangles, Bogdanova caught O’Rourke with a solid left hand, but just as she had done in the second, the Roscommon woman landed the standout blow of the round just before the bell.","type":"text"},{"_id":"EGSMKDUULJB4HO5LY2AGLBWCSM","additional_properties":{},"content":"The final round also ended in a second split decision, sending the result to bout review, the outcome deeming O’Rourke to be the 4-3 winner.","type":"text"},{"_id":"UWRSFUJHOZD3RAXX7I42WDBHIU","additional_properties":{},"content":"On Sunday, Lisa O’Rourke will face Anastasia Shamonova (Russia) for the light-middleweight final before Aoife enters the ring against Elena Gapeshina (Russia) in the middleweight final.","type":"text"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"metered"},"credits":{"by":[{"additional_properties":{"original":{"byline":"Muireann Duffy"}},"name":"Muireann Duffy"}]},"description":{"basic":"Aoife and Lisa O’Rourke win semi-final bouts at IBA Women’s World Championships in Serbia"},"display_date":"2025-03-14T17:01:22.96Z","headlines":{"basic":"O’Rourke sisters secure at least silver in World Boxing Championships","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"5469"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"BILD5VGKQRCGZGWTEUI5GP3GFQ","auth":{"1":"b6f3bdded3b5b6ede1a6cf7d85e2aa3d09bbee0113177e9f8b3e0a8c2172f40d"},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/BILD5VGKQRCGZGWTEUI5GP3GFQ.jpg"}},"subtype":"default","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Sport"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/sport/2025/03/14/aoife-orourke-eases-to-middleweight-final-at-world-championships/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/sport/boxing","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Boxing"}}}},{"_id":"AHEZ73RKXJCXHHZVYPA3PXK4FQ","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":933,"audio_url":"https://beyondwords-cdn-b7fyckdeejejb6dj.a03.azurefd.net/audio/projects/5469/podcasts/c616ddc3-2be6-4d18-a4c6-f772886175b5/versions/1741370878/media/b9181e95b99df7a967ef35826ed10bf3_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/sport/boxing/2025/03/09/former-iba-world-champion-amy-broadhurst-boxing-clever-despite-tough-time-on-the-ropes/","content_elements":[{"_id":"CHTAFB37ORDMLIY2NITLC5RZAI","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260743},"content":"<a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/amy-broadhurst/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\" title=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/amy-broadhurst/\">Amy Broadhurst</a> remembers the puzzled expression. Eventually, the veteran assessor checking her hand wraps looked up and ventured, “Ireland?” She shook her head. Not today. GB Boxing was printed on her singlet. He was trying to make sense of it all. He wasn’t the only one.","type":"text"},{"_id":"NJWATQIC2ZCE7MTWXCUJUBLWN4","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260744},"content":"Moments later Broadhurst entered the ring at the Indoor Stadium in Bangkok. Up in the stands, members of Team Ireland watched on as their former, recent, training partner boxed for Great Britain. Everybody was trying to navigate a path to Paris. For Broadhurst, along the way, it had somehow all turned a little Robert Frost.","type":"text"},{"_id":"63WE4YST5VEHNLJWI2IYRJTIIQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260745},"content":"“The whole experience of what happened last year was quite traumatising, to be honest.” she says. “It still hurts, it’s still quite raw.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"O4OQGGGWJNHYLBAIOAJE2VPXTM","subtype":"pullquote","type":"quote"},{"_id":"N566MIRUEFDQNEYUHQOFAZQFAY","additional_properties":{},"type":"image"},{"_id":"P6HX6OLQSBG77J6H5QPCRXJOWA","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260746},"content":"It’s coming up on 12 months now since her life was turned upside down. At the start of March last year the Dundalk boxer was hoping to fight in the Olympics for Ireland. Just a few weeks later she was on a plane to Sheffield to train with Great Britain.","type":"text"},{"_id":"2QBASZMRZBAGZKEAQTQMUYMIJY","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260747},"content":"In advance of that Olympic qualifier last May, <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/boxing/2024/07/20/meet-team-ireland-boxers/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\" title=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/boxing/2024/07/20/meet-team-ireland-boxers/\">Team Ireland</a> and <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/boxing/2024/05/27/amy-broadhurst-wins-opening-olympic-qualifier-for-team-gb/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\" title=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/boxing/2024/05/27/amy-broadhurst-wins-opening-olympic-qualifier-for-team-gb/\">Team GB</a> pitched up at the same camp. Canteen tables became independent islands, friends avoided making eye contact, and water cooler pleasantries came with a health warning.","type":"text"},{"_id":"MOGD23VYQBBWPLJKIWBBYWPIQI","additional_properties":{},"content":"Amy Broadhurst wins opening Olympic qualifier for Team GB","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"XXFL5UM5PVBBDOVDMLX75BVFZU","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260748},"content":"“It was a really horrible atmosphere, we could be sitting next to each other at lunch and you are kind of like, ‘do I speak to them, do I not?’ It was very difficult.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"E6QAVNW5QRCEZAGFEEPQ625SPE","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260750},"content":"Before life became tangled in knots and acrimony, hers was once a much simpler story. One she had scripted herself.","type":"text"},{"_id":"HCV6E4FCPBFORKLLXAL4S4YD74","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260751},"content":"After winning the IBA world title in 2022, Broadhurst was invited back to her old primary school. They had a surprise – a letter she had written when just 11 years of age. They read the piece back to her, the story of a girl imagining she had won gold in the Olympics and on arriving back to Dundalk the entire town turned out to welcome their champion home.","type":"text"},{"_id":"VDTMU4BU3BEI5IABRDPEPWDFTU","subtype":"pullquote","type":"quote"},{"_id":"D4ZFWUGLXNGXXEUKCYTEXZMTSU","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260752},"content":"Ever since she was a youngster training at Dealgan Boxing Club, that had been her dream.","type":"text"},{"_id":"GX2GSFJZ6JHSLGMVDHYRXNICJA","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260753},"content":"She was untouchable in 2022 – winning gold at the Worlds, Europeans and Commonwealth Games. She won <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/2022/12/20/amy-broadhurst-named-irish-timessport-ireland-sportswoman-of-the-year-2022/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\" title=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/2022/12/20/amy-broadhurst-named-irish-timessport-ireland-sportswoman-of-the-year-2022/\">The Irish Times Sportswoman of the Year award </a>and was shortlisted for RTÉ Sports Personality of the Year. All roads were leading to Paris.","type":"text"},{"_id":"KZB4K2KXMFA6XBEUZE5PYNH6AA","additional_properties":{},"content":"Amy Broadhurst named Irish Times/Sport Ireland Sportswoman of the Year 2022","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"UIQEL6REMND4HF2FZHMWFU4SM4","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260754},"content":"And there was no time to waste. On New Year’s Day 2023, she went sparring. ","type":"text"},{"_id":"ABJ332RG7ZAYJNYEIKFRMTBURA","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260755},"content":"But her opponent was big and strong and keen. He caught Broadhurst hard, almost knocked her out. Her legs went, the sparring session was stopped.","type":"text"},{"_id":"V4X457YJZBBC7L4YR733UOJYK4","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260756},"content":"“After a great year in 2022, on January 1st, 2023, it was like somebody flicked a switch on my whole career.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"2E7K5UQINBDMXCCJCCXGFCFATM","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260757},"content":"Later that month she was beaten 3-2 by <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/boxing/2024/06/28/grainne-walsh-combines-power-of-the-mind-and-body-to-realise-her-paris-dream/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\" title=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/boxing/2024/06/28/grainne-walsh-combines-power-of-the-mind-and-body-to-realise-her-paris-dream/\">Gráinne Walsh</a> in the Irish National Championships. But the following month at the Strandja tournament in Bulgaria, Broadhurst beat all comers to take gold. She hoped January had been a blip.","type":"text"},{"_id":"LQIW27IVCFGUTMYQATS2G4RGUE","subtype":"pullquote","type":"quote"},{"_id":"JTZSXSSQDNHKJOVDTYD3FRL4HE","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260758},"content":"However, in June she lost on a split decision to Rossie Eccles in the European Games in Poland – a qualifier for the Olympics. During that competition, she also made public her relationship with Eoin Pluck, one of the coaches in the Irish Athletic Boxing Association’s High Performance Unit.","type":"text"},{"_id":"PZ4NZBZGYRB5ZIFBX7Y2TGD2XQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260759},"content":"“That’s when sh*t hit the fan,” she says. “Everything changed from that moment.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"M7QAXRAS5FHFLMX5CECRYFA774","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260751},"content":"Broadhurst spent the winter rehabbing a shoulder injury she had picked up during the Europeans while Pluck eventually returned to coaching.","type":"text"},{"_id":"VM4YJJLFXRBMDAJK6I6MTZB6TA","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260762},"content":"But 2023 ended as it had started, shipping a couple of heavy jabs. In late December, Broadhurst received a message requesting her sponsored car be returned.","type":"text"},{"_id":"TVBP5YXXZ5HLLFS4ZXCKTASKPE","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260763},"content":"“On the same day, about 20 minutes later, I got an email from Sport Ireland saying my funding had been cut from €40,000 down to €18,000.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"PCEVLTJZ4NDAFLRRMZSTTS2JQY","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260764},"content":"In boxing, timing is everything. In and out of the ring. It’s fair to say being a talented lightweight (60kg) woman boxer in Ireland over the last two decades would constitute pretty lousy timing.","type":"text"},{"_id":"RPPPXT7BRZGV5P4NUVIUTNDUBE","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260765},"content":"During that period Ireland has boasted two of the best fighters on the planet in that division – Katie Taylor and Kellie Harrington.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ISPCBDVBVFACTIHWJ7OBTIQBE4","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260766},"content":"Harrington won gold at lightweight in Tokyo and the moment the Dubliner declared she would defend her title in Paris, Broadhurst – a natural 60kg fighter – had little choice but to move division.","type":"text"},{"_id":"KREGEIDLOBENVDP26XQVEXCZKY","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260767},"content":"She graduated upwards to 66kg – meaning Broadhurst, Walsh and Lisa O’Rourke were all vying for one Olympic spot.","type":"text"},{"_id":"7IU3NJ3JMVBZBEHEZ6QPREO63A","subtype":"pullquote","type":"quote"},{"_id":"DRVKWF3UPVBSDKTCIR6RJOD7VE","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260768},"content":"Walsh had the opportunity at the first qualifier in Italy in March 2024 but came out on the wrong side of a controversial decision. It opened the door for the others to challenge for a crack at the second qualifier in Thailand.","type":"text"},{"_id":"5GBMOPIXDRFNLM6GDHJ7O7SAKE","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260757},"content":"Broadhurst hoped there would be a box-off between the three. But the assessment never came. It was decided Walsh would go to Thailand. Broadhurst’s dream was over. Her world unravelled.","type":"text"},{"_id":"PWNF3II6UNACJOD2T7CVITJ5ZE","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260770},"content":"“When I was told that I wasn’t picked for the qualifier, I was absolutely devastated. God forgive me but the first thing that came to my head was, ‘I want to kill myself.’","type":"text"},{"_id":"NPT3L3MEXRFOFAFMSQSWNFRGBI","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260771},"content":"“My mum came down to me straight away. I cried my eyes out for hours. It had been my whole life, I’d worked my entire life for this one competition and suddenly it was gone. I was lost, ‘What do I do now?’”","type":"text"},{"_id":"67BSALBJZ5FBPD5G5AKRMH77PI","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260772},"content":"But two days later a window of opportunity was pushed open. Team GB were aware of her circumstances and they were interested. She was eligible to fight for them because her dad, Tony, is originally from England.","type":"text"},{"_id":"H357GKVSQZCVRBFLB2F2KH5ZD4","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260773},"content":"The days that followed were a haze. One moment her dream was over. Then it wasn’t. But what would it mean to declare for Britain? What would people think? What would 11-year-old Amy do?","type":"text"},{"_id":"33L5IQNMBBFM5B3KVTSKP2SJ6I","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260774},"content":"The 27-year-old Amy rolled the dice, she chased the dream.","type":"text"},{"_id":"AUVM322LUZD7NC44PSUHJQELIE","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260775},"content":"The plan was to try for the 60kg class. Naturally, the British boxers in that division didn’t unfurl a welcoming mat. Broadhurst understood, she wouldn’t have done so either.","type":"text"},{"_id":"CR3KXUIODNFRVN7LTN5CYP5E4A","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260776},"content":"Back in Ireland, there was collateral damage. Harrington said she would not be working with Pluck for the Olympics, believing it was akin to having a “spy in the camp”.","type":"text"},{"_id":"OEIJEJ544ZBX7AZ6RJYMQNB2SE","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260777},"content":"“She made the right decision. I would have done the same thing,” says Broadhurst.","type":"text"},{"_id":"GU26YTGHX5BMLAEZKSO6E2ERUA","subtype":"youtube","type":"oembed_response"},{"_id":"G46GONJVY5EDDKVPLC75MGCMCU","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260778},"content":"Meanwhile, the high performance director of Irish Boxing, Tricia Heberle, defended the selection process.","type":"text"},{"_id":"UGSJMG5VNNFIRKSLTNBA7KQBPI","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260779},"content":"“There was no hesitation that she [Gráinne] was the number one,” she stated.","type":"text"},{"_id":"JRU6XVU4KJFJTPEORNONTMUH3A","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260780},"content":"But news of Broadhurst’s efforts to switch allegiance became public knowledge before the move was approved.","type":"text"},{"_id":"QS4LIHGWR5CQVD75IP6UE6GSXU","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260781},"content":"“I felt they portrayed it that I was the one doing wrong as if I was a traitor,” Broadhurst now explains. “But they never gave me an opportunity. If they gave me an assessment and then I lost, I would have said, ‘fair enough’, but they didn’t do that.","type":"text"},{"_id":"POZRIHJGYRHONLWEW6URWTQNXM","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260782},"content":"“If they had just given me a fair shot I don’t think me moving country would have happened.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"WJLUHDETWVERHCPF2ZGCAALSNE","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260783},"content":"When she arrived in Thailand with Team GB last May, Broadhurst knew she wasn’t right. Physically, she was in superb shape but mentally her head was scrambled. She won her first two fights before losing on a split decision to South Korea’s Yeonji Oh in the quarter-final stages. This time, it was over.","type":"text"},{"_id":"COAOCQKEWJBV7PC65K4GVO752Q","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260784},"content":"“I couldn’t even give you a percentage of where my head was at that day. It was horrible, you are trying your best but you just have this big cloud in your head.","type":"text"},{"_id":"XNJK2XOTSJF3JPKLEBMXS7QH2E","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260785},"content":"“You are walking out with GB on your back and you know some of the Irish team are up in the stands watching you.","type":"text"},{"_id":"XNE3H2R7PNCT5BE7VYKAYUUARY","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260786},"content":"“The Amy that got in the ring that day, that’s not me. I knew from the very first fight that mentally I couldn’t switch on. I tried so hard to block out everything, but I just couldn’t.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"ZSBFTTRB5BEEJDISTPVP5C5VA4","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260787},"content":"She was a rock tossed to the waves. Sinking.","type":"text"},{"_id":"JMWVIHXXMBGEXKVOBQ76I6HFIM","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260788},"content":"It was, she acknowledges, a difficult situation for many others too and she will forever appreciate the members of the Irish team who did offer her some quiet support at the time.","type":"text"},{"_id":"BLD5P2SL6BAD3LQWTAFUI7TLQA","subtype":"pullquote","type":"quote"},{"_id":"BUAGILJJ2JDOTP4J2RLQLL27M4","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260789},"content":"And she always felt Team GB coaches such as Gary Hale, Rob McCracken and Phil Sellers also had her back.","type":"text"},{"_id":"S56PEG232ND4RP6SBYFAFZVQPI","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260790},"content":"Still, the moment she lost in Bangkok, Broadhurst knew the backlash was coming. Had she qualified for Paris, it would have given her leverage. But coming up short, she was a carcass for the hyenas. They circled.","type":"text"},{"_id":"P34FDHHMRZFYFH7XPRXTHJW7LQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260791},"content":"“That’s when the social media abuse really cranked up. ‘Good enough for you’, ‘That’s what you get for changing country’, ‘You’re not good enough’.","type":"text"},{"_id":"4LPNU7XRS5EARCICSA6J47VA2A","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260792},"content":"“To go from being a hero in 2022 to, not that people disliked me, but to have such a negative sort of conversation around me, I didn’t know how to handle it. It felt like people were going to hate you forever.","type":"text"},{"_id":"EJ5YTBGTGZHEPCVNC3GLYUW3VA","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260793},"content":"“I was sad after losing that fight but more than anything I was just numb. For a while afterwards, I did think, ‘maybe I’m not good enough, maybe in 2022 I just got lucky.’”","type":"text"},{"_id":"IA2OWAVLOJHCFJ6TIU5TIJFMEA","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260794},"content":"But the Olympics brought both pain and reassurance.","type":"text"},{"_id":"TTTXRJ4WWJDRHIYGQSZ2WM7WUY","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260795},"content":"Algerian Imane Khelif beat China’s Yang Liu in the Olympic welterweight final. Broadhurst had beaten Khelif in the final of the Worlds in 2022 while she had overcome the Chinese fighter in the semi-final of the Strandja tournament in 2023.","type":"text"},{"_id":"LKSNC3YKN5GK7H3G3U7LPVA7B4","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260796},"content":"The year 2022 was no fluke.","type":"text"},{"_id":"DCMA777EVBHHZAFUVZLWXJ5VBQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260797},"content":"Amid the squall, boxing had almost destroyed her. But after the storm came the calm.","type":"text"},{"_id":"2Q74HFNC6BH3LCO4ACMOGS3RAE","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260798},"content":"“I went through a stage where I thought I hated boxing, but I didn’t hate it, I just hated what I was going through. Everything changed the moment I found out I was pregnant.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"3EZLMDTRZFFFZP5WYYXHR74W4Q","additional_properties":{},"type":"image"},{"_id":"5WAIHHOTYNBSXN5EZBS2EQK35M","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260800},"content":"She’s due in May. It’s a boy.","type":"text"},{"_id":"KGZBNO4MIJGBDJHHX3RMCTAITE","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260801},"content":"From the fog of 2024, this has become Amy Broadhurst’s clarity.","type":"text"},{"_id":"URJVU2DVNZEMZLUERMCFMHPPOY","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260802},"content":"Last summer the couple decided to try for a baby. They would give it until September and if Broadhurst was not pregnant by then, she would turn professional.","type":"text"},{"_id":"KUZ3VXYBKNBMBDKNZYB7LNPFJQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260803},"content":"With their deadline rapidly approaching, in September it happened.","type":"text"},{"_id":"LOKJRUHVDRD2TNHR2DGERUBKDM","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260804},"content":"“It was kind of fate really because that month was going to decide everything for me,” she recalls.","type":"text"},{"_id":"3JNFH7OWSVFIDFSUE7ZLSESTIE","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260805},"content":"“I believe 100 per cent that I’ll be at the Olympics. I think that’s why I ended up pregnant. Had I not got pregnant, I would be pro now. Everything happens for a reason.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"6AZL5XNAZBCXPHVCXRBIGSDQBY","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260806},"content":"The dream is back on, Los Angeles 2028.","type":"text"},{"_id":"DKY5LRM3YBCBVCHKTYVFLA2EZQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260807},"content":"“When I got pregnant first, a lot of people said, ‘so are you hanging up the gloves now?’ It used to annoy me. Just because you are a woman there’s a perception that automatically some people think, ‘that’s her done now, she’s finished.’","type":"text"},{"_id":"2LLTQ42HEZED7OL7FWNC2HRFOA","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260808},"content":"“I want to fight in the Olympics and I also want to show you can be a mother and fight in the Olympics. To demonstrate to other women what can be done.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"ZELCB26EFNAVFBVBEILOT5YNSE","subtype":"pullquote","type":"quote"},{"_id":"TMM35Q6UIRBBZNYWFEMCD5DMIE","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260809},"content":"But every decision she makes now will also have to account for the newest member of the family.","type":"text"},{"_id":"KOX4FTBDUJDP7ARAXN4B5UZ3BU","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260810},"content":"“He will hopefully be going to school in five or six years and I don’t want him to be listening to, ‘oh, your mum is a turncoat’ or any of that kind of stuff.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"H55BNPO7CBDJ5PZJ4UWOM4QZLU","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260811},"content":"Anglo-Irish history is a topic she’s always felt was best stored away on a very high shelf. It doesn’t interest her, doesn’t stir her.","type":"text"},{"_id":"6AZGVF2LPBAX3GR43PDCGWNYIQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260812},"content":"“The whole Ireland hates England thing, I don’t get it. My dad is English, I see everybody the same, that’s it.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"ZL2TZKLQMZEKXLYRUDQZLEOOTM","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260813},"content":"But the politics of sport might well determine what happens next.","type":"text"},{"_id":"575P2HBGYBFX5OWPVCZTUDTTAE","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260814},"content":"Three years of non-participation with a federation is normally required before a switch to another country can be granted. In the case where two governing bodies agree, as happened between the relevant federations last year, it is possible to ask for that period to be shortened. However, in this instance, there would also be the issue of trying to move a second time.","type":"text"},{"_id":"2XQ3JI7ZJFBA3DL3YDUJEFB56Q","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260815},"content":"She learned so much during her time working with Ireland’s High Performance Unit run by Zaur Antia and his team of coaches while Broadhurst also realises Team GB went out on a limb for her last year.","type":"text"},{"_id":"TR7ZEANODRFONHVLVP63QK3BDA","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260816},"content":"Her relationship with Heberle, who has since stepped down from the IABA, however, is unlikely to ever be reconciled. The fallout there was too great. Too brutal. There were no goodbyes.","type":"text"},{"_id":"4HHJPJNS3FD5RJNF3GSRNYMJRU","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260817},"content":"“I don’t think there is anything that is ever going to affect me the way the whole thing did last year.","type":"text"},{"_id":"2UATIQHLG5CZ5FYZICFYYKPZD4","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260818},"content":"“But one thing I’ve learned is you cannot predict what is going to happen. This time last year I was on the Irish team, then I was on the British team, now I’m on no team, I’m pregnant, I’m sitting at home watching TV.","type":"text"},{"_id":"PBOB5V3LDNGILNDHBP6HFN6WAI","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260819},"content":"“Everything is up in the air as regards where I’m going to go but I’m so lucky with my family, my mum and dad have always been there for me, Eoin is so supportive too. When the time comes, we’ll all sit down together and decide what is best.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"N6YAJURJ4ZE5BFFVJWPPBS4JXE","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260820},"content":"Ultimately, she knows, whether it might end up being Ireland or Team GB won’t solely be her decision.","type":"text"},{"_id":"JYSZMVUKGNFFNGZQ3GVTMIQVC4","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260822},"content":"The Women’s world Championships begin in Serbia this weekend. Pluck is with Team Ireland in Nis. Walsh is Ireland’s boxer at 66kg while O’Rourke has moved up to 70kg.","type":"text"},{"_id":"J5TJTYMBXREZBATF3PGEYLG4TQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260823},"content":"With Harrington not fighting, Ireland travelled with no entry at 60kg. After all the logjams, there is now an opening in that category.","type":"text"},{"_id":"2FOLPFIJDVD4BM6YLBQSH3IJWE","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260757},"content":"Broadhurst will turn 28 on St Patrick’s Day. Harrington won her second Olympic gold medal at 34. Katie Taylor is 38.","type":"text"},{"_id":"XWWRBLMLO5DPLL7KJCMNPSVAQE","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260825},"content":"Rio 2016 gold medallist Estelle Mossely, mother and boxer, fought at the Paris Games. It can be done.","type":"text"},{"_id":"AONM4ZGXZZHPBA6FWQKNMXIQ6U","subtype":"pullquote","type":"quote"},{"_id":"IQGOB4PRDFGRPE3APZ7HMBGT7E","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260757},"content":"Broadhurst can still see the perplexed face of the assessor stamping her wraps in Bangkok last May, wondering why she wasn’t in an Ireland singlet.","type":"text"},{"_id":"XAB5JXGTIRFATEGF5L55ZS4AKQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260828},"content":"“Of course, I’m disappointed the way things ended up but I can sit back and say I tried everything I could to get to the Olympics. And if I had to go back, I’d do it all again.","type":"text"},{"_id":"STTAICV3DZCGZM7H64ASU235UM","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260829},"content":"“People might criticise you for what they see as turning your back on your country, but with the Irish team, I went up six kilos from my actual weight only then not to be given a fair shot.","type":"text"},{"_id":"PCKGMV5G75FBRCCLOXMYHCDDYE","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260830},"content":"“My dream since I was a kid was to go to the Olympics. When that didn’t happen with Ireland, I didn’t want to give up on it. I suppose we all kind of thought the story was going to end up with me meeting Kellie in the Olympics. It seemed like a fairy-tale, but it wasn’t to be. Still, what happened last year, that’s part of my story.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"A3RFMAWDQBBDZD3QL7PI26OJVE","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260831},"content":"But it’s just not to be the final chapter. The truly gripping tales are rarely linear.","type":"text"},{"_id":"3OZN4D5QKJHNTN23OLEZ2ZFEB4","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260832},"content":"The 2026 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow next July stand out as a likely first milestone target.","type":"text"},{"_id":"43AOVU7WZRBYRHEA4U4PSPAQLM","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260833},"content":"She’s not explicitly looking for a redemption story, but if it plays out that way, no harm.","type":"text"},{"_id":"SXLSOEPEBRG2TM34LTNEA3YISE","subtype":"pullquote","type":"quote"},{"_id":"PMFZ4TCCUFBOZLCCCTJY47PPM4","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260834},"content":"By declaring her LA intentions, Broadhurst knows she is making herself vulnerable again. There’s no guarantee any of it will work out. It’s a gamble. But that never stopped her before.","type":"text"},{"_id":"XIKGM2RHU5CV7BJZM3D5EHVTIY","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260835},"content":"Anyhow, life is forever moving forward. They have gone with a Winnie the Pooh-themed nursery. A large Tigger teddy Amy received for her communion has been refreshed and rehomed. Pluck is digging out a childhood toy of his own.","type":"text"},{"_id":"5H3KDOUEFRFPDLFDSTBQ2EOVXQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260836},"content":"“I’m really looking forward to our little boy arriving,” says Broadhurst. “There is so much to look forward to now. I’m mad to get back training as well, really excited.","type":"text"},{"_id":"CO5I62LL7VGGPK3B7XHKDKFESU","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260837},"content":"“My parents travel everywhere when I’m competing, so we will be able to bring him with us. How cool would it be if he got to watch his mum and dad in the Olympics.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"DYZBU7VMGZCNHKAROG5GZXCGWA","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260838},"content":"Now, there’s an ending.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ZVJK6QCD7ZHKLMYTHFEPNINGBE","additional_properties":{"_id":1741277260839},"content":"","type":"text"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"metered"},"credits":{"by":[{"additional_properties":{"original":{"byline":"Gordon Manning"}},"name":"Gordon Manning"}]},"description":{"basic":"After switching from Ireland to Team GB ‘it was a really horrible atmosphere ... it was very difficult’"},"display_date":"2025-03-09T06:00:00Z","headlines":{"basic":"Amy Broadhurst: ‘I was on the Irish team, then on the British team, now I’m on no team'","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"5469"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"W6PPT52SUBHVZOAV776Q5P47CU","auth":{"1":"0f72813c84f55c493849b6531c80eb25b14d066e8030716bf618e18e801d98ea"},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/W6PPT52SUBHVZOAV776Q5P47CU.JPG"}},"subtype":"feature","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Sport"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/sport/boxing/2025/03/09/former-iba-world-champion-amy-broadhurst-boxing-clever-despite-tough-time-on-the-ropes/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/sport/boxing","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Boxing"}}}},{"_id":"TVMMHC4RHJF5VECBFDQDS4OY54","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":157,"audio_url":"https://beyondwords-cdn-b7fyckdeejejb6dj.a03.azurefd.net/audio/projects/8948/podcasts/988c4c30-635b-4279-8e91-21b1fce541e7/versions/1741272626/media/04b3bdb3cb6a2de64c3f299e5f60e9e8_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/sport/boxing/2025/03/06/katie-taylor-to-fight-amanda-serrano-in-madison-square-garden-rematch/","content_elements":[{"_id":"JFIVIEGQ7VAZ5LDNF5FUVGBZ5U","additional_properties":{},"content":"<a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/katie-taylor/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"\" title=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/katie-taylor/\">Katie Taylor</a> will face Amanda Serrano in a rematch at Madison Square Garden in New York City this July.","type":"text"},{"_id":"EKWOKHVWS5DAPMHGWLOVCQ4ZTU","additional_properties":{},"content":"The Bray fighter first met Serrano in April 2022, making history as the first women’s fight to headline Madison Square Garden. Taylor won the bout on a split decision.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ETZGMY473NCZFPWGPO452ROTY4","additional_properties":{},"content":"Following the success of the first fight, there was quickly talk of a rematch, however it took some time to come to pass.","type":"text"},{"_id":"MFDDFR2L2NHP3M4B5ARL6K7TIA","additional_properties":{},"content":"Last November the pair finally returned to the ring, this time in Arlington, Texas. The result again went Taylor’s way, seeing her remain the undisputed super lightweight champion.","type":"text"},{"_id":"JOYX6SEXI5HDNGAX5DC4STHCN4","additional_properties":{},"content":"Taylor vs Serrano 3 will take place on Friday, July 11th, headlining Madison Square Garden’s first-ever all-women’s professional boxing card.","type":"text"},{"_id":"YXR4FQCOWFB63HUFUUVYN72TAE","additional_properties":{},"content":"The championship fight, which will be contested over 10, two-minute rounds, will be streamed live globally on Netflix.","type":"text"},{"_id":"MMURCIXUTVCCDD4PB4T6LIIFI4","additional_properties":{},"content":"“I’m 2 and 0 against Amanda but it’s obviously a very special rivalry that delivers every time we step in the ring so I think it’s only right that we have the trilogy,” Taylor said following confirmation of the rematch. ","type":"text"},{"_id":"D7WXHBHDIJBRJG22QK4PDKAGF4","additional_properties":{},"content":"“The atmosphere for the first fight there was amazing and I’m sure it won’t be any different this time around. The numbers that got to see the last fight in November were incredible so hopefully those people will all want to tune in for the trilogy fight as well and we can deliver another great fight.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"DBRRBHCGBFAXPB22DPN73MG7TM","additional_properties":{},"content":"Of her 25 professional fights to date, Taylor has taken 24 wins, including six knockouts. Her only defeat came against Chantelle Cameron in May 2023.","type":"text"},{"_id":"5URLDVXB25FRXDBUV2FXQ24TFE","additional_properties":{},"content":"Unified featherweight world champion Serrano meanwhile has taken 47 professional wins (31 knockouts) to three losses and one draw.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ZRKPPJ5KFRCGNHOLM7LY7KPZOI","additional_properties":{},"content":"“I promised my fans they would see this trilogy, and I’m incredibly grateful that we get to complete our journey where it all began – at Madison Square Garden, live on Netflix for the world to see,” the Puerto Rican said.","type":"text"},{"_id":"HEIKT3E2MBAVVJWLCFGJINOG5I","additional_properties":{},"content":"“I’m disappointed that Katie Taylor did not keep her word and make the trilogy 12 three-minute rounds, equal to the men.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"BJ4MNLHZRJFGLKSHV5MRY7I2F4","additional_properties":{},"content":"“This is a record-setting pay-day for both of us, and we owed it to the fans to honour the handshake deal we made. She didn’t,” Serrano claimed.","type":"text"},{"_id":"FLT4LCHGZJCTFNEQAG2FPNGR5A","additional_properties":{},"content":"“But make no mistake, every time we share the ring, it is war, and I know Friday, July 11th, will be the greatest yet because I will finally get the official W I deserve.”","type":"text"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"metered"},"credits":{"by":[{"additional_properties":{"original":{"byline":"Muireann Duffy"}},"name":"Muireann Duffy"}]},"description":{"basic":"Fight to take place in New York on July 11th"},"display_date":"2025-03-06T14:22:24.303Z","headlines":{"basic":"Katie Taylor to fight Amanda Serrano in Madison Square Garden rematch","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"8948"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"3WXXLDPL2BDSZIN7T7TQWENTLM","auth":{"1":"de26e7c2d759f3dd93682d49b4d4ca7e12350536f9e2f5eb8b038391d4183b46"},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/3WXXLDPL2BDSZIN7T7TQWENTLM.jpg"}},"subtype":"default","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Sport"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/sport/boxing/2025/03/06/katie-taylor-to-fight-amanda-serrano-in-madison-square-garden-rematch/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/sport/boxing","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Boxing"}}}},{"_id":"OGJNI2AHO5DJVAMHK6DI2YZXR4","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":371,"audio_url":"https://beyondwords-cdn-b7fyckdeejejb6dj.a03.azurefd.net/audio/projects/8948/podcasts/ecffdedf-e280-4a2c-a633-e09b718e3e74/versions/1740778090/media/530610d37c71d6b6a0269c5503628105_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/crime-law/2025/03/01/millions-of-dollars-under-the-table-daniel-kinahans-backroom-role-in-boxing/","content_elements":[{"_id":"STV4D5FJCZF3TKON4453D5KULU","additional_properties":{"_id":1740770663449},"content":"Crime cartel leader Daniel Kinahan was the beneficiary of a secret deal to receive millions of dollars “under the table” from a leading US boxing promoter, according to Californian court filings that purport to cast new light on Kinahan’s close relationship with champion fighter Tyson Fury.","type":"text"},{"_id":"RYR4N2CMA5FCNLSVBYUMVXWIPQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1740770663450},"content":"Kinahan is alleged to have a provided a “personal guarantee” for Fury’s fees when was he poached in February 2019 by US promoter Top Rank from rival promoter Frank Warren’s Queensberry promotions.","type":"text"},{"_id":"FED4SRNXCFHTHPSYNPHQHJRQAY","additional_properties":{"_id":1740770663451},"content":"The deal was struck after Top Rank’s agent William Keane spent two weeks in Dubai courting Kinahan and Fury, who was being advised by Kinahan. Mr Keane says he ran up more than $27,000 in expenses in that fortnight.","type":"text"},{"_id":"KLU5X24UUVG2LB2S2RAWXEMW6Q","additional_properties":{"_id":1740770663452},"content":"Mr Keane has issued a lawsuit against Top Rank claiming more than $25 million in unpaid fees. He claims Top Rank asked him to hire Fury because the business needed a star fighter to drive ratings under its deal with Walt Disney-owned cable sports broadcaster ESPN.","type":"text"},{"_id":"GIAPLJRZNBDVRMFCVBIYZJH26E","additional_properties":{"_id":1740770663453},"content":"Kinahan stepped forward to guarantee Fury’s fees after the fighter questioned Top Rank’s ability to pay, the lawsuit said.","type":"text"},{"_id":"2ZCKRYVQQJF4DEWJFQDZMQNHSM","additional_properties":{"_id":1740770663454},"content":"“Keane knew he had only one option. He had to turn to Kinahan for help. He did, and Kinahan offered to personally guarantee Fury’s contract.” ","type":"text"},{"_id":"M4CF44RN6REQPHZZLUANY4XHTI","additional_properties":{},"content":"Kinahan’s personal guarantee “was sufficient for Fury”.","type":"text"},{"_id":"EPVSK3NBHJGXJMSWSEULTJZFCU","additional_properties":{"_id":1740770663455},"content":"One month later, Kinahan himself is alleged to have been engaged as an “international consultant” by Top Rank president Todd duBoef.","type":"text"},{"_id":"SQUVEBTGNBG5BILKUDTDVKZNUA","additional_properties":{"_id":1740770663456},"content":"Mr Keane claims Mr duBoef turned to Kinahan because he was concerned that mixed-martial arts promoter UFC could hinder Top Rank by winning a boxing deal for itself from ESPN.","type":"text"},{"_id":"DH3ATC3KUJAJ3CUXTTUB7AQ6UA","additional_properties":{"_id":1740770663457},"content":"Kinahan’s role was to “help orchestrate Top Rank’s strategic move” into foreign markets.","type":"text"},{"_id":"G5N5J26K3NBOXB3J7PZYWC5NZM","additional_properties":{"_id":1740770663460},"content":"Still, the Kinahan arrangement was to be shielded from Mr duBoef’s stepfather and Top Rank founder Bob Arum. Mr Arum is a legendary veteran of the boxing world who became Muhammad Ali’s lawyer and promoter in the 1960s.","type":"text"},{"_id":"J7DWXX2UWZGZ7LXLAHIZ4EPPZI","additional_properties":{"_id":1740770663461},"content":"“Concerned Arum would overrule him if he found out, duBoef decided to pay Kinahan millions of dollars for his exclusivity to Top Rank ‘under the table’ without Arum’s knowledge or consent,” said the lawsuit.","type":"text"},{"_id":"MQXYQY6KGNE6DJ3OYL6XRJWZTM","additional_properties":{},"content":"Kinahan became upset with Mr duBoef before the final deal was struck because Mr duBoef had “started to back-pedal due to concerns that once Arum found out he would kill the deal”. ","type":"text"},{"_id":"5QWVQ5EU65BS7FUCPT2XYJZ4IY","additional_properties":{"_id":1740770663459},"content":"“DuBoef naturally asked Keane to smooth things over with Kinahan before duBoef would speak with him directly. ","type":"text"},{"_id":"S6EFMTP6S5GB7MWCLMQNG43TD4","additional_properties":{},"content":"“DuBoef expressed that having Kinahan’s muscle exclusively backing duBoef would be a massive advantage when it came to potential competitors and duBoef’s plans for European expansion.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"TJXA2JOJNRHNPJYMODM2VNVRGE","content":"Tyson Fury refuses to address Daniel Kinahan sanctions story at press conference","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"7PVQUHSTXJBE5PNHANYOSGJHLE","additional_properties":{"_id":1740770663462},"content":"Kinahan and his brother Christopher jnr are alleged to run the huge international drug trafficking operation established by their father, Christopher snr. Based in Dubai after moving from Dublin, they are the target of a widespread Garda investigation and were hit by US financial and travel sanctions three years ago.","type":"text"},{"_id":"7XDKD27PGJBNDIS2P5S5ULJCUM","additional_properties":{"_id":1740770663463},"content":"The American sanctions led to the closure of MTK Global, the boxing promotion company Daniel Kinahan founded in 2012 which on to become a powerful force in the top echelon of international boxing. Kinahan maintained he sold the business in 2017.","type":"text"},{"_id":"UKGGOBAA5VGJBDMCBLYEG4EPZY","additional_properties":{"_id":1740770663464},"content":"When the sanctions were imposed, Mr Arum told NewsTalk radio in Dublin that he would not do business with Kinahan because of measures taken by the US authorities.","type":"text"},{"_id":"6Q6BEV33DVD4DDGZJIVLUJ46BY","additional_properties":{"_id":1740770663465},"content":"Despite claims that Mr duBoef wanted to shut out Mr Arum from the Kinahan deal, the lawsuit claimed Mr Arum and Kinahan were themselves closely aligned against Mr duBoef within Top Rank.","type":"text"},{"_id":"PIP7DOWPLLAICANPGQHTO7VR3M","additional_properties":{},"type":"image"},{"_id":"HEK2QA4ICJHBNEP4LZ2Q5YBJRM","additional_properties":{"_id":1740770663466},"content":"“DuBoef was oblivious to the fact that both Kinahan and Arum had no confidence in his judgment or management acumen. In fact, while in Kazakhstan, Kinahan confided in Arum that he was concerned about duBoef’s ability to lead the company after a meeting in which Kinahan told Arum how disliked duBoef is throughout boxing and is viewed as utterly incompetent,” the lawsuit said.","type":"text"},{"_id":"JRGBMCBK6JHVTI54WONV2FGUVQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1740770663467},"content":"“When they returned to the United States, Arum confided in Keane and shared his concerns about duBoef’s competence and potential as the future leader of Top Rank. Arum then instructed Keane to manage the Kinahan relationship and ‘not let [duBoef] f**k it up’.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"K4CEVWLYINF53DESTN56H5YADY","additional_properties":{"_id":1740770663468},"content":"Mr Keane claims Mr duBoef later developed “second thoughts” about the Kinahan arrangement because of concerns it would damage a prospective deal with Sky Sports in 2021.","type":"text"},{"_id":"QZ5SA4LJLJCPNMOIQ6FOHHS4OM","additional_properties":{"_id":1740770663469},"content":"Mr duBoef saw the link with Sky as the start of his plan for Top Rank to dominate boxing in the same way that UFC dominated mixed martial arts.","type":"text"},{"_id":"WBUZA26YVJB43ATODYSRCV33RI","additional_properties":{"_id":1740770663470},"content":"“DuBoef was concerned, however, about his alliance with Kinahan. According to duBoef, if Sky Sports learned that Top Rank was affiliated with Kinahan, it would blow the deal because Kinahan was still the subject of negative press in the UK,” the lawsuit said.","type":"text"},{"_id":"EYJS2VNEBJAHTMRDQGUNAXHU74","additional_properties":{"_id":1740770663471},"content":"“Even though duBoef said he needed Kinahan’s MTK roster of UK fighters as well as Kinahan’s ability to poach Queensberry fighters at will, he told Keane that he was going to have to publicly, and to some extent privately, distance himself from Kinahan. As a consequence, duBoef told Keane that he needed him to fully take over the relationship with Kinahan and manage the relationships with all of Top Rank’s UK fighters.","type":"text"},{"_id":"KRWI3WIX7VG7JNFM5IKNC67VVE","additional_properties":{"_id":1740770663472},"content":"“DuBoef told Keane that he considered him to be his partner and needed assurances that Keane would be loyal to him, rather than to Arum, Kinahan or anyone else.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"3L7SPPTXO5B2PBNC4YM5U6V3DI","additional_properties":{"_id":1740770663473},"content":"","type":"text"},{"_id":"YIXV7UTEBND5FBMTPDZDSVMWTU","additional_properties":{"_id":1740770663474},"content":"Mr duBoef called Mr Keane “in a panic” when Kinahan was sanctioned in 2022. “This time, duBoef asked Keane to lie to senior ESPN executives and say that duBoef had nothing to do with Kinahan and had never even met him.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"BUXSPU644ZDQBCOS2KQXU422VY","additional_properties":{"_id":1740770663475},"content":"Top Rank did not immediately reply to a request for comment emailed to its communications representative.","type":"text"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"metered"},"credits":{"by":[{"additional_properties":{"original":{"byline":"Arthur Beesley"}},"name":"Arthur Beesley"}]},"description":{"basic":"Court filings cast new light on Irish crime boss’s dealings with big promoters and relationship with champion fighter Tyson Fury"},"display_date":"2025-02-28T21:21:02.515Z","headlines":{"basic":"Millions of dollars ‘under the table’: Daniel Kinahan’s backroom role in boxing ","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"8948"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"V64PDIVLCRVTA67KT36HEGZ4CU","auth":{"1":"c2463eaf4c93d3e8652ea29ad60979a0973225d33db4dccbd9cb421f21402382"},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/V64PDIVLCRVTA67KT36HEGZ4CU.jpg"}},"subtype":"default","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Crime & 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States.","type":"text"},{"_id":"TM75VIEUB5A6DFK35YYFHUES3M","additional_properties":{"_id":1740588229484},"content":"The IOC said in a statement: “World Boxing has continued to make progress regarding the identified areas of consideration in order to be recommended for IOC Provisional Recognition as the IF [international federation] with the Olympic movement governing the sport of boxing at world level.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"V2PJI4GOJFD2HPEBSD2Q7PZ6QM","additional_properties":{"_id":1740588229485},"content":"Ireland remains an absentee from World Boxing’s current list of members and the organisation acknowledged it must do more to convince the IOC that the future of Olympic boxing lies in its hands.","type":"text"},{"_id":"H2OWAFWO6JCKNDVRZFNFQXY2BE","additional_properties":{"_id":1740588229486},"content":"World Boxing president Boris van der Vorst said: “Today’s decision by the IOC is an important milestone, however everyone connected with World Boxing understands that being part of the Olympic Movement is a privilege and a responsibility and not a right.","type":"text"},{"_id":"OXODCORDTRAHPK6XONFZMC356U","additional_properties":{"_id":1740588229487},"content":"“There is still a lot of work to do and everyone is as committed as ever to continuing to work together and doing everything within our power to deliver a better future for our sport and ensuring that boxing remains at heart of the Olympic Movement.”","type":"text"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"metered"},"credits":{"by":[]},"description":{"basic":"Sport faced axe from Games after decision to banish previous governing body over governance and financial concerns"},"display_date":"2025-02-26T17:12:32.634Z","headlines":{"basic":"World Boxing granted IOC recognition as sport takes step towards LA 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promoter Eddie Hearn has warned that the sport “changed tonight” after the incident in which Chris Eubank Jr slapped rival Conor Benn with an egg as their personal enmity boiled over in a press conference in Manchester ahead of their middleweight clash in April.","type":"text"},{"_id":"YXSCJOF3XZAVBOMIS6OK2LLHZ4","additional_properties":{},"content":"Hearn, who represents Benn, told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme on Wednesday: “I’ll choose my words carefully [as I’m on the BBC] but I wasn’t overly happy with it if I’m honest. I never feel like you should lay a hand on a fighter at a press conference, especially not with an object.","type":"text"},{"_id":"OYJI2LHDPVD7HKMLAGF2IVX354","additional_properties":{},"content":"“It was always going to be a volatile build-up and it just turned up a notch. All bets are off now because I didn’t like what I saw from Eubank. It’s the fight game and everything with Eubank is premeditated and it will go viral and some people will like it but just understand the game changed tonight.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"R4XU3ZC7IFF47FMDJZ2AFLWN6M","additional_properties":{},"content":"During a heated exchange on Tuesday night, Eubank had already made reference to two drugs tests Benn failed in 2022 due to what the World Boxing Council called a “highly elevated consumption of eggs” – an offence for which he has since been cleared.","type":"text"},{"_id":"7COTMFDEE5FNNH53PSN4UJ7EZA","additional_properties":{},"content":"And as the fighters faced off on stage, Eubank pulled an egg from his pocket and smashed it against Benn’s face, sparking a brawl as Hearn and Benn’s father Nigel tried to get at Eubank and his team.","type":"text"},{"_id":"CRVRW4HWCVHXBGZIFF5BOP57QQ","additional_properties":{},"content":"Eubank and Benn will fight at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on April 26th, but had originally been due to face off in October 2022 before Benn’s failed tests forced the fight to be called off.","type":"text"},{"_id":"4VXWUI76EFHH5EYJB5ZOXR66ZU","additional_properties":{},"content":"“Conor, I have been meaning to ask you how many eggs you had to eat to fail those drugs tests,” Eubank said during the press conference. “All you and Eddie say is, ‘We are cleared’, but you don’t say how. I am not an academic, but I know one thing – you are a drug cheat.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"RBI6N4GMLFBHTHYDKIDLRWOXFA","additional_properties":{},"content":"Benn originally tested positive for the female fertility drug clomifene.","type":"text"},{"_id":"HXSXUEN57DKXVROY3N4GNAHCMY","additional_properties":{},"type":"image"},{"_id":"5GH3W742FRFNNLJ7PKLCQAQRMQ","additional_properties":{},"content":"The 28-year-old, who has a 23-0 record, was cleared to fight in the UK in November last year after the UK Anti-Doping Agency announced it would not appeal against a decision from the National Anti-Doping Panel to lift his ban, with the British Boxing Board of Control also declining to appeal.","type":"text"},{"_id":"I6JC36FEQBGWJPJVWW4D36ITYM","additional_properties":{},"content":"It remains a sore point for Benn and before the main press conference he was involved in an angry exchange with a journalist when asked if he was going to use a foreign licence for the fight.","type":"text"},{"_id":"53GHNC4EZVAS7P2BZCSM6YIMNM","additional_properties":{},"content":"“If somebody starts asking me trick questions, I’ll throw you out of the room,” Benn said. “I’ll drag you by the neck outside and put you outside.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"DSJVGRVZVVCTDE4AHN4GLGPCBU","additional_properties":{},"content":"It all added to the bad blood between the two fighters, whose fathers Chris Eubank and Nigel Benn twice fought each other during the 1990s and whose rivalry has grown to something that the latter said was “very personal”.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ERCFPLIVN5CJBBOIEMH7DVZ6ME","additional_properties":{},"content":"Benn promised he would force the 35-year-old Eubank into retirement when the pair meet in a fight that will take place in the latter’s division, at 160lbs, rather than at a catchweight.","type":"text"},{"_id":"G7CVBFBEUFAGRIEW6YDQXYFO74","additional_properties":{},"content":"“What I have been through is very public but I want to just get in there and end this man’s career,” Benn said. “I just can’t take him seriously, every time he stepped up, he failed. This is the end [for him], I am 28. He chose to fight a welterweight over all of the middleweight world champions.","type":"text"},{"_id":"4GTKBTFCARD6XLROGO2QR43G2Y","additional_properties":{},"content":"“I am going to render you unconscious, just like Liam Smith did, had you dancing all funny. You can retire off into the sunset with this retirement fund. Because you are done.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"FADTORCLAZEOVLINO4Q4PSZV4A","additional_properties":{},"content":"Eubank, who has a 34-3 record, said the contest was a fight between “two bad guys” given his own reputation.","type":"text"},{"_id":"UH4WZAM4U5A5ZF6DI4UKJJNKUY","additional_properties":{},"content":"“The bad guy is back again, he never cheats or lies but he is still the bad guy,” he said of himself. “For the first time in boxing history, in a mega-fight, there are two bad guys. I have been booed into all my fights since 2014, 11 years of being a bad guy, I’m a veteran. A super-villain. It’s a cold dark moment when you realise thousands of people want to see you hurt and lose.” – Guardian","type":"text"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"metered"},"credits":{"by":[]},"description":{"basic":"‘I never feel like you should lay a hand on a fighter at a press conference, especially not with an object’"},"display_date":"2025-02-26T13:21:19.655Z","headlines":{"basic":"Eddie Hearn warns ‘boxing has changed’ after Eubank hits Benn with egg at face-off","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"5469"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"W5AV66BX3DFZ6HC27UT45HJKBA","auth":{"1":"a22aa6b9b64d86ff8c117fa104c65da6e620da9d1768f7973bf4c90c241b0060"},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/W5AV66BX3DFZ6HC27UT45HJKBA.jpg"}},"subtype":"default","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Sport"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/sport/boxing/2025/02/26/eddie-hearn-warns-boxing-has-changed-after-eubank-hits-benn-with-egg-at-face-off/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/sport/boxing","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Boxing"}}}},{"_id":"AQKPTBQWINABPAKTDUUYK7CLW4","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":329,"audio_url":"https://beyondwords-cdn-b7fyckdeejejb6dj.a03.azurefd.net/audio/projects/5469/podcasts/2139692e-b101-46f1-95e3-ac7b35073d63/versions/1739477814/media/c0f3c79f4b1229af95a553ee178991d1_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/sport/boxing/2025/02/14/john-cooneys-death-wont-change-boxing-it-will-always-be-dangerous/","content_elements":[{"_id":"ML42K3J7RVEJBFDJD4S7Q4WK4Y","additional_properties":{"_id":1739474964767},"content":"The sobering history of <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/boxing/\" target=\"_blank\">boxing</a> has forever been blood and glory. It sits among the risk sports for longer than any other.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ZWY5EQEZF5FXXC7DEKMD42HGQQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1739474964768},"content":"Some people choose ripping along country roads at Portstewart, Coleraine and Portrush on Honda Fireblades in the Northwest 200.","type":"text"},{"_id":"HBRIVZHBGBBHJIX3F4JZCSYO7I","additional_properties":{"_id":1739474964769},"content":"Others sit in Nepal or Tibet base camps and see a different kind of majesty in conquering the mountain. But with Everest, motorcycle racing and professional boxing, the sports will always take a few each year.","type":"text"},{"_id":"NTIBGBCCJBBBLE4GCI74YJCXZ4","additional_properties":{"_id":1739474964770},"content":"Last Saturday, 28-year-old super-featherweight boxer <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/boxing/2025/02/08/irish-boxer-john-cooney-dies-week-on-from-belfast-title-fight/\" target=\"_blank\">John Cooney</a> died after his defeat by Welshman Nathan Howells in <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/belfast/\" target=\"_blank\">Belfast</a> the previous weekend. The <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/galway/\" target=\"_blank\">Galway</a> boxer <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/boxing/2025/02/03/boxer-john-cooney-in-intensive-care-after-title-fight-defeat-in-belfast/\" target=\"_blank\">suffered an intracranial haemorrhage</a> after the bout was stopped in the ninth round.","type":"text"},{"_id":"U7KN2WVKBVGZJOZOXRMDX7HO64","additional_properties":{"_id":1739474964771},"content":"Just more than a year ago we watched Cooney win the Celtic title with a first-round win over Liam Gaynor. It was an appropriate stage for such a talent, a sold-out 3Arena in Dublin on the undercard of <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/katie-taylor/\" target=\"_blank\">Katie Taylor’s</a> world title win over Chantelle Cameron.","type":"text"},{"_id":"7YPAUMH6ERHTZPFPDBLMQXU4CY","additional_properties":{"_id":1739474964772},"content":"Cooney’s triumph in Dublin makes this week’s tragedy more poignant. That night he went into the ring with the same confident mindset that Joey Dunlop had when he threw his leg over his machine in Estonia in 2000, or Ireland’s John Delaney when he started off on his journey up Everest in 2011.","type":"text"},{"_id":"K5RDWAAMXFF2DONDLB472ZCBDI","additional_properties":{"_id":1739474964773},"content":"What bound them together at the end of their lives was spirit, ambition and a fearless sensibility. But most of all they had bulletproof self-belief. They didn’t just like their chosen sport. It wasn’t a pastime or hobby. They didn’t do it for health reasons, to stay trim or find a social circle.","type":"text"},{"_id":"4MWV6DEQ4JA2LFM3J7BAFTKIPM","additional_properties":{"_id":1739474964774},"content":"They didn’t play racing or mountaineering or boxing. You can’t play those sports. They participated because it was part of them.","type":"text"},{"_id":"VU2B3ADUS5FQ5LUWJTHOXFMSGQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1739474964775},"content":"As always when catastrophe unexpectedly strikes, people clamour for change, look to see if anything can be done so that it will not happen again. Over the years, boxing has done that. Doctors closely monitor the fighters, oxygen is at hand and there is an ambulance on site.","type":"text"},{"_id":"P2O3BFDGR5D4RHHJGXOM3FEGPU","additional_properties":{"_id":1739474964776},"content":"Still, while estimates vary, as many as 500 boxers have died since the sport was formalised with rules by the Marquess of Queensberry in 1884.","type":"text"},{"_id":"NIPUQLZO2RGLBKC5JYVDW57NGE","additional_properties":{"_id":1739474964777},"content":"In 2018 a book called Dog Rounds – Death and Life in the Boxing Ring was published. Its author Elliot Worsell sought out and interviewed boxers who had killed their opposite number.","type":"text"},{"_id":"4KELZOIATFGR5IFBXIIAI5HFDM","additional_properties":{"_id":1739474964778},"content":"One was <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/barry-mcguigan/\" target=\"_blank\">Barry McGuigan</a>, whose 1982 fight with African opponent Young Ali resulted in the Nigerian being knocked out in the sixth round. Ali fell into a six-month coma before he died of his injuries.","type":"text"},{"_id":"BXMMBW4M5FHL7CALKYSZGJE3I4","additional_properties":{"_id":1739474964779},"content":"“I hit him right on the nose, his eyes just rolled back. It was a haunting moment. I knew he wasn’t going to get up from that,” said McGuigan.","type":"text"},{"_id":"VNGFHI6M4VBBTBHLERR63CWTTU","additional_properties":{"_id":1739474964781},"content":"In 2020 the former world champion appeared in The Mail Online, again talking about the catastrophic incident in London.","type":"text"},{"_id":"RHNHAMSJ75HM5DU7THRKFZZ4TQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1739474964782},"content":"“After that I didn’t know if I wanted to box or not. If I can do this sort of damage to someone ... it happens, but it’s such a tragedy and it’s the one thing we as boxing fans don’t want to ever happen again. But it happened before, and it will happen again.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"EHFCZPGB6C6YQBTGIROG6WVTDU","additional_properties":{"_id":1739474964780},"type":"image"},{"_id":"4XJPUPG5AFH6VEP7WNJOWDHJUE","additional_properties":{"_id":1739474964783},"content":"There was no requirement for McGuigan to be prescient in knowing his tragic night would be repeated somewhere. His continued anguish also spoke to the pebble in the pond and the ripple effect. The team around the boxer, the opponent who caused the injuries and most of all the heartbroken family, whose lives changed forever.","type":"text"},{"_id":"JFJWBQFAJBDRBEVDUK7U7PXESE","additional_properties":{"_id":1739474964784},"content":"Taking grains of solace, Cooney’s family in a statement spoke of a son, a brother and a fiancee, “who lived and died chasing his dream”. It seemed like cold comfort.","type":"text"},{"_id":"EAOEFUCOBNCT5IFXPXKS5TZ6S4","additional_properties":{"_id":1739474964785},"content":"But through their immeasurable grief it also seemed that doing something in death that he loved was a fragment of consolation – perhaps the only one – and an acceptance of his choice.","type":"text"},{"_id":"SJL2EIMLDFGBFODFAH57TP35TE","additional_properties":{"_id":1739474964786},"content":"Some years ago, a motorbike racer described to me what it was like to hit 200mph down a country road. “Green blur, grey blur, red flash. Hedge, drystone wall, post box.” An indescribable cinematic reel of danger.","type":"text"},{"_id":"52F3WZSPPFCFLME3UOOGI7VCAY","additional_properties":{"_id":1739474964787},"content":"Like those bikes perilously traversing the northern coast of this island or summiting K2, boxing has the same intrinsic appeal and involves an absence of fear in those who take part.","type":"text"},{"_id":"EOIVHR5R3NCG7KUBFIDK7EUAHQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1739474964788},"content":"McGuigan, although he wrestled with his conscience about continuing to box, went on to take the WBA world featherweight title from Eusébio Pedroza three years later at Loftus Road.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ZPTCLJDFCZFYPAQZNDL7I5OTOM","additional_properties":{"_id":1739474964789},"content":"In Dog Rounds, Worsell questioned his place in the sport and as a boxing fan asked if he was somehow complicit in the deaths.","type":"text"},{"_id":"UWM3EOSQ5RGNPKUYJX6GALFIKE","additional_properties":{"_id":"2XNBOBDSHNFA3B3EEYCU4AC7JM"},"content":"‘A lovely sweet kid’: tributes paid to John Cooney after Irish boxer’s death","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"PFCHTECALFC7JMGCPLQWCLSXIA","additional_properties":{"_id":1739474964790},"content":"In a short but all encapsulating synopsis of the book published on Goodreads, the tragedies were described as a trigger for a slew of emotions and consequences.","type":"text"},{"_id":"4LFL6KS5LFEGNHMIYDDBCCHOAM","additional_properties":{"_id":1739474964791},"content":"“Worsell reveals the extent of the devastation left behind,” it said. “In doing so he uncovers an incredible story of guilt, forgiveness, obsession, and violence. What results is a powerful look at the past, present, and future of one of the world’s most dangerous sports.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"PIUFA7WLFFBKHJOTKASSUSV7CM","additional_properties":{"_id":1739474964792},"content":"Today, those close to Cooney may mournfully recognise some of those things. But their grief won’t change boxing. It will remain dangerous.","type":"text"},{"_id":"7ZAVNA75UJHFJKBLIBJ3BYXQHI","additional_properties":{"_id":1739474964793},"content":"Nobody plays the blame game in such calamitous occasions. If they do, then as Cooney is buried in Rahoon cemetery, no less than McGuigan or Howells, in our celebration of boxing we are all in some way complicit.","type":"text"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"metered"},"credits":{"by":[{"additional_properties":{"original":{"byline":"Johnny Watterson"}},"name":"Johnny Watterson"}]},"description":{"basic":"While estimates vary, as many as 500 boxers have died since the sport was formalised in 1884"},"display_date":"2025-02-14T06:00:00Z","headlines":{"basic":"John Cooney’s death won’t change boxing. It will always be dangerous","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"5469"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"7NUUAQ3DCQXYSBT2FXFCIFY564","auth":{"1":"a8073dbd34a48762352a9c42f96112423311bbede6f6c3616e1ba45408f3a909"},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/7NUUAQ3DCQXYSBT2FXFCIFY564.jpg"}},"subtype":"columnist","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Sport"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/sport/boxing/2025/02/14/john-cooneys-death-wont-change-boxing-it-will-always-be-dangerous/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/sport/boxing","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Boxing"}}}},{"_id":"KNU2OG7FINDHNGK3HSPZ6M5TYM","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":199,"audio_url":"https://beyondwords-cdn-b7fyckdeejejb6dj.a03.azurefd.net/audio/projects/5469/podcasts/ff2d98ab-55d2-4f93-9760-bc2102e6db1c/versions/1739199366/media/bbd7f9c1de3c17f8055f9d5c04c434c2_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/sport/boxing/2025/02/10/a-lovely-sweet-kid-tributes-paid-to-john-cooney-after-irish-boxers-death/","content_elements":[{"_id":"KKBQKCXWJNCYBMGQHLWMKM4Z6A","additional_properties":{},"content":"John Cooney, the young Irish boxer who has died after a title fight in Belfast, has been described by the former world champion Barry McGuigan as a “lovely sweet kid” whose life was “snapped away”.","type":"text"},{"_id":"SP7G2MPQXFDCJKXDQBCPZWD6DQ","additional_properties":{},"content":"As a condolence book was opened at Belfast’s Ulster Hall, his manager Mark Dunlop said the death was “a complete tragedy”.","type":"text"},{"_id":"MPYSDQRWPJGNTGPLCGTORDN6J4","additional_properties":{},"content":"McGuigan told BBC Ulster it was “terrifying that this could happen to a 28-year-old kid who was looking in the prime of his life”.","type":"text"},{"_id":"TUWPITTVFZGY3OJZFFXYFW2KMQ","additional_properties":{},"content":"“He was just a lovely, sweet kid. Ambitious, determined and driven. To have his life snapped away like that is just tragic.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"Z5N7RKVSSRDXZMXANCIEJ6HCYM","additional_properties":{},"content":"Cooney, from Galway, was defending his Celtic super-featherweight championship title against the Welsh boxer Nathan Howells on Saturday, February 1st when he suffered an intercranial haemorrhage.","type":"text"},{"_id":"O355DIWTMZEZ3AAKG7SAJNQVDQ","additional_properties":{},"content":"The fight was stopped in the ninth round and, following a medical assessment, he was taken to Belfast’s Royal Victoria Hospital where he died a week later.","type":"text"},{"_id":"BMFQVUN2D5HV7GPSYC2WDUOMWU","additional_properties":{},"content":"His promoters, MHD Promotions, announced his death on Saturday, saying it had caused “complete devastation” that would take “a lifetime to forget”.","type":"text"},{"_id":"EHFCZPGB6C6YQBTGIROG6WVTDU","additional_properties":{},"type":"image"},{"_id":"NWWIAOTN7JHBPLQ2262D3IBTGA","additional_properties":{},"content":"Dunlop told the BBC that Cooney had a “great character” and “a big future” ahead of him when tragedy struck. “As much as it is a dangerous sport, the fatalities are rare, but they are there,” Dunlop said.","type":"text"},{"_id":"SKC7E6D7ARARNMWEO24CM2MSOI","additional_properties":{},"content":"“Boxing is a dangerous sport. Every fighter knows the dangers but like everything no one thinks it’s going to come to their door,” he added. “It enhances more lives than it destroys or takes.","type":"text"},{"_id":"SIGKB664MFFQLB7IJA3QOTMOEM","additional_properties":{},"content":"“One of John’s sayings was ‘tomorrow is not promised’ and he certainly lived for the day, so he deserves this attention.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"YV3BQDQL75GTDHXNXKHX2TUXS4","additional_properties":{},"content":"Cooney’s death will renew questions about the dangers of boxing and repeated blows to the head taken by fighters.","type":"text"},{"_id":"VQCCLCLHYJFP3EDDW2CA6BRFOI","additional_properties":{},"content":"Colin Doherty, a consultant neurologist and head of the school of medicine at Trinity College, Dublin expressed concern about all sports – including rugby – in which players suffer “head injuries, subconcussive and concussive blows”.","type":"text"},{"_id":"BUZZWE453NB6ZB4CVO3VZDE2RY","additional_properties":{},"content":"He called for a joint effort to make such sports safer. “Let us get people together, let the government bring people together, including people like myself and the sports people and players and fans, and lets make these things safer, because they aren’t as safe as they could be, and that’s just a simple fact,” he told RTÉ.","type":"text"},{"_id":"NQ5HDUEKAZIXQTA6R4BR3PJJTM","additional_properties":{},"type":"image"},{"_id":"KS5XFLSS4BGHTPP6JKGINJEKOQ","additional_properties":{},"content":"Fellow Galway boxer Kieran Molloy described Cooney as “a fantastic boxer, a young man just chasing his dreams”.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ZQGYPGWQFNHGJKAIAYBDMSV3PY","additional_properties":{},"content":"“He was on the verge of some very big fights. He had a huge future ahead of him and he was a very proud Galway man,” Molloy told RTÉ.","type":"text"},{"_id":"J7VE4HIKNFDE5IQ4AAXXNF7ZZY","additional_properties":{},"content":"The former double WBO European champion Conrad Cummings wrote on X: “John Cooney the warrior gave up his fight & passed away this evening. I am deeply saddened, I can’t begin to think of the hurt his poor fiancee & family are going through. I pray they find the strength.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"FV2BOR65HNBL5CM43B22P3NXGQ","additional_properties":{},"content":"On Saturday, the Galway Amateur Boxing Association described Cooney’s death as “the worst possible news”.","type":"text"},{"_id":"GOYBYXBU2JDSDE46M7CODKW3DU","additional_properties":{},"content":"“John lost the battle for his life today having spent the past week in intensive care following a professional bout in Belfast,” it said in a statement. “There are no words to convey the magnitude of this tragedy or that can lessen the grief of his family.”","type":"text"}],"credits":{"by":[{"name":"Lisa O'Carroll in Dublin"}]},"description":{"basic":"Galway-born fighter died after intercranial haemorrhage with fresh calls to make sports such as boxing and rugby safer"},"display_date":"2025-02-10T14:54:33.299Z","headlines":{"basic":"‘A lovely sweet kid’: tributes paid to John Cooney after Irish boxer’s death","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"5469"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"GWNGY37KRPMAY4WEX27JGJ3SXI","auth":{"1":"745e100b0ac131234c4a0d7968eb033d8730c47c4b0822eebd84a59acdebfd59"},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/GWNGY37KRPMAY4WEX27JGJ3SXI.JPG"}},"subtype":"default","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Sport"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/sport/boxing/2025/02/10/a-lovely-sweet-kid-tributes-paid-to-john-cooney-after-irish-boxers-death/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/sport/boxing","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Boxing"}}}},{"_id":"75XHBHDVN5BK3PE3U5QRH6BMO4","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":83,"audio_url":"https://beyondwords-cdn-b7fyckdeejejb6dj.a03.azurefd.net/audio/projects/5469/podcasts/5bfafcd3-c971-46c5-9a40-f65f0a718753/versions/1739086160/media/469942c445e4c83430328efb842d86af_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/sport/boxing/2025/02/08/irish-boxer-john-cooney-dies-week-on-from-belfast-title-fight/","content_elements":[{"_id":"AJDRG5U3RJEYHOC73TESC6AMJU","additional_properties":{"_id":1739089412989},"content":"Irish <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/boxing/\" target=\"_blank\">boxer</a> John Cooney has died a week on from a title fight in <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/belfast/\" target=\"_blank\">Belfast</a>, his promoter Mark Dunlop has announced.","type":"text"},{"_id":"72MAKQBVGNBHZO4N4LCN7JGKOA","additional_properties":{"_id":1739089412990},"content":"A statement on Monday <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/boxing/2025/02/03/boxer-john-cooney-in-intensive-care-after-title-fight-defeat-in-belfast/\" target=\"_blank\">said the 28-year-old was in intensive care</a> following his defeat to Welshman Nathan Howells at the Ulster Hall last Saturday.","type":"text"},{"_id":"3KMOK5GAI5HMPPRFKGU56AGS4Y","additional_properties":{"_id":1739089412991},"content":"The bout was stopped in the ninth round and Cooney had subsequently undergone surgery after it was discovered he had an intracranial haemorrhage.","type":"text"},{"_id":"VPIZJMDFUZEELP2HZB3OLJ7S2E","additional_properties":{"_id":1739089412992},"content":"The bout was his first defence of the Celtic super-featherweight title.","type":"text"},{"_id":"5BZ7OONY4ZFQDAXGI25QRTEEIA","additional_properties":{"_id":1739089412993},"content":"A further statement was posted on Saturday night by Dunlop on behalf of the Cooney family, confirming the boxer had died following a “week of battling for his life”.","type":"text"},{"_id":"TQ5RRWJMJVGVLAC62OKXXCASHQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1739089412994},"content":"The statement read: “It is with complete devastation that we have to announce that after a week of battling for his life John Cooney has sadly passed away.","type":"text"},{"_id":"OOQ2W5FP5FERDAPNEQ5ADMR5AI","additional_properties":{"_id":1739089412995},"content":"“Mr and Mrs Cooney and his fiancee Emmaleen would like to thank the staff at Belfast’s Royal Victoria Hospital who have worked tirelessly to save John’s life and for everyone who has sent messages of support and prayers.","type":"text"},{"_id":"P7SESRTCWFA23IE4HRNYR7KB2Q","additional_properties":{"_id":1739089412996},"content":"“He was a much loved son, brother and partner and it will take us all a lifetime to forget how special he was. RIP John ‘the Kid’ Cooney.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"KBV6M6NCIVBLNJ3TGQGYTTYNKA","additional_properties":{"_id":1739089412997},"content":"Cooney won the title with a win over Liam Gaynor in <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/dublin/\" target=\"_blank\">Dublin</a> in November 2023 but spent a year out of the ring with a hand injury.","type":"text"},{"_id":"GIS67NCGLJGXFD2TNHN6V7WMHA","additional_properties":{"_id":1739089412998},"content":"He returned in October with a victory over Tampela Maharusi.","type":"text"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"metered"},"credits":{"by":[]},"description":{"basic":"The 28-year-old had been in intensive care following last Saturday’s fight"},"display_date":"2025-02-08T20:48:40.494Z","headlines":{"basic":"Irish boxer John Cooney dies a week after Belfast title fight","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"5469"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"ZGLLFGFNVFB7LIEIGJ2Y23IZUE","auth":{"1":"610e479f3653d7a32f1ec27b0eae326009a1123b0cfb021f8380abb7dd65d4c5"},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/ZGLLFGFNVFB7LIEIGJ2Y23IZUE.jpg"}},"subtype":"default","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Sport"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/sport/boxing/2025/02/08/irish-boxer-john-cooney-dies-week-on-from-belfast-title-fight/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/sport/boxing","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Boxing"}}}},{"_id":"UAJ2H5IEXREI3HJXLKLUFAS43U","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":194,"audio_url":"https://beyondwords-cdn-b7fyckdeejejb6dj.a03.azurefd.net/audio/projects/5469/podcasts/2eade528-198f-4c23-a3f9-f5b23c184a57/versions/1738860123/media/cfcd427a167dceba91347128c5fc2a2e_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/sport/gaelic-games/2025/02/06/i-cant-see-it-happening-katie-taylor-fight-at-croke-park-not-on-the-cards-says-stadium-director/","content_elements":[{"_id":"NDH7VGYRKRBCTLNTQHYJ6TSUKQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1738879140755},"content":"<a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/croke-park/\">Croke Park</a> stadium director Peter McKenna has apparently ruled out a <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/katie-taylor/\">Katie Taylor</a> title fight taking place in the stadium this year.","type":"text"},{"_id":"MUKMYIGMVFHYPPR4PSWGQSV4OY","additional_properties":{"_id":1738879140756},"content":"Asked about the prospect at the launch of the GAA’s annual reports on Thursday, McKenna said, “no” despite apparent optimism on the part of promoter Eddie Hearn.","type":"text"},{"_id":"G5T5YTCFUFHGZJLXAF4R3EKZZI","additional_properties":{"_id":1738879140757},"content":"“Being honest, Eddie hasn’t been in touch with us. 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I’m going to keep this short and sweet,” Fury said in the video. “I would like to announce my retirement from boxing. It’s been a blast, I’ve loved every single minute and I’m going to end with this. Dick Turpin wore a mask. God bless everybody, see you on the other side.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"N5KVXJVS6BEYPF6AL55JPFOBBY","additional_properties":{"_id":1736782633007},"content":"Fury had previously announced his retirement from the ring back in 2022 after beating Dillian Whyte, only to return at the end of the year to fight Derek Chisora and going on to set up the unification bouts with Usyk. He also had short-lived retirements in 2013 and 2017.","type":"text"},{"_id":"CN5P2ULWCZFFZL5X3HX4UXA4NE","additional_properties":{"_id":1736782633009},"content":"The 36-year-old’s announcement has come at a time when pundits had been speculating over whether Fury could be tempted into a blockbuster fight against fellow British heavyweight Anthony Joshua.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ZD4UJKYDY5DF5BK3EWFAI2UCD4","additional_properties":{},"content":"Fury previously announced his intention to quit the sport after he retained his WBC belt by defeating Dillian Whyte at London’s Wembley Stadium in 2022.","type":"text"},{"_id":"M3QTHBVV6JAQLA4EE55IFEBPCU","additional_properties":{},"content":"The ‘Gypsy King’ said at the time: “I’ve been in this game 20 years, I’m 34 in a few months.","type":"text"},{"_id":"B6SK3HLX3FAIHANMTBHGKJUM4M","additional_properties":{},"content":"“I said the third (Deontay) Wilder fight would be my last, but I felt I owed the fans one last homecoming. This is definitely the end of the Gypsy King and I went out with a bang.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"NHAPPVWBMVFAHHWB2W5AU7PNGI","additional_properties":{},"content":"Fury returned to fight Chisora the following December and in October 2023 defeated French MMA fighter Francis Ngannou, his last win before facing Usyk. – Guardian & PA","type":"text"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"metered"},"credits":{"by":[]},"description":{"basic":"Former heavyweight champion announces retirement weeks after second defeat to Oleksandr Usyk"},"display_date":"2025-01-13T15:42:37.319Z","headlines":{"basic":"‘It’s been a blast’: Tyson Fury retires from boxing again","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"5469"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"JJBZTNQH4JOMRGZYKFM6NWEPWI","auth":{"1":"1d1e206f1aa449bfcba85ad07f3d7ad463eede518bd0fe9c3202b9502a45df77"},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/JJBZTNQH4JOMRGZYKFM6NWEPWI.jpg"}},"subtype":"default","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Sport"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/sport/boxing/2025/01/13/its-been-a-blast-tyson-fury-retires-from-boxing-again/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/sport/boxing","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Boxing"}}}},{"_id":"DP7YPC4UJVGZNJVWGPXF3WQW5I","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":177,"audio_url":"https://beyondwords-cdn-b7fyckdeejejb6dj.a03.azurefd.net/audio/projects/8948/podcasts/19935732-463e-41fe-871c-05a045764d01/versions/1736411714/media/92c467373681b9f39b13169cfe5d9459_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/life-style/people/2025/01/09/sugar-ray-leonard-on-the-defeat-that-still-hurts-he-kicked-he-cursed-me-he-even-cursed-my-wife/","content_elements":[{"_id":"EMTWFU7OYVH5NFBY3IAXXAX7WM","additional_properties":{"_id":1736409553771},"content":"American <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/boxing/\" target=\"_blank\">boxing </a>star Sugar Ray Leonard reflected on his “underdog” status and the highs and lows of his career at an address in <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/dublin/\" target=\"_blank\">Dublin </a>on Wednesday.","type":"text"},{"_id":"KP7GOBZGKZEEHCB6FYTCILDQZM","additional_properties":{"_id":1736409553772},"content":"The <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/olympic-games/\" target=\"_blank\">Olympic </a>gold medallist and six-time world champion was one of several guest speakers delving into topics of leadership and self-empowerment at the <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/pendulum-summit/\" target=\"_blank\">Pendulum Summit</a> in Convention Centre Dublin.","type":"text"},{"_id":"NBE5VJ7SFRGL5BYAA4SX56IXRM","additional_properties":{"_id":1736409553773},"content":"Leonard recalled meeting his namesake, the pianist and singer-songwriter Ray Charles, moments before his historic 1980 rematch with Panamanian boxer Roberto Durán.","type":"text"},{"_id":"JCSJW2SNWNCBLJ7YJQC5GGLI3I","additional_properties":{"_id":1736409553774},"content":"“My mother named me after Ray Charles because she thought I would be a singer and we knew right away that would not be the case. He sang America the Beautiful for that fight and when he walked over to me he gave me a big hug and a big kiss and he said ‘Ray, kick his ass’. And I said, ‘yes I will’.” Leonard went on to win the match.","type":"text"},{"_id":"XSI4R4Q5ANHSFK2LINRYPZDMWM","additional_properties":{"_id":1736409553775},"content":"Discussing his devastation over being defeated in his initial fight against Durán earlier that year, one of the rare losses of his boxing career, Leonard said that he “watched this loss over and over again”.","type":"text"},{"_id":"XSGW5FVYM5B4XI7PFCC6UD3ZXQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1736409553776},"content":"Speaking about the importance of mind over matter, Leonard expressed his regret over being taken out of his “game plan” by what he described as intimidation tactics on his opponent’s part.","type":"text"},{"_id":"CVQLIHUSDNGMFDEQT6SJKP53NM","additional_properties":{"_id":1736409553777},"content":"“He pushed me, he kicked, he cursed me. He even cursed my wife… he took me out of my game plan and he won the fight,” he said.","type":"text"},{"_id":"MXYJDPOGDJASFCYQQDL7A4FF3A","additional_properties":{"_id":1736409553778},"content":"Leonard said he owes his success in the ring to “sheer determination” and will power, emphasising the importance of self-esteem during his talk on Wednesday evening.","type":"text"},{"_id":"JAO2MTWIZFEDHMRNM5WVI5JGHA","additional_properties":{"_id":1736409553779},"content":"“When I entered that ring, April 6th, 1987, I knew something that very few people knew, and that was I was going to beat ‘Marvellous’ Marvin Hagler,” Leonard said.","type":"text"},{"_id":"NMR3RPRS6ZH67BLKOC4M2RHHAM","additional_properties":{"_id":1736409553780},"content":"“Some of you may remember this but I mean I was a huge, huge underdog, but through sheer determination and will, I was able to push not only my body but my mind to a whole other level.","type":"text"},{"_id":"5VOJM5WJN5B5LMHAL7OSD75XKE","additional_properties":{"_id":1736409553781},"content":"“Less than one hour later… I proved the critics wrong because my determination allowed me to do what they thought would be totally impossible.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"LRFFKBPJ3JHRDPFN2Q7BX42LW4","additional_properties":{"_id":"57W632YHZFAMPDCA32HG4Z3IGU"},"content":"Jimmy Carr: ‘When you get cancelled, it’s not the words of your enemies, it’s the silence of your friends’","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"ON5FEVHT55HENG2Z3PZD2U433E","additional_properties":{"_id":"BPENBCWA4FFBXMVN6RHNKGCCBI"},"content":"Former Finnish prime minister Sanna Marin: ‘We are seeing conservative, masculine forces rising up’","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"QYOLOW373FA7TMTW7BG7Q4D3NE","additional_properties":{"_id":1736409553782},"content":"Leonard played several clips from his old matches after reflecting on them, including a segment from his fight with hitherto undefeated Thomas “Hitman” Hearns, billed as The Showdown. The fight took place in Caesars Palace in Las Vegas on September 16th, 1981.","type":"text"},{"_id":"CIQ2IS3KRNHX5L2XTFL5PPCYKI","additional_properties":{"_id":1736409553783},"content":"On this achievement, he said: “We all have that hidden reservoir of strength, but what separates us is the ability to activate it.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"YCDY6C2IB5FUNMX3YVDX7FFP3I","additional_properties":{},"type":"list"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"metered"},"credits":{"by":[{"additional_properties":{"original":{"byline":"Ella Sloane"}},"name":"Ella Sloane"}]},"description":{"basic":"Six-time world champion was speaking at the Pendulum Summit in Convention Centre Dublin"},"display_date":"2025-01-09T08:30:09.214Z","headlines":{"basic":"Sugar Ray Leonard on the defeat that still hurts: ‘He kicked, he cursed me. He even cursed my wife’","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"8948"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"ICSCUCDW2NF5DNZ6YNX44EVSD4","auth":{"1":"85f969ebbfe1042decdab5f163cde64506d108aa0a14f2148769e434a30c5cba"},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/ICSCUCDW2NF5DNZ6YNX44EVSD4.jpg"}},"subtype":"default","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"People"},{"name":"Sport"},{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Life & Style"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/life-style/people/2025/01/09/sugar-ray-leonard-on-the-defeat-that-still-hurts-he-kicked-he-cursed-me-he-even-cursed-my-wife/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/life-style/people","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"People"}}}},{"_id":"BISONB5UY5A3LHPEOLYKQWRSW4","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":799,"audio_url":"https://beyondwords-h0e8gjgjaqe0egb7.a03.azurefd.net/audio/projects/5469/podcasts/917b30a5-8a3b-4d04-8012-3800f8a7f18d/versions/1734540687/media/1b8ae32f5ddba901c1c16d0866483236_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/sport/2024/12/28/denis-walsh-irish-sports-underdog-mentality-has-been-replaced-with-an-unabashed-hunger-to-be-the-best/","content_elements":[{"_id":"DDZS6ZV4D5BPXLWF7RMT7RBGJI","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530756873},"content":"On the opening weekend of the <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/olympic-games/\" target=\"_blank\">Olympic</a> regatta <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/paul-o-donovan/\" target=\"_blank\">Paul O’Donovan</a> walked into the mixed zone flogging a punchline, mercilessly. In the draw, the reigning World and Olympic champions were just the third seeds. O’Donovan greeted every microphone with a stand-up riff he had composed earlier, pretending to be injured by the slight, or pretending not to be.","type":"text"},{"_id":"XNED3YSDNJFVDNDXQLIYEM6ZYA","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530756874},"content":"“I can’t even count how many names are above us [in the seedings],” he said. “We are just here to enjoy ourselves, do the best we can and take a few of the big scalps – all going well.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"265BYA743VE6ZOMSWAMUWRIOFY","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530756875},"content":"O’Donovan’s self-portrait as an underdog was deliberately preposterous. It was the only gag in the routine. O’Donovan and <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/fintan-mccarthy/\" target=\"_blank\">Fintan McCarthy</a> were favourites to win the gold medal, just as they had been favourites for every race they had rowed together for the previous five years. For them, being an underdog or not being an underdog had no consequence. They had a cold contract with each other to make the boat go faster.","type":"text"},{"_id":"YTVWTBEUXVHVZHZBKUX4VPQHRY","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530756876},"content":"For generations of Irish sportspeople, being an underdog had been a fossil fuel. In the popular imagination, winning was wrapped up with fire. Put ‘em under pressure. Boot and bollock. Stand up and fight.","type":"text"},{"_id":"VHN7G7KCYZFOVHJDN6TPNPVBAM","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530756877},"content":"It was a safe space where winning was optional and losing was available with a range of painkillers and rounds of applause. All of it was a cop-out.","type":"text"},{"_id":"JVVEBIGLHFCDJHYAIQOPN2252M","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530756878},"content":"In the Golden Age of Irish sport, winning has become intentional. Elite Irish sportspeople make themselves accountable to winning and losing rather than innocent hostages to the outcome. ‘If’ has been emasculated. O’Donovan and McCarthy were convinced they would become the first Irish athletes since Pat O’Callaghan to retain an Olympic title. They knew it was in their hands.","type":"text"},{"_id":"DNG6GXK3U5DDZK5H53BZ4HJXYA","additional_properties":{"_id":"2MPKRBP5LNEITM5L4O5N5DS36M"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"D6X3AJ6JYZE3HFKJ6FFZYXA2AM","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530756879},"content":"Gymnast <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/rhys_mcclenaghan/\" target=\"_blank\">Rhys McClenaghan</a> and swimmer <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/daniel-wiffen/\" target=\"_blank\">Daniel Wiffen</a> were of the same mind, though they expressed it with chutzpah. “There’s some things you set out to do,” said McClenaghan a couple of months after he <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/2024/08/03/tears-of-joy-flow-as-rhys-mcclenaghan-wins-historic-olympic-gold-medal-for-ireland-in-gymnastics/\" target=\"_blank\">won gold at the Olympics</a>. “Not just taking part but taking over. As soon as I could see the pathway to being the best in the world I was like, ‘Ok, I’m going to say it because it needs to be said.’”","type":"text"},{"_id":"5NELQWOJ2VFCJLVHPII35FQLJU","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530756880},"content":"After he <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/2024/07/30/irelands-daniel-wiffen-wins-olympic-gold-medal-after-stunning-800m-swim-in-paris/\" target=\"_blank\">won his Olympic gold</a> Wiffen spoke about his nerves, but most of all he spoke about his certainty. “I had no doubt in my mind,” he said. “I had won this already, before I walked out [to the pool].” When he appeared at the RTÉ Sports awards before Christmas he said it wasn’t a question of ‘if’ he would be on the podium at the LA Games, it was only a question of how many medals he would win; his expectation is three.","type":"text"},{"_id":"TCHN6LGBHBBYBNTQEFAW5FRWQY","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530756881},"content":"At the Olympics and the Paralympics this cultural shift was crystallised more than ever. It wasn’t forced or fake. <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/orla-comerford/\" target=\"_blank\">Orla Comerford</a> won bronze in the T13 100m and <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/athletics/2024/09/03/there-is-lots-more-in-the-tank-orla-comerford-happy-with-paralympics-bronze-for-now/\" target=\"_blank\">her first reaction was “disappointment”</a>. At her third Games, this was her first medal. The two athletes who finished ahead of her had both broken the existing world record. When Comerford met her family, she said, her feelings softened, but her first reaction was the most truthful.","type":"text"},{"_id":"4RLGWT3275G63CUZRYVTY3A4AA","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530756882},"content":"“I reckoned at the start of the year that it was going to take a world record to win it and that’s what I had my eyes on,” she said. “I know that was ambitious, but I think that is well within my wheelhouse. I just feel like there is lots more in tank.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"IRQ3TZBHOJGTRE73AXVJ5FGWMQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530756883},"content":"It would have been easy to hide behind the bronze medal and pretend it was the measure of her dreams, and for generations of Irish athletes that would have been the instinctive response: be grateful for the bread on your table.","type":"text"},{"_id":"NMUN6DUYYFGJVGP3PRAGH2DOEE","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530756884},"content":"Winning has no truck with moderation, though; it is governed by greed. In rowing, <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/philip-doyle/\" target=\"_blank\">Philip Doyle</a> and <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/daire-lynch/\" target=\"_blank\">Daire Lynch</a> became the first Irish heavyweight crew to win an Olympic medal, but they weren’t satisfied with bronze either. “It was kind of a wave of positive and negative [as we crossed the finishing line],” said Doyle. “Relief and disappointment.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"XHPWHWBV3BBY7EDJGHDQ5CU7XY","additional_properties":{"_id":1734536500991},"content":"The only way they could have won gold was to cultivate those feelings. If they had aimed for the bottom step on the podium, where would they have ended up?","type":"text"},{"_id":"S4AAK36E3VVO5ZBJTMD5EZMYCU","additional_properties":{"_id":"PBGSI2A5RFBSZKOMKKHPZZH7WI"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"66DH7ZO7ZNHT5CPQVW6G76Z57M","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530756886},"content":"<a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/rhasidat-adeleke/\" target=\"_blank\">Rhasidat Adeleke</a> ran the third fastest time of her career and came fourth in the Olympic final. To win a medal she would have needed to break 49 seconds for the first time in her life. In the course of her season, she set six new Irish records as an individual and six as part of relay teams. At the European Championships, she won two silvers and one gold. Good year?","type":"text"},{"_id":"24IR5DKA4JDDPOJ2YG65STWDRU","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530756887},"content":"In a series of interviews hosted by one her sponsors before Christmas she said she still “had PTSD” from the Olympics. When she’s scrolling through photographs on her phone she skips the images from Paris, she said.","type":"text"},{"_id":"SIXGIKZDMFGMVMXF4VZQ3EFUPM","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530756888},"content":"In terms of medals at major championships, Adeleke had the best season of any Irish athlete since Sonia O’Sullivan in 1998. But her goal was an Olympic medal, and all the other stuff couldn’t make up for that loss. The European Championships and the Olympics were different currencies, and there was no exchange rate.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ZLR2X6Y3V5FYLET6COPDYCSOWA","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530756889},"content":"Adeleke is one of the most talented sports people that Ireland has ever produced, and like Wiffen and McClenaghan and O’Donovan and McCarthy, she has no business sifting through the detritus of a loss in search of comfort, or mitigation. In her mind, she was accountable to the outcome.","type":"text"},{"_id":"MTV3I6NWHZDBHKBZPONBAJMJZI","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530756890},"content":"“I didn’t achieve my dreams today,” she said immediately after the race. “In the future I just hope I’ll be able to perform at my best when it’s most important.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"MZARBQHD2NC3BF7HPKOILXAZLI","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530756891},"content":"At these altitudes the falls are precipitous. <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/leinster-rugby/\" target=\"_blank\">Leinster Rugby</a> and <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/rory-mcilroy/\" target=\"_blank\">Rory McIlroy</a> spend a lot of time near the summit. The footing is treacherous; they slipped again. Leinster are still stuck on four European Cups; McIlroy is stuck on four majors: flamboyant, brilliant, box-office, agonisingly close, tormented.","type":"text"},{"_id":"5GQHB5SDS5EQRHSCWBZH5CW3NU","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530756892},"content":"A month after he bogeyed three of the last four holes at the US Open, McIlroy turned up in the media centre at the Scottish Open, trying to explain himself again. In these situations, over the years, McIlroy has been remarkably candid and generous in his answers. He has sat behind those microphones and somehow led the case for the defence and the prosecution. McIlroy has always understood that being plausible after a crushing loss required a degree of self-rebuke and admission of weakness. Many other sportspeople don’t care about being plausible in public.","type":"text"},{"_id":"6MT5WU4W6VAEDKH6ZGU4RCXIXE","additional_properties":{"_id":"MYE774BUJNAHNHVZTPTMW6CHOM"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"SKTMVTWOIJGEVPRT7BBJUT5CLM","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530756893},"content":"The short putts he missed on the 16th and the 18th overshadowed the clutch putt he holed on the 17th. He came from three shots behind at the beginning of the day to put himself in a winning position at the only time in the tournament when that status mattered. To get there, he had managed his mind and played some brilliantly controlled golf.","type":"text"},{"_id":"O5GNE64W4FHUZEUFQPT6O4UK5I","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530756894},"content":"In the press conference at the Scottish Open he gave a site engineer’s report on the sliding, slippery, smelly, downhill putt he missed on the final green, when he needed to hole it to be sure of a play-off, at least. It felt like the kind of putt that McIlroy could miss at any time, but, according to the statistics, he had not missed from inside five feet on the PGA Tour all season – from nearly 500 putts – until the closing holes at Pinehurst. By the end of the year, he ranked third on tour for putts holed from that range.","type":"text"},{"_id":"D7ZU6B7RJVBVFOERBAHCVVR4CM","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530756895},"content":"With McIlroy, the assumption is always that his mind let him down. He needed to confront that likelihood again. In elite sport, that component cannot be wished away. In that context, McIlroy said something interesting about the putt he missed on the 16th, which was shorter and much easier than the putt he missed on the final green.","type":"text"},{"_id":"33GENKOYVZDCJDQUCAUFG2W7ZM","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530756896},"content":"“I can vividly remember starting to feel a little uncomfortable waiting for my second putt on 16,” he said. “The first putt [from distance] looked like it could be a birdie, and it ran a foot by where I thought it was going to finish. I marked it, Patrick [Cantlay] was hitting his putt, and he can take his time [Cantlay is one of the slowest players on tour].","type":"text"},{"_id":"IWTCNXSRMBE2PPDWIE6FM46DQY","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530756897},"content":"“You have to be really deliberate in what you’re doing. I just think I had to wait a while to hit that second putt. The more you stand there it’s hard not to either start thinking about the future or notice where Bryson’s [De Chambeau] ball is in the fairway. But, again, that’s on me to make sure I’m in the right head space.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"RJJ5ASKX35ED3JOBNI6TP7ZJH4","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530756898},"content":"With Leinster, just like McIlroy, it went down to the wire. By having a kick to win the Champions Cup in the final minute of regulation time, they had put themselves where they had planned to be: in a winning position when it mattered most. This was their intention.","type":"text"},{"_id":"KH2R2IGVWRB2TOYIXLETVU57IM","additional_properties":{"_id":"ZX2W3UZMW5A5DCENR6KLQPLKWI"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"6BL2JSCWHFGE5IXADEGRCJJWVE","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530756899},"content":"Since they last won the title, Leinster have now lost four finals. There is no remedy for past defeats. Like Lot’s wife in the Bible, looking back will turn you into a pillar of salt.","type":"text"},{"_id":"T3K4ZXUTZVCYPJDNWR62VEC4TY","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530756900},"content":"“We said in the changing room, ‘When you want to do great things and you want to achieve great things, you always want the risk of failing greatly as well,’” said James Ryan afterwards. “Would I rather be in a team that tries to be the best team in Europe every year and have risks in a team like this? I still would.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"WEUQMVWF5JDIFHQCKSB6RUB3RI","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530756901},"content":"And that’s the point. Winning, wanting to win, being desperate to win, is the riskiest thing of all. Underdogs hold themselves to different standards. Being an underdog is an each-way bet. It is the realm of “might” and “maybe” and “what harm?”","type":"text"},{"_id":"DBSRC4OEVVGMRMGSLDE7YPKYPY","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530756902},"content":"<a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/willie-mullins/\" target=\"_blank\">Willie Mullins</a> gave that up a long time ago. On the day he trained his 100th Cheltenham Festival winner Ruby Walsh recalled Mullins’ refusal to sell a talented young horse called Wither or Which back in the mid-1990s. At that stage, Mullins had trained just one Cheltenham winner and the economy of Irish racing was such that most trainers were forced to sell their best young horses.","type":"text"},{"_id":"KBC76SSBYZBDXE34PYYBCICOLQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530756903},"content":"Mullins made the decision that his yard wasn’t going to be like that. He embraced the risk. Mullins was still riding as an amateur at the time and in March 1996 he rode Wither or Which to win the Champion Bumper at Cheltenham. Twenty-eight years later, his 100th winner came in the same race, with his son Patrick in the saddle.","type":"text"},{"_id":"66KTA5ZWO5FRBC2XF5EXNKRPHE","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530756904},"content":"The growth of Mullins’ dominance over the last decade has been one of the most extraordinary stories in Irish sport. It is only 11 years since he became the Irish trainer with the most Cheltenham winners, beating Tom Dreaper’s record of 26 that had stood for more than 40 years. At no other time in the history of Cheltenham, though, was 100 festival winners imaginable.","type":"text"},{"_id":"3VQAWE7G65FH7GNZDKZNWIISNE","additional_properties":{"_id":"3U63DO6ZPNCS5GOJ363ZYOUELU"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"D4V4QYCR6RAPLAUTJBJT3UUVBY","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530756905},"content":"On the day in March when Mullins reached that milestone, he saddled a treble. In the opening race, a grade one for novice hurdlers, he trained the first five home. Less than two months later he was crowned champion trainer in Britain, the first Irish-based trainer to achieve that feat over jumps since Vincent O’Brien 70 years ago.","type":"text"},{"_id":"EUGPMALJTJAFJDEBOFS5R7GGZY","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530756906},"content":"There are people in the sport who find his dominance oppressive and boring, but that is a relic of old thinking. He distanced himself from the herd. Great sportspeople make that separation.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ZQAECM7MOFELVFOEV73JZ63IKU","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530756907},"content":"Aidan O’Brien has been at Mullins’ altitude for decades. Before Royal Ascot he trained his 400th group one winner, worldwide, an astonishing number. In November he trained his 20th Breeders’ Cup winner, joining D Wayne Lukas on top of the all-time list, at a meeting where the odds are weighted heavily in favour of American trainers.","type":"text"},{"_id":"OI6Z7YZGIFAIBGG6NYUUDEH7FQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530756908},"content":"Mullins and O’Brien, we take for granted. The excellence of the Ireland rugby team has become a given, too. Excluding the pandemic-ravaged schedule in 2020, Ireland have, on average, lost five Test matches in the year after a World Cup; this year they lost just three times and won the Six Nations. <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/rugby/2024/07/13/ciaran-frawley-the-man-of-the-hour-as-ireland-strike-late-to-stun-south-africa/\" target=\"_blank\">Ireland won in South Africa for only the second time</a> in the fixture’s history and <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/rugby/2024/02/02/ireland-stun-france-with-best-ever-six-nations-victory-on-french-soil/\" target=\"_blank\">won in France for just the 13th time</a> in 114 years.","type":"text"},{"_id":"IGB62OU6AFFDZDBT6RKJLI367E","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530756909},"content":"And yet, by the end of the year, there was general uproar about the clunkiness of Ireland’s performances in the Autumn Internationals. Success takes that toll. In the decades when Irish rugby was an underachieving underdog, those performances would have been given a God-help-us benediction. Which would we prefer?","type":"text"},{"_id":"MHIMDGRSHZEPXMMQRUJXMCIIA4","additional_properties":{"_id":"VAJT4MAFKVHFPD3QAXDEFKPTZI"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"AELHP2EJBJBTHLOCLFUTOZHWAU","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530756910},"content":"<a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/katie-taylor/\" target=\"_blank\">Katie Taylor</a> keeps getting the close calls that Leinster and McIlroy find so elusive. She keeps putting herself in winning positions too. Her resilience and drive and stamina and skill are outlandish. How many global pioneers in their sport have we produced? Maybe only Taylor.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ZY6KJPX67REO5OLDPR5XEN2AFI","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530756911},"content":"It is extraordinary, though, that <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/kellie-harrington/\" target=\"_blank\">Kellie Harrington</a> should come along at the same time. In the beginning she might have followed in Taylor’s footsteps, but soon she made her own path. Double Olympic champion now. Heading to Paris, she carried the same expectation as Wiffen and McClenaghan and O’Donovan and McCarthy; none of them buckled. “Dreams are heavy things,” wrote Laurence Arnholt in one of his children’s books. Grown-ups know that too.","type":"text"},{"_id":"H2RIJHPRIFBONLK23MCSQGL3MY","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530756912},"content":"The hurling championship was a glorious sunbeam in a cloudy summer. The All-Ireland final was a match of everlasting brilliance. Everything about it was heartening and uplifting. Armagh won the football All-Ireland as outsiders. They didn’t think like underdogs, though.","type":"text"},{"_id":"RQE5XTRZJ5F6BENFEN3UUSFJK4","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530756913},"content":"That cop-out is dead.","type":"text"},{"_id":"2GXCE3WWBFB5HMA633J74CMKE4","additional_properties":{},"type":"list"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"premium"},"credits":{"by":[{"additional_properties":{"original":{"byline":"Denis Walsh"}},"name":"Denis Walsh"}]},"description":{"basic":"In the Golden Age of Irish sport, winning has become intentional"},"display_date":"2024-12-28T06:00:00Z","headlines":{"basic":"Denis Walsh: Irish sport’s underdog mentality has been replaced with an unabashed hunger to be the best","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"5469"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"MX64ROKLF5CIHDXOBKB6GYZYRE","auth":{"1":"42b4f9b40dd5b3fd2135c15cc19c2536d3574044a9f61e387385859488a7abcb"},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/MX64ROKLF5CIHDXOBKB6GYZYRE.jpg"}},"subtype":"feature","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Sport"},{"name":"Rugby"},{"name":"Racing"},{"name":"Golf"},{"name":"Gaelic Games"},{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Athletics"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/sport/2024/12/28/denis-walsh-irish-sports-underdog-mentality-has-been-replaced-with-an-unabashed-hunger-to-be-the-best/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/sport","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Sport"}}}},{"_id":"OEWYAH5XHBAQZNAS6F4WZUCM6Q","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":978,"audio_url":"https://beyondwords-h0e8gjgjaqe0egb7.a03.azurefd.net/audio/projects/5469/podcasts/d12d50e5-ca7e-4618-a92c-d60270c9ed21/versions/1734027032/media/3ea01cd39c409e225066a3aa27ac2a77_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/sport/soccer/2024/12/28/sports-speak-2024-the-wit-and-wisdom-from-damian-duff-to-daniel-wiffen-kellie-harrington-to-rory-mcilroy/","content_elements":[{"_id":"5UQ6A4YNU5HFJDPPEP7CEAWO74","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500673},"content":"<b>January</b>","type":"header"},{"_id":"6LBNJ6QYI5H6HLQJ7FDSC6D66Y","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500674},"content":"“I realised that my resources are not endless . . . we are not young rabbits any more and we don’t jump as high as we did.” <b>Jurgen Klopp catching Liverpool fans on the hop by announcing that he would be leaving them at the end of the season.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"6DRIGB35TJFKRISDKILS77O4SE","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500675},"content":"“I honestly wish it was my wife leaving me and not Jurgen.” <b>A soon-to-be single Liverpool-supporting caller to talkSPORT after Klopp’s announcement.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"UASL2OHS4RDEJGXVXZJXSO3GEI","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500676},"content":"“I enjoyed that, I really did. I started the week feeling a bit rough but I bought myself an air fryer and started eating a bit better.” <b>Ronnie O’Sullivan after finding his inner Ninja in his comeback against Judd Trump in the World Grand Prix final.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"IG4SJIREXMAX2QZYP6GNHJUDHQ","additional_properties":{"_id":"XTSRY7QKJFBNBNLADMBHGOXOOI"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"VABLY446JNCGVGXZBMKCN3FZOI","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500677},"content":"“I just wake up, play on my Xbox, have some food, have a chuck at the board, go to bed and that’s it.” <b>Luke Littler on his life before reaching the World Darts Championship final at the age of just sixteen. It’s changed a fair bit since then.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"EM4XEHFYAJHF5CJ2CGEF2NC2QY","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500678},"content":"<b>February</b>","type":"header"},{"_id":"DALWHI4CMFASVKNBYLFK6H7HMY","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500679},"content":"“Speaking from experience, when you have a barnet like that, you have got to play well – and my God, did that boy play well.” <b>Brian O’Driscoll doffing his cap to Joe McCarthy (and his hair-do) after his most excellent Six Nations display in the victory over France in Marseille.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"5Z5IOKAZP5HLPGZ63ZWVORSR2E","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500680},"content":"“I’m in awe of Willie Mullins. He’s at the top of his profession and has been for over a decade. Some people are suggesting he should be restricted. Well, you don’t tell Taylor Swift to stop releasing albums so that other people can win the Grammys.” <b>Jane Mangan salutes trainer Willie Mullins and his crop of Swiftie horses.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"XCCQOSTHUFAZXEPGKQSASZCWS4","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500681},"content":"“I stopped someone following me in to the toilet the other day. They were like, `oh, can I get a photo?’, and I was like, `yeah, but do you mind if you wait for a bit?’.” <b>And this was before Daniel Wiffen won his Olympic medals. They’re probably snapping him at the urinal this weather.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"4KD245WDCRCU7PSPRQJSKWEJSA","additional_properties":{"_id":"E34PQLGEJJEZDKYBKS6WRXIXVE"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"42EAPKULOVBO7I2HAC7FOHHSQ4","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500682},"content":"“How do I word this? Maybe through someone through someone through someone, someone asked me would I be interested in speaking to someone.” <b>Damien Duff on whether the FAI contacted him about becoming Stephen Kenny’s successor during their interminable search for one. That was a definitely maybe.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"JXNRDRQSW5GQDDOG5HBN276ATI","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500683},"content":"<b>March</b>","type":"header"},{"_id":"WM5ZP2JSR5HGBEZBH52OC62JNQ","additional_properties":{"_id":"CH4SVKW76RDGLN3EEADQ4PLDGE"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"R6AW4JAT3FH4LMJEN6Q7UY263U","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500684},"content":"“She’s such an incredible rider. As good as she is everywhere else, she’s even better here. We’ve had some incredible days.” <b>Trainer Henry De Bromhead after Rachael Blackmore rode Captain Guinness to victory in the Champion Chase at Cheltenham. Having already won the Gold Cup and two Champion Hurdles, that secured Blackmore the third jewel in the festival’s crown.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"KDZJWSARQJBVNCUKTKB3E7UVSY","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500686},"content":"“We unknowingly used a divisive expression. We deeply regret this error and apologise to those we have offended.” <b>MLS club Minnesota United after signing off their announcement about hosting St Patrick’s Athletic in a friendly with: “Tiocfaidh Ár Lá.”</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"QQCCO757TZBDFN5L7ZNZORHO3Q","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500688},"content":"“I have a poster of Novak on my wall. Every night I go to bed, I see him. He’s the best player ever. I will keep this moment with me for the rest of my life.” <b>Luca Nardi, the 20-year-old Italian who, when ranked 123 in the world, beat his poster boy Novak Djokovic at the Indian Wells Open.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"S27OLOOZUJAN5ANSJWBG2UNYUM","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500690},"content":"“I told John that I’ll chase balls into the bushes or go look at players, whatever he needs. I’m delighted he feels I’ve something to contribute after all these years.” B<b>rian Kerr on returning to the Republic of Ireland set-up as a technical adviser to interim manager John O’Shea, 19 years after he was the gaffer himself.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"MC3XVODHZBADJAKC3NGARAOCNA","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500692},"content":"April","type":"header"},{"_id":"GXK3PURBAFBTDODU7OTN7I7I4A","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500693},"content":"“He’s transformed the club from a place when they had people like me playing for them – that’s how bad it was.” <b>Peter Crouch saluting Jurgen Klopp as he closed in on his final game in charge of Liverpool.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"J3U5QVLBYMZTBUY47Z5ZYRJJQQ","additional_properties":{"_id":"SZR4O5D3SFCUBGJPHPEBAK2H2I"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"ID2KSA6BD5GQ3H5ILQUESI747E","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500695},"content":"“I sort of liken it to when Northern Ireland went through the peace process. Catholics weren’t happy, Protestants weren’t happy, but it brought peace and then you just sort of learn to live with whatever has been negotiated.” <b>Rory McIlroy reckoning that a Good Friday agreement is needed to resolve the LIV v PGA war.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"4PBWKJK6HJCFZOYMUCFYZNFGYQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500697},"content":"“Bristol Rovers Football Club would like to apologise for any offence caused by an error in wording in a recent communication. No harmful intention of meaning was ever intended.” <b>That “error”? “We will provide all disabled fans with free electronic ticket cards upon request. As for normal fans and older fans, they can purchase the card for £15.” Oh my.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"7R5BH7LYTJHZJNRDUNZZ6WYIUI","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500699},"content":"“He’s an intellectual earthquake that transforms itself into this athletic majesty. It’s not bomb and gouge, it’s laser-guided missiles that you’re watching here.” <b>Brandel Chamblee swooning, as only Brandel Chamblee can, over Bryson DeChambeau’s opening round of 65 at the Masters. The missiles were misdirected thereafter, DeChambeau finishing nine shots behind winner Scottie Scheffler.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"3MZIPARJGRBPRMLB4K3VC3JNV4","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500701},"content":"May","type":"header"},{"_id":"W3LUFJ2C4GGQ2YOWVODL5OSVNA","additional_properties":{"_id":"TTCPVJ3KONF6JBY5HCTOHWT4W4"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"K4BENKEC2JA7TBIG7DXP6O22FM","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500702},"content":"“We’re going in full guns blazing.” <b>An unfortunate enough turn of phrase from Northampton Saints’ Tommy Freeman ahead of the Champions Cup semi-final against Leinster in Croke Park, just after he and his team-mates were told about the stadium’s history.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"44EGDGSVLRGKRM7Q67ZM6BNDXM","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500704},"content":"“Bruce had to be played, I suppose. They had to dance in the dark up here for a couple of days but the pitch was the one to suffer.” <b>Wexford manager Keith Rossiter none too impressed with the state of the Nowlan Park surface a couple of weeks after senior hurler Springsteen played on it.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"Q5PLJKY3VRGE5LJHXKKO53F5VA","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500706},"content":"“Clearly, there is something rotten in Irish rugby for its finest ambassadors to bend the knee whether at international level or in the Champions Cup. There is no question here of shooting at the ambulance. We greatly sympathise with Leo Cullen and his kids.” <b>French newspaper Midi Olympique offering a, eh, heartfelt hug to Leinster after that Champions Cup final defeat by Toulouse.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"WWZPMTJQGNGVNAPD7ENY5ALEAQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500708},"content":"“I was pretty rattled to say the least. I was shaking the whole time. It was definitely a new feeling for me.” <b>Scottie Scheffler on that bizarre moment he was handcuffed and arrested outside Valhalla Golf Club ahead of the second round of the PGA Championship. He had mistakenly tried to drive past a police stop following an accident that resulted in the death of a spectator.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"DBZIHCR4INGERNYH4R5FUY7N6M","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500710},"content":"June","type":"header"},{"_id":"HOVU7N57IREVXMZ3EATFREQEUE","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500711},"content":"“I went out on that track today super nervous but with a plan and a mission and that was to hear Amhrán na bhFiann. When I was getting boxed in I thought I had nowhere to go, but I didn’t grow up playing camogie to get boxed in.” <b>Ciara Mageean doffing her cap to her first sporting love for helping her battle her way to European Championship gold in the 1500m.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"CITCKLFED5E6HIOHUAEXJHO6NU","additional_properties":{"_id":"6TUG4RZ55VHD5ATNMXQ35T6K64"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"6VKCSB65PRBENL5XNI2BHS6RX4","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500713},"content":"“The Picasso of the radio.” <b>Tomás Ó Sé's tribute to Micheál Ó Muircheartaigh who died at the age of 93 in June.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"XAM2H2HQLRF7ZBVJYB3V5Y4HMM","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500715},"content":"“If it was an old dog, the GAA would be telling us that good old hurling was being taken to live on a lovely farm in the country, while texting the local vet about having it put to sleep.” <b>How happy was Dónal Óg Cusack with the GAA’s promotion of his beloved game? Not a lot.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"HBSSMOWJ55HHVP7UFWCXVQO554","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500717},"content":"“Yesterday was a tough day, probably the toughest I’ve had in my nearly 17 years as a professional golfer. But I’ve shown my resilience over and over again and I will again.” <b>Rory McIlroy on that crushing conclusion to the US Open, three bogeys in his final four holes handing the title to Bryson DeChambeau.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"WKIOT73JRFE4DE55R7BBM6WJ4U","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500719},"content":"July","type":"header"},{"_id":"MKRI45KNZJCRBGOGVHZE4JCVXU","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500720},"content":"“It’s nearly destroying it talking about it, we should just shut up and watch.” <b>Dónal Óg Cusack calling for silence from the RTÉ panel so they could just quietly marvel at Tony Kelly’s other-worldly All Ireland final goal for Clare.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"KQKABSSXLBGKTOLK63U22TWTMM","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500722},"content":"“What can I say? We’re All-Ireland champions and Olympic gold medallists – what a great county!” <b>Daniel Wiffen on Armagh striking gold twice in the space of three days thanks to himself and their footballers.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"IYILG65UKVG3XOID32HNPMH4RI","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500724},"content":"“I’d rather ate cowshite. Don’t let him near the place.” <b>Former Galway goalkeeper James Skehill somewhat ruling out working with Davy Fitzgerald if Fitzgerald was appointed boss of his county. (He wasn’t, he took over Antrim instead).</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"75NAMY4RAXU2VVZIUMGSHVMJLA","additional_properties":{"_id":"3HDPPMFF3VCO5MWSMCSKOXGXJQ"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"XXRGTRMUBVBHZFDGUVP2NECSGU","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500726},"content":"“My brother texted me and said, ‘if 14-year-old Kellie had thought she’d be here now she probably never would have believed it’. I forwarded the message to my mam. She said, “No, you’re right, you were a little shit back then! Still a little shit now but you have two Olympic medals!’ <b>Kellie Harrington on her loving messages from home after guaranteeing herself at least a bronze in Paris.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"FLR3EELDGRARDCIVBV5NASTHEY","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500728},"content":"“Days like this felt a very long way away. I started crying on the podium, it’s just unbelievable, it’s the pinnacle of sport to have all your hard work pay off in something like this.” <b>Mona McSharry on her bronze in the Olympic 100m breaststroke final, not even her goggles filling up with water could thwart her.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"ECZBYYRMCBC7RPVMKO63MHMGWI","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500730},"content":"August","type":"header"},{"_id":"4VFRHXBLGZDWVNM5OYLBZETWLQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500731},"content":"“It feels like a dream, but it’s a dream well earned. If I fell on my bum today, I still would have loved this journey, every second of it. But I didn’t and today I’m walking away with an Olympic gold medal.” <b>Rhys McClenaghan on his golden day in Paris.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"R6U7HGITEVC47N6PEIU3VLO3QU","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500733},"content":"“The first impression is that they are really good team players, really good characters… maybe a little bit too nice. Sometimes you need a bastard in your team. I am looking for him. Maybe we can develop him.” <b>New Republic of Ireland gaffer Heimir Hallgrímsson on the hunt for a ruffian in green.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"MCEA264IB5DPJPHYKBPVM7PDCE","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500735},"content":"“It was really hard because we couldn’t really focus on the race. We had to focus on not swallowing water. I saw some brown things…. I hope it’s not what I thought it was.” <b>Hungarian marathon swimmer Bettina Fabian on the joys of taking to the Seine at the Olympics.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"N2FJPDQT7NAVJAEIBOCZVD36WI","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500737},"content":"“That’s it, done, dusted, there are no more mountains to climb. I’ve nothing more to prove, not even to myself, which is the most important thing. The next chapter is going to be my life chapter.” <b>Kellie Harrington signing out in some style, as a two-time Olympic champion.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"NGIOIAGK3JGJLNISWXCGSIFBVA","additional_properties":{"_id":"JIQYMFB2AFE23EXG6URNHNYN4A"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"EHSIU2ENLZCSNF2WOGYZ4FGIWU","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500739},"content":"“Seventh? Yeah, something like that. But I think I was dragged along by other people for most of them.” <b>Boastful as ever, Paul O’Donovan loses count of how many World Championship golds he’s won – it was number seven in Canada along with Fintan McCarthy, just three weeks after he became the first Irish athlete to medal in three successive Olympics.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"ULRTTU76T5F2NGD5HRVRKLNSEI","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500741},"content":"September","type":"header"},{"_id":"XPOZMGNMCJDXLA6466SNYDDDQY","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500742},"content":"“I had a little cry in the call room. It’s a really emotional day, this is coming to an end. Winnie the Pooh said it best when he said, ‘how lucky am I to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard’.” <b>Ellen Keane on ending a sparkling swimming career at the Paralympics in Paris.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"JPPJH77NJX7D5MB3YJ3D7U2TZE","additional_properties":{"_id":"K7TWUHM5KZANZEI4JXLMVDHQ3Y"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"AIV27MRA5JCEFLVDTVCRQ56A4M","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500744},"content":"“Lee Carsley needs to zone out of his Irish republicanism and learn to sing God Save the King. Otherwise, no one will believe he cares about the England team he wishes to lead.” <b>Renowned football pundit Jacob Rees-Mogg getting hot under the collar after Carsley, 2024′s Wolfe Tone and England’s interim coach, revealed that he’s not an anthem singer.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"G2UUONRMTZHTBDVXCPOYMYRRHA","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500746},"content":"“Why didn’t you win the gold?” <b>Rower Daire Lynch, who won Olympic bronze with Philip Lynch, on the first question he was asked by youngsters on his tour of his native Clonmel’s schools. Harsh.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"ZJ7TQAZZZFA3VOLC3GKLLNAGHA","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500748},"content":"“I couldn’t work out whether Ireland are more similar to Andorra, San Marino or the Faroe Islands.” T<b>ony Cascarino a touch unimpressed by Ireland in their 2-0 defeat by England in Dublin. To be honest, he probably ended up offending Andorra, San Marino and the Faroe Islands.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"PK774ZLTLRCSBKR3JTNXC56OPM","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500750},"content":"October","type":"header"},{"_id":"I3Z2NTMN7JH4HLTPQEYSCFUWTM","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500751},"content":"“This is a guy that was all man. When he took showers with the other pros, they came out of there and said, ‘oh my God, that’s unbelievable!’” <b>Donald Trump telling his supporters at a rally in Arnold Palmer’s Pennsylvania home town about the magnitude of the late golfer’s, em, manhood. Why? No clue.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"FN7V4DT2U5BRNKAPAYNHWFHD44","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500753},"content":"“How can a foreigner urge Englishmen to do or die on football’s battlefield…. rouse the troops like King Henry V when he implored his men: ‘On, on unto the breach dear friends or let close the wall up with our English dead.’ This is a dark day for English football.” <b>The Daily Mail’s Jeff Powell welcoming the appointment of German Thomas Tuchel as England gaffer.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"VFSSPZLWSJGPRDCPLPPNL2LY3M","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500755},"content":"“My maths wouldn’t be great, so I was struggling to figure out what the score was.” <b>Man of the match Rian O’Neill admitting that he had no clue whether Ulster were winning or losing to Connacht in the final of the interprovincial series thanks to the rule-tweaking two-point arc and four-point goal.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"QU7R4EKK5SKCTFQT4ZVHUDIVBY","additional_properties":{"_id":"NXQKIDCIR5AVHJUBNQ7YUVE3PI"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"ZDJKX25XDRAZRHUDO3IW2CJE24","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500757},"content":"“My conker was obliterated in one hit, and that just doesn’t happen – I’m suspicious of foul play.” <b>Alastair Johnson-Ferguson suggesting that 82-year-old David ‘King Conker’ Jakins might have used a steel nut to win their World Championships final. Jakins was indeed found with one in his pocket, but happily he was cleared of actually using it to obliterate anyone’s nut.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"BLLOB3DSGBHPHCERQGDQYJHZAA","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500759},"content":"“I’ve had many challenges growing up, I think that just made me very resilient. A broken collarbone and illness? I was like, ‘oh, I’ve gone through much worse than this’. When you stand on that top step of the podium, you forget about all the bad times, they just melt away.” <b>Katie-George Dunlevy reflecting on a September that saw her win … deep breath… Paralympic gold with Linda Kelly, Paralympic silvers with Kelly and Eve McCrystal, and two World Championship golds with Kelly.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"EA2VBIZ4XRGSTMZWV2P2VB6D6Y","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500761},"content":"November","type":"header"},{"_id":"4RO3GRGMDNBNPN4E6HAIJA4QCE","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500762},"content":"“It is amazing, a letter addressed to “Pat the b******s, County Kerry” posted in Armagh arrived in the door. It just goes to show how good the postal service is in Ireland.” <b>Pat Spillane saluting his postman for somehow delivering a love letter from up north.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"BY2PEG5KQNASNJJJ6ZHFFYSBLY","additional_properties":{"_id":"2QKZGCRB35EJPPLDSNTOFK3WRE"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"VBHGFM7KOVF7DOBFFU4UIXDKTA","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500764},"content":"“Congratulations to Katie Taylor. Tempers are flared when you’re in the heat of battle and you say things you shouldn’t say. She and I are cool outside the ring and the best dance partners in it. Whenever our teams can agree on a trilogy, I’ll be ready.” <b>Amanda Serrano withdrawing her allegation that Taylor intentionally head-butted her during their fight for the ages in Texas. Round three coming up?</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"7PQKSPC54FHSTPXBJDZJ3BPSYY","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500766},"content":"“He has a Boost, a meal deal, a curry and a couple of those little half pink and half white sweets – Squashies – and he walks up there and smashes me like that. This boy is a joke. He is absolutely awesome.” <b>Martin Lukeman on the darts sensation that is Luke Littler after the 17-year-old beat him 16-3 in the Grand Slam of Darts final.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"R5WWLF2UZFA7VENUUQEFYLW3WE","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500768},"content":"“It’s not done and dusted yet. Things can change very quickly in the Keane household, let me tell you.” R<b>oy Keane on being asked about his “future son-in-law” Taylor Harwood-Bellis after he scored against Ireland on his debut in England’s 5-0 win at Wembley.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"KBBKGY3ZI5E2BNWXVW4BC3AVFU","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500770},"content":"December","type":"header"},{"_id":"L6HBXQPBKJFBTIJ5ZF2L4M7M24","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500771},"content":"“I don’t mean to be disrespectful, but Leinster are up there with the National Children’s Hospital for returns on investment – no one has seen anything.” <b>Donncha O’Callaghan being a touch naughty about Leinster’s European woes.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"KZB2PFJMBVD6PBMWNIQOMTUJZM","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500773},"content":"“Dessie has always been like a second father to me. It’s like breaking up with someone. There were two days of tears. There was a week of carnage. The dust is settled now. Life moves on and the world spins, and you’re out.” <b>Dublin legend Brian Fenton on breaking the news to manager Dessie Farrell that he was retiring from intercounty football.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"DFLRN5BM2FIR7Y56UDJJ5NG7OU","additional_properties":{"_id":"ZWH25BXQVRHQLNH3WT26UKQ7H4"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"HO3CXD3YV5FQNPT43OQW7LXPNM","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500775},"content":"“I remember when teams started warming up on the field before a match and Willie Duggan turned around to me and said, ‘listen, I can do the warm-up or I can play the match, but I couldn’t do both’. It’s come a long way.” <b>Donal Lenihan on rugby before all this training intensity lark.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"X5FW3ZXF25DXLNJUP3ZAV5PGTQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1733870500777},"content":"“I drove here with my dad beside me and he kept looking down at me with no trousers on. Mam was in the back with the needle and thread.” <b>Damien Duff completing a memorable year by splitting his pants en route to the SSE Airtricity/Soccer Writers awards where he won the Personality of the Year gong. Mercifully, his Mam had mended them by the time he took to the stage.</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"2GXCE3WWBFB5HMA633J74CMKE4","additional_properties":{},"type":"list"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"metered"},"credits":{"by":[{"additional_properties":{"original":{"byline":"Mary Hannigan"}},"name":"Mary Hannigan"}]},"description":{"basic":"The winning quotes of the year in sport"},"display_date":"2024-12-28T06:00:00Z","headlines":{"basic":"The year in sports quotes: The wit and wisdom - from Damien Duff to Daniel Wiffen, Kellie Harrington to Rory McIlroy","native":"The year in sports quotes: 'I wish it was my wife leaving me and not Jurgen'"},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"5469"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"DA4ZQGRCJKYZYEYL3D2LJL3XSU","auth":{"1":"801519a89ae0021fbd58aacd87d7db63523e392a7aca59af3670df8f27529ff0"},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/DA4ZQGRCJKYZYEYL3D2LJL3XSU.jpg"}},"subtype":"feature","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Soccer"},{"name":"Athletics"},{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Cycling"},{"name":"Gaelic Games"},{"name":"Golf"},{"name":"Hockey"},{"name":"Racing"},{"name":"Rugby"},{"name":"Sport"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/sport/soccer/2024/12/28/sports-speak-2024-the-wit-and-wisdom-from-damian-duff-to-daniel-wiffen-kellie-harrington-to-rory-mcilroy/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/sport/soccer","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Soccer"}}}},{"_id":"BT2Y52F465ADNLYZF65OWCPTRQ","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":464,"audio_url":"https://beyondwords-h0e8gjgjaqe0egb7.a03.azurefd.net/audio/projects/8948/podcasts/97785bfe-3dbe-400b-a5b0-d748dd018b8f/versions/1734973228/media/75985a8960081d6f9f0a09d3466626b9_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/sport/boxing/2024/12/26/four-of-irelands-top-five-most-admired-sports-people-2024-are-women/","content_elements":[{"_id":"OEH2J7WYDBBNTIXI6NBRCRHQ44","additional_properties":{"_id":1734960082414},"content":"This year delivered incredible performances across the board in Irish sport, but it was our female athletes in particular who provided so many of the standout moments and achievements.","type":"text"},{"_id":"PYMSEIEQYBEYDER55YVM6FSJ2Q","additional_properties":{"_id":1734960082415},"content":"Significant history was made over the past 12 months. <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/kellie-harrington/\" target=\"_blank\">Kellie Harrington</a> was the first Irish woman athlete to win back-to-back gold medals at <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/olympic-games/\" target=\"_blank\">Olympic Games</a> and <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/rhasidat-adeleke/\" target=\"_blank\">Rhasidat Adeleke</a> was the first Irish woman to make an Olympic sprint final, claiming an incredible fourth place. Ireland’s 4 x 400m relay team obliterated their national record to claim silver in the European Championships in June, qualify for the Olympic final and claim fourth place there. Incredible, inspiring performances – which have come to be expected by the Irish public.","type":"text"},{"_id":"2S4E5ONOFFCVHDTIKRWLZQZBBU","additional_properties":{"_id":1734960082416},"content":"These performances, and many more, have been clearly recognised in the annual <a href=\"https://sportforbusiness.com/team-ireland-and-katie-taylor-top-teneo-public-survey-2024/#:~:text=The%20TSSI%20is%20a%20comprehensive,sport%20and%20their%20sporting%20heroes.\" target=\"_blank\">Teneo Sport and Sponsorship Index</a> (TSSI). This 1,000-person, nationally representative piece of research has been exploring Irish people’s attitudes towards sport and sponsorship for 15 years and has had a particular focus on women’s sport since 2018.","type":"text"},{"_id":"EXNQ3S2BTBACZAKTOU5QSYKMPI","additional_properties":{"_id":1734960082417},"content":"Women athletes claim four of the top five spots when it comes to our “most admired” athletes in 2024. <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/katie-taylor/\" target=\"_blank\">Katie Taylor</a>’s dominance at the top continues; she occupies the number one spot for the eighth year in a row, having garnered 15 per cent of the vote.","type":"text"},{"_id":"GUNYPF4CRBFRNFXLHPSJ7FYHLU","additional_properties":{"_id":1734960082418},"content":"The person who looks most likely to topple her in the coming years is Adaleke, who is Ireland’s second most admired athlete (11 per cent) followed closely by Harrington (10 per cent). Adaleke is a new entry to the top five, and with the most votes from 18-24 year-olds, her popularity is clearly on the rise.","type":"text"},{"_id":"3LPYW7YS5BFSRNJDLKEHM53ZZQ","additional_properties":{"_id":"VJ6TO4ECSFGNDGTFHNEEZMNC3Q"},"content":"Irish Times Sportswoman of the Year Awards: ‘The greatest collection of women in Irish sport in one place ever assembled’","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"HUJMK5LMTVBWPFSMSQ2N6UODYI","additional_properties":{"_id":1734960082419},"content":"Rachael Blackmore continues to make her mark; she is in fifth place, on 5 per cent of the vote. These athletes’ performances over the last 12 months have been world class, regardless of their gender, and Irish people recognise this.","type":"text"},{"_id":"FKFQUFXVJJGJVDN5DGHI4JU2YA","additional_properties":{"_id":1734960082420},"content":"Appreciation for our female athletes because of their sporting achievements is also evident in other areas. Katie McCabe (3 per cent) is our most admired footballer, with Evan Ferguson following her closely on 2 per cent, while Leona Maguire is Ireland’s joint-second favourite golfer with Shane Lowry (2 per cent) – our favourite being Rory McIlroy (3 per cent).","type":"text"},{"_id":"5C4QDYYDNRC55AEZL5Y4O6XW2U","additional_properties":{"_id":"BRS3CUSOLFDDNOWXK35CBZPGAY"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"4BXCPARIIZFW3OXIAC2OT3ACTI","additional_properties":{"_id":1734960082421},"content":"When looking at Team of the Year, the Irish Women’s 4 x 400m relay team were voted third favourite (14 per cent) and the Irish women’s rugby team were recognised in fifth place following their qualification for the 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup and famous win over New Zealand.","type":"text"},{"_id":"UJDQ24ZA6BBL3ADMHK2EPEYC6E","additional_properties":{"_id":1734960082422},"content":"These results show that Irish people recognise and admire sportspeople for their achievements, and these achievements in 2024 certainly have a female bias.","type":"text"},{"_id":"NMVVGCBGTNC7VOMZJRJI6FTKEI","additional_properties":{"_id":1734960082423},"content":"Media and attendance","type":"header"},{"_id":"PIUYF5INZNCVRJQO53I6P2XULM","additional_properties":{"_id":1734960082424},"content":"These athletes have commanded significant media coverage for their performances, with the Olympic and Paralympic Games dominating both the news and sports-news cycles for much of the summer. RTÉ figures show that the most viewed Olympic events were the finals that included Kellie Harrington, with a peak of 1.4 million viewers, and Rhasidat Adeleke, with a peak viewership of 926,000.","type":"text"},{"_id":"7OKW6X5P7CMFEYBO7WO2DWI4CU","additional_properties":{"_id":"TVE3EXEMW5GBBOCV3PNDVQ6U2E"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"PXGSPJOWBRBZNC3POZ4IKCCGVU","additional_properties":{"_id":1734960082425},"content":"Even with these significant viewership figures, the number of those who said they watched a female sporting event either on TV or online has remained fairly static year-on-year, with 55 per cent saying they did so in 2024, a slight decrease on 2023, which was at 59 per cent.","type":"text"},{"_id":"GH3CGD4YVVB6BFUWO57S3VKGUQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1734960082426},"content":"A concern consistently raised by Irish people is around sports coverage, with only 43 per cent saying women’s sport received sufficient media coverage in 2024, although three-quarters say that both the quality and volume has improved in the past 12 months. It is an area that needs constant monitoring and awareness, but things are going in the right direction.","type":"text"},{"_id":"Z5QE2AL7BBFENDH7VNZJKQ4ILQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1734960082427},"content":"When it comes to attending in person, again the numbers are much the same year-on-year – this time last year almost a quarter of people said they intended to go to a women’s sports event in person while the reality was that 16 per cent of people did. This jumps to 24 per cent for those aged 35-44, which is the cohort who attended female sports events the most, and by a significant margin.","type":"text"},{"_id":"A7W4Y7N6V5DSHN3BZHL6GXYAXA","additional_properties":{"_id":1734960082428},"content":"We have seen major women’s sports events incorporate other types of entertainment to enhance the product – Tom Grennan performing at the AIG Women’s Open being a good example of this. But, when the question was asked about what else would encourage Irish people to attend a women’s sports event one in three, which was the majority, said they wanted to attend “only for the sport”. Discounted ticket prices, which we can see in the likes of the National Women’s Soccer League in the United States, would add extra motivation to one in four people.","type":"text"},{"_id":"XC5645CLHFGSTFVTXCNAY5W32I","additional_properties":{"_id":"WRQCTZXIIVA57LGXKWUVSDZCBI"},"content":"The top 25 women’s sporting moments of the year: top spot revealed with Katie Taylor, Rhasidat Adeleke and Kellie Harrington featuring","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"F3AZPK4BNNH7REA5FFW22VBPA4","additional_properties":{"_id":1734960082429},"content":"Another clear sign to me of the progress being made regarding women’s sport is the Women’s Uefa European Championships being in the top five events that Irish people are most looking forward to next year, even though we aren’t competing in it. This again shows that Irish sports fans appreciate and recognise high performance sport, regardless of the gender.","type":"text"},{"_id":"RSRF44CJUVDD7AADBA6CBRSOS4","additional_properties":{"_id":1734960082430},"content":"Gender balance in leadership","type":"header"},{"_id":"AGSJHPEOVZA4RGDS5RPSAPLXIM","additional_properties":{"_id":1734960082431},"content":"Those at the top of their game are making a significant mark; breaking boundaries and inspiring generations of boys and girls. A significant amount of work has been put in, particularly by organisations such as Sport Ireland, to ensure these athletes have the right environments and resources to excel. But what about those leading the various sports in Ireland?","type":"text"},{"_id":"HS2GM3JLMJG5ZJMVV5G7VM34EQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1734960082432},"content":"Sport Ireland achieved a significant objective in 2024 with the overall percentage of women on boards in the Irish sports sector standing at 48 per cent in December. While this demonstrates that Sport Ireland and the Government’s approach has worked, the next important step will be maintaining this level into the future.","type":"text"},{"_id":"62CBBBJQJVHKVNKBXZZAEEHLYU","additional_properties":{"_id":1734960082433},"content":"In order to do this I believe it is important that women put themselves forward for voluntary positions at grassroots level so that they can progress through the boards, committees and systems which ultimately lead to leadership positions at provincial and national levels.","type":"text"},{"_id":"PP4CGF6V5VCZBBPKKSHQM5JAUY","additional_properties":{"_id":1734960082434},"content":"As it stands our research shows that currently only 16 per cent of women volunteer, compared to almost a quarter of men. This figure needs to change if we are to maintain the ambition of meaningful gender balance on boards at a national level.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ZFHZTO7HKFBTRNQHCNKVXPKSB4","additional_properties":{"_id":1734960082435},"content":"The primary motivations for women volunteering are to support their club in its development and growth (54 per cent), to give back to their community (48 per cent) and because their children are involved (43 per cent). It is imperative that those who are volunteering because of their children are motivated to stay on even when their children have graduated.","type":"text"},{"_id":"PPRTFYGDCVAQBFKAU56TKFIRGE","additional_properties":{"_id":1734960082436},"content":"Our elite athletes and their outstanding performances on the world stage in 2024 have had a large impact on Irish sport, not just Irish female sport.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ZYBEEPD4LNF27KFH546ADUBJ7Y","additional_properties":{"_id":1734960082437},"content":"Attendance at and media coverage of women’s sporting events continue to need attention but with the Irish system producing world-class athletes there is no doubt that these areas will change for the better.","type":"text"},{"_id":"MVA7CM6WEFEU3MM52WYZB77I2U","additional_properties":{"_id":1734960082438},"content":"This, coupled with gender balance in leadership of our sports organisations, means that women’s sport in Ireland is on solid ground and the future for all involved and those they are inspiring is very exciting.","type":"text"},{"_id":"YCDY6C2IB5FUNMX3YVDX7FFP3I","additional_properties":{},"type":"list"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"metered"},"credits":{"by":[{"additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Kelli O'Keeffe"}]},"description":{"basic":"Survey shows big performances mark major milestones in a historic year for women in Irish sport"},"display_date":"2024-12-26T06:00:00Z","headlines":{"basic":"Four of Ireland’s top five most admired sports people in 2024 are women","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"8948"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"IDQX2YMNI5GQCQRS3AAMZYGC64","auth":{"1":"9850d1433a0fe2a6c6b5516f4057a180d28aebddb0c54ad7f71d2390da8b607c"},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/IDQX2YMNI5GQCQRS3AAMZYGC64.jpg"}},"subtype":"default","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Soccer"},{"name":"Rugby"},{"name":"Golf"},{"name":"Gaelic Games"},{"name":"Cycling"},{"name":"Athletics"},{"name":"Sport"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/sport/boxing/2024/12/26/four-of-irelands-top-five-most-admired-sports-people-2024-are-women/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/sport/boxing","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Boxing"}}}},{"_id":"6MIFR53ODRB2PJORRM5EJENXUA","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":268,"audio_url":"https://beyondwords-h0e8gjgjaqe0egb7.a03.azurefd.net/audio/projects/8948/podcasts/3716ffe0-337d-4349-815b-d1308576b35f/versions/1734870711/media/8e182eed627519832009584a7b04a6f4_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/sport/boxing/2024/12/22/i-won-that-fight-tyson-fury-rejects-defeat-as-judges-christmas-gift-to-oleksandr-usyk/","content_elements":[{"_id":"SD7YR4XFZ5EE3FFGHT3YF6DXQQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1734869680574},"content":"<a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/tyson-fury/\" target=\"_blank\">Tyson Fury</a> described <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/oleksandr-usyk/\" target=\"_blank\">Oleksandr Usyk</a>’s victory over him as a “Christmas gift” from the three judges who all scored the fight 116-112 in favour of the world heavyweight champion. The verdict was justifiably much more clearcut than the split-decision ruling that gave Usyk victory in May.","type":"text"},{"_id":"FIK2NBBMSRC5BDJ7EJNU3A2WPQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1734869680575},"content":"But Fury offered his contrasting belief at the post-fight press conference: “I thought I won that fight. I thought I won both fights but I’m going home with two losses on my record. There’s not much I can do about it. I can just fight my heart out.","type":"text"},{"_id":"S4CKXUWF6BGFFNLMKKYMR7JCTQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1734869680577},"content":"“I will believe til the day I die that I won that fight. I was aggressive, on the front foot all night, landing to the body and head. Frank Warren [his promoter] had me three or four rounds up. A lot of people had me at least two rounds up. But I’m not going to cry over spilled milk. I can’t change the decision. When you don’t get the KO this is what happens: you can’t guarantee a win.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"5RDMBF4P3FHTHNIV7MFUNFU6LE","additional_properties":{"_id":1734869680578},"content":"Asked by a Ukrainian journalist if he agreed that Usyk was inspired by the defiant spirit of his war-torn country, Fury said dolefully: “I didn’t feel no spirit. I felt a bit of Christmas spirit in there and think he got a Christmas gift from those judges.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"QHBIMT6R25G2DLHLGDANXYX5XM","additional_properties":{"_id":1734869680579},"content":"Fury was told that even the experimental use of artificial intelligence had gone against him. The AI “judge” recorded a score of 118-112 to Usyk. Fury responded amusingly when he considered his view of AI. “By the review of that, absolutely shit,” he said. “Fuck all the computers, keep the humans going. More jobs for humans, less jobs for computers. Fuck electric cars too, while we’re at it.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"D6CR27KMSBEAFCC5W6ERZQLA4U","additional_properties":{"_id":1734869680580},"content":"He was asked what he would like to do next. “Go home and have a good Christmas. I’ve been away 12 weeks working for this fight. I’m gonna go home now and enjoy it. We go home to a new year. Let’s see what it brings.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"WJ4HMVSKWJECTDEQIN4NSM5B44","additional_properties":{"_id":1734869680581},"content":"Warren later spoke of his bemusement with the judges’ scorecards. “How did Tyson only get four rounds in this fight? It’s impossible,” he told Dazn. “Only four rounds. Each of them gave him four rounds, four different rounds. I’m not saying this because I’m biased, but everyone along the front there all thought it went the same way.","type":"text"},{"_id":"LR3ZD7OVGZGMVCANFHRT4UMIZU","additional_properties":{"_id":1734869680582},"content":"“It’s nuts. It’s nuts, I don’t get it. I’m really disappointed with that. I thought he was in control of the fight and boxed extremely well. Usyk was on the back foot for most of the fight, but it is what it is.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"5CTORIWQZFFSXDF36NFQZ5VFLI","additional_properties":{"_id":1734869680584},"content":"Fury’s future now comes into question following a second successive defeat to Usyk, but Warren declined to speculate on what he might do. “I don’t know. He’s very disappointed, like I am as well. It’s up to him,” Warren said. “It’s too early, just after a fight. Obviously emotions are running high. We’ll have to wait and see what happens for Tyson in the future. He’ll have to make up his mind.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"LH2F47NCGRH3JJUJ4LG4DJXJMU","additional_properties":{"_id":1734869680585},"content":"Usyk is the only man to have beaten Fury, who began his professional career 16 years ago this month, but the British fighter remained grudging in his praise. He would not even accept that Usyk is the best man he has ever faced. “Not really. In that fight he never hurt me once. I’ve got a few flesh wounds – and they’ll be gone in a few days. I know what’s happened and that’s it.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"A5UWW6XB7FAQXPC6LU27KUF7NU","additional_properties":{"_id":1734869680586},"content":"Fury repeated his belief that “in my opinion it was a Christmas gift. It’s not Oleksandr’s fault – congrats to him and his team.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"GZWJDKFTANAHBDCTSALKKJI2XM","additional_properties":{"_id":1734869680587},"content":"Usyk, typically, was far more gracious towards Fury: “He is a great fighter. He is a great opponent. He gave an unbelievable 24 rounds for my career. Thank you very much.”","type":"text"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"metered"},"credits":{"by":[{"name":"Donald McRae in Riyadh"}]},"description":{"basic":"Fury refuses to accept three judges’ unanimous decision after he lost the the fight for unified heavyweight championship"},"display_date":"2024-12-22T12:26:38.132Z","headlines":{"basic":"‘I won that fight’: Tyson Fury rejects defeat as judges’ ‘Christmas gift’ to Oleksandr Usyk","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"8948"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"KSPHK7DRQ2V74RCA4HAJNLQVZM","auth":{"1":"3b20ee59a46d6db81d3fed1bad40e766bcd4ba75c9a741272a4db6e42c84b121"},"focal_point":{"x":1875,"y":82},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/KSPHK7DRQ2V74RCA4HAJNLQVZM.jpg"}},"subtype":"default","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Sport"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/sport/boxing/2024/12/22/i-won-that-fight-tyson-fury-rejects-defeat-as-judges-christmas-gift-to-oleksandr-usyk/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/sport/boxing","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Boxing"}}}},{"_id":"Y5OV37BHJZCHJCBNFE7IWYEONE","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":349,"audio_url":"https://beyondwords-h0e8gjgjaqe0egb7.a03.azurefd.net/audio/projects/5469/podcasts/280af722-0a83-4bea-a99f-4b6e6bd9df23/versions/1734536662/media/2867c0466f518480f8d4fa5a648cfed7_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/sport/boxing/2024/12/21/kellie-harrington-fought-hard-for-the-dream-ending-she-well-deserved/","content_elements":[{"_id":"LM6EZQZOKVFCFDNYGSUXLIY5VI","additional_properties":{},"content":"Nothing about <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/kellie-harrington/\" target=\"_blank\">Kellie Harrington</a>’s career was inevitable. There was no pathway laid out for her, no fast-track to success. No slow-track, for that matter. It wasn’t just unlikely that she would end up becoming the first Irish boxer – male or female – to win back-to-back <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/olympic-games/\" target=\"_blank\">Olympic</a> gold medals. It was, by all measures, unimaginable.","type":"text"},{"_id":"G22XDSFRF5CSZMTTHXAEGQSMI4","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530769392},"content":"Who would waste time, breath or synapses on a dream like that?","type":"text"},{"_id":"CHL3STQIVZBONFMWQNG5XG7Z6M","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530769393},"content":"Spin the tape back to Harrington as a young teenager, the girl her mam sent away to live in England for a while to keep her out of trouble. The girl who dropped out of school, who was lost, who felt like she didn’t belong anywhere. Nobody was predicting this life for her, least of all herself.","type":"text"},{"_id":"CA4GA6JFZJAEZLMZNI2HQ2BHYE","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530769394},"content":"Yet there she was on a Tuesday night in August, with the whole country bobbing and weaving on their couches. Her <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/boxing/2024/08/06/kellie-harrington-makes-history-as-she-wins-a-second-olympic-gold-medal-in-paris/\" target=\"_blank\">Olympic final against China’s Yang Wenlu</a> was the last bout of the night, delayed by a schedule that went long, meaning it didn’t start until just short of 10.30pm Irish time. And still, the viewing figures said 1.3 million people hung on to watch her. For context, the Toy Show got 1.6 million.","type":"text"},{"_id":"YUPDRXLU3ZHKJIQB2KN2ZK5MNQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530769395},"content":"Think about that. This wasn’t an Ireland team in action. It wasn’t one of the big four sports. It wasn’t, frankly, a popular sport at all. For all our rich boxing history, it’s still a pretty niche pursuit in Ireland – the women’s side of it even more so. But that night, for those 11 minutes, 83 per cent of everyone who was watching a television in Ireland was watching Kellie Harrington.","type":"text"},{"_id":"N6GFURAF55A27KLOREMXAJH7BQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530769396},"content":"Never mind when she was a teenager – she would have had trouble imagining that for herself as recently as April of this year. At the European Elite Championships in Belgrade, Harrington lost to Natalia Shadrina, a Russian fighter who declared for Serbia in 2021. It was the Dubliner’s first defeat in three years and the Olympic opening ceremony was 92 days away.","type":"text"},{"_id":"QG466CXRPVESRFT553VJOVOBTU","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530769397},"content":"Sport owes you nothing. Olympic sport, even less. Katie Taylor did more to get women’s boxing into the Games than any fighter alive and still her Olympic journey ended with a split-decision defeat in her opening bout in Rio. Harrington had been the best fighter in Tokyo in 2021 but had made no secret of the fact that <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/paris-2024/\" target=\"_blank\">Paris</a> was to be her last run on the hamster wheel. Dream endings are incredibly rare for a reason.","type":"text"},{"_id":"5C4QDYYDNRC55AEZL5Y4O6XW2U","additional_properties":{"_id":"YPKORJMA2FG4TNGVAFPVQCMIHA"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"FFFCMPXL2RGU5PYJ2EBEESEXOE","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530769398},"content":"And of course, you had to throw into the mix the fact that Harrington had endured a torrid year out of the ring, entirely of her own making. A stupid tweet, <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/boxing/2023/03/28/kellie-harrington-says-she-is-all-about-diversity-after-refusing-to-answer-questions-about-immigration-and-her-deleted-tweet/\" target=\"_blank\">a disastrous interview</a>, an online viral shitstorm – it took a mental toll on her that raised huge doubts over what version of her would glove up in Paris. She had always used the backing of the Irish public as the coal in the stove. Now she wasn’t sure how much of it lay in ashes.","type":"text"},{"_id":"QY3DW2EGNZFUNNKB37L6UZABTY","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530769399},"content":"The thing with Kellie Harrington is that she finds it hard to wear a mask for long. She’ll do it when she needs to but it will take a supreme conscious effort on her part. It’s like she’s always pinching herself on the inside of her leg, reminding herself that she needs to keep a lid on the freewheeling, fandango part of her personality. Just for a little while longer.","type":"text"},{"_id":"K3TK7HIUUVDC3CIM4LZDYQXIEQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530769400},"content":"That’s who she turned herself into throughout the Olympics. For whatever reason, the organisers put the early stages of the boxing tournament in the most run-down venue at the Games. It was held in an out-of-the-way industrial estate on the north of the city. Versailles, it was not.","type":"text"},{"_id":"KHRBNAW5RNHUZHWKTEI4XOWA4M","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530769401},"content":"But in a way, that suited Harrington. Her whole approach to the Games was to isolate herself, to keep the outside world out, to plunge herself into a tunnel of her own making that let in no light until she was standing on the podium at the end. She kept her post-fight interviews clipped and po-faced, ignoring the fact that the rest of the Irish boxing team was collapsing in a heap around her.","type":"text"},{"_id":"2DMWDHRCHJGPHK25YONVUH66VI","additional_properties":{"_id":"2TJOZ4VPQBERTFY5RM2YDZRA4I"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"2OON33LCK5CKZDXHO3HF5BKEVM","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530769402},"content":"She kept the main thing the main thing. She put Alessia Mesiano and Angie Valdes away with perfunctory ease in her opening two bouts. She put on a show against world champion Beatriz Ferreira in an exhilarating semi-final, turning what had been a close fight her way in the final round, which she won on all judges’ cards.","type":"text"},{"_id":"HUULIHNGRNFGDAQDT54I7H5LTY","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530769403},"content":"It meant a second straight Olympic final – and a change of venue. But Harrington couldn’t have been less interested in the fact that her final was going to take place in the gilded surrounds of Court Philippe-Chatrier at Roland Garros. Novak Djokovic had won his gold medal on the same court just 36 hours earlier – the boxing had to start so late because the stadium had undergone a total refit in a day and a half.","type":"text"},{"_id":"NC3BDM3SARAYNCF443OCXGMEN4","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530769404},"content":"None of it mattered. She turned up and fought and took all the drama out of the night. She won the first round, she won the second. Three of the judges had her in an unassailable 20-18 going into the final stanza. All she had to do was stay standing upright and the gold medal was hers. She knew it too – she let Yang do all the running and gave up a split decision along the way but none of that mattered.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ORC4KW3WR5HPLOHA6FGAIMHAN4","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530769405},"content":"Gold. Again.","type":"text"},{"_id":"IXPLIX7NEJGJXNKBBA27UCCRCY","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530769406},"content":"Life goes on, of course. She is adamant that she has <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/2024/08/08/kellie-harrington-confirms-boxing-retirement-ive-nothing-more-to-prove-not-even-to-myself/\" target=\"_blank\">retired from international boxing</a> but anyone snooping around her social media will see she hasn’t entirely given up on the life. It would be no shock to see her turn up at the nationals one of these years, just for the kicks of it. Her next act will be fascinating, whatever form it takes.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ZFD66U7XY5FDRAGZJPVPJ2362E","additional_properties":{"_id":1734530769407},"content":"Double Olympic champion. The greatest Olympic boxer Ireland has ever known. Nothing left to prove to anyone.","type":"text"},{"_id":"2GXCE3WWBFB5HMA633J74CMKE4","additional_properties":{},"type":"list"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"metered"},"credits":{"by":[{"additional_properties":{"original":{"byline":"Malachy Clerkin"}},"name":"Malachy Clerkin"}]},"description":{"basic":"Back-to-back Olympic champion achieved the most coveted sporting triumph of all, going out on a high"},"display_date":"2024-12-21T06:00:00Z","headlines":{"basic":"Kellie Harrington fought hard for the dream ending she well deserved","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"5469"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"NEIDXA4O6ZEZFKBLAYUR47HVAQ","auth":{"1":"49d55fc49eaa10e33ff99bf4aec417c2dfbe26703f0c704c6869212c6f8344e5"},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/NEIDXA4O6ZEZFKBLAYUR47HVAQ.jpg"}},"subtype":"feature","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Sport"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/sport/boxing/2024/12/21/kellie-harrington-fought-hard-for-the-dream-ending-she-well-deserved/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/sport/boxing","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Boxing"}}}},{"_id":"DEABPEXLZJD5TPMAQIYO6XMO5A","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":319,"audio_url":"https://beyondwords-h0e8gjgjaqe0egb7.a03.azurefd.net/audio/projects/5469/podcasts/1e6d8529-a74a-4fef-bc23-1b01f2382c8b/versions/1734718099/media/40f78f945d2886fda1e7599d22c01695_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/sport/2024/12/20/irish-times-sportswoman-of-the-year-awards-the-greatest-collection-of-women-in-irish-sport-in-one-place-ever-assembled/","content_elements":[{"_id":"4CI3TZHN45CSPPXVGXZZAJKUJ4","additional_properties":{"_id":1734716199712},"content":"The journey through the past year, especially, has been hugely satisfying for so many of Ireland’s elite sportswomen and the final few steps – fittingly enough, climbing red-carpeted steps into the Shelbourne Hotel in the heart of Dublin city – had that sort of glitz and glamour far removed from the punishing training regimes of blood, sweat and tears that brought many such honour.","type":"text"},{"_id":"VE4X4TMHMFGGVIUBGL3QH4GPOM","additional_properties":{"_id":1734716199713},"content":"So it was that those on their final Friday of Christmas shopping or preparing for a long lunch or later nights stopped and stared. Mobile cameras were raised. <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/kellie-harrington/\" target=\"_blank\">Kellie</a>. Ciara. Mona. Louise. First names that have found a way into the heart and soul of Irish sporting life through their deeds in the ring, on the track, in the pool, on the pitch. Fingers pointing at them, shouts of recognition from women and men, girls and boys stopped in tracks.","type":"text"},{"_id":"2BSNHXKJLFGLTJONTU5IT5KXLA","additional_properties":{"_id":1734716199714},"content":"The Irish Times/Sport Ireland Sportswoman of the Year Awards were celebrating a 20th year since its inspired conception and the mood inside the old ballroom of the hotel was festive and celebratory with those honoured rightly enjoying their moments, a time to acknowledge and be acknowledged with mutual respect from one sportswoman to another.","type":"text"},{"_id":"EAHJ6KQJF5ECJHDNYGUMXEOOQU","additional_properties":{"_id":1734716199715},"content":"“The greatest collection of women in Irish sport in one place ever assembled, there is greatness everywhere,” is how Master of Ceremonies Des Cahill of RTÉ informed one and all of those present.","type":"text"},{"_id":"YFPSXHHPZZFLHMTGUMWNHNNZNE","additional_properties":{"_id":1734716199716},"content":"Some, unfortunately, couldn’t make it. But there were good reasons. Swimmer <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/roisin-ni-riain/\" target=\"_blank\">Róisín Ní Riain</a>, the double medallist at the <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/paralympic-games/\" target=\"_blank\">Paralympics</a>, had a college exam. Sevens rugby player Lucy Mulhall is on honeymoon. <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/katie-taylor/\" target=\"_blank\">Katie Taylor</a> was unable to attend. <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/rhasidat-adeleke/\" target=\"_blank\">Rhasidat Adeleke</a> was away with her sister Latifah.","type":"text"},{"_id":"RK7PPOED2PZTJ4RVG6PPDAC6QQ","additional_properties":{"_id":"QG3GW5KDBJCJDBX63VPCUPIMME"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"ZCTORDJOLFHYXIAVOFBIXMYFQ4","additional_properties":{"_id":1734716199717},"content":"But Rhasidat’s mother, an emotional Ade, stole the show in accepting the monthly award for May on behalf of her daughter and of her pride, while revealing the heartache of seeing her daughter come so close – fourth – to a medal at the <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/Paris-2024/\" target=\"_blank\">Olympics</a>.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ULQZXTAK4ZFCJKH44GPQKSB7Y4","additional_properties":{"_id":1734716199718},"content":"“Can you feel the love?” Des asked her.","type":"text"},{"_id":"GRSZZHPOQ5CSLBBQYM6LGJ5MKY","additional_properties":{"_id":1734716199719},"content":"“I know,” she replied, the tears coming.","type":"text"},{"_id":"T6GKSYUC4FDP3EV222GNXIWYRI","additional_properties":{"_id":1734716199720},"content":"“I’m sorry, I don’t have a tissue,” whispered Des.","type":"text"},{"_id":"BVX7UD7X35G57MMZECQZ5DM7RI","additional_properties":{"_id":1734716199721},"content":"Silence, though, was a rare commodity on the day that was in it with Olympic double medallist Kellie Harrington showing the way in whooping and hollering as European 1,500 metres champion <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/ciara-mageean/\" target=\"_blank\">Ciara Mageean</a> was called to collect her June award for her magnificent victory in Rome.","type":"text"},{"_id":"UPT5IX5OURH5LCZSBG32ANGP5Q","additional_properties":{"_id":"JLUKWD6ERJAQ3JHJWMI7KP7YEM"},"content":"Two-time Olympic champion Kellie Harrington named Irish Times/Sport Ireland Sportswoman of the Year 2024","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"U2ULH525ONEUDLA2HMOICL3YXA","additional_properties":{"_id":1734716199722},"content":"Ciara was one of the very few who hadn’t donned high heels. Having undergone surgery on her ankle three months ago, the more comfortable – and sensible – option of trainers were the Co Down star’s choice of footwear.","type":"text"},{"_id":"6KTHEXA2MZFEBPILSBHFMSC5EI","additional_properties":{"_id":1734716199723},"content":"First things first, however, Ciara – following Ade to the stage – spoke through the crowds and the round tables to Rhasidat’s mother.","type":"text"},{"_id":"23H6SZXBVFC33FBEX7MKYX3HNA","additional_properties":{"_id":1734716199724},"content":"“I can sit here as a 32-year-old athlete and say that Rhadisat is so young and we all know the future that she has in the sport, it is so bright so I know that even when my spikes are hung up I am going to be watching her bringing medals home,” said Mageean, to widespread roars of approval from those gathered.","type":"text"},{"_id":"G3C6LCKWENEIZGFFVEUDIASVHM","additional_properties":{"_id":1734716199725},"content":"Of her own moment of glory in Rome, Mageean – who seems to have a smile permanently fixed to her face (unless, as Des reminded us, she’s pitchside at a hurling match!), revealed that it’s not all glamour. She’d to go for a drug test post-final and by the time she got out to her family the celebrations involved “cold pizza and a can of coke.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"NO4CLR4J2YFZPPX4G4EIU4JR6I","additional_properties":{"_id":"IHMNYCN5YZHN5LXIYRUGEMRXWE"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"BAC6PKGAABBBXLBEZDTBNMUB4Y","additional_properties":{"_id":1734716199726},"content":"Mageean has moved back home to Ireland and has no plans to hang up the spikes just yet, as she revealed: “I am looking forward to this next chapter on Irish soil. I have my eyes firmly set on getting ready for the World Championships in the summer and another four year cycle towards LA (for the 2028 Olympics).”","type":"text"},{"_id":"T6ZSHMO2ZFBCXFMSFJTVNMT34U","additional_properties":{"_id":1734716199727},"content":"Katie Taylor couldn’t make it but another Katie – the legendary <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/katie-george-dunlevy/\" target=\"_blank\">Katie-George Dunlevy</a> – certainly was, in a year of years where she overcame a shattered shoulder blade to recover and win Paralympic and World gold medals in taking the award for September. If that was a great year, it was made even better in being named along with her pilots Linda Kelly and Eve McCrystal as the recipients of the Team of the Year award.","type":"text"},{"_id":"BULCGU3XDBFJFOOM3OLEE7FBDU","additional_properties":{"_id":1734716199728},"content":"The broad range of sportswomen excelling on the international stage is, surely, quite extraordinary. <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/rachael-blackmore/\" target=\"_blank\">Rachael Blackmore</a>’s win in the Champions Chase at Cheltenham – her mother Eimir revealed she’d gone to the restrooms and put on the hand drier so she couldn’t hear the race, only emerging for the final few fences – added to her great career CV, while Louise Ní Mhuircheartaigh’s brilliance in the Kerry jersey in leading her side to the All-Ireland title after 31 years was celebrated in her August award.","type":"text"},{"_id":"4KMXIWN65VHRLOGJ62Z5RDOQ5Y","additional_properties":{"_id":1734716199729},"content":"“Gorta mór,” said Louise of the time away from the Brendan Martin Cup.","type":"text"},{"_id":"FMUMQL3EQJEBPK5547JHZGUM44","additional_properties":{"_id":1734716199730},"content":"This, for sure, was another celebration of Irish sportswomen where, it seems, the bar is raised ever higher each year.","type":"text"},{"_id":"C72HGQKSS5CHDPUYTD7A6BW2PQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1734716199731},"content":"And in accepting her award as the Sportswoman of the Year, Harrington, another with a tear in her eye, had a special word for all of the mammies of Ireland. “Win, lose or draw, just keep on doing what you are doing (in encouraging daughters to achieve in sport) ... because it’s great!”","type":"text"},{"_id":"2GXCE3WWBFB5HMA633J74CMKE4","additional_properties":{},"type":"list"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"metered"},"credits":{"by":[{"additional_properties":{"original":{"byline":"Philip Reid"}},"name":"Philip Reid"}]},"description":{"basic":"Kellie Harrington named Irish Times/Sport Ireland Sportswoman of the Year for 2024"},"display_date":"2024-12-20T18:03:06.099Z","headlines":{"basic":"Irish Times Sportswoman of the Year Awards: ‘The greatest collection of women in Irish sport in one place ever assembled’","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"5469"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"SSSW3LZ77BC3ZLSQ3WEWCGHWII","auth":{"1":"92ba5d2de7376199be3b6c4e82d180c82c3403294597350d54e3eb4d80419e5b"},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/SSSW3LZ77BC3ZLSQ3WEWCGHWII.JPG"}},"subtype":"feature","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Sport"},{"name":"Soccer"},{"name":"Rugby"},{"name":"Racing"},{"name":"Golf"},{"name":"Gaelic Games"},{"name":"Cycling"},{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Athletics"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/sport/2024/12/20/irish-times-sportswoman-of-the-year-awards-the-greatest-collection-of-women-in-irish-sport-in-one-place-ever-assembled/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/sport","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Sport"}}}},{"_id":"56EDKMB2IFG27BAV7NAIQY5YGM","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":272,"audio_url":"https://beyondwords-h0e8gjgjaqe0egb7.a03.azurefd.net/audio/projects/5469/podcasts/370675ba-4460-40f1-8019-ac01fc1a5cfd/versions/1734719946/media/32643e5ff13f768115172dd215c1a87e_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/sport/2024/12/20/two-time-olympic-champion-kellie-harrington-named-irish-timessport-ireland-sportswoman-of-the-year-2024/","content_elements":[{"_id":"BTMNICXND5HEPLHQ4L65TCKRBY","additional_properties":{},"content":"Right to the very end of the year, <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/kellie-harrington/\" target=\"_blank\">Kellie Harrington</a> still had them out of their seats – this time after she was named Irish Times/Sport Ireland Sportswoman of the Year for 2024.","type":"text"},{"_id":"QIO2L7TILZA45OXPUQH7ELTE4I","additional_properties":{},"content":"When <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/ciara-mageean/\" target=\"_blank\">Ciara Mageean</a> walked up to accept her monthly award an hour earlier, Harrington roared from the table, ‘Go Ciara.’ Game recognising game. ","type":"text"},{"_id":"IXSLN7OP3RFS3MRYRFTAUCWEDA","additional_properties":{},"content":"But who has had more game than Harrington in 2024? When she was announced as the overall winner those in the function room of The Shelbourne Hotel rose simultaneously.","type":"text"},{"_id":"MPU54ISDYVD4FDDVYP7MNS4DJE","additional_properties":{},"content":"Mageean, <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/mona-mcsharry/\" target=\"_blank\">Mona McSharry</a>, Sonia O’Sullivan, the great and the good. All spontaneously out of their chairs. Harrington is adjusting to life as a former boxer these days, but double <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/olympic-games/\" target=\"_blank\">Olympic</a> champions don’t bow out unnoticed.","type":"text"},{"_id":"VENCJ46V2NCIPHAACVDW7AKEIQ","additional_properties":{},"content":"In the lobby afterwards, one of the first people over for a photo was <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/rhasidat-adeleke/\" target=\"_blank\">Rhasidat Adeleke</a>’s mam, Adewumi Ademola. They enveloped each other in a long, warm embrace beforehand. Others followed. Her achievements in Tokyo and <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/paris-2024/\" target=\"_blank\">Paris</a> have set her apart. This is who Harrington is now, and forever will be, the Irish boxer who retained her Olympic gold medal. Unprecedented stuff.","type":"text"},{"_id":"YQZECB3RZVAMHINBTQWLQUTYHE","additional_properties":{},"content":"The Team of the Year award was won by Paralympic cyclists <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/katie-george-dunlevy/\" target=\"_blank\">Katie-George Dunlevy</a>, <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/linda-kelly/\" target=\"_blank\">Linda Kelly</a> and <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/eve-mccrystal/\" target=\"_blank\">Eve McCrystal</a>.","type":"text"},{"_id":"UXP7HZ3FOY25SBWG7YM6RZMGUU","additional_properties":{"_id":"3RJFWYWCMBCYZLA6VF6QD5JS4U"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"BK23FAJ43NBDNOC4S54LEAWXZY","additional_properties":{},"content":"For Harrington, it has been a challenge adjusting to life outside the bubble of being an athlete. ","type":"text"},{"_id":"5622IAOBSZGOZCR3MVQJWUFGAI","additional_properties":{},"content":"“Part of that is probably because I am usually so focused on what’s next,” she said.","type":"text"},{"_id":"R7QCJ45ETBBZ3EGGHVOLEBQLEE","additional_properties":{},"content":"“And now I just don’t know, I’m in limbo land – I don’t know what I’m doing, I don’t know where I’m going, I don’t know who I am, I don’t know anything. I’m just taking the rest of this year off to enjoy doing nothing, and it feels so strange. ","type":"text"},{"_id":"CYEVYPKKPJH47N4FWUGBTK5OFU","additional_properties":{},"content":"“It really feels so strange to not have to get up and go training, not to have to check my weight every morning, not to try and think of what things I want to work on in training.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ZY67UUW46BGGHOEDZUZEUTS5AY","additional_properties":{},"content":"“I would be constantly always thinking about stuff like that, thinking about how I can get better, what’s that one per cent that I can work on today. But now it’s like, ‘What am I going to have for my breakfast today – will I have porridge or will I have a fry?’ I definitely miss it.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"2LJWW5JJKFGOHMH3C7HVDO5AHA","additional_properties":{},"content":"But to help with the transition, she has kept her eye in – popping out to Abbottstown to train in the high-performance unit.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ENWLLUXAK64PWGKOJIVWGZIRGA","additional_properties":{"_id":"3YKAN46LXZHOVJRDG4MXEZN63Q"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"VNDA6VLBPRBO5KRLMTST2B3YDY","additional_properties":{},"content":"Zaur Anita has even suggested she join the team when they travel to China in February, to help prepare the boxers with some sparring. She might. But there is no grá within her to become a coach. ","type":"text"},{"_id":"2ENKSH2L4NGXHGR7TDIGVOKMSU","additional_properties":{},"content":"“I don’t think that’s me. I think if I was to go to a coaching role I’d probably lose my cool. But I do think there is something there that I have to give back, but I just don’t think it’s in a coaching role, not to the extent that is in the high performance.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"MH6NYGFWFBESXDSNR4WXHDCMY4","additional_properties":{},"content":"She recently moved back to Portland Row with her wife Mandy, buying a house just a quick shuffle away from Harrington’s childhood home. They’ll be hosting Christmas dinner this year. Life moving on, as it should.","type":"text"},{"_id":"BACGUGQIEVCEDDTXWLJ52WEHUQ","additional_properties":{"_id":"QLTQWYVTVNGDDCODYGBCYYYRQA"},"content":"Irish Times Sportswoman of the Year Awards: ‘The greatest collection of women in Irish sport in one place ever assembled’","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"TVIE6YRCYZCPPL5DKOBEZDLAB4","additional_properties":{},"content":"“I feel this is a new chapter for the two of us.” ","type":"text"},{"_id":"AB7ORZ5ANJE5VKDFGDVLIUP37U","additional_properties":{},"content":"But sport will remain an important part of her life.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ZJ4AWFXYB5DFZDGHC3NDGJPIQU","additional_properties":{},"content":"“Every woman or man who get up in the morning and are trying to do something in sport, they are already winning because somebody is looking up to them, it could be their niece, nephew, cousin, their next-door neighbours’ kids – somebody is looking up to them. ","type":"text"},{"_id":"A2VQPDR3HVEHLFWTE6SOKB2R5A","additional_properties":{},"content":"“Whether you are winning on the field or the pitch or whatever, you are winning at life and that’s the most important thing.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"7IWQDPLEXNF5TGIVITVBUOXYCU","additional_properties":{"_id":"5TONMUAWZNBHLCUAAZDRZUP2AQ"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"GIEH224W4VCANMMHF5SRZUBS3A","additional_properties":{},"content":"It’s that same perspective that will see Harrington pull the front door behind her on Christmas Day for a few hours and travel the short distance to Fairview Hospital to punch in for work. ","type":"text"},{"_id":"OIKCYSXY2BDBJMX4HAFOJQU25A","additional_properties":{},"content":"","type":"text"},{"_id":"AQEVZ4ITGBDN7C3P6WDCIR4XPE","additional_properties":{},"content":"“In the past I used to have the ward and I used to have all the patients in the ward and it would be absolutely magical. On Christmas Day I would bring them all in presents and we’d open them together, I just used to love it,” she said.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ESI3NYPEI5FBDCPFIQ3O7GXLVI","additional_properties":{},"content":"“Work is not the same at the moment because the hospital is bit by bit closing down, all the patients on my ward have been moved to nursing homes. ","type":"text"},{"_id":"YIQILTOU25HB3IFDC2IK5QOUDE","additional_properties":{},"content":"“They are going to build a new hospital, so I’m holding out hope that I will still be there when they do build the new hospital and we’ll go back to the way it was on the ward with the patients. It won’t be the same patients, but I’ll still give them all the love that I have.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"FOK2ZEUVMFARDEBYGTQYTOHCPQ","additional_properties":{},"content":"As Kellie Harrington found out in The Shelbourne on Friday, the love flows both ways.","type":"text"},{"_id":"2GXCE3WWBFB5HMA633J74CMKE4","additional_properties":{},"type":"list"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"metered"},"credits":{"by":[{"additional_properties":{"original":{"byline":"Gordon Manning"}},"name":"Gordon Manning"}]},"description":{"basic":"Olympians, paralympians, All-Ireland winners and more celebrated at annual awards in Dublin"},"display_date":"2024-12-20T15:23:13.504Z","headlines":{"basic":"Two-time Olympic champion Kellie Harrington named Irish Times/Sport Ireland Sportswoman of the Year 2024","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"5469"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"3WGEYMS3OVGNLEGBX7B3YR62XU","auth":{"1":"5a314a12da2be568d0316df7f8b96d3ce69e0834443189433278ec8e237eda1d"},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/3WGEYMS3OVGNLEGBX7B3YR62XU.jpeg"}},"subtype":"default","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Sport"},{"name":"Soccer"},{"name":"Rugby"},{"name":"Racing"},{"name":"Golf"},{"name":"Gaelic Games"},{"name":"Cycling"},{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Athletics"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/sport/2024/12/20/two-time-olympic-champion-kellie-harrington-named-irish-timessport-ireland-sportswoman-of-the-year-2024/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/sport","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Sport"}}}},{"_id":"DQAELRV525FLNFNQ7AIDGQABSI","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":414,"audio_url":"https://beyondwords-h0e8gjgjaqe0egb7.a03.azurefd.net/audio/projects/5469/podcasts/7cb2f2fa-9f55-4de9-bd5d-985fd8082241/versions/1734626899/media/6902c2c6c0c1cf0733d1abab16df061a_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/sport/2024/12/20/sportswoman-awards-preview-celebration-of-womens-achievements-hits-its-20th-year/","content_elements":[{"_id":"VECWODI5UJBCVBJ7WAJJFNCXSI","additional_properties":{"_id":1734622075243},"content":"When we launched the <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/sportswoman-of-the-year-award/\" target=\"_blank\">Sportswoman of the Year</a> awards back in 2004, it’s arguable that just two of the people on the list of monthly winners, Sonia O’Sullivan and Cora Staunton, were household names.","type":"text"},{"_id":"CIMZZXJB3JEHVK6JGC3H6MHKQU","additional_properties":{"_id":1734622075244},"content":"Fast forward to 2024 and our list of contenders for the overall award doesn’t just feature names well known to us, it’s sprinkled with some of the biggest stars in Irish sport – among them <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/kellie-harrington/\" target=\"_blank\">Kellie Harrington</a>, <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/rachael-blackmore/\" target=\"_blank\">Rachael Blackmore</a>, <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/rhasidat-adeleke/\" target=\"_blank\">Rhasidat Adeleke</a>, <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/ciara-mageean/\" target=\"_blank\">Ciara Mageean</a>, <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/katie-george-dunlevy/\" target=\"_blank\">Katie-George Dunlevy</a> and <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/katie-taylor/\" target=\"_blank\">Katie Taylor</a>.","type":"text"},{"_id":"E233IJNLSBCHJK6FALWWNJJKSU","additional_properties":{"_id":1734622075245},"content":"That is, of course, a measure of the depth of their achievements, all of them once again treating us to unforgettable moments through the year, but it is also a sign that they are finally receiving the recognition they deserve.","type":"text"},{"_id":"6QYH7LQQSVH2NJQBCLIKRRNN5E","additional_properties":{"_id":1734622075246},"content":"And that was our chief hope back in 2004 when the awards got under way, that they would help shine a light on the largely underreported feats of our sportswomen.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ZAVDG7TX6ZHI5LB5M22D57Z5LI","additional_properties":{"_id":1734622075247},"content":"A lot done, more to do, as they say, but there has, undeniably, been progress – and how could there not be when these women have produced some of the most memorable moments in Irish sport over the last two decades?","type":"text"},{"_id":"VA6RJAUPE5ATLGK5XDTNTOZLF4","additional_properties":{"_id":1734622075248},"content":"It’s been a thrill and a pleasure for us to report on their feats, a scroll through our list of overall winners a reminder of just how many magical days they have given us – from Katie Taylor’s gold in London, to Rachael Blackmore’s Grand National triumph, to Fiona Coghlan captaining Ireland to a Grand Slam, to Kellie Harrington retaining her Olympic title. Days we’ll never forget.","type":"text"},{"_id":"RVZTYY6NORCATLFMIPSOP2XE3U","additional_properties":{"_id":1734622075249},"content":"In all, 147 sportswomen have won monthly awards through the years, and at least a dozen more deserved one in 2024, but such was the quality of the list of contenders, our judges were spoilt for choice.","type":"text"},{"_id":"QV7F42OHB5EVVITCLUWGKFCA54","additional_properties":{"_id":1734622075250},"content":"Here’s to another 20 years of such excellence, and many more magical moments. We won’t be short of them, we can be sure. – <b>Noel O’Reilly, Sports Editor</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"JX56IFAQ5FBWTIHNVH4JYBKJ7Y","additional_properties":{"_id":1734622075251},"content":"<b>Monthly Winners</b>","type":"header"},{"_id":"WUWEDV6HXBFWNPITNI7JL3GQHU","additional_properties":{"_id":1734623739017},"content":"<b>December – </b><mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>Fionnuala McCormack</b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"YYSLDJLZ45AXNCYWJPXA2PFRMU","additional_properties":{"_id":1734623739018},"content":"<b>Athletics</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"NCJAXYVN3YQMOTINXHHQDEG64U","additional_properties":{"_id":"CBOHHTXE4VBJJMEQF5HTEN5UYI"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"PP3PX62OWRHEFEYFLXSYD2UHK4","additional_properties":{"_id":1734623739019},"content":"It was in December of last year that McCormack became the first Irish woman to qualify for a fifth successive Olympic Games when she ran inside the required mark at the Valencia marathon. Before making history in Paris, McCormack finished just 18 seconds away from a medal at the European Cross Country Championships and ended her year by running the fastest marathon of her career.","type":"text"},{"_id":"IGP3Z6ZUT5BRPGIA3VBELPBUF4","additional_properties":{"_id":1734623739020},"content":"<b>January – </b><mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>Lucy Mulhal</b>l</mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"6OZQAJZEHZBING35YV476HA7YA","additional_properties":{"_id":1734623739021},"content":"<b>Rugby</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"VXL647LOZ5FPXFIYXAVFVCZY3E","additional_properties":{"_id":"4PNATCWTNREQRLUDNTBEYYZLMM"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"HZE6VS6V3VBNBO7GO33WNJTGUU","additional_properties":{"_id":1734623739022},"content":"It was a memorable year for our Sevens side who made their Olympic debut in Paris where they reached the quarter-finals. But it was back in January that captain Lucy Mulhall led them to their first World Series gold medal when, after seeing off Britain in the semi-finals, they beat Australia in the final with the help of Mulhall’s player-of-the-match display.","type":"text"},{"_id":"HRRGHQITCNDKTBVR7HWUSUWIGI","additional_properties":{"_id":1734623739023},"content":"<b>February – </b><mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>Mona McSharry</b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"3PEKLH35QRAHFDDTH7PV6Z5GAU","additional_properties":{"_id":1734623739024},"content":"<b>Swimming</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"M5BGHX4PGP4SKQBIQP4VFAVL3Q","additional_properties":{"_id":"7CT4TJ52EZB4FKE3VD5VC2U5QM"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"42QWYBMT7BHRVGF64W2M3NDZGM","additional_properties":{"_id":1734623739025},"content":"Even before Mona McSharry became the second Irish swimmer to win an Olympic medal, her name was on our monthly list of winners. On returning from her strong performance at the World Aquatics Championships in February, she became the second woman in history to break the 56-seconds mark in a 100m breaststroke medley relay. Then came that magical moment in Paris when she took bronze in the 100m breaststroke.","type":"text"},{"_id":"Z5P7IWBCH5FCRPQYAJFLMUFXXM","additional_properties":{"_id":1734623739026},"content":"<b>March – </b><mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>Rachael Blackmore</b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"UM5QYKVPPVBIHH2UUDJJK4O4DE","additional_properties":{"_id":1734623739027},"content":"<b>Horse Racing</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"FC6LHF4CXH5GDV4AAJG7P4LIQU","additional_properties":{"_id":"BQLEJO7WNRF25CW7EZYG5CK25I"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"3YPKI3J34NDWZF7NJXUGFD5F5I","additional_properties":{"_id":1734623739028},"content":"Cheltenham was already a special place for Blackmore, but in March she had yet another day to remember there when she won the Champion Chase on Henry De Bromhead’s Captain Guinness. Having already won the Gold Cup and two Champion Hurdles, that completed the Festival’s Triple Crown for the brilliant Tipperary jockey.","type":"text"},{"_id":"HNWSFHCYJ5GPLEWQUMPQDJGRZ4","additional_properties":{"_id":1734623739029},"content":"<b>April – </b><mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>Róisín Ní Riain</b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"M73JSM2JGBH7JI4B7TQ6M62OEQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1734623739030},"content":"<b>Swimming</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"NPDBQJIVZPNSJ6C7NMW5KXQPVE","additional_properties":{"_id":"N27J5P3VVRFTRHHCTP3H2FT4AA"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"NHOZF4I2MJAHBFK5SDWPMTO4PI","additional_properties":{"_id":1734623739031},"content":"Another of our monthly winners who excelled before Paris came around, Ní Riain returned from the European Para Swimming Championships in Portugal in April laden with five medals, among them two golds. And the Limerick teenager completed an outstanding year by winning silver and bronze at the Paralympics, in the 100m backstroke and 200m individual medley.","type":"text"},{"_id":"IO62J7XGJVEYTEGY36KO4W5M5U","additional_properties":{"_id":1734623739032},"content":"<b>May – </b><mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>Rhasidat Adeleke</b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"Q2GOJ4WKDVAITMYJMTSY2DH3RU","additional_properties":{"_id":1734623739033},"content":"<b>Athletics</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"MFBRF6KPKO6XHVLWPVH2LUSMJU","additional_properties":{"_id":"ZRLAVJQPONGKHCYZOUJRUZT3JE"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"47TNCO25DVBQLK32VFS4ID6OYM","additional_properties":{"_id":1734623739034},"content":"Adeleke’s year began with a spate of record-smashing, and among the highlights thereafter were three medals at the European Championships: gold with the mixed 4x400m and silver with the women’s 4x400m relay teams and silver in the individual 400m. And agonising as they were, those fourth-place individual and relay finishes at the Olympics only served to underline the 22-year-old’s promise.","type":"text"},{"_id":"AEQQFQ3PD5BVPORPISZYT2X6IE","additional_properties":{"_id":1734623739035},"content":"<b>June – </b><mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>Ciara Mageean</b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"S3IN32RJQ5E5LBJALON6RF756A","additional_properties":{"_id":1734623739036},"content":"<b>Athletics</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"TMMQJWXQHNBPLO6ALPI25YYBTY","additional_properties":{"_id":"2WVU2U7ZCBATXFYGHX4SQQLKJE"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"33U7HBPV7NE5RKB67MILEYWM5I","additional_properties":{"_id":1734623739037},"content":"She was left heartbroken when injury forced her to withdraw from the Olympic Games, but by then Mageean had produced the performance of a lifetime at Rome’s Stadio Olimpico, a brilliant finish down the homestretch seeing her win gold in the 1,500m. It was just the third gold medal for Ireland in the 90-year history of the European Championships.","type":"text"},{"_id":"SS6HFZEEUVEERBOIFFUBTLL6EM","additional_properties":{"_id":1734623739038},"content":"<b>July – </b><mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>Kellie Harrington</b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"KJO4WTHAU5HWDBOYPA44Y6JI34","additional_properties":{"_id":1734623739039},"content":"<b>Boxing</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"RB3OHD7EPZDVBK5NLYZDBM3BCU","additional_properties":{"_id":"ROPA7JS445CD7NO3EBFT7DYF6A"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"DI7JDGBWDFDV5PPRVRCMHAIR5I","additional_properties":{"_id":1734623739040},"content":"Harrington was already a history maker before she took to the ring for her Olympic final in August – when she won her quarter-final she became the first Irish woman to win medals in two Olympic Games. And come that unforgettable night at Roland Garros, in front of a (mainly Irish) crowd of 15,000, she retained her Olympic crown with a 4-1 win over China’s Wenlu Yang.","type":"text"},{"_id":"QBNP3WMAHVAD5DJOQVOWFQQZFI","additional_properties":{"_id":1734623739041},"content":"<b>August – </b><mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>Louise Ní Mhuircheartaigh</b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"3WJ47MCLWJEDRH62MHLJY63P4M","additional_properties":{"_id":1734623739042},"content":"<b>Gaelic games</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"MGJUF4FSYXUKCOPOJHKUQMICUM","additional_properties":{"_id":"NC5ICXZJXZDNBBFZE6FUI7TFF4"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"QRRKH7EWWFGYTKUZNMZ3T5QKJY","additional_properties":{"_id":1734623739043},"content":"To her immense relief, Ní Mhuircheartaigh will never again be asked how it feels to be one of the greatest footballers of all time never to have won an All-Ireland. That question became obsolete when Kerry ended a drought that stretched back to 1993 by beating Galway in the final. So, she’s now one of the greatest footballers of all time with an All Ireland winner’s medal.","type":"text"},{"_id":"3BNL55WRQREEBDGX47WAIJN45Q","additional_properties":{"_id":1734623739044},"content":"<b>September – </b><mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>Katie-George Dunlevy & Linda Kelly</b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"EKBDYHMFF5GOJGHGZHFXXFYSWI","additional_properties":{"_id":1734623739045},"content":"<b>Paracycling</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"DGMJ42HTO2SPYMI5GPTNEXS5HE","additional_properties":{"_id":"SL43G5QTOZELVJJIIBNR5GE54Q"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"JUQICRLM7FDJZFH5ZOUNC747IA","additional_properties":{"_id":1734623739046},"content":"September 2024 is a month Dunlevy and Kelly won’t forget in a hurry. In the space of 25 days they won Paralympic gold and silver in Paris and two World Championship golds in Zurich. And, for good measure, Dunlevy also won Paralympic silver with her long-time pilot Eve McCrystal. Considering the number of injuries and illnesses Dunlevy and Kelly suffered through the year, their achievements were remarkable.","type":"text"},{"_id":"5PBVHAMWZZEOBKGY5LSBSTEGZE","additional_properties":{"_id":1734623739047},"content":"<b>October – </b><mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>Lara Gillespie</b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"KL6RZHHTVJASJM36YSBCPRYSL4","additional_properties":{"_id":1734623739048},"content":"<b>Cycling</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"SNI53BQQRBMGNJPKYXKFAESVXM","additional_properties":{"_id":"JE2WOY7T2JGFBKFJZRRGMWE2KY"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"LCL6RWLBFZHSPLA7Y3Y4GHK7OI","additional_properties":{"_id":1734623739049},"content":"Another of our sportswomen of the year who has had to battle through illness and injury, Gillespie put it all behind her in a year that culminated in a bronze medal at the Track World Championships. By then she was part of the first Irish team pursuit squad to qualify for the Olympic Games, she won the Giro Mediterraneo Rosa and the Antwerp Port Epic, and was awarded a contract that saw her step up to World Tour level.","type":"text"},{"_id":"KJW6UGSGZZHCNFNEHQEHNCQKPE","additional_properties":{"_id":1734623739050},"content":"<b>November – </b><mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>Katie Taylor</b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"RMWI4R4KW5BZDGHHHMAAXADDD4","additional_properties":{"_id":1734623739051},"content":"<b>Boxing</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"BY2PEG5KQNASNJJJ6ZHFFYSBLY","additional_properties":{"_id":"HJKD7FFLFNCMLHA5M2LFIRTMNQ"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"CZNIU7Z3OJAB7K5CA4J2PQHJ5I","additional_properties":{"_id":1734623739052},"content":"Our five-time Sportswoman of the Year was involved in yet another fight for the ages with Amanda Serrano, four years after they first met at Madison Square Garden. Nobody ever thought that contest would be topped, but somehow the pair achieved the feat in front of a crowd of over 60,000 in Arlington, Texas. Taylor got the nod from all three judges who each scored it 95-94.","type":"text"},{"_id":"2GXCE3WWBFB5HMA633J74CMKE4","additional_properties":{},"type":"list"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"metered"},"credits":{"by":[]},"description":{"basic":"Monthly winners this year included Kellie Harrington, Rachael Blackmore and Rhasidat Adeleke"},"display_date":"2024-12-20T06:00:00Z","headlines":{"basic":"Sportswoman of the Year Awards: Celebration of women’s achievements hits its 20th year","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"5469"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"4J3O26TQR5DMBHC6KORXGDKR4U","auth":{"1":"c53a284a1bd1b7fae6664f39905f28896f1fd2eba62b20eed520a7ef34dd452b"},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/4J3O26TQR5DMBHC6KORXGDKR4U.jpg"}},"subtype":"default","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Sport"},{"name":"Soccer"},{"name":"Rugby"},{"name":"Racing"},{"name":"Gaelic Games"},{"name":"Cycling"},{"name":"Athletics"},{"name":"Boxing"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/sport/2024/12/20/sportswoman-awards-preview-celebration-of-womens-achievements-hits-its-20th-year/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/sport","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Sport"}}}},{"_id":"ZEKHGS36NNAMBEM45FLEOXFEFY","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":68,"audio_url":"https://beyondwords-h0e8gjgjaqe0egb7.a03.azurefd.net/audio/projects/5469/podcasts/abb574d8-b1d4-496e-aa37-f5e664392fbf/versions/1734456099/media/947d3af925b7e3e89efda74fa6d0a330_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/sport/boxing/2024/12/17/conor-mcgregor-says-he-is-in-preliminary-agreement-to-fight-logan-paul-in-india/","content_elements":[{"_id":"PTMT6DTQ65AXHNFNET3H2GLQJY","additional_properties":{"_id":1734454780901},"content":"Conor McGregor has reached a preliminary agreement to fight American social media influencer turned fighter Logan Paul in an exhibition boxing match, the former UFC champion said on social media on Tuesday.","type":"text"},{"_id":"JMXO2FW3DBDWRFJ3W52FDCCVOY","additional_properties":{"_id":1734454780902},"content":"McGregor, who was ordered to pay almost €250,000 in damages last month after a jury in a <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/crime-law/courts/2024/11/22/conor-mcgregor-to-pay-almost-250000-damages-to-nikita-hand-after-jury-finds-he-assaulted-her-in-dublin-hotel/\" target=\"_blank\">civil trial at the High Court found he assaulted Nikita Hand in 2018</a>, said the fight would take place in India but did not specify when it would potentially occur.","type":"text"},{"_id":"F6IEIQOUBVHX3IARZNBKKOCMXA","additional_properties":{"_id":1734454780903},"content":"“I am in preliminary agreements with the Ambani family to face Logan Paul in a boxing exhibition in India. I have agreed,” McGregor wrote on X. I will then seek my return to the Octagon.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"VQN6MT3IMBAKNFZCSDGUEVUUTQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1734454780905},"content":"Paul, whose 27-year-old younger brother Jake fought 58-year-old former heavyweight champ Mike Tyson in a widely watched Netflix event that strained the streaming platform's servers, has few fights under his belt.","type":"text"},{"_id":"IL25EQJFDVA67C5OAN2M5NYKRI","additional_properties":{"_id":1734454780906},"content":"The 29-year-old American survived eight rounds against retired five-division champion Floyd Mayweather, who is 18 years his senior, in an exhibition fight three years ago.","type":"text"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"metered"},"credits":{"by":[]},"description":{"basic":"McGregor says he will plan a return to the octagon after he meets the social media influencer in an exhibition boxing match"},"display_date":"2024-12-17T17:16:33.918Z","headlines":{"basic":"Conor McGregor says he is in preliminary agreement to fight Logan Paul in India","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"5469"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"L4Q6NEJUULDNZUUWVFSC4OPATE","auth":{"1":"f459ecece45eb93f31f4ef25b9c1a47a15c8395f6e604b7991fbae2d1c9c46f4"},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/L4Q6NEJUULDNZUUWVFSC4OPATE.jpg"}},"subtype":"default","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Sport"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/sport/boxing/2024/12/17/conor-mcgregor-says-he-is-in-preliminary-agreement-to-fight-logan-paul-in-india/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/sport/boxing","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Boxing"}}}},{"_id":"Q5MUCM2WGRC4RKY2HNQAK376TM","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":262,"audio_url":"https://beyondwords-h0e8gjgjaqe0egb7.a03.azurefd.net/audio/projects/5469/podcasts/76fc8f60-e520-4528-b73a-74ee6e46c785/versions/1734444396/media/8b86c59792fb36ccecc0b2b3cbe67beb_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/sport/boxing/2024/12/17/iba-sticking-with-gazprom-sponsorship-as-boxing-still-in-limbo-at-2028-olympics/","content_elements":[{"_id":"DUQ7CO3HOBFK7C5HL6VPKGQ25Q","additional_properties":{"_id":1734443067162},"content":"The International Boxing Association (IBA) is still taking sponsorship money from the Russian state energy supplier Gazprom but could still play a role in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games, its chief executive has said.","type":"text"},{"_id":"TAYQYRW3DZCEDM2E7AGP4EDHOY","additional_properties":{"_id":1734443067163},"content":"Chris Roberts, the former British army officer who has led the IBA since September last year, said he was looking to diversify the sporting body’s sources of funding but that “the Gazprom thing is still there”.","type":"text"},{"_id":"W4DNWKEGRNB2ZNXKHQEUUGP2BQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1734443067164},"content":"The International Olympic Committee (IOC) ran the boxing events at the Paris Games after withdrawing recognition from the IBA as a governing body due to governance, finance and corruption issues. The IOC has said it will not organise the boxing events at the LA Olympics, raising concerns that the sport will not feature at the 2028 Games unless a deal can be struck with an alternative organiser or a compromise with the IBA can be found.","type":"text"},{"_id":"IEDVP7TZHNGUHKHO4EWSSO37KY","additional_properties":{"_id":1734443067166},"content":"Roberts said that his organisation remained in receipt of funding from Gazprom but that he had no doubt that boxing would feature at the next Olympics, adding that talks were already under way with IOC officials about his organisation’s status. The IOC president, Thomas Bach, with whom the IBA’s leadership has repeatedly clashed, is due to stand down next year.","type":"text"},{"_id":"U626RZVIIVHOBD4UZ43TNISR5U","additional_properties":{"_id":1734443067167},"content":"Roberts said: “There are some negotiations happening already. The IBA has a lot of friends in the IOC. Let’s say ‘bye bye’ to Thomas Bach. ‘Thank you very much, go retire somewhere. Thank you.’ We continue to see a bright future. We have a really good financial package behind us.","type":"text"},{"_id":"47QVVGY5BRG57JY5CGIEAEKNZI","additional_properties":{"_id":1734443067168},"content":"“I think this myth about the boxing not being in the 2028 Olympics is just another shift to try and get people to jump camp [to another boxing federation]. ‘Oh, it might not be happening’. Course it’s gonna happen. Course it is.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"4KBWITQOYRCW5IGNPATBZFWYEU","additional_properties":{"_id":1734443067169},"content":"An IOC spokesman said: “There are no conversations with the IBA about its involvement in any future Olympic boxing competitions or about any other topic. The IOC Session withdrew the IBA’s recognition in the summer of 2023 with an overwhelming majority and only one no-vote, and this decision was upheld by the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Thus, IBA plays no role whatsoever in Olympic boxing any more.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"23PADIYZTRFJ7J6QSCHP244G4A","additional_properties":{"_id":1734443067170},"content":"Gazprom became a “general partner” of the IBA – the president of which is Umar Kremlev, a Russian national – in 2021. The energy company was then targeted by western financial sanctions following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. In May last year, Kremlev announced that its contract with Gazprom had ended but Roberts said that the company remained a sponsor. He declined to comment on the level of the funding.","type":"text"},{"_id":"NE3ZVLYL2ZAJVEFLOXIVFOTDMM","additional_properties":{"_id":1734443067171},"content":"“We are looking for alternatives,” he said. “We have alternatives, and we are moving forward. We are still in negotiation, because we have, obviously, contractual stuff with Gazprom, you know. You look at the sponsorship agreements. We want to become more independent internally. We are not sure yet [if the IBA will end the relationship]. We keep the door open. We are still working on various things at the moment. The Gazprom thing is still there.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"QL45CQNZJ5FQNIL6Q6DIO5Q7FM","additional_properties":{"_id":1734443067172},"content":"A new organisation called World Boxing is seeking the support of national bodies to replace the IBA as the organiser of Olympic events and governing body of the sport at an amateur level. World Boxing suffered a blow last month when the 25 members of the Asian Boxing Confederation voted down a proposal to break from the IBA during an extraordinary congress held in Bangkok.","type":"text"},{"_id":"RCTHKU53O5F2TJHGEQ5M6RXOTE","additional_properties":{"_id":1734443067173},"content":"At a forum in Dubai this month, the IBA changed its constitution to allow national bodies to be members of multiple sporting federations. Roberts said this was due to some national Olympic committees withholding funding from national bodies who remained affiliated to the IBA rather than World Boxing.","type":"text"},{"_id":"BQCFLI7TNNGBNDL53XJDFUMI3U","additional_properties":{"_id":1734443067174},"content":"He added that the rival organisation had “lost momentum” while the IBA was planning to double the level of prize money at its world championships. He said: “They’re [World Boxing] coming into our nest, you know, trying to steal our members, to pull them across. You know, at the end of the day, I’m focused on what we want, what we’re doing, what the IBA is doing.” – Guardian","type":"text"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"metered"},"credits":{"by":[{"name":"Daniel Boffey Chief reporter"}]},"description":{"basic":"International Olympic Committee has said IBA will not organise boxing at LA Games"},"display_date":"2024-12-17T14:01:30.813Z","headlines":{"basic":"IBA sticking with Gazprom sponsorship as boxing still in limbo at 2028 Olympics","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"5469"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"YXENU3JOVVF4VKTK53AVMVG2RE","auth":{"1":"25afb5cb8047aa6ed684aa19ed0a3bdfb699f3a9566136fd0fff0446e2160fcc"},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YXENU3JOVVF4VKTK53AVMVG2RE.jpg"}},"subtype":"default","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Sport"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/sport/boxing/2024/12/17/iba-sticking-with-gazprom-sponsorship-as-boxing-still-in-limbo-at-2028-olympics/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/sport/boxing","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Boxing"}}}},{"_id":"X36PCAD5SFASBAJDNFO6DXQSGY","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":1512,"audio_url":"https://beyondwords-h0e8gjgjaqe0egb7.a03.azurefd.net/audio/projects/8948/podcasts/33a8f3a1-cc8d-4871-880d-ee5e88e49df8/versions/1734267416/media/0c0814b808337616ea37194927e1d502_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/sport/boxing/2024/12/14/a-stellar-year-for-irish-women-in-sport-kellie-rhasidat-katie-mona-and-so-much-more/","content_elements":[{"_id":"4F3IJ7QFMFEK5IZG7DSKEJCTIU","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038643},"content":"<mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>25 Danielle Hill’s Gold in 50m backstroke at European Championships</b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"XXZ6TF5ORM5CPNGZ5WM7JAZYGI","additional_properties":{"_id":"7S2QQW5CJNA6BKBEIC7AQTXHP4"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"RZ3DVHXIHBGLHPZ3I7NU3A6WJU","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038644},"content":"2024 was a remarkable year for Ireland in the pool. Belfast’s Danielle Hill is one of three swimming entries on this year’s list, the 25-year-old earning her spot after ending Ireland’s 27-year wait for a European long-course medal.","type":"text"},{"_id":"UD336RFAHJCYPKVZJ35SYYLO2U","additional_properties":{"_id":"KV4HGZZYMVF63KJFSMBVOMKRLQ"},"content":"Danielle Hill wins backstroke gold at European Championships","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"JMGOROKKGZC35KLG7HNROTTSSY","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038645},"content":"In Belgrade, Hill hit the wall in 27.73 to win gold in the 50m backstroke, an event in which she holds one of her four individual senior Irish records. Two days later, she was back in the pool to take silver in the 100m backstroke, just four-tenths of a second off gold. <b>MD</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"W64DQETZR5EBZDKYGM45GOWKEE","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038638},"content":"<mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>24 Vikki Wall’s performance in AFLW grand final for North Melbourne</b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"OEE7B647Y2NAWXWU77PITARB5I","additional_properties":{"_id":"JXDNLBRR6FA33OHYJSLL45N4OA"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"TZSHR4P7JBGOLM5YOVX5AZZ24Y","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038639},"content":"Aussie Rules is one of the great appreciators of Irish talent, and Vikki Wall’s performance in North Melbourne’s triumph over Brisbane to win the club’s first AFLW title was a showcase of just how successful the “Irish experiment” has been.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ETYU56VKJRD2PGW7X65VMPV27Y","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038640},"content":"The Meath two-time All-Ireland winner – part of a three-strong Irish contingent in the Kangaroos alongside Cork’s Erika O’Shea and Tipperary’s Niamh Martin – scored two goals in last month’s grand final.","type":"text"},{"_id":"6I2M3PX2TFDK3B27Y3XW4327NI","additional_properties":{"_id":"43FTTQM2DBD57LUEOMVXXSN2ZM"},"content":"From missing out on the Olympics to winning an AFLW title, nobody had a year like Vikki Wall","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"6DUPCTF6IRBDDK4M6XIAFUBVBM","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038641},"content":"And an honourable mention must go to Tipperary’s Orla O’Dwyer and Dublin’s Jennifer Dunne, who both put in characteristically solid shifts for the Lions in the decider.","type":"text"},{"_id":"4WXYX56STNDARGB7HJIZ6Z24GQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038642},"content":"Exceptional talents at home and away. Sorry, I’ll see myself out. <b>MD</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"F2I32EPCMRD37F4ZK2WEFRHWOU","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038634},"content":"<mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>23 Cork senior camogie team retain O’Duffy Cup</b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"I7NFMLSM7JH3LE7F7SYHUCDOFI","additional_properties":{"_id":"4F3DAFPM4VASXOCFQKWQNAGMU4"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"ZYXAY5YCGFCMDNWJBVZOUNAEPM","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038635},"content":"Does winning ever get old? For the Cork senior camogie team, it’s fairly safe to say the answer is no. A record-breaking 30th title was likely just as sweet as the county’s first back in 1934.","type":"text"},{"_id":"TDWK4LCV7ZFDPOVIDWTTTTUYLI","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038636},"content":"A goal, albeit a contested one, was the difference between the Rebels and old foes Galway, the counties having met in nine previous All-Ireland finals, the most recent of which – in 2021 – went the way of the Tribeswomen.","type":"text"},{"_id":"INGV7OZH5FAGZK3VXD3NXBSCUY","additional_properties":{"_id":"Y3YVUSYEE5DEPHQ6XF72CUZ2U4"},"content":"Cork record 30th senior camogie title as they see off Galway fightback","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"7E2GSEJTUZHYRASM5VTNZRF5EE","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038637},"content":"In a fiercely close decider, Cork had that little bit extra to seal the win as the clock ticked to the death, sending the O’Duffy Cup back to the Leeside for another year. <b>MD</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"ANEEQTOV7JHIDCKS6PVQXNRUWE","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038631},"content":"<mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>22 Ireland play Israel in basketball</b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"V7SGZNWBOFEHNKNDWMYN3QHMWY","additional_properties":{"_id":"RCYXQXPPHBGFVP46RX7GC7ASIE"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"44MJRFRCPFEY3AOIQGEFEFIUGQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038632},"content":"The Ireland team found themselves in an impossible situation in February. With the war in Gaza playing itself out in grim dispatches every night on the news, a EuroBasket qualifier against Israel in Latvia was always going to present a huge quandary for them.","type":"text"},{"_id":"FA2M6OVTCFFR5PJVXJCP2AQCZY","additional_properties":{"_id":"ZHLGMDT56ZCLFBRL6PQB7YLLME"},"content":"How did the Irish women’s basketball team become embroiled in controversy over Israel?","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"5HGBC6RTW5DVZCNH7FZH2IPSRU","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038633},"content":"A boycott would result in a welter of fines and suspensions. Playing the game would result in accusations of supporting the Israeli regime. In the end, they ended up taking criticism from all sides. They went ahead with the game but refused to shake hands, in protest at an Israeli player baselessly calling them antisemitic. Israel got the result but nobody won. <b>MC</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"G7CQS5OQL5D23KR4G5IFAEPT2Q","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038628},"content":"<mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>21 RTÉ Investigates abuse of players by coaches</b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"P3BWHOLSFZC5NKRLBZ3HV4L7HI","additional_properties":{"_id":"HHQOBSEUKZC6NBBDCQL7PJCYYU"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"PZXCMZS3XNAYBD6WVXA7HIP57A","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038629},"content":"If it was a grim year on the pitch for Irish women’s football on the senior international front, it was worse still off it, the lowest moment coming back in July when Marie Crowe and Mark Tighe teamed up for an RTÉ Investigates probe in to what female players had endured at the hands of some of their FAI coaches in the 1990s.","type":"text"},{"_id":"QW55HDMPJRGO5MJ3GCT563T2OI","additional_properties":{"_id":"N4WHH7YRUNBUTMN5JFVTVXABXI"},"content":"FAI coaching allegations: There is no resolution to this story, no happily ever afters. Careers were stalled, trauma inflicted","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"EDY3NJ6QGND73NY7PZYS3YVCU4","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038630},"content":"Multiple players alleged they had been subjected to sexual advances, some describing how their international careers were impacted – or ended – by standing up to their abusers. The FAI said they were “shocked and appalled” by the allegations, all of which were deeply depressing. <b>MH</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"OGSXRTRDYVFWXFONWQIDW4UJWM","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038625},"content":"<mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>20 Ireland win a first ever World Series title in rugby sevens</b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"BZQXAJIMXJFPZFCDWV3CMYT7FE","additional_properties":{"_id":"OUBHUPFX4ZBD7OY34J7CNW6K3Y"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"PM4DPDWGDJH5BJW2DKNMCIOSSU","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038626},"content":"This was Lucy Mulhall’s final year with the sevens squad – the Ireland captain retired after the Olympics, capping a decade-long career in which sevens went from a curio that nobody really had much interest in to something far more solid on the sporting landscape.","type":"text"},{"_id":"XVGMM5LWGFGGFHL7JGXDLIHRT4","additional_properties":{"_id":"VV4XZSTSLRC3TLAXSCLBVQIWHE"},"content":"Ireland women win first ever World Series rugby sevens gold medal in Perth","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"4P6PGJV7JREHFGZSPTKARDJ4RE","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038627},"content":"This World Series win in Perth in January was unimaginable for most of Mulhall’s career but they pulled it off with wins over Fiji, Great Britain and Australia. The final against the home side – and World Series leaders – was a stunning effort, all coming down to Eve Higgins’s late try to seal the 19-14 win. The high point of the sevens year. <b>MC</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"WR7ZKFJ5ARE2ZEKEEURZBW5FSM","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038622},"content":"<mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>19 Athlone Town win league title </b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"NMFAJTYTRMZICNE5IR3PJ7GXVI","additional_properties":{"_id":"LXGNMTQ2RZDOFNROU7CGYQTNLA"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"LQAGYBA2MFFFVCZLWNTWPN7VQE","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038623},"content":"Some story, this. It was only in August 2020 that Athlone Town played their first ever senior League of Ireland game, but just over four years later they only went and won the title, wrapping it up on home turf with a 2-0 win over Bohemians. A humdinger of a title battle it was too, with Shelbourne and Galway United pushing them all the way.","type":"text"},{"_id":"HWGJNNS3SREIBC4O5Y4LOV5I5A","additional_properties":{"_id":"GBVZ23SHQZFZ7CT7442OBFDAIM"},"content":"Athlone Town complete fairy-tale by winning Premier Division title","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"TPVGIGIHJNDULPXTDUFRBYAADM","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038624},"content":"Athlone’s dreams of a double were, though, well and truly crushed by Shels who beat them 6-1 in the FAI Cup final, after which Athlone manager Ciarán Kilduff stepped down from his role, later appointed boss of Dundalk’s men’s team. Still, a hell of an achievement by a club that should, strictly, still only be finding their feet at this level. <b>MH</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"KPZBTGMNJVFK5JQO4IEZL3AQWY","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038619},"content":"<mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>18 Missing out on Euro 2025</b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"BKIAJ6LZPXRWX6YKT67Q7UPPTM","additional_properties":{"_id":"ILPDJDFGUFBDHKGLFF6PEUZIBI"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"23NBRSU5F5CVFMA2IOYAW5W324","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038620},"content":"Not one of the happier moments from 2024, but it was a painfully significant one. After making their World Cup debut in 2023, the hope was that the Republic of Ireland would push on and make qualifying for major tournaments a habit. But a calamitous night in Dublin in December put paid to that ambition.","type":"text"},{"_id":"GTAGOLABXVEFPBHQLJC5KEJSCU","additional_properties":{"_id":"TR4HVULOLVDYPNOC5RW6PVEPGI"},"content":"Ireland let glorious Euros opportunity slip from their fingers after heartbreaking Welsh defeat","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"JDTRGIGU2NGURHDBDWYUORKSTI","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038621},"content":"The killer moment in the second leg of the play-off, the first having ended 1-1 in Cardiff, came in the 67th minute when Wales doubled their lead on the night through Carrie Jones. Anna Patten’s late reply was too little, too late. There’ll be no trip to Switzerland next summer, then, a horror of a conclusion to a difficult year for the national team. <b>MH</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"PWLHOP2KXRC4TA6GDQ4MCIHFDE","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038615},"content":"<mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>17 Orla Prendergast leads way in win over England</b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"SBSMN5GWJLT7UJABT45C7FXXVE","additional_properties":{"_id":"W3B2DT76HBBL3PUC7EHTDGUKZU"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"ARDJ5RS2YJAI3GL3VNUTNWHRGQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038616},"content":"The Irish cricket team concluded a year sprinkled with memorable moments by beating Bangladesh 3-0 in their T20 international series, but nothing quite topped that September day in Clontarf when they got the better of England for the first time in the same format.","type":"text"},{"_id":"6T4Y2B44LNGOLI56664WSS4K5Y","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038617},"content":"Once again, Orla Prendergast demonstrated what a world class cricketer she is when she scored 80 runs off 51 balls, despite suffering from a badly grazed hand, her innings interrupted when she had to have the wound cleaned and dressed.","type":"text"},{"_id":"C7M66VDFQFEWJO7YBAYL7VD7K4","additional_properties":{"_id":"V65KOK5B5RCEPA7G2OG5VONZLM"},"content":"Ireland secure first win against England in 20-over women’s cricket at Clontarf","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"YHIF7ANRMZCU7CGEOSE73XEWEQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038618},"content":"Having already played her part with the ball, the all-rounder taking two key wickets in England’s innings, Prendergast then stepped up with the bat, her thrilling knock, which featured 13 boundaries, sending Ireland on their way to a famous victory. <b>MH</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"JHJHYMWEKJCPHHP6SG3UKG7BQ4","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038612},"content":"<mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>16 Lara Gillespie wins bronze at the World Championships</b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"B3N7P6XMEBFVVCOXVT2HXAJ4LQ","additional_properties":{"_id":"XKSA2GWHJZEEXPHH236CN5YAS4"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"N3IZI6VHFFBA5BYGN5KNPGA34U","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038613},"content":"Katie-George Dunlevy described cycling as a “sufferfest”, and Lara Gillespie can attest to that. No more than Dunlevy, she’s been through the mill, her well-documented battle with a debilitating gynaecological condition followed by a heap of injuries, among them a dislocated collarbone and broken shoulder.","type":"text"},{"_id":"OSMAFVBUERECPE3DVF3S6O2VTI","additional_properties":{"_id":"2TP276473ZBLRDNV5QHZPGAKXA"},"content":"Lara Gillespie speeds to bronze medal at track world championships","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"XPA47O4K6ZAK7NZACIFFV6V27I","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038614},"content":"Despite it all, the Wicklow woman can reflect on a sparkling 2024 that saw her being part of the first Irish team pursuit squad to qualify for the Olympic Games, win the Giro Mediterraneo Rosa and the Antwerp Port Epic, and being awarded a pro contract that saw her step up to World Tour level. And, to round her year off, she won bronze at the World Championships in Denmark. <b>MH</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"2M67TFM2LRHZFG35YH5GUK2OWI","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038609},"content":"<mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>15 Ireland beat New Zealand at the WXVI</b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"QC3CKJGREDQXEK6WSHXDTNV5FY","additional_properties":{"_id":"4L4YM4G3HJB4ZCD66RGPDWWVWA"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"WDR7AYM6DBHYRI2NYEZYINU6P4","additional_properties":{"_id":1734023074590},"content":"It’s fair to say the WXV tournament hadn’t particularly caught the attention of the Irish sporting public ahead of this, its second year. Nothing like a win over New Zealand to change minds on that score. Ireland qualified for the top tier of the competition by coming third in the Six Nations and hit the ground sprinting in Vancouver with this 29-27 win over the Black Ferns.","type":"text"},{"_id":"5AP3Y3ZDC5BZHJKS3SPPIXFGDU","additional_properties":{"_id":"3IUILCMKUZCO7C25UCLCGXPDJU"},"content":"Ireland stun world champions New Zealand with win in opening clash","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"EPDXRTRW4NDXXJYYWOYTXMSQ2E","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038611},"content":"Aoife Wafer snagged two first-half tries before substitute Erin King announced herself with a couple of her own in the closing quarter-hour, a performance that went a long way to earning her the World Rugby Breakthrough Player of the Year award. <b>MC</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"RYXJZM6ZCNGNHJVHXG2HQEDFFM","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038605},"content":"<mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>14 Fionnuala McCormack</b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"ZRU3KUYVW5GCNJ6WSN3AGUPSAI","additional_properties":{"_id":"HKSEMOLENJEY7ED745INEMARCQ"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"W4AQCKAEDFE5ZELVORLLFW3A24","additional_properties":{"_id":1734023074595},"content":"It’s a whole 18 years since the names of two Wicklow women first appeared on our monthly roll of honour: Fionnuala McCormack and a certain Katie Taylor. Since then? Not just longevity, but excellence too. With a large dollop of history-making thrown in.","type":"text"},{"_id":"VIODSRDECFHQFNMILBYZSL7OPY","additional_properties":{"_id":1733867243223},"content":"It was this time last year that McCormack, now 40, became the first Irish woman to qualify for a fifth successive Olympic Games when she ran inside the required mark at the Valencia marathon. She was far from happy with her 28th place finish in Paris on a course she described as “torture”.","type":"text"},{"_id":"II2WDAWLV5DGNJGQX57ZPYDR7E","additional_properties":{"_id":1733867243224},"content":"<a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/athletics/2024/08/11/fionnuala-mccormack-finishes-28th-in-olympics-marathon-as-sifan-hassan-makes-history/\" target=\"_blank\">“But at least I’m still alive,” she concluded.</a>","type":"text"},{"_id":"HIXA3RABLBH4LMYKDIVC3OQTC4","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038608},"content":"Is she done? Is she heck. On the first day of this month she returned to Valencia where she ran the fastest marathon of her career, taking 12 seconds off her previous best. <b>MH</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"UKOHFCZJNJBZHHHVVXAWGVHXFY","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038601},"content":"<mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>13 Louise Ní Mhuircheartaigh – Kerry’s first All-Ireland senior title since 1993</b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"OBX72PLQKRBR3P37WSQQJ4R2YM","additional_properties":{"_id":"NQHBUKHIMJEITNKK7SHRZ36D5U"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"GMYCW7SDDZB7RABMVJY3AK3RDQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1734020550393},"content":"For the Kerry footballers, 2024 proved some things are worth the wait, finally coming good against Galway to end their 31-year wait to return the Brendan Martin Cup to the Kingdom. Their emphatic win marked the end of an era for Louise Ní Mhuircheartaigh; no longer would she bear the burden of being the greatest player without an All-Ireland medal for her 17-year service.","type":"text"},{"_id":"DTNPHZF3JRE4BCCB37YXW7XCLQ","additional_properties":{"_id":"YEX6JZO6HZA4FIZ3YE6TZ7IUSU"},"content":"Kerry finally make their All-Ireland dream come through after years of heartache","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"JFIM3XT6RJFUDJDBO4DXWFUFXA","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038604},"content":"Ní Mhuircheartaigh supplied six points on Kerry’s way to victory at Croke Park, her free-taking a study in composure, stamping her name on her fifth All Star. Of the numerous All-Ireland medals that have found a home in Kerry, Ní Mhuircheartaigh can be counted among the most deserved recipients. <b>MD</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"I7AH6BXMY5CQZMTQTTFK5LUVZQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038598},"content":"<mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>12 Bohemians v Palestine</b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"ZK3EARD6B5HFPMJLED2CTUBTDU","additional_properties":{"_id":"RRE334LLYBDYFJAGAF52DSGNJY"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"QNHXKGQ5SNER7MEVZIZ6PZR6W4","additional_properties":{"_id":1734023074606},"content":"It’s unlikely that there were any more emotional days in the Irish sporting year than when the women of Palestine took on Bohemians at Dalymount Park in May. It was the first match played in Europe by any senior Palestine national side, Bohs inviting them to Dublin as an act of solidarity in light of the carnage inflicted on their homeland.","type":"text"},{"_id":"RKXWW6AIPNDM5EFOA3AMIPI45A","additional_properties":{"_id":"W2IDVR5C4NHDBMPTS46Y243LOE"},"content":"Bohemians v Palestine: ‘In Gaza, our fields and our stadiums have been demolished’","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"VRRD5D3GKZG4RGEYT6GZW7Y7AU","additional_properties":{"_id":1734023074607},"content":"A full house welcomed them to Dalymount, the team having been received at Áras an Uachtaráin by President Michael D Higgins, the players overwhelmed by their reception in Ireland. “In Palestine we’re not even allowed to fly as many of our flags as we’ve seen flying here,” said their manager Deema Said. <b>MH</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"FU4PBHSFGJGCPM5Y4NKUUUSXAM","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038594},"content":"<mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>11 Orla Comerford – Paralympic bronze</b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"C3GBQ57GFCG423YCGYNWNSC5Z4","additional_properties":{"_id":"URUCYJERBVFBHE6PJYCEFKTNXE"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"YUPGXQQY4NEN5OIZNICHBBWE6A","additional_properties":{"_id":1734023074611},"content":"Orla Comerford had barely stepped off the track at the Stade de France having earned her first Paralympic medal – bronze in the T13 100m final – but her mind had already turned to LA 2028. The Dubliner banished any lingering doubts from Tokyo to take third in a race in which both the gold and silver medallists ran under the world record.","type":"text"},{"_id":"TB7J6EMDYBEGFIMX5C7METPXFY","additional_properties":{"_id":"NUBRWQGDTRHSNGTTHXX4XSNVCQ"},"content":"‘There is lots more in the tank’: Orla Comerford happy with Paralympics bronze, for now","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"DKZKX5UME5EJPKPLPOEB767V5I","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038597},"content":"Beaming with her medal around her neck, Comerford said her initial feeling after crossing the line was disappointment, although the reality of her achievement quickly set in to turn that to delight. Still, there’s little doubt as to what medal she has her eye on next time. <b>MD</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"6LGMYFKHYJAQVBNWWCX4DMBTXE","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038590},"content":"<mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>10 The 4x400m mixed relay team</b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"TRUHODS3NZBGNCWMKSNXSAX7SQ","additional_properties":{"_id":"T7PVX2BKSFEUDBYL5WYAW7XO54"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"2RZZBXTJ2RHV5GHQ7W7CXDE72A","additional_properties":{"_id":1734023074616},"content":"Ah, what a night at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome, Chris O’Donnell, Rhasidat Adeleke, Thomas Barr and Sharlene Mawdsley combining to produce 3:09.92 of pure gold in the 4x400m mixed relay final.","type":"text"},{"_id":"TAU7F4VUKRD4VGO3PBZTYJ3JLA","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038592},"content":"Before that evening, only Sonia O’Sullivan had ever stood atop the podium for Ireland at the European Championships, but there had been a hint of what was to come in Nassau the previous May when the team – Cillin Greene in that line-up instead of O’Donnell – triumphed at the World Athletics Relays.","type":"text"},{"_id":"GA7PKPEG2FHYXN7UF3M67M5NVI","additional_properties":{"_id":"POZJDMEIVJDOPBBLDLFDVRBQGE"},"content":"Ireland win gold in 4x400m mixed relay at European Athletics Championships","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"5FWY4LXADBEPFD4KZTRIKM4HL4","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038593},"content":"They turned up trumps in Rome, O’Donnell and Barr doing their bit, Adeleke blitzing the second leg, before Mawdsley’s stunning anchor leg. Magical. <b>MH</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"EDBKV735AFCERA22BLZXOO2TII","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038586},"content":"<mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>9 Róisín Ní Riain – Five medals at European Championships and two at Paralympics</b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"HZEZCOW76267YJSVJBTILKYOS4","additional_properties":{"_id":"G5GIJH26DFBPZKNQBKMPERXVOE"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"CDL2TYAL5BDR3BWZM3TOX52PXA","additional_properties":{"_id":1734023074622},"content":"Not since Atlanta 1996 (remembered with fondness or regret, you decide) would the pool have been considered Ireland’s arena of choice, but 2024 did mighty work to help change that. Róisín Ní Riain stormed the European Para Swimming Championships in Portugal back in May, claiming five medals – two gold, two silver, and a bronze – from her six events.","type":"text"},{"_id":"IMMA7PXTWRHSRKBLAAAS64CUGA","additional_properties":{"_id":1733917509168},"content":"As Paralympic warmups go, you couldn’t ask for better. Paris was the Limerick woman’s second games having been Ireland’s youngest Paralympian in Tokyo, and she walked away with silver in the 100m backstroke and bronze in the 200m IM. More to come in LA perhaps? <b>MD</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"KBK3XP4V6VEMDAMF2QOWVPSAB4","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038583},"content":"<mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>8 Rachael Blackmore completes the Cheltenham triple crown</b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"VCBK5YEX5W42IKYCNBAEMXL534","additional_properties":{"_id":"E64GPPIHOZGGBA4KW42MMADY24"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"VEBIEEH4HRD73L6763PGRCTHQU","additional_properties":{"_id":1734023074626},"content":"In the past 50 years of the Cheltenham festival, only eight jockeys have put together the elite triptych of Gold Cup, Champion Hurdle and Champion Chase. It goes without saying that Rachael Blackmore is the first and only woman on that list.","type":"text"},{"_id":"QCZPQTGK5RDCXF32IQMLDJYJVQ","additional_properties":{"_id":"6WXKN2MW7RDX7G6V2WOVWZFZRU"},"content":"Cheltenham: Captain Guinness and Rachael Blackmore secure Queen Mother Champion Chase","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"LGBZM66CVZFVNICXJBVPE4F2IU","additional_properties":{"_id":1734124713474},"content":"Captain Guinness’s victory in the Champion Chase was her 16th festival winner. In an event-filled race, she steered Henry De Bromhead’s horse to a hard-earned victory, staving off a late challenge from Mark Walsh on Gentleman De Mee. It was everything we’ve come to expect from her – unflappable, expertly timed, imperious. She makes it all look routine, which of course it isn’t. MC","type":"text"},{"_id":"E5FQDQ6KEVG3TKDK4HL25YMXUA","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038580},"content":"<mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>7 4x400m women’s relay team - silver at the European Championships, fourth at Olympics</b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"HNQZLVUSSTQOKMBO6POCJEFNLQ","additional_properties":{"_id":"LVCBP2IMING4RHT7EJ5EUGIHFM"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"KQO3VKGWUFAGHGIDFF4HVMNYPA","additional_properties":{"_id":1734023074631},"content":"The quartet of Sophie Becker, Rhasidat Adeleke, Phil Healy and Sharlene Mawdsley have done an almost unheard of thing in Irish life. They’ve colonised the imagination of the general public in a team sport that doesn’t involve a ball.","type":"text"},{"_id":"NOPUTCCXGFF4XCU2P5TBNS35NY","additional_properties":{"_id":"SMNEEIO73JHHPJL4P7522CISUY"},"content":"Ireland women claim silver medal in 4x400m relay at European Athletics Championships","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"SSNJMFVZ75CPHJCVC6ESIJPISM","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038582},"content":"They did it first in Rome in June by winning the silver medal at the European Championships. Then they followed it up in Paris in August when they came so close to an unprecedented Olympic medal, with Mawdsley only just run out of it in the dying yards. It was emotional, inspirational, heartbreaking stuff and it held the nation captive in a way no relay team has ever done. <b>MC</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"G45ED4HGUZCZFGEOAD22WPHJHU","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038577},"content":"<mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>6 Mona McSharry’s Olympic bronze</b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"KKYVEMVD5FEIVXVWPXUANBEILE","additional_properties":{"_id":"TAW4I5F6NFDJXPAOXIC35U3CPA"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"UM6GTEZWAVFSBGFVD36P4DN4WE","additional_properties":{"_id":1734023074636},"content":"By her own admission, <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/2024/07/30/how-mona-mcsharry-went-from-hating-swimming-to-a-remarkable-olympic-bronze-medal/\" target=\"_blank\">Mona McSharry hadn’t just fallen out of love with swimming, she was beginning to hate it</a>. The sport had been at the centre of her life for as long as she could remember, but she was beginning to feel like it wasn’t giving back anything close to what she was putting in.","type":"text"},{"_id":"L5VYXDZRDFBCZCMIXO6RAM5DXY","additional_properties":{"_id":"QPGIJNGBNFAZTPAYWE6WOOSVCI"},"content":"In pictures: Mona McSharry secures famous bronze medal for Ireland in the pool","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"FRVMNE7KBJC7HPOT5LIOWVAYRQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038579},"content":"Then came that July day in Paris when she stood on the podium after the 100m breaststroke final with a bronze medal draped around her neck, having become only the second Irish swimmer to medal at the Olympics (a certain Daniel Wiffen made it three the day after). Not even her goggles filling up with water prevented her from finishing third in a race that featured four of the event’s finest specialists. Her tears flowed. The sport had finally given back.<b> MH</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"IKZ2FM757FDHBC6O3NIMTKB6TE","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038569},"content":"<mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>5 Katie-George Dunlevy and Linda Kelly win Paralympic and World Championship golds</b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"V4MCCYVEGF6ZJCKNWG6X3BCSIE","additional_properties":{"_id":"VSKNZ6DIQNHYTLVKZDFHFT5SXM"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"CKJNNR2WDJBRLDDIIWA5HLKXGM","additional_properties":{"_id":1734023074641},"content":"Even before September came around it had already been a fruitful year for Katie-George Dunlevy and her pilot Linda Kelly, but then they went into overdrive by winning two Paralympic and two World Championship medals in the space of just 25 days – three of them gold.","type":"text"},{"_id":"765XLTMYA5GXBA44W474LFTLRQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038571},"content":"What made their achievements all the more remarkable was what the pair had had to endure through the year in terms of injury and illness – concussion, a broken collarbone, leg and arm infections, and two bouts of Covid. And that was only the half of it.","type":"text"},{"_id":"P6VIUTSJKFEDRHCXC3UOAY4XPI","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038572},"content":"They’re made of steely stuff, though. Dunlevy, for example, got back on her bike after a crash in a qualification event in Italy and finished fourth – and only later learnt that she’d done so with that broken collarbone. But as she put it herself, “if I’m not in a world of pain and am not falling off the bike at the finish, I haven’t worked hard enough”.","type":"text"},{"_id":"S5NJ7VSDVBCO3MOUE56XCK24RU","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038573},"content":"The rewards were great come Paris, Dunlevy bringing her tally of Paralympic medals to eight, two of them won with Kelly, and one with her long-time pilot Eve McCrystal who was making her final international appearance.","type":"text"},{"_id":"RYMFG46INFBGFAXWVVC2AJQXUM","additional_properties":{"_id":"5LABKF45WZBTHKY2RDRDKCMYEM"},"content":"Paralympic cyclist Katie-George Dunlevy: ‘I want to inspire visually impaired children and the LGBT community to not give up’","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"KERH4DEDN5HQ3FUCJUGTIVWZ64","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038574},"content":"It was her gold with Kelly, though, in the individual time-trial that meant the most, Dunlevy successfully retaining her Tokyo title and Kelly winning the first Paralympic medal of her career just two years after taking up tandem riding for the first time.","type":"text"},{"_id":"VVL6UYDBFFAV5DJW4OITXDUCSA","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038575},"content":"It was a stunning victory by the pair who had trailed Sophie Unwin and Jenny Holly by over 10 seconds at the first split, but produced a surge thereafter that saw them overtake and hold off the Britons, winning gold by 1:23.60 seconds.","type":"text"},{"_id":"C5CLLNOSN5HC5EUR27QRU5ODAY","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038576},"content":"And lest they be accused of being lazy, they were back in their saddles a fortnight later for the World Championships in Zurich where they only went and won gold in both the time-trial and road race. A September like no other. <b>MH</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"5DPTLIITUVEZ3A562J3OXQQ274","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038560},"content":"<mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>4 Katie Taylor beats Amanda Serrano</b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"5XUEVLO6FULTTWGJBL7IQAD3TY","additional_properties":{"_id":"PS466OIORVE5ZOOJHTALWCOTFE"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"IIKOMSMYMJGOPM5YGTAK3ZIFTM","additional_properties":{"_id":1734023074651},"content":"What is a list of Irish women’s sporting moments without Katie Taylor?","type":"text"},{"_id":"KC5CENWQUNAMPJHJ2H6SEZVLWU","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038562},"content":"A performance to warrant her inclusion in this year’s iteration may have been delayed by forces beyond her control, but by god did she end up earning her spot.","type":"text"},{"_id":"SNBFNDSK65FSDBKW5VLPYR4QD4","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038563},"content":"In November, the Bray fighter returned to the ring for a rematch against Amanda Serrano, the pair having previously met in a history-making fight at Madison Square Garden in New York in 2022, the first women’s fight to headline the iconic venue.","type":"text"},{"_id":"WS3JTA2G2VBLDA3G6FEA2F35OE","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038564},"content":"Taylor won that bout on a split decision to retain her lightweight titles, her hand hardly raised above her head before the Puerto Rican fighter sought a rematch. Given the show they put on it was a dead cert, promoter Eddie Hearn bigging up the idea that the second instalment could be a homecoming for KT, floating Croke Park as a potential venue.","type":"text"},{"_id":"AOUX2VCVHZBJBOBSJOAP4I55GM","additional_properties":{"_id":"ZERPI5R23FALTKHATLZ3XHU42Y"},"content":"Katie Taylor narrowly defeats Amanda Serrano in brutal contest","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"O5MIRUG7ABFXBMHMLV73UJWS54","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038565},"content":"Alas, not to be, and instead it got wrapped up as a co-main event in the glorified vanity project that was Mike Tyson v Jake Paul (the event delayed from May due to a Tyson illness), providing the only shred of true sporting action on an otherwise ridiculous night in Texas.","type":"text"},{"_id":"KC6JTAHXDRBABNZU6FFK3C3RWY","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038566},"content":"Just as they were at MSG, Taylor and Serrano were remarkably evenly matched. After 10 pummelling rounds, the judges had their verdict: 95-94 unanimously for Taylor. Serrano and her team didn’t like it (shooting off some nasty accusations that Serrano later retracted), the crowd didn’t like it, Netflix’s bumbling commentators didn’t like it – but that doesn’t make the decision wrong. A modicum of impartiality would have gone a long way at AT&T Stadium, but rage gets better ratings.","type":"text"},{"_id":"OKQIVQQCDFD7ZPVUXOK2MJD2RY","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038568},"content":"Despite the mudslinging, Taylor was the ever-gracious champ, rising above the painful pageantry of the wider occasion and going home with her light-welterweight titles intact. Long may she reign. <b>MD</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"QCFXPJHO3NDU7IF4NQI4S4O7EM","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038553},"content":"<mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>3 Ciara Mageean becomes European 1,500m champion</b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"24D2MKEYFZBQZMQR4JK3ZFA5E4","additional_properties":{"_id":"2NUL2UNAXBBG5LFZMBRHCIVUYY"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"2T2XRTOETVBELI3OWHRVYROQLE","additional_properties":{"_id":1734023074661},"content":"Paris was a disaster for Ciara Mageean. The Achilles injury she has been carrying for most of the past decade picked the exact wrong time to flare up, causing her to pull out on the eve of the games. The timing couldn’t have been worse – she was in the form of her life.","type":"text"},{"_id":"NGEHLVY6OJD27NHQQZPVIV5YSY","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038555},"content":"That was clear to everyone at the European Championships in Rome just six weeks earlier. Throughout her career, Mageean has been there or thereabouts at European level in the 1,500 metres. She won bronze in Amsterdam in 2016, silver in Munich in 2022. She went to Rome as one of the medal contenders in everyone’s book, even though her injury profile means you’re never too sure how much hope to hold out.","type":"text"},{"_id":"OLMLAP5GNBGPXO7MP53QXBDBYM","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038556},"content":"As it transpired, she was the best of the field. She ran three-and-a-half laps on the shoulders of British pair Georgia Hall and Gemma Reekie, waiting until the top of the final bend before grabbing a gap between them and striking for home.","type":"text"},{"_id":"MZ2HXLSZXJCEHCRVUVJ66XVHNY","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038557},"content":"She ran with a confidence that very few of us who were in the Stadio Olimpico shared, certain in herself that she had the kick to take the gold. When she crossed the line, she flung her two arms in the air, the pinnacle of her career reached at last.","type":"text"},{"_id":"C3ALCATGKJEYJKWKCCPFG4KGEM","additional_properties":{"_id":"TPMEZCXOM5FD5FM53FQKZZ6HVU"},"content":"Ciara Mageean: ‘I just felt numb. It wasn’t even sadness, it was just emptiness’","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"6CE5G2PKOFAZZJHMSKKCGUX62Y","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038558},"content":"At that moment, everything else fell away. All the bad days, all the dashed hopes, all the ups and downs of a career where the occasional fragility of Mageean’s body has betrayed her. It would turn traitor on her again in the weeks that followed, meaning that 2024 will always be unavoidable bittersweet in her memory.","type":"text"},{"_id":"I4YWNQMG4ZCH3HDADN3HEATEAU","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038559},"content":"But for that night in Rome, nothing else mattered. She got what she deserved, finally. And what a beautiful thing it was. <b>MC</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"RZUASPNFSNFCTFPFSX2TWWIXKQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038545},"content":"<mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>2 Rhasidat Adeleke’s record-breaking year</b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"AYK6YOCOBYTB5PHIIYD5V3QFZA","additional_properties":{"_id":"EERMLXTPANFXDEYY3SDBG4C4LA"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"HXIAVYIIEFDEXOVQW6CCMSDZJM","additional_properties":{"_id":1734023074670},"content":"Another remarkable year for Rhasidat Adeleke gave us any number of moments to warrant her inclusion. Despite heartbreak in Paris, 2024 proved the Dubliner’s star remains firmly on the rise.","type":"text"},{"_id":"6UBY7PP3VJDQJE2LRSLCHVB65A","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038547},"content":"If you want cold, hard figures, how’s nine for you. That’s the number of Irish records the 22-year-old holds at year end – seven individual, two relay.","type":"text"},{"_id":"VHN6OQZ6N5BQ5GCAQT4VJUCDGQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038548},"content":"By <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/athletics/2024/01/21/rhasidat-adeleke-breaks-two-irish-indoor-records-with-first-races-of-2024/\" target=\"_blank\">mid-February Adeleke had already bettered three of her Irish indoor records over 60, 200 and 300 metres</a>. Then in May, <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/athletics/2024/05/05/sensational-rhasidat-adeleke-leads-irish-relay-teams-to-paris-olympics-on-the-double/\" target=\"_blank\">she put in masterful runs at the World Athletics Relays to help Ireland qualify for the Olympics in both the women’s and mixed 4x400</a> metres relays, taking bronze in the mixed relay final for good measure. Not a bother to the girl from Tallaght with the ribbons in her hair.","type":"text"},{"_id":"U554VLU2JFBHDFA2MLDL4M2YGI","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038549},"content":"But the zenith of Adeleke’s year was yet to come. June saw her travel to Rome as part of an Irish contingent that claimed a record haul of medals at the European Athletic Championships.","type":"text"},{"_id":"NPL3Y4N3ZRAVPP3OIWNN2K5GXI","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038550},"content":"Of Team Ireland’s four medals from the competition, Adeleke was party to three. She <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/athletics/2024/06/07/ireland-win-gold-in-4x400m-mixed-relay-at-european-athletics-championships/\" target=\"_blank\">first took gold with the 4x400 metres mixed</a> relay team (besting their Irish record from May), before her solo silver in the 400 metres which so nearly could have been gold (again smashing her own Irish record in the process), following it up with silver in the women’s 4x400 metres relay.","type":"text"},{"_id":"K2O7F24ABNA7VFIYGA3POKD3KI","additional_properties":{"_id":"LJR7E5CQMREWBNHDSFJMY3WWNA"},"content":"Rhasidat Adeleke takes silver in 400m at European Championships","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"Q4F4H6X7XZATNNIUB66K4GIDSM","additional_properties":{"_id":1734267574130},"content":"From that high, an Olympic medal looked within her reach. The agony comes in the narrow margin by which it ultimately didn’t come to pass. Fourth in both the 400 metres and the women’s 4x400 metres relay finals (another Irish record performance) spelled heartbreak in the city of love, an unfair takeaway given the glittering year she’s had. But perhaps that’s the mark of her talent, and our collective anticipation that her race is far from run. <b>MD</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"ZSUN3SCS2BHBPI4VSYXR5ZSRDE","additional_properties":{"_id":1734018546322},"content":"<mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>1 Kellie Harrington wins Olympic gold</b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"BEXMKBEZL5AXPEKPIW5ML3T3VE","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038537},"content":"There has never been an Irish Olympic boxer to compare to Kellie Harrington. Over the course of a century, 116 fighters wore the Ireland singlet at the Olympics. Of those 116, 19 fought at more than one games. Of those 19, eight won fights at multiple games. Of those eight, just two medalled twice. Whittle further and Harrington has history all to herself, <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/boxing/2024/08/06/kellie-harrington-becomes-double-olympic-champion-with-display-of-pure-gold/\" target=\"_blank\">the only Irish fighter with two Olympic gold medals</a>.","type":"text"},{"_id":"32P3SJPJGNDK7FMT3OV5DXAQXY","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038538},"content":"As the rest of the Irish boxing team fell around her like skittles this summer, she forged her own path, oblivious. There were 10 Irish boxers in Paris but the tournament was mostly a disaster. They came home with just five wins between them – Harrington was responsible for four of them.","type":"text"},{"_id":"C67DGGTMPSXZ7AMOE2DWS22ONI","additional_properties":{"_id":"KBYF2GN2NVGB7AWN7XM4UGVCUA"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"A5KQH7JG2VBG5JYK2IUB5GGBXE","additional_properties":{"_id":1734023074681},"content":"Her Olympic gold medal was a mental triumph as much as it was a physical one. She began the year unsure of herself, worried about her place in the Irish public’s affections, counting the days until her Olympic final when it would all be over and she could get on with her life. In the Olympic village, she ate alone and retreated to her own solitude. All in service of the four fights it took to make her champion again.","type":"text"},{"_id":"3OKPEIVAN5BIJOU5EI346HTFAM","additional_properties":{"_id":"LHLGZVADR5AJNJOF52H2P4T4TQ"},"content":"Kellie Harrington stands alone, the first Irish woman to win gold medals at two Olympics","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"KLC2U3COMZDBRHFADZ3MUSBVWU","additional_properties":{"_id":"6LC6Z6TH4NFP7GKIJDVXNXP2WY"},"content":"In Pictures: Kellie Harrington savours another golden moment as she makes Olympic history","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"VRRD5D3GKZG4RGEYT6GZW7Y7AU","additional_properties":{"_id":1734023074682},"content":"If there was a signature performance, it was the semi-final against Beatrice Ferreira of Brazil. Ferreira is a professional world champion who was out for revenge after Harrington had beaten her in Tokyo. But though it was a virtual tie going into the final round, Harrington produced a masterclass of movement and hitting to launch herself into the final.","type":"text"},{"_id":"NE3HZ3HJMRE6HISAYDJ2EUI2GM","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038542},"content":"When she got there, she built an unassailable lead over the first two rounds and kept us all safe from heart attacks. It meant that between Tokyo and Paris, her full record read: Two Olympics, Two gold medals, eight fights, eight wins, for a combined score of 36-4 on all judges’ cards.","type":"text"},{"_id":"DIRWOUMZSNEMLGFGPVAPAOC3FU","additional_properties":{"_id":1733847038543},"content":"She is immortal. <b>MC</b>","type":"text"},{"_id":"YCDY6C2IB5FUNMX3YVDX7FFP3I","additional_properties":{},"type":"list"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"metered"},"credits":{"by":[{"additional_properties":{"original":{"byline":"Mary Hannigan"}},"name":"Mary Hannigan"},{"additional_properties":{"original":{"byline":"Muireann Duffy"}},"name":"Muireann Duffy"},{"additional_properties":{"original":{"byline":"Malachy Clerkin"}},"name":"Malachy Clerkin"}]},"description":{"basic":"Our countdown of the 25 moments that defined women’s sport in Ireland this year"},"display_date":"2024-12-15T13:02:44.606Z","headlines":{"basic":"The top 25 women’s sporting moments of the year: top spot revealed with Katie Taylor, Rhasidat Adeleke and Kellie Harrington featuring","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"8948"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"RJRNMNWN2RBZPAXU46HL35OYHE","auth":{"1":"02a0e639f68bf5c96f93239c3c81ca8213de5f2682853df450d3579a75ca3ea5"},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/RJRNMNWN2RBZPAXU46HL35OYHE.jpg"}},"subtype":"feature","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Soccer"},{"name":"Rugby"},{"name":"Racing"},{"name":"Gaelic Games"},{"name":"Cycling"},{"name":"Athletics"},{"name":"Sport"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/sport/boxing/2024/12/14/a-stellar-year-for-irish-women-in-sport-kellie-rhasidat-katie-mona-and-so-much-more/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/sport/boxing","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Boxing"}}}},{"_id":"D3LGC6MQWVDPXAV2V2LSERITA4","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":77,"audio_url":"https://beyondwords-h0e8gjgjaqe0egb7.a03.azurefd.net/audio/projects/8948/podcasts/bdefe1be-5cf1-4281-bc5e-a42cafa0863c/versions/1733937246/media/2fceda90bebbcdf0e47a63a581e36f22_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/sport/boxing/2024/12/11/katie-taylor-vacates-wbc-lightweight-belt-handing-it-to-caroline-dubois/","content_elements":[{"_id":"E22CWUMBHRGJBCSMNQLMDXD6FQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1733935358764},"content":"<a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/katie-taylor/\" target=\"_blank\">Katie Taylor</a> has vacated her WBC lightweight belt, handing the belt to Britain’s Caroline Dubois, sister of IBF heavyweight world champion Daniel.","type":"text"},{"_id":"Q5GZSVNKHRD4XA3UWZNSA7WIXA","additional_properties":{"_id":1733935358765},"content":"Dubois was the interim champion and will make a first defence of the world title on January 11th, her 24th birthday, against Canada’s Jessica Camara in Sheffield.","type":"text"},{"_id":"FI6VPIU2L5D6FFT6POVJTTSEQE","additional_properties":{"_id":1733935358766},"content":"The British boxer was given the belt by WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman, who was re-elected for a new four-year term, at the body’s annual convention in Hamburg.","type":"text"},{"_id":"SOFT3DBZHNG5NLXMJBR7BB2WLA","additional_properties":{"_id":1733935358767},"content":"“It’s always been my dream to become world champion, and this is just the start of the journey for me,” said Dubois, who turned pro after the 2022 Tokyo Olympics and has a record of 10-0.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ISD4LLWUYJA4DKEGYSJTWZR7PE","additional_properties":{"_id":1733935358768},"content":"Taylor, the 2012 Olympic gold medallist and WBC’s super-lightweight champion, had held the belt since 2019 but the Bray boxer had not fought at lightweight since 2022.","type":"text"},{"_id":"62J2VJZU4RFLVLJADP74JTYXHE","additional_properties":{"_id":1733935358769},"content":"Daniel Dubois was promoted from interim status to IBF heavyweight world champion after Ukraine’s Oleksandr Usyk shed the title. He successfully defended it against compatriot Anthony Joshua last September.","type":"text"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"metered"},"credits":{"by":[]},"description":{"basic":"Dubois was the interim champion and will make a first defence of the world title on January 11th"},"display_date":"2024-12-11T17:08:53.473Z","headlines":{"basic":"Katie Taylor vacates WBC lightweight belt, handing it to Caroline Dubois","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"8948"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"2X4PH4VEXOFP6LQLVUD7ZGTSJE","auth":{"1":"4bbc3f5365580895b51c2134f188d8485b2fbb08919ac3c89116621114740d23"},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/2X4PH4VEXOFP6LQLVUD7ZGTSJE.jpg"}},"subtype":"default","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Sport"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/sport/boxing/2024/12/11/katie-taylor-vacates-wbc-lightweight-belt-handing-it-to-caroline-dubois/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/sport/boxing","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Boxing"}}}},{"_id":"FRVODTUM2VGCVK2EBRWTBMKC2Y","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":268,"audio_url":"https://beyondwords-h0e8gjgjaqe0egb7.a03.azurefd.net/audio/projects/8948/podcasts/f7fd021a-b454-4dd3-b35f-7b7a344f8535/versions/1733487807/media/72817bf45ad3b94ba7d79d3c974afccd_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/sport/boxing/2024/12/07/katie-taylor-named-sportswoman-of-the-month-for-december/","content_elements":[{"_id":"MPB3FBDSLNBI7FHGOPUU4UJKEA","additional_properties":{"_id":1733431694402},"content":"<b>The Irish Times/Sport Ireland Sportswoman Award for November: Katie Taylor (Boxing)</b>","type":"header"},{"_id":"X52TRHNLEVFEXF5G2NV5HDHVJY","additional_properties":{"_id":1733424772572},"content":"Last but not least on our 2024 roll of honour: <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/katie-taylor/\" target=\"_blank\">Katie Taylor.</a> And no annual roll of honour would look quite the same without our five-time Sportswoman of the Year.","type":"text"},{"_id":"IZQZQUAZCVBWDFWQDSJ2KSSUAE","additional_properties":{"_id":1733424772573},"content":"Once again, she was involved in a fight for the ages against Amanda Serrano, four years after they first met at Madison Square Garden. Few would have imagined that duel being topped, but somehow the pair achieved the feat in front of a crowd of more than 60,000 in Arlington, Texas in November.","type":"text"},{"_id":"2XDKFOEOYVG6VKZ6CGQBOEQWFE","additional_properties":{"_id":1733424772574},"content":"It was, wrote The Irish Times’ Keith Duggan, who was there that night, a <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/boxing/2024/11/16/katie-taylor-narrowly-beats-amanda-serrano-in-a-contest-wreathed-in-greatness/\" target=\"_blank\">“contest wreathed in greatness”</a>. And for those who spent a good chunk of those 10 rounds, no end of them blood-soaked, peeking from behind a cushion, it’s hard not to agree with his view that it was “difficult to watch” but “impossible to look away”.","type":"text"},{"_id":"S3I2YPWFVZBGJNICYHT36JP2VQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1733424772575},"content":"There was always a good chance that the card-topping Mike Tyson v Jake Paul ‘fight’ was going to be a farce, and that it proved, but the quality of Taylor and Serrano’s battle put it in an even dimmer light. Roy Jones Jr was on commentary duty for the bout and described their rivalry as “the Ali-Frazier of female boxing”. Few could dispute that tag.","type":"text"},{"_id":"TRPJRVNNDNHQXFSAJYXQMYGBTY","additional_properties":{"_id":1733424772576},"content":"We’re accustomed to seeing Taylor dig deep when she’s up against it, but there haven’t been too many times when she had to dig as deep as this. “The thought crossed our minds that this might be it for Taylor, but even in the depths of exhaustion the dazzling hand speed never failed her,” wrote Duggan.","type":"text"},{"_id":"5XUEVLO6FULTTWGJBL7IQAD3TY","additional_properties":{"_id":"K2ZPJODU6FENLEUTBKRJFPNHDI"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"FEVFXH2Y2NFYFM6UYOK7YB4GIM","additional_properties":{"_id":1733424772577},"content":"There was, of course, no little controversy, Taylor docked a point after she opened up a deep gash above Serrano’s right eye with her head, leading to post-fight <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/boxing/2024/11/17/it-is-a-rough-sport-katie-taylor-floats-above-dirty-tactics-allegation-after-win-over-serrano/\" target=\"_blank\">accusations from the Puerto Rican that the Bray woman was a “dirty” fighter</a> who has the habit of “leading with her head”.","type":"text"},{"_id":"UT2YGCSUIVFJ5FNTQTTO3TUEM4","additional_properties":{"_id":1733424772578},"content":"And Serrano’s camp was even less impressed with the verdict: Taylor got the nod from all three judges who each scored it 95-94. It was her 24th victory in the 25th fight of her professional career, but so epic and tight was it, a third encounter seems inevitable.","type":"text"},{"_id":"7WH737N7FRFGBOOASMM73HSAPA","additional_properties":{"_id":1733424772579},"content":"Croke Park? We’ll see. At 38, many of her most passionate admirers would love to see her walk away now from the sport, she owes it nothing, but Taylor is the best judge of what she has left in the tank. So we should leave it up to her.","type":"text"},{"_id":"U4EWKEEPVFFHBFK3NPZSUH3EGE","additional_properties":{"_id":1733424772580},"content":"She is, then, our final monthly winner in the 2024 awards, which run from December 2023 to November 2024. And looking through the names that didn’t make that list simply confirms what a remarkable year it was.","type":"text"},{"_id":"NKVQXULVDVDMBHMASNOSLR7WSY","additional_properties":{"_id":1733424772581},"content":"And we note a slight Wicklow annexation going on this time around, a third of this year’s winners hailing from that very county – Taylor, Fionnuala McCormack, Lucy Mulhall and Lara Gillespie.","type":"text"},{"_id":"Y7J6WZCVKRDZRJKZ7G7EZTB5VY","additional_properties":{"_id":1733424772582},"content":"Poor Dublin won only two – Rhasidat Adeleke and Kellie Harrington – the Garden County proving to be rather greedy more than the last 12 months.","type":"text"},{"_id":"W6IAVO5Y5FGWLHEKHJCL2472AA","additional_properties":{"_id":1733424772583},"content":"A measure of the length and excellence of Taylor’s career is that another of our monthly winners, swimmer Róisín Ní Riain, was just two when Taylor was first crowned our sportswoman of the year back in 2007. Adeleke was a rusty old five. That’s some career.","type":"text"},{"_id":"UWXXDTETLRAPFBBGWVTJRPZFL4","additional_properties":{"_id":1733424772584},"content":"And so, the completed list of runners and riders for the 2024 sportswoman of the year award:","type":"text"},{"_id":"N3IFDHUTJNFWRIJJBK6ODC7FXY","additional_properties":{"_id":1733424772585},"content":"<b>December</b>: Fionnuala McCormack (Athletics); <b>January</b>: Lucy Mulhall (Rugby); <b>February</b>: Mona McSharry (Swimming); <b>March</b>: Rachael Blackmore (Horse racing); <b>April</b>: Róisín Ní Riain (Swimming); <b>May</b>: Rhasidat Adeleke (Athletics); <b>June</b>: Ciara Mageean (Athletics); <b>July</b>: Kellie Harrington (Boxing); <b>August</b>: Louise Ní Mhuircheartaigh (Gaelic football); <b>September</b>: Katie-George Dunlevy and Linda Kelly (Paracycling); <b>October</b>: Lara Gillespie (Cycling); <b>November</b>: Katie Taylor (Boxing).","type":"text"},{"_id":"WE6JTJ7LMBA37NLBTQYMLTLANI","additional_properties":{"_id":1733424772586},"content":"Thoughts and prayers to the judges.","type":"text"},{"_id":"YCDY6C2IB5FUNMX3YVDX7FFP3I","additional_properties":{},"type":"list"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"metered"},"credits":{"by":[{"additional_properties":{"original":{"byline":"Mary Hannigan"}},"name":"Mary Hannigan"}]},"description":{"basic":"Bray boxer’s win over Amanda Serrano sees her complete the 2024 Sportswoman of the Year roll of honour"},"display_date":"2024-12-07T06:00:00Z","headlines":{"basic":"Katie Taylor named Sportswoman of the Month for November","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"8948"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"IDQX2YMNI5GQCQRS3AAMZYGC64","auth":{"1":"9850d1433a0fe2a6c6b5516f4057a180d28aebddb0c54ad7f71d2390da8b607c"},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/IDQX2YMNI5GQCQRS3AAMZYGC64.jpg"}},"subtype":"default","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Sport"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/sport/boxing/2024/12/07/katie-taylor-named-sportswoman-of-the-month-for-december/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/sport/boxing","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Boxing"}}}},{"_id":"T3WHJZPDIVCZVB6Q3UXQVAWBFQ","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":263,"audio_url":"https://beyondwords-h0e8gjgjaqe0egb7.a03.azurefd.net/audio/projects/5469/podcasts/31795647-0c51-499a-9f87-0d82fa9e18cb/versions/1733436882/media/e281f6034b03d4ea1957f8c3b259d74b_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/sport/boxing/2024/12/06/johnny-watterson-backing-for-gerry-hutch-symptomatic-of-inner-city-alienation/","content_elements":[{"_id":"CN6QD7GJARAWTAKMFDRJYRSUZY","additional_properties":{"_id":1733422000659},"content":"In the course of the recent election, Corinthians Boxing Club emerged as one of <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/gerry-hutch/\" target=\"_blank\">Gerry Hutch’s</a> primary connections with the local community in inner-city Dublin. The club was a hub for the election campaign and members openly supported his candidature.","type":"text"},{"_id":"KAQCDB7V65BWBGCWMKZGVUVSZM","additional_properties":{"_id":1733422000661},"content":"They spoke about Hutch’s largesse and his light touch sponsorship which has helped keep the boxing club alive. Hutch didn’t frequently go to the club but whenever he did, he was pleasant and welcomed.","type":"text"},{"_id":"VJZZWBMARZEBJESNLYQUQHQ5GQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1733422000662},"content":"Theorists could say it was conscience money from a wealthy man for a community incarcerated in multigenerational poverty, one that has, more than most, suffered from his gangland line of work.","type":"text"},{"_id":"AKVRXW4O5FHDJP4TU7O7QL5UZI","additional_properties":{"_id":1733422000663},"content":"But that doesn’t explain why the boxing club were adamant about his sincerity and why they spoke about his popularity and acceptance.","type":"text"},{"_id":"N6ICZ5FJANCP7NLCZ5BVAIWZYI","additional_properties":{"_id":1733422000664},"content":"Interviewed on Newstalk’s Hard Shoulder in November, Kevin Corcoran, a coach at the club, described how Hutch bought the building 25 years ago and handed it over to the boxing club.","type":"text"},{"_id":"3GR2UY4DC5DYRDX25J2PCWHEYM","additional_properties":{"_id":1733422000665},"content":"“One euro a year’s rent, that’s all we have to pay,” said Corcoran. “He gave us the building to run as a boxing club free of charge.” Corcoran, who respectfully referred to Hutch as “Gerard” and “Mr Hutch”, was asked if the boxing club could exist without the building.","type":"text"},{"_id":"OT4FCAZ55VBNZMKIAIBXDTYI5E","additional_properties":{"_id":"MNVYUMDKCBFKLGXTTT2RRLO5EE"},"content":"How did one of Ireland’s most notorious gangland criminals almost take a seat in the Dáil?","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"SI6HGGUSCRAFZA7MZWVVDE6XVI","additional_properties":{"_id":"7YOLZOU5EBCOBCQUCXS5FNMGCU"},"content":"For much of the time in the RDS, one of the big questions was: what the hell is going on?","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"PL6P3IKVWNHFVMFG2EZDEE7H44","additional_properties":{"_id":1733422000666},"content":"“Of course not, everybody knows rents, especially in the inner city, are crazy at the moment. We’d probably be paying two to four thousand euros a month for that building. We charge the kids €2 a night for training. We would never be able to afford a building like that.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"366AF45T4ZBB3JQNSJHYU44JEE","additional_properties":{"_id":1733422000667},"content":"The club is close to the childhood home of double Olympic gold medallist Kellie Harrington in Portland Row and is where she began her boxing career before going to St Mary’s BC in Tallaght.","type":"text"},{"_id":"KCLDBZC6MNAHHGAFMYHYAEYKHY","additional_properties":{"_id":1733422000668},"content":"The Tallaght club is no different from Corinthians or inner-city clubs in Limerick, Galway or Cork that live off scraps and are less easily spooked by people like Hutch.","type":"text"},{"_id":"XWVUTQ7DHFE6FBW636TUBEXYXM","additional_properties":{"_id":"7MDZ5IGU5NDU5LS5HJGT7GVNUQ"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"ZZ2ZIK67QJH7TL5R5JZIZMF5WE","additional_properties":{"_id":1733422000669},"content":"Towards the end of the count as the numbers began to stack up for him, there was considerable unease in establishment reaction as it collectively clutched its pearls.","type":"text"},{"_id":"BS75MTXRNND3VK46UW4UEX5MVE","additional_properties":{"_id":1733422000670},"content":"","type":"text"},{"_id":"YYU5PKNSYBGSRCCE7IWK547MSY","additional_properties":{"_id":1733422000671},"content":"The position of boxing in modern Irish sport has always been that of an outlier. It’s a sport in which many people can only see the distasteful side — a violent and dangerous blood sport with few redeeming qualities.","type":"text"},{"_id":"RGNJ4T5JJNEL5D4HCHBSUEGQNM","additional_properties":{"_id":1733422000672},"content":"It is also defined by two things — an ability to provide outstanding Olympic athletes and a demographic that takes in a large swathe of working-class and poor people.","type":"text"},{"_id":"YE7RHNYFY5CMNHSTALN6J3VZ5M","additional_properties":{"_id":1733422000673},"content":"Boxing picks them up, supports them, teaches them discipline and respect and makes no judgments on their religion, net worth, home address or ethnicity.","type":"text"},{"_id":"GUDFMQM6WNFLTFRSS4GGWOXOXY","additional_properties":{"_id":1733422000674},"content":"The sport has become used to disaffection and struggle. Those things are part of its DNA and they have given it sharp elbows and made it resilient. Boxing is rarely dissuaded by the higher-minded opinions of people who didn’t grow up in the area.","type":"text"},{"_id":"IQCTFL7KTNDNXIQLLBAXO5NJK4","additional_properties":{"_id":1733422000675},"content":"Very often it won’t be told what to do, even by Irish sport’s principal State agency wielding a large stick. Over the years that has been borne out in amateur boxing, which has been involved in an ongoing war with Sport Ireland.","type":"text"},{"_id":"KMY5WKDSMJDSXKN5XZP6BIB7EE","additional_properties":{"_id":1733422000676},"content":"In lightweight boxing against heavyweight government, there is only one obvious winner … and yet. Ignoring threats to stop the funding, boxing exists in a political space that would give more compliant federations anxiety.","type":"text"},{"_id":"7A2FBZF3NBB3NA6VTQLUPJZRTU","additional_properties":{"_id":"54JL63PICREDLDV57I65553ITE"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"5FOKELER5ZGJZBB6DBHG6G6XCE","additional_properties":{"_id":1733422000677},"content":"","type":"text"},{"_id":"AZTQQWLP4FCXRBD5DOLSFZWUGA","additional_properties":{"_id":1733422000678},"content":"The sport has always doggedly followed its survival instincts. It understands its folk and is compassionate about the flaws and venality that often come with those who step through the ropes.","type":"text"},{"_id":"PAWWXJ7KVVDIHDL7COWFNCKMP4","additional_properties":{"_id":1733422000679},"content":"Boxing has never allowed people who believe they know better tell it what to do. Sometimes that works for it, and sometimes it is destructive. Driving out Billy Walsh and Bernard Dunne as coaches were two poor choices.","type":"text"},{"_id":"V2UIKEYKE5CFTBHENXNUPXJ4XE","additional_properties":{"_id":1733422000680},"content":"But rarely does it stray from the one guiding principle: if it doesn’t help itself, not many others will.","type":"text"},{"_id":"IRHLADLFZJA7XMNZMDUOCDWXHQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1733422000681},"content":"Supporting a gangland figure like Hutch didn’t just come down to people doffing the cap to him for handing Corinthians boxing club a building, but to a community’s disenchantment, alienation and estrangement that has been allowed to fester for decades.","type":"text"},{"_id":"UW3ZRIGETBG23PEM62YYGFVVYA","additional_properties":{"_id":1733422000682},"content":"It wasn’t so much a thank you to Hutch for helping community boxing, but a protest and lament as to why he is the only one. Backing him should not have been a surprise to anyone.","type":"text"},{"_id":"U63PP6QYQZHLVOTXMPYRSKTEAE","additional_properties":{},"type":"list"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"premium"},"credits":{"by":[{"additional_properties":{"original":{"byline":"Johnny Watterson"}},"name":"Johnny Watterson"}]},"description":{"basic":"Hutch gifted building to Corinthians Boxing Club, which like clubs countrywide, receive little support from official Ireland"},"display_date":"2024-12-06T06:00:00Z","headlines":{"basic":"Johnny Watterson: Backing for Gerry Hutch symptomatic of inner-city alienation ","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"5469"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"5I7ONUE6DGLJSLQPJJ65SFJLIE","auth":{"1":"752d35c42ebb20415451ff308880cf788f504664f3e8a8726a497b8aabaddf94"},"focal_point":{"x":2635,"y":1080},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/5I7ONUE6DGLJSLQPJJ65SFJLIE.jpg"}},"subtype":"columnist","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Sport"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/sport/boxing/2024/12/06/johnny-watterson-backing-for-gerry-hutch-symptomatic-of-inner-city-alienation/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/sport/boxing","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Boxing"}}}},{"_id":"Q4G2IF4SXVDKJPWVFZXACAET7Y","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":991,"audio_url":"https://d22tbkdovk5ea2.cloudfront.net/audio/projects/8948/podcasts/1859e8dd-7cd8-4188-8030-54296c484099/versions/1732894086/media/523015459911082da761683a1fb82d8a_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/sport/tennis/2024/11/30/conor-nilands-the-racket-is-the-best-sports-book-in-a-year-dominated-by-autobiographies/","content_elements":[{"_id":"LTKY4SVQHJDGLFBENPT66TYHQ4","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218637},"content":"<mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>The Best</b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"QN6QDAYMLJDYNAWJKLUECCLDZE","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218638},"content":"<u><b>The Racket by Conor Niland and Gavin Cooney (Penguin, €15.99)</b></u>","type":"text"},{"_id":"T2NWODWUHZF5PN7MO34GXGVFEI","additional_properties":{"_id":"5OXDPQ6CZNGPFBIM4FUIB6254I"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"EAN677ZKUBF6DF54CEMCMMPXTY","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218639},"content":"We have had some brilliant Irish sports books over the past decade, without having all that many stone cold classics. This is a stone cold classic. The story of Conor Niland’s life in professional tennis, told along with Gavin Cooney of The 42, recently became the third Irish book ever to win the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award. And deservedly so.","type":"text"},{"_id":"LIPELKNKRRBBFL5RTJBANJMJSI","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218640},"content":"Niland is the best Irish tennis player of the open era. He was born six weeks after Roger Federer – not for nothing is the book subtitled On Tour with Tennis’s Golden Generation – and the other 99%. The story, then, is one of getting closer than almost everyone on the planet to the sport’s gilded inner sanctum without ever quite making it.","type":"text"},{"_id":"MMDC5ERAXBGQFBPRGH4QFBYQCQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218641},"content":"Some of it would break your heart. The drip-drip of him throwing away his one match at Wimbledon after leading 4-1 in the final set is harrowing, all the more so because the prize for winning would have been a Centre Court match against Federer. The travel, the injuries, the grimly observed differences between the haves and have-nots – all of it would grind anyone down.","type":"text"},{"_id":"7NUQ6YQRP5DDPJAVZHJAXT4G3Q","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218642},"content":"But this is no misery lit adventure. It’s very funny throughout because Niland and Cooney have packed a lifetime’s absurdity in here too. Like the time he played a set against the 15-year-old son of one of this sponsors, the weirdest match of his life. “Am I really allowed to beat up on my sponsor’s son? Or will he wonder why he’s spending his money on a guy who can’t beat his son easily?”","type":"text"},{"_id":"AXPCU2NTC5HZFNTTCUNI6A5W4I","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218643},"content":"Niland retired in 2012, injuries finally calling a halt. The fact that he has let a decade pass before writing this book has done it a world of good. The tone isn’t bitter or maudlin – Niland has more perspective than that. He has painted a wonderfully detailed picture of a world most sports fans know next-to-nothing about and kept his sanity while doing so. That’s a win, all by itself.","type":"text"},{"_id":"XXMVENZ5CBEC7CT3CFDRFTJAZM","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218644},"content":"<u><b>Obsessed by Johnny Sexton and Peter O’Reilly (Penguin, €24.99)</b></u>","type":"text"},{"_id":"3ZJYIDVQQ5BSTDQSWRCJ7M6DFA","additional_properties":{"_id":"EO6FGPFXLZFRJMGQ537GN3MG7U"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"MRF4QB2UYVE2NM54LUIB2JNI3Y","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218645},"content":"There is a fantastic tension that runs throughout <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/johnny-sexton/\" target=\"_blank\">Johnny Sexton</a>’s autobiography, made all the better for the fact that he probably would have got away without dwelling on it at all. On the one hand, he was (is) a demonic competitor, a relentless setter of standards, a person who calls out deficiencies when he sees them. On the other, that doesn’t always make for a particularly pleasant person to be around.","type":"text"},{"_id":"UPP44OW6HFBTVPSGWWIOG2ZFD4","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218646},"content":"In someone else’s hands, that side of his character could have been dealt with in a single chapter of a book that, let’s not forget, chronicles one of the greatest ever Irish sporting careers. Sexton and Peter O’Reilly could have thrown in a couple of anecdotes of him losing the rag, leavened it all with a bit of self-deprecation and moved right along to telling everyone about his drop goal against France in Paris.","type":"text"},{"_id":"WF37N3XB4JH25D43KDMC2OZKG4","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218647},"content":"But what makes this such a rewarding read is that fact that Sexton is willing to paint himself in an often unflattering light. His spikiness, his abrasive nature, his unwillingness to float along – these are a feature of his make-up, not a bug in the system. So much of the book is him wrestling with this side of himself. How did he get like this? Why does he have to be this way?","type":"text"},{"_id":"2ZKCU2MIHVC3POXAXEGQG25DFY","additional_properties":{"_id":"W4PYHJY4BJDJZLKVPNK6ZG7BJE"},"content":"Obsessed. The Autobiography by Johnny Sexton: One of the best Irish sports books ever written","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"R2A52XEAJBCGDJPVGYYPLTG4EM","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218648},"content":"“Be yourself everyone – except you, Johnny,” was <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/andy-farrell/\" target=\"_blank\">Andy Farrell</a>’s instruction at one point, making it clear to Sexton that he had to change his nature as Ireland captain, become more of a chameleon, work out who he can’t lose the rag with and who needs to be spoken to more softly. In the next breath, Sexton growled at John Cooney for a mistake in training but later rang him to apologise – “Though it went against every fibre of my being”.","type":"text"},{"_id":"7ERBXONWKRGHLJGVKW3OJKV5UM","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218649},"content":"The push-and-pull of that, the constant unsparing questioning of himself, lifts this book above the vast majority of the autobiographies of his contemporaries. A brilliant portrait of one of Ireland’s most fascinating people.","type":"text"},{"_id":"4ZPMZNNSHFECFPK2S3DA7HT6RU","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218650},"content":"<u><b>My Story by Joe Canning and Vincent Hogan (Gill Books, €21.99)</b></u>","type":"text"},{"_id":"6HAXHRPFUZBNBEJQVCHM3B5DWI","additional_properties":{"_id":"Q2M6K7KI7JF6VDQODF5E7SCJ54"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"T6FR676VXRDFFGH3V7IWF4PNLU","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218651},"content":"<a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/author/joe-canning/\" target=\"_blank\">Joe Canning</a>’s father, Seán, has the best line in the former Galway hurler’s autobiography. At one stage, Canning is writing about the fact that he has kept a number of critical articles and headlines on his phone, years after they were written. He accepts that this doesn’t really say anything good about his ability to let things go.","type":"text"},{"_id":"WGID42VM3NADNHUQ56PZ2RQ24U","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218652},"content":"“My father has this expression when he hears me giving out,” Canning writes. “‘Christ Joe, everybody can’t be a prick!’”","type":"text"},{"_id":"7PEH5QJMPRFI5OHDWO2T5Q3GMA","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218653},"content":"This is not to say that Canning’s book is a whingefest or an exercise in score-settling. It’s not that at all. The picture of Canning that emerges from his autobiography is of a man who has always known that his talent would mean finding an accommodation with the outside world – and one whose instinct is to feel uneasy about striking that bargain.","type":"text"},{"_id":"HOJQHVQGOJFMVJKACDW6K67CZE","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218654},"content":"Consequently, there is a sometimes contradictory sense about him. He has always battled to retain his own privacy and to keep his head generally down. But at the same time, he’s not one bit shy about loading up both barrels and picking off targets when he feels the need.","type":"text"},{"_id":"HH7WMH7WVNDHDGUMFTAKLODTBI","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218655},"content":"Ger Loughnane gets a clip or two unloaded on him here, various clubs and county board members in Galway as well. Even Micheál Donoghue and his backroom, the men with whom Canning won his All-Ireland – catch a few strays in the book’s closing chapter, on account of them taking over Dublin and coaching against Galway in the championship.","type":"text"},{"_id":"L2XX2H5S4FEJ3B5TMJXDTV7C3M","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218656},"content":"Expertly put together along with Vincent Hogan, the picture of Canning that comes out of the book is someone who got everything out of his hurling career while staying true to himself along the way. That was never a given.","type":"text"},{"_id":"KKEKOL5G4BB2XAYBNBHGCG4WJQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218657},"content":"<u><b>Whatever It Takes by Richie Hogan and Fintan O’Toole (Gill Books, €21.99)</b></u>","type":"text"},{"_id":"BQLLHPV6NNANXINX2BJEOYOQOE","additional_properties":{"_id":"4LOINULKFBD6RGPQXXTKLBAM6Y"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"L54HZ2YG5ZGLJJDLPTZP6MDQCM","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218658},"content":"Richie Hogan doesn’t have a lot of time for waffle or flannel or even really shades of grey. Right throughout this pacy, enjoyable autobiography that he has written with the help of Fintan O’Toole of The 42, Hogan is at all times admirably straightforward. You prepare, you hurl, you win or you lose. You go again.","type":"text"},{"_id":"WHYSCQA5EJGTPIDT2TWJKWAGQY","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218659},"content":"That’s why it feels such a betrayal towards the end of his years with Kilkenny when, after a few dire seasons with injury, he is back fit and firing but can’t get on the pitch. It doesn’t seem to matter that he is lighting up training – Brian Cody and his management can’t be convinced he’ll last the pace. Hogan has it out with Cody – he eventually gets on for the last 10 minutes of the 2022 final and scores his last ever point in Croke Park.","type":"text"},{"_id":"WAVANMH26VEPZDFE6ICQBBKENM","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218660},"content":"That Hogan’s back dogged him throughout the second half of his career will come as surprise to nobody. But the extent of it and the lengths he had to go to in order to be able to train and play is jaw-dropping at times. His back spasms have left him lying on the ground in the middle of the street or panned out on the cold floor of a dressingroom toilet, just to be able to get in position for throw-in.","type":"text"},{"_id":"W2OYPRFKDJAEPI5ZBNV5UJ5FLA","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218661},"content":"His relationship with Cody is fascinating. He’s not shy about expressing his frustration that Kilkenny never developed along with the game’s tactical changes and confronts the Kilkenny boss on a few occasions in the book with the sort of candour that others would have baulked at.","type":"text"},{"_id":"C7NPDEUMFJBQ7ITPC3ALMVMHQI","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218662},"content":"Throw in some very funny moments – Cha Fitzpatrick’s Cancún adventures would make for a screenplay in and of themselves – and it’s a highly entertaining addition to the Kilkenny canon.","type":"text"},{"_id":"6OS7IWXRM5H65NKAATNWOOTQCM","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218663},"content":"<u><b>States Of Play by Miguel Delaney (Seven Dials, €15.99)</b></u>","type":"text"},{"_id":"DNPGCL2IWFA5LABBT76UYAW2S4","additional_properties":{"_id":"GPTVHHATINC23NQXEE6XIEVTUU"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"RUEBPOSWDBEKZOQWSC6G6J3ATI","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218664},"content":"The boiling frog analogy can feel a little overplayed these days but sometimes needs must. The hijacking of professional football by corporate greed and state-aided finance has been such a gradual process that it can often be difficult to assess exactly where we stand with it all. That’s what makes a book like this so necessary.","type":"text"},{"_id":"YF26YOBFQBG3TKQJPW5M34E5HE","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218665},"content":"Miguel Delaney is the chief football writer for the Independent in London and his book is an exhaustive account of how the game got itself into state it’s in. It charts the rise of uber-capitalism within soccer, initially in England but throughout Europe and the world as well. The changes over the past 30 years, from the setting up of the Premier League to the involvement of nation states are all in here, expertly gathered into a coherent timeline.","type":"text"},{"_id":"CMLAUX6N65E4DA47NMPIGNOALM","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218666},"content":"How Sportswashing Took Over Football is the subtitle but it feels like the term is there as a hook, rather than the whole. While the story of the involvement of the oil nations of Middle East is told here in great detail, it’s only one part of the overall disaster. Football was never meant to be about geopolitics and yet here we are.","type":"text"},{"_id":"BSQNGCJAEJFHXN7TAZRKRCT5XE","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218667},"content":"“There can sadly be no illusions about [football’s] role in the 21st century,” Delaney writes towards the end. “It has been a force for autocracy, populism, vested interests, commercialism, hyper-capitalism, ultra-liberalism, the fragmentation of the working classes, the overclass, culture wars, tribalism, soft power and hard power ... It doesn’t need to be like this, though.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"AIVNU2IMDJCXZLGRSZTMLVL3XI","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218668},"content":"Football needs this book to be read and heard. Part-investigation, part-primal scream, it’s a monumental piece of sports journalism.","type":"text"},{"_id":"LTKY4SVQHJDGLFBENPT66TYHQ4","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218637},"content":"<mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>The Rest</b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"EADASPVDK5HTLAHNM5MFCWVTOQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218671},"content":"With integration (apparently) coming down the tracks, the 50th anniversary of the founding of the LGFA is as good a time as any for <b>Unladylike by Hayley Kilgallon (New Island, €23.99) </b>to hit the shelves. An in-depth history of women’s Gaelic football, it is rich in detail and beautifully illustrated.","type":"text"},{"_id":"QNGV2XL2TVFT5F2VTYOTAFE3KA","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218672},"content":"On a completely different historical plane is <b>Lost Gaels by Peadar Thompson (Merrion, €28.99)</b>. A meticulous and heartfelt work, it is a collection of accounts of the lives of GAA members who died during the Troubles. Like all matters to do with the conflict, it is a complex book about which readers are entitled to have mixed feelings. A vital slice of oral history, all the same.","type":"text"},{"_id":"STFALYRARZCUDCPRBPHHETRJF4","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218673},"content":"Two other GAA books are worth a look. <b>The Epic Origins of Hurling by Joeys Alumni (MCH, €32.00)</b> is a translation of scholarly Irish work done by Brother Liam Ó Cathnia of St Joseph’s in Fairview, Dublin in the 1980s, tracing the initial stirrings of the game back in the 1700s. And <b>Our Finest Hour by Edwin McGreal (Mayo Books, €28.00)</b> is a phenomenal collection of yarns gathered in across every club in Mayo (47 football and five hurling), each telling the story of the greatest day in their history.","type":"text"},{"_id":"WZVXNKQIIRHP7GPYKMVL7MT6GM","additional_properties":{"_id":"RH2WQ5MOARFIBIRYGEWIJKMEGY"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"RDNSCO3AERE23DNPMD3QYJ3G4A","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218674},"content":"On the soccer front, <b>Munichs by David Peace (Faber & Faber, €23.20)</b> is a fictional retelling of the 1958 Munich air crash and its aftermath. Epic in scale and depth, it has been gloriously reviewed in most quarters. Turning real life into a novel isn’t to everyone’s taste – and Peace’s insistence on repetition as a writing flourish can be a bit grating at times. But there’s no denying his sincerity in honouring the men who were lost.","type":"text"},{"_id":"QUUHWDOOOJHVJFJ747TTJ5CVIY","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218675},"content":"Elsewhere, two titans of the TV football game have books out. <b>The Hamilton Notes by George Hamilton (Merrion, €22.99)</b> is the great commentator’s follow-up to his 2021 memoir. His sunny, warm character shines through a collection of travelogues, anecdotes and recollections.","type":"text"},{"_id":"HF53VK64FNEQPE5ELICDDWXPH4","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218676},"content":"In a similar vein, <b>Saturday Afternoon Fever by Jeff Stelling (Headline, €15.99)</b> is a delightful jaunt through the Sky presenter’s career and if the yarns maybe aren’t always as funny as Stelling himself imagines, there’s more than enough of them to keep the whole show rolling along.","type":"text"},{"_id":"53XDJHKRHZBNFDSTU4IRTX6PNU","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218677},"content":"This being the 150th year of the IRFU’s existence, a couple of timely skips through history have hit the shelves. <b>Blood And Thunder by Liam O’Callaghan (Penguin, €22.99)</b> is the livelier of them, a deeply-researched social history of the game in Ireland that isn’t afraid to poke at the stuffed shirts that have run the game over the years. <b>Together Standing Tall by John Scally (Gill, €27.99)</b> is a more official affair, an oral history covering the games and players from down the decades.","type":"text"},{"_id":"KFFJ4INJNRFUPAKB7GDWKML2FI","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218678},"content":"Next, two very different autobiographies by two very different Irish sports personalities. <b>Bend, Don’t Break by Frank O’Mara (O’Brien, €17.99)</b> is the former middle-distance runner’s story of his fight with Parkinson’s disease. Though it’s a bracing, uncomfortable read at times, you are left in total admiration for O’Mara in his battle.","type":"text"},{"_id":"DOWBQ6EF2VGJFKM7RESFYN7Z3M","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218679},"content":"Davy Russell hasn’t faced serious illness but like most jockeys he’s had no shortage of injury to overcome down the years. They’re a feature of <b>My Autobiography by Davy Russell and Donn McClean (Eriu, €22.00)</b>, along with the people he’s fallen in with and out with over the course of a long career. Russell has always been one of the most interesting jockeys in the weigh room and the sense you get here is that he leaves it with very few regrets.","type":"text"},{"_id":"2VVTPGKIE5BPBGZTXTIYBBFRLM","additional_properties":{"_id":"GTGG5KL36JCYBONA6PV5SI3YTU"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"SP36BI3MGZA2XJZBTGECWBZ2YY","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218680},"content":"To finish, some books that are mercifully NOT autobiographies. <b>Death Of A Boxer by Pete Carvill (Biteback, €23.20)</b> is not quite This Bloody Mary Is The Last Thing I Own but it’s fishing in similar waters to Jonathan Rendall’s 1997 classic. Carvill interrogates boxing and specifically he goes rooting around in the psyche of those who get into the ring, even though they know it can end in their death. Even if it’s a little disjointed at times, it’s always thoughtful and always probing, chasing the elusive why.","type":"text"},{"_id":"77IJR6ZO3VDGXF4YNAVEH4OVRI","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218681},"content":"<b>A Farewell To The Fairways by Dermot Gilleece (Red Stripe Press, €19.99)</b> is a gorgeous sign-off from the doyen of Irish golf writers. Gilleece graced the pages of just about every paper in town over the course of six decades and this is his reflection on it all. The words are exacting and precise now as they ever were, needless to say.","type":"text"},{"_id":"CMJRM72JIBC7TDKAAWFWLXULAQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218682},"content":"On which note, <b>The Year’s Best Sports Writing 2024 edited by Jane McManus (Triumph Books, €24.00)</b> isn’t to be missed. Get it for the Sally Jenkins masterpiece on Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert – Bitter Rivals. Beloved Friends. Survivors – which genuinely worth the cover price all by itself.","type":"text"},{"_id":"LTKY4SVQHJDGLFBENPT66TYHQ4","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218637},"content":"<mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>The Kids</b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"HSCMGTWYTJBNXHVKXVGVVOUYAM","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218685},"content":"Never has there been a greater spread of sports books aimed at young people, from illustrated histories to biographies to YA novels and beyond. <b>The Story of Irish Rugby by Gerard Siggins (O’Brien, €19.99)</b> is the perfect primer for a young person just getting into the game, artfully written by Siggins, author of the popular Rugby Spirit series. Beautifully illustrated by Graham Corcoran, it’s a must for any rugby mad youngster.","type":"text"},{"_id":"MLRSKZ6KWNGQDJKXNCXOGKDOPY","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218686},"content":"<b>Ireland’s Call by Paul O’Flynn (Gill, €14.99) </b>is a lightly fictionalised retelling of the 2024 Grand Slam, aimed at the 8-11 year-old age range. It keeps to the general story of the Six Nations campaign and scatters a few imagined conversation between players and coaches throughout.","type":"text"},{"_id":"M5XFAKKDRNCR7DGYXYMDFOR6ZQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1732877218687},"content":"And for younger readers – or older ones who want to read to them – <b>‘Twas The Match Before Christmas by Julianne McKeigue (O’Brien, €16.99)</b> is a lot of fun. A reworking of the most famous Christmas poem of them all, it’s set in Croke Park and illustrated by Brian Fitzgerald. Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!","type":"text"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"metered"},"credits":{"by":[{"additional_properties":{"original":{"byline":"Malachy Clerkin"}},"name":"Malachy Clerkin"}]},"description":{"basic":"Johnny Sexon, Joe Canning and Richie Hogan all have highly readable offerings and Miguel Delaney’s book on the hijacking of modern football is not to be missed"},"display_date":"2024-11-30T06:00:00Z","headlines":{"basic":"Sports Books of the Year: Conor Niland’s The Racket the best in a year dominated by autobiographies","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"8948"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"HSQIAFL7CBDJFPMAUYCWFBEUM4","auth":{"1":"57955f1488272f7f96f48ea653fd839cbf4942161db89faa479143c41e53601b"},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/HSQIAFL7CBDJFPMAUYCWFBEUM4.jpg"}},"subtype":"feature","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Tennis"},{"name":"Athletics"},{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Cycling"},{"name":"Gaelic Games"},{"name":"Golf"},{"name":"Hockey"},{"name":"Racing"},{"name":"Rugby"},{"name":"Soccer"},{"name":"Sport"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/sport/tennis/2024/11/30/conor-nilands-the-racket-is-the-best-sports-book-in-a-year-dominated-by-autobiographies/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/sport/tennis","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Tennis"}}}},{"_id":"G24KP7LDSBBO5JUOTBJYYSDF3M","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":829,"audio_url":"https://d22tbkdovk5ea2.cloudfront.net/audio/projects/8948/podcasts/539f9165-1a54-4053-b528-c104d7e5c49d/versions/1732272511/media/e2cf7ae506a15e6ba525b76df89c757e_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/sport/gaelic-games/2024/11/23/the-bird-shaped-obsession-that-drives-james-crombie-one-of-irelands-best-sports-photographers/","content_elements":[{"_id":"WPTQVDNLEZCPJJVT7A6GYB3NZE","additional_properties":{"_id":1732207571234},"content":"James Crombie knew nothing about birds when this all started. Couldn’t have told you a starling from a swallow. When a friend told him he should take some pictures of the murmurations around Lough Ennell, his first job was to go away and google what the hell a murmuration was.","type":"text"},{"_id":"YDXBPRGVFBHPJP5NM7MIMKUTKY","additional_properties":{"_id":1732207571235},"content":"That was four years ago. Ireland was in the maw of the pandemic and the normal run of his day job as a sports photographer had slowed to a crawl. He was looking for something to divert himself and also to distract his buddy, who had recently been through a family tragedy. And so began, in December 2020, a project that would produce the most famous photograph he is ever likely to take.","type":"text"},{"_id":"7YHHZAMPCNB43OVG4KHQMIXGPA","additional_properties":{"_id":1732207571236},"content":"Crombie’s astonishing bird-shaped murmuration didn’t just go viral, it went global. It appeared first on the front page of The Irish Times on March 4th, 2021 and from there, it went everywhere. To parts known and unknown – National Geographic, CNN, The New Scientist, everywhere else.","type":"text"},{"_id":"KZNPGYDFNBHR5PGRKXD4HZYCOI","additional_properties":{"_id":"2LWP7EWSTFATFKEGLSXGGOGWIY"},"content":"Lough Ennell murmurations seen on video just as James Crombie captures the famous photo","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"I3REI6Z5INC7FAQZQGTK4ZF2KQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1732207571238},"content":"“In the three years since I took it, I’d say not a day goes by without someone mentioning it to me,” Crombie says. “I’ve taken pictures since then that I personally think are better but they will never get the attention that that picture got. I go to the UK and run into photographers over there and they go, ‘Here’s the Bird Man’. Every weekend, it happens somewhere.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ZKGCAZR765DNBEXXXWW25XDJUY","additional_properties":{"_id":1732207571239},"content":"“Which is fine and great – it’s not as if I’m hiding from it. I’m publishing a fecking book off the back of it! But it is funny trying to live up to it. And I don’t think I ever will or ever can, really. I spent the year after I took it half-annoyed because I was going, ‘How am I going to get the next thing that causes that sort of reaction?’ I felt this pressure to deliver something else as good as it.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"6OAGE3QJUJATZILFW5VIH2KU6U","additional_properties":{"_id":1732207571240},"content":"But as everyone who ever did anything good knows, reaction is an unstable pleasure. It’s a dopamine hit. It doesn’t last and it can’t be why you do it. Crombie took The Bird photo on his 50th night going to Lough Ennell. He kept going back for another 250 nights over the following three years. Why?","type":"text"},{"_id":"3PI6MUVQPKXVYUPQAJVZYBHDVQ","additional_properties":{"_id":"2L4SUKSP55C7NCO4QYRJJJESQ4"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"JT3P5DQV3ZHVFAYL6VEZ54664U","additional_properties":{"_id":1732207571241},"content":"Well, he did it because it became a way to spend time with his friend. He did it because he made another friend, a local farmer, along the way and the three of them became ever so slightly obsessed with these birds. He did it because it was a change of pace too, because there’s only so many kicks you can get from the rolling schedule of live matches.","type":"text"},{"_id":"BDFEAKMND5CZ5OQW4VSOMRWKJA","additional_properties":{"_id":1732207571242},"content":"“It’s funny because I get completely consumed by sport. Last weekend I was at the Aviva and there were 50,000 rugby fans there. And then I was in Twickenham with 82,000 people and then I was in Cardiff with 52,000 people. So at the weekend, I worked in front of nearly 200,000 people.","type":"text"},{"_id":"3XPKJFAWRRDQPMCKCVLSQBNZYU","additional_properties":{"_id":1732207571243},"content":"“And then on the Tuesday night I went to the lake where there was nobody. It was quiet and peaceful and I just thought, I love the contrast in that. I kind of need that as well. Because you go from game to game, they often just become the same thing at a different venue. I’m as mad into it as I ever was but I know it’s not possible to produce amazing photographs from every event you go to. I know that sometimes you do a match in cruise control.","type":"text"},{"_id":"4FIMLZ7OPJG2RJDZ2VLCCRFNZY","additional_properties":{"_id":1732207571244},"content":"“So to go down to the lake and just be there, knowing that nobody is going to care what I produce or if I don’t produce anything, I like that. I’m there on my own, I’m not on the phone, there’s no pressure.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"JLGWYMQDGZD6LCL7BWRZWIBX3A","additional_properties":{"_id":1732207571245},"content":"Crombie has won plenty of awards down the years, twice taking the overall PPI Photographer of the Year gong. And yet, much like with the starlings, he ended up being a snapper almost by happenstance. He did an aptitude test in secondary school and somehow the career guidance answer that came back said he should be a fishmonger. He ended up in IT and went to London for three years, working in a bank. That was never going to be it, either.","type":"text"},{"_id":"5SNCONO2LVHJY4RC7QVZUAJAUQ","additional_properties":{"_id":"5PGTKKJSEZFXJMJDMSLUFIRGNA"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"CCDEAOW35FEXNFL7ZOXPZ3IXQQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1732207571246},"content":"All the while, he was interested in photography, as a hobby as much as anything. He came back to Ireland and tootled about in a couple of other jobs for a while until a chance came along to take part in a reality TV series called No Experience Required. The idea was that various companies – among them the Inpho sports photography agency – would audition people who had never worked in a particular area before and at the end, take them on to the staff for six months.","type":"text"},{"_id":"HT73SWP3MNGIFODXJTSM5TW7KA","additional_properties":{"_id":1732207571247},"content":"“I always joke with Billy [Stickland, founder of Inpho] that if I hadn’t won that show, I’d be earning 300 grand a year now and have a second villa down in Spain. But no, I chose sport and photography instead. And it’s been amazing.","type":"text"},{"_id":"J63UGHRMHZG4NMYDLHGSYMRQ5I","additional_properties":{"_id":1732207571248},"content":"“I would say it took me 10 years to get comfortable with it. I was obsessed from the start. For most of that first six months, I was sitting in the office obsessed with how the other lads were cropping pictures, obsessed with settings, obsessed with the equipment. Eventually, near the end, one of them said to me, ‘Here, are you not going to go out and take any pictures? They won’t keep you on if you don’t.’","type":"text"},{"_id":"O5Y6JHVT7RHR5LEM2E4HGFT7EA","additional_properties":{"_id":1732207571249},"content":"“It nearly hadn’t occurred to me that I could go out and take them, weird as that sounds. I half-thought I had to stay in the office. So I went out every night to a different football match – Dublin championship, intermediate games, junior games, down to Wicklow for more games then. I still have those pictures and they’re brutal. But that’s how it started.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"2WBDUKYNAZFAVGKTUWNKKOY7SI","additional_properties":{"_id":1732207571250},"content":"The bulk of the job is matches. Rugby, soccer, hurling, football, wash, rinse, repeat. He brings an analogue radio with him to every match – digital radio commentary is always about 40 seconds behind the action. It means that he can be looking around during a game, staying engaged but still able to find pictures away from the pitch.","type":"text"},{"_id":"5Z5KWLJQGVFRBLH3ABMB27QFNM","additional_properties":{"_id":"4WK5YTBCLJBCXPOVFBWEBPZUAQ"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"SX3G4MQSENFHPDC6JHRXIALT7E","additional_properties":{"_id":1732207571251},"content":"“I think you need to keep some element of nervousness when you go to games. You don’t want to be too comfortable. If Dublin or Limerick are attacking in the last play of an All-Ireland final, your nerves have to be high because you don’t want to miss the shot.","type":"text"},{"_id":"M56DQVFNCZHSRFV5WIXMY3L5VE","additional_properties":{"_id":1732207571252},"content":"“I remember this year with Clare and Cork in the All-Ireland final, the Clare guy pulled the Cork guy’s jersey – I got a great shot of it. The jersey is nearly off him. I really thought, ‘How is that not a free?’ This is going to be the pivotal shot. And it didn’t become the pivotal shot because the free wasn’t given.","type":"text"},{"_id":"L7HYUXRLKBE5TL3ANMYUONBF6Y","additional_properties":{"_id":1732207571253},"content":"“Those last shots are where you have to be nervous. I’d say something like that happens maybe 10 times in a year. You know it, you can feel it in the stadium, the last play is so important and you don’t want to mess it up. You need that little bit of edge.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"GINBGRWVKZCDHFL25TXYHDGOKY","additional_properties":{"_id":1732207571254},"content":"The murmuration project was entirely without edge, of course. Which was kind of the point. Crombie is married to Ann – they’ve been together since they were teenagers and have four kids. Having a day job that takes him away at weekends and sometimes for weeks at a time is bad enough. Heading off to hang out with a couple of thousand starlings for 300 nights over four years requires a fair bit of understanding on the home front.","type":"text"},{"_id":"OFBPU25H6VBFRCA6OWVP4DLRZE","additional_properties":{"_id":1732207571255},"content":"“I would definitely say it’s selfish on my part. I’m gone a lot with sport in the first place. And then to find another reason to be away, it’s a lot. But I met my wife when we were 17. We know each other that long. She manages me, as much as people would have managed Paul McGrath back in the day. Occasionally she’ll say, ‘Right, cop on here.’ But she knows me better than anyone.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"2O726S5CQRCTRLICMWPKWS6ZJE","additional_properties":{"_id":"RGDSYRHTXJA5VPGTIHHQ76YMGQ"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"UTPUWOGV4NBT5DTXS2YT3K7MKM","additional_properties":{"_id":1732207571256},"content":"When the book arrived a couple of weeks back, Crombie’s initial reaction surprised him a little. Delighted and all as he is with it, he couldn’t help being sad at the whole thing coming to an end. Or at least an end of sorts.","type":"text"},{"_id":"TAFXVJWI45FQNG2NYRHSGNLDLA","additional_properties":{"_id":1732207571257},"content":"The starlings have been coming to Lough Ennell to roost in winter for as far back as anyone can remember. It’s about half an hour’s drive from his house. He’ll never not be able to head out with his camera to shoot them. Will he ever snap another picture like the one he did three years ago? Probably not. Will he ever stop being asked about it. Equally probably not.","type":"text"},{"_id":"PRS4ORNROZAGLOCVHHYO6KOT7M","additional_properties":{"_id":1732207571258},"content":"One answer that has never been properly nailed down is the why of it. Why did those thousands of starlings form themselves into the shape of a bird of prey that evening in April 2021? Murmurations are for protection, that much is well known. But why that particular shape for that particular millisecond? Pure coincidence? Or something deeper?","type":"text"},{"_id":"LRV42PVP3FBF7HLACXOQJPLKJA","additional_properties":{"_id":"GCCIAYMVNBBKZKOJJ6FOXMYT3A"},"content":"How Ireland won relay gold in June 2024: Ten photographs that tell the story of a golden night for Irish athletics","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"6YJALFHY3FCFNI2V6EIM5ISCNM","additional_properties":{"_id":1732207571259},"content":"“I’d like to think it’s something deeper,” Crombie says. “There was another shape that looked like a water wren that same night, within three or four minutes of the one I got. But I’m pretty sure it’s just by chance. I’ve had comments over the years saying it’s a sign of the end of the world, praising Allah, praising God, whatever else. I don’t know.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ZBH6HLWSENCPVC3FO7YGWPMCNI","additional_properties":{"_id":1732207571260},"content":"“I don’t think they did it on purpose. If I was standing at a slightly different angle, it wouldn’t have looked like a bird. We just happened to be at the exact perfect angle. So I don’t know. It was probably just pure chance.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"5GFT2JUJNVFYZP2SKHN6ERPVSM","additional_properties":{"_id":1732207571261},"content":"♦ <i>Murmurations by James Crombie is published by Lilliput Press</i>","type":"text"},{"_id":"QPPNCSYXZJCMJJMHPPFHFGBFBU","additional_properties":{"_id":1732207571263},"content":"<mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><u><b>The art of sports photography: How It Works</b></u></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"WAK347OGJ5H2LOGAVRX6YNAKLU","additional_properties":{"_id":1732207571264},"content":"<mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>Fionn McGivern (2) watches Kilkenny v Clare, July 2023</b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"C3ZS43T4DFGZVJL7NZT2UAMP7I","additional_properties":{"_id":"TANYOHGPHZGN7HFGMJIPNK5ZK4"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"GY6OIZLS5VAUJJDU7OTXJSORCE","additional_properties":{"_id":1732207571265},"content":"I was watching this little kid for about seven or eight minutes while the game was going on. I was very relaxed that day. I was looking for something different and I remember spotting that little kid out of the corner of my eye. I had the game going on in my little analogue radio so I knew I could turn and get anything if I needed to.","type":"text"},{"_id":"KQXRS2RJTVF5NMEXUWDDZRMD5A","additional_properties":{"_id":1732207571266},"content":"But this little lad was just there and I followed him for about seven or eight minutes, maybe nine. Just waiting for him to get into that perfect stance, the way he is in the shot. I got a great buzz out of it.","type":"text"},{"_id":"T6RVSHG7E5CHTGM65P6ZFZSXJ4","additional_properties":{"_id":1732207571267},"content":"The kid was from Antrim. His parents were massive Kilkenny fans. They were down for the game. Somebody found them afterwards and did a story on them and they ended up getting tickets for the final because of it. The kid ended up being interviewed on Kilkenny radio. That one was good fun.","type":"text"},{"_id":"TERUBBZQXBBW5OJGWMT7TATVMA","additional_properties":{"_id":1732207571268},"content":"<mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>Supporter at Covid-era club championship match, September 2020</b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"WKYH26EULJC53CBW5ZMXK5X7DQ","additional_properties":{"_id":"7DJA2QWJBRBK5DUT6ZA6FBTSDM"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"ZPRHSIW7UZBHRLWTFZ5TIZJZUY","additional_properties":{"_id":1732207571269},"content":"Sport had just started back but no crowds were allowed at games yet. This was a Roscommon semi-final between St Brigid’s and Boyle. I was taking pictures of it when I saw this head poking up over the wall behind the goal. So I said I’d go out and have a look.","type":"text"},{"_id":"OGSLXOEIQFCPTPTRDCXSFC5Z6Y","additional_properties":{"_id":1732207571270},"content":"I got out into this graveyard behind Dr Hyde Park. This guy had carried his ladder all the way through the graveyard and propped it up. I didn’t want to disturb him in case he fell off so I took a few snaps and happened to get this one just as Boyle scored.","type":"text"},{"_id":"SWVPBHFZUFGJRNZHRQRS54QIIU","additional_properties":{"_id":1732207571271},"content":"I went over to him then and asked could I publish the photo. “Oh Jesus no,” he said. “I’m not supposed to be here.” There were still restrictions at that stage on how far from your house you were allowed to go. But I said I wouldn’t use his name and would only show him from the back so he was okay with it.","type":"text"},{"_id":"7MJDUH5N6FDD3IWQ4VG52CWUQQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1732207571272},"content":"A few weeks later, his daughter got on to me and asked could she get the original. Apparently it went viral and everyone recognised him. He ended up doing a two-page spread in the Roscommon Herald.","type":"text"},{"_id":"JUQWNP6PJVGELOVE3YBLGZB4PQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1732207571273},"content":"<mark class=\"hl_yellow\"><b>Connacht bench at a Challenge Cup game in Siberia, January 2016</b></mark>","type":"header"},{"_id":"OU3RZX3H5VFNPJ345V6ZT5KFK4","additional_properties":{"_id":"BOQMHUSUFVAD3LPVGMOXNYIVAM"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"AFPKXQKOWRFEFOGF62HR3CMJMA","additional_properties":{"_id":1732207571274},"content":"This was a mad adventure. Enisei-STM were the first Russian club to play in the Challenge Cup and Connacht went to Siberia for the game. We were told there could be up to 30,000 at it – we turned up and there were about 400 there. It was the coldest I’ve ever been, the harshest conditions I’ve ever seen a match be played in.","type":"text"},{"_id":"3T2VO6K5ENF6DN4MCXLU5LLDRI","additional_properties":{"_id":1732207571275},"content":"I had about a dozen layers on me and I was still frozen solid. I saw the Connacht bench from the far side of the pitch but it took me about 10 minutes to walk around because I nearly seized up with the cold. They had blankets and hot water bottles and hot chocolates for when they came off the pitch.","type":"text"},{"_id":"XLAHJY22SZAXDDO3E25X46IWSY","additional_properties":{"_id":1732207571276},"content":"It took us about a week to get home. The charter plane Connacht had hired hadn’t moved for four days and was completely frozen solid when we got back to it. So we had no way of getting out of there. By the time we did, our five-day visas had run out. We had to fly to Moscow to get our visas renewed just to leave the country. Players got processed first, officials next. I’d say I was pretty much the last one out.","type":"text"},{"_id":"YCDY6C2IB5FUNMX3YVDX7FFP3I","additional_properties":{},"type":"list"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"metered"},"credits":{"by":[{"additional_properties":{"original":{"byline":"Malachy Clerkin"}},"name":"Malachy Clerkin"}]},"description":{"basic":"It started as a pandemic distraction but ended up producing probably the most famous photo the Westmeath man will ever take - the murmuration that went around the world"},"display_date":"2024-11-23T06:00:00Z","headlines":{"basic":"The bird-shaped obsession that drives James Crombie, one of Ireland’s best sports photographers ","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"8948"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"XRDS27Z7URWUAPI5LG2H6L7FUI","auth":{"1":"9c9585a82889598a9b724aeaa7c117136eb5fae92b5527345c4515158f27bbc0"},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/XRDS27Z7URWUAPI5LG2H6L7FUI.jpg"},"lead_art":{"_id":"XRDS27Z7URWUAPI5LG2H6L7FUI","type":"image"},"overline_logo":{"_id":"XRDS27Z7URWUAPI5LG2H6L7FUI","auth":{"1":"9c9585a82889598a9b724aeaa7c117136eb5fae92b5527345c4515158f27bbc0"},"url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/XRDS27Z7URWUAPI5LG2H6L7FUI.jpg"}},"subtype":"feature","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Gaelic Games"},{"name":"Rugby"},{"name":"Racing"},{"name":"Golf"},{"name":"Cycling"},{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Athletics"},{"name":"Sport"},{"name":"Soccer"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/sport/gaelic-games/2024/11/23/the-bird-shaped-obsession-that-drives-james-crombie-one-of-irelands-best-sports-photographers/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/sport/gaelic-games","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Gaelic Games"}}}},{"_id":"TPTJUGLZEJCPJMFBDBNYYASDJ4","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":284,"audio_url":"https://d22tbkdovk5ea2.cloudfront.net/audio/projects/5469/podcasts/644033c1-3305-4d74-98bf-4382f437ad50/versions/1731853549/media/3fcc2c66dc65b89ea6d31569e76a8042_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/sport/boxing/2024/11/17/it-is-a-rough-sport-katie-taylor-floats-above-dirty-tactics-allegation-after-win-over-serrano/","content_elements":[{"_id":"44MITXRZSNFMBG6GOT2HJW5ILQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1731851883488},"content":"After midnight now in Dallas Cowboys arena with its photos of local gods past – Jerry Jones and Jimmy Johnson and Troy Aikman on the wall – when <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/katie-taylor/\" target=\"_blank\">Katie Taylor</a> comes in bearing two bruised eyes and a swollen cheek and a sweet smile of quiet satisfaction. Outside, the big arena is deserted except for the small army of cleaning staff. The Cowboys are back here Monday night.","type":"text"},{"_id":"VJNLS5TLCBGPLPT5QJUM23FX24","additional_properties":{"_id":1731851883489},"content":"Maybe you had to be there but it felt as if this was Taylor’s apotheosis: <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/boxing/2024/11/16/katie-taylor-narrowly-beats-amanda-serrano-in-a-contest-wreathed-in-greatness/\" target=\"_blank\">her true-grit night of nights</a> in an alien and hostile environment. Still the champ. And 38 years old now. More questions. Will she fight again? And if so, who? And where? Because magnificent as this fight was against Amanda Serrano, it happened while Ireland slept.","type":"text"},{"_id":"C7JNHDM3TBGO3FAKNVRV4L5BIU","additional_properties":{"_id":"J3N7IERAWFGSNH7T7VTKMQPBTY"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"WYMYMG62E5DOBBG6BAVQGLKQU4","additional_properties":{"_id":1731851883491},"content":"The depth of what she achieved here may not have fully registered as a genuinely great moment for Irish sport. And it carried a bitter afternote. Taylor’s reputation was besmirched here. It happened in the immediate aftermath when Jordan Maldonado lost his composure and flung a few choice insults around the arena already convinced that Taylor had intentionally headbutted Serrano in the fourth to open up a deep gash which bled throughout despite the efforts of her cut man. “She’s so dirty. She leads with her head. It’s her best attribute,” he said in a live interview during the fight.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ATLTQMXJDFAAXDNYHQYBTTWSVI","additional_properties":{"_id":1731851883492},"content":"Given that Taylor was, during the roiling, crazy final rounds when both fighters just stood and traded blows and ignored the pain, showcasing her lightning and superior hand work, it was a nasty thing to say. Afterwards, promoter Nikisa Bidarian doubled down when he appeared alongside Jake Paul.","type":"text"},{"_id":"UESQL65QHBASVPLM42Y6JLEB24","additional_properties":{"_id":"DPXE3TDJVFELVNVAKIJT46G6XU"},"content":"Katie Taylor narrowly defeats Amanda Serrano in brutal contest","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"LW7D4TKRAFDZLL4SMXRH5VWE7U","additional_properties":{"_id":"BD6W7QMT55AALPLM3DDAGEBCBM"},"content":"Jake Paul beats Mike Tyson in manufactured mismatch as Father Time comes calling","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"BGNDXJT2QNHLNISAIYUNPAV2V4","additional_properties":{"_id":1731851883493},"content":"“I would like to point out that the betting markets in the 10th round had it at -350 for Amanda to win,” he said, out of the blue.","type":"text"},{"_id":"FPPRXN5QZVDYXBHTWRRKMCI2EY","additional_properties":{"_id":1731851883494},"content":"“I thought in the first round if there was 15 seconds left Katie Taylor was dropped and done. I thought she implemented her game plan well but it was a dirty fight. She used her head to lead every single minute of every round and Amanda did her best to fight back but she was at a disadvantage and the ref didn’t stop the headbutts. He took a point away way too late and she continued to do the headbutting and the holding. She felt the ref didn’t protect her and they should have taken away more than one point for what that woman did in the ring tonight.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"BY2PEG5KQNASNJJJ6ZHFFYSBLY","additional_properties":{"_id":"YJKS4EMZ5ZEP5AGMCKXG3DEYEU"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"BVCAGPPZMZBBFBUPWLREN6Z7QE","additional_properties":{"_id":1731851883496},"content":"Bidarian was excited: the night had been a thundering commercial success. But he should have had the clarity to understand that Taylor-Serrano had rescued it from farce. And as he said himself, he is four years involved in boxing. Taylor has been dedicated to the sport for her entire life. Bidarian hasn’t earned the right to offer that sort of criticism. When Taylor was asked about it, she returned to her post-match habit of floating above the noise.","type":"text"},{"_id":"PSVDH2XU5RG5VOZS3OK2RWON4E","additional_properties":{"_id":1731851883497},"content":"“It just happens sometimes when you fight a southpaw especially. The fighters come in close and it just happens. It was completely accidental. I am in there fighting like she is and it is a rough sport and sometimes you get head clashes. I think it was a very different fight than the first time. I started off a bit slow and changed it up in the second half where I just stood and fought with her but I definitely think I did bring my punches to land. And that is what won the fight in the end, I feel. But another really close fight, two epic fights and close decisions and I am just proud.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"2CTLHX4DX5AQXAIRAGTEG6HN4U","additional_properties":{"_id":"MHZ5MWGIUFE4THHSXJQWH5OFB4"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"DJCGCI4E5ZEBBN77AWIASIZQ6I","additional_properties":{"_id":1731851883499},"content":"But weirdly, it fell to a quintessential Englishman, promoter Eddie Hearn, to defend Taylor in the aftermath of it all. Hearn belongs to the rich school of East London fast talkers but when he reflected on Taylor last night, he meant it. You could hear it in his voice. During the fight, he had, like many fight enthusiasts, lost himself in the depth and quality of the courage with which Taylor had boxed.","type":"text"},{"_id":"6FY5YADPIVCANGCMBPICMNX7CY","additional_properties":{"_id":1731851883500},"content":"“For me she is the greatest female fighter of all time. She is the one who when boxing was banned in Ireland, and girls weren’t allowed to fight she put her ponytail under her headguard and walked in pretending she was a boy. She was K Taylor in the amateurs. She was the one who convinced the IOC to allow boxing for females, the one who won five World Championship amateur titles, six European amateur titles, Olympic gold, undisputed lightweight world champion, undisputed super lightweight world champion. Sold out Madison Square Garden. Sold out the arenas in Ireland. Wembley in front of 90,000.","type":"text"},{"_id":"A4YXVT2LEBB5XKEIA5NMV66SUM","additional_properties":{"_id":1731851883501},"content":"“For me – I’m biased. And she is so humble. But it goes beyond the achievements. It is down to the legacy. I see it with my own daughters. For me, it is no competition.”","type":"text"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"premium"},"credits":{"by":[{"additional_properties":{"original":{"byline":"Keith Duggan"}},"name":"Keith Duggan"}]},"description":{"basic":"Because of the timing, the depth of what Taylor achieved here may not have fully registered as a genuinely great moment for Irish sport"},"display_date":"2024-11-17T14:20:39.63Z","headlines":{"basic":"‘It is a rough sport’: Katie Taylor floats above ‘dirty’ tactics allegation after win over Serrano","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"5469"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"IENT6FCZZZDFDE4LYPROOT6ZYU","auth":{"1":"7f256dbb6728005e76d65cd93924ecbac6604ea9651bbd6b8ab1b795bfed9914"},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/IENT6FCZZZDFDE4LYPROOT6ZYU.jpg"}},"subtype":"default","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Sport"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/sport/boxing/2024/11/17/it-is-a-rough-sport-katie-taylor-floats-above-dirty-tactics-allegation-after-win-over-serrano/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/sport/boxing","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Boxing"}}}},{"_id":"OBLYFEZHUFEZHG4RRXFRMNPAWY","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":447,"audio_url":"https://d22tbkdovk5ea2.cloudfront.net/audio/projects/8948/podcasts/98206a71-06a6-46f1-bb39-fdc32fd86f87/versions/1731849799/media/0ebaa858aaa42abcbb844f644b05f562_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/sport/boxing/2024/11/16/mike-tyson-couldnt-turn-back-time-but-he-knew-that-all-along/","content_elements":[{"_id":"FWONZJSTD5BORBAPER3UYEYWC4","additional_properties":{},"content":"It wasn’t until he made the long walk from the dressingroom across the floor of Dallas Cowboy’s football stadium that it became clear what 70,000 paying customers and the millions watching – or, due to technical issues, not watching – around the world were hoping to see from <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/mike-tyson/\" target=\"_blank\">Mike Tyson</a>. They were tuning in to see the one magic act that everyone knows to be impossible. The rewinding of time.","type":"text"},{"_id":"MVOE6GGKJVCJ7A5ZKJ74EEPO2U","additional_properties":{"_id":1731834386830},"content":"In Dallas, the fans paid up under the wilful delusion that the old, long gone Mike Tyson would somehow materialise before them because they wished it to be so: alive again at 58 with the murderous intent and combustible fighting power with which he attacked the world from the age of 18.","type":"text"},{"_id":"NKN3YJEXDVG6ZD7Q4XJPN6S54U","additional_properties":{"_id":1731785828880},"content":"The night was a strange combination of old boxing glamour and the uneasy sense that this fabricated headline fight between Tyson and <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/jake-paul/\" target=\"_blank\">Jake Paul</a> was, at heart, a betrayal of the sport. Everyone was dressed in their best and the bartenders were busy dispensing cocktails to the beautiful people. As a spectacle in sound and vision, it was stunning and the expensive seats glittered with a random selection of celebrities – big Shaquille O’Neal strode the floor like a behemoth, Ralph Macchio and Charlize Theron beamed in a touch of Old Hollywood and Rob Gronkowski, the retired NFL star (and madcap enough to become sucked into this new fad of celebrity-fighting) was bouncing around. And it was the allure of seeing Mike Tyson that made the occasion.","type":"text"},{"_id":"FOJ4OXGHUNHPJGUDRMHNG2B36U","additional_properties":{"_id":1731834386832},"content":"The anticipation, in the minutes before the fight started, was genuine. Many of the fans here were not even born when Tyson was in his pomp. But they had seen all the old clips: not just the swift rage with which he dispensed of a long line of forgotten opponents but the disturbing interviews, the photos of Mike walking his pet tiger; of Mike quoting Wilde’s Ballad of Reading Gaol, of Mike facing the cops having bitten off a piece of Evander Holyfield’s ear. In short, they wanted for themselves a taste of the wilder unreachable world of the 1980s and 1990s.","type":"text"},{"_id":"2LUUSHJW5JBSZBQB3EQLBHTBGI","additional_properties":{"_id":1731785828881},"content":"And when Mike appeared in his customary black, unadorned cut-off warm up smock and began his slow-blank eyed walk to the ring, the people went berserk. For those few seconds they could fool themselves that they were about to witness the real thing; that Iron Mike could shake off two decades of inactivity and inhabit that untamed spirit.","type":"text"},{"_id":"MYAD3O42UKRJLPAZJHV7YSSZ54","additional_properties":{"_id":"HHYX42PWABDT7BTKR6EIOGQAXQ"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"6OWURZTHG5BD7FMUO3Y2CBWBAA","additional_properties":{"_id":1731834386835},"content":"From the first bell, the delusion began to fade. The eight rounds were a dud. It didn’t help the occasion that the previous fight, between Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano had been lit with electrifying, constant menace and danger and that the pair had produced a fight for the ages.","type":"text"},{"_id":"PG2INHKYCFEV3JZ6WQ62GK2M6M","additional_properties":{"_id":1731834386836},"content":"Tyson threw a paltry 27 punches over the entire contest and spent the rest of the time moving and bobbing and keeping out of harm’s way. By the last round, the booing was sustained and lusty and thousands exited before the announcer confirmed that the winner, by unanimous decision, was Jake Paul. The big Rust Belt YouTube celebrity seems to skateboard through life with a blithe indifference to public opinion and leaned into the fact that everyone in the stadium was hoping to see Tyson knock the living daylights out of him. But he is a canny operator. And he knew. As did Mike Tyson.","type":"text"},{"_id":"KX7APFYOIVFNLPQHML2WHR3XLY","additional_properties":{"_id":1731834386837},"content":"On Wednesday, Tyson sat through the official press conference in a mood of baleful silence. At the time, it was optimistically interpreted as a signal that Tyson had pulled up the drawbridge and retreated into the bleak interior place where he becomes a machine born to inflict physical damage on his opponents. But as he moved stiffly back to his corner after each harmless, pointless round, the truth presented itself. Tyson remained silent because he knew what would happen here in Dallas on Friday evening. He promised he would “bring the devil himself” and he was true to his word. He made his deal, took the money and, well, hobbled, rather than ran.","type":"text"},{"_id":"FLHI6EDWDBBAZKZUAEHI2LG2RE","additional_properties":{"_id":"ODRVRV7MQRHZNCT2HNLRK46TVI"},"content":"Katie Taylor narrowly defeats Amanda Serrano in brutal contest","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"N5UFXG2AF5ASZLOQ533KDHFLKE","additional_properties":{"_id":1731785828884},"content":"Of all the advance clips pushed by Paul’s promotions company in the lead up to the fight, nothing came close to capturing Tyson like the short clip of a young girl interviewing Iron Mike and asking him what type of legacy he would like to leave when he is done.","type":"text"},{"_id":"BMC3Q3KTBNCAZAKRCM7W2OYA6M","additional_properties":{"_id":1731834386840},"content":"“Well I don’t believe in the word legacy. I think that’s another word for ego. That’s just some word that everybody grabbed on to. Now, it is used every five seconds. It means absolutely nothing to me. I’m just passin’ through. I’mma die and it’s gonna be over. Who cares about legacy after that? I am nothing. We are dead. We’re dust. We are absolutely nothing.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"DRBLDOS74JFJPHIHRVQSWIXZCI","additional_properties":{"_id":1731785828886},"content":"“Thank you such for sharing that,” the young interviewer staring unblinkingly at the baddest man on the planet through her large spectacles. “That’s something I have not heard before.” But others have. It was a riff on Tyson’s favourite theme: the big nothingness of it all.","type":"text"},{"_id":"DSDNMJ6HORKWIZAR3XIEB7QYQY","additional_properties":{"_id":"MDC5ESB6BRDBPFL44T7B7WS4MM"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"54A6PCN3URD4VBVYXYB3KH3TEY","additional_properties":{"_id":1731834386843},"content":"For a man who has been brutally tough in his verbal onslaughts towards other people, he has always reserved a sentimental spot for himself. And so, this humiliation against Jake Paul, a terrific promoter and, one suspects, a good hearted-Midwestern boy beneath the bluster and boasting, but an absolute no-mark in the realm of fighters Tyson has faced: it all fits perfectly with Tyson’s world view.","type":"text"},{"_id":"BQ7K4FMPR5AYNGEMR7Z3WQBXJM","additional_properties":{"_id":1731834386844},"content":"His final moment in boxing would be one of abasement: a living shadow of his former self enduring this parody of a fight and the growing disenchantment of the people who were there to see him. Afterwards, he muttered a few distracted words to the commentator and vanished. He did not appear for the midnight interviews in the Cowboys’ conference room, leaving his coaching staff to talk up the occasion.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ICHG2ASLGRHPJKCHVGIUB5P4DI","additional_properties":{"_id":1731785828887},"content":"“We worked for seven months for this moment. I really believed we had this victory before the fight. He never asked to give up,” his trainer, Rafael Cordeiro, said.","type":"text"},{"_id":"6YD7LGKC7NHVLN4ME6ID5XD7NI","additional_properties":{"_id":1731785828888},"content":"“He is the people’s champion. He has inspired many people outside the ring. Most importantly, Mike comes home to his loved ones,” he added.","type":"text"},{"_id":"4GT3JPNXRBF5VNVQ5XMHJC7GPI","additional_properties":{"_id":1731785828889},"content":"And that much is true. In a weird way, Mike Tyson had executed his last, bleak magic act. He is hitting 60 and has banked $20 million for one night of vaudeville. Insiders say that Tyson the man is more content now than he has ever been: just another man in late middle age drifting towards eccentricity. That’s not a bad story where the afterlife of a heavyweight boxing champion is concerned.","type":"text"},{"_id":"4JDHO3DD3NFFRICBG7KMU6DVCA","additional_properties":{"_id":1731785828890},"content":"But what happened in Dallas on Friday night, well, that was a death ritual. What the bored crowd saw was the endnote on that other Mike Tyson with that fearsome public image.","type":"text"},{"_id":"JLFWLFN6HRETPBF4FMLX3CHLVM","additional_properties":{"_id":1731785828891},"content":"“I’mma die. I’m just passin’ through.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"HBET35CSOZEVLIO3TW7IKDLI4M","additional_properties":{"_id":1731785828892},"content":"And so it went. Just dust. Absolutely nothing.","type":"text"},{"_id":"YCDY6C2IB5FUNMX3YVDX7FFP3I","additional_properties":{},"type":"list"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"metered"},"credits":{"by":[{"additional_properties":{"original":{"byline":"Keith Duggan"}},"name":"Keith Duggan"}]},"description":{"basic":"The former heavyweight boxer was defeated by YouTuber Jake Paul by unanimous decision, but conjured up one last bleak magic act"},"display_date":"2024-11-16T20:03:37.391Z","headlines":{"basic":"Mike Tyson couldn’t turn back time, but he knew that all along","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"8948"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"JNAGWWD2NHL3KDLJWESKC6WXRQ","auth":{"1":"07383631d2cf21479dd890e6e023c5f53b47b2e7d4f9745d13bbd975dea677e6"},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/JNAGWWD2NHL3KDLJWESKC6WXRQ.jpg"}},"subtype":"feature","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Sport"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/sport/boxing/2024/11/16/mike-tyson-couldnt-turn-back-time-but-he-knew-that-all-along/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/sport/boxing","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Boxing"}}}},{"_id":"HRYSWD4LHVFCFL25CANFK2KM4I","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":391,"audio_url":"https://d22tbkdovk5ea2.cloudfront.net/audio/projects/8948/podcasts/82599923-6faa-49f5-a55c-7efb89be188b/versions/1731746524/media/1620895e5367a8c1affec1562d68473c_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/sport/boxing/2024/11/16/jake-paul-beats-mike-tyson-in-manufactured-mismatch-as-father-time-comes-calling/","content_elements":[{"_id":"EB634AVEGRCGXEAB5OUZXES3QE","additional_properties":{"_id":1731745585259},"content":"<a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/jake-paul\" target=\"_blank\">Jake Paul</a>, a 27-year-old social media huckster, beat a 58-year-old man with a long history of health problems, both physically and mentally, in a boxing ring late on Friday night. The fact that <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/mike-tyson\" target=\"_blank\">Mike Tyson</a> was defeated so comprehensively on points was meant to give Paul a semblance of authenticity in the unforgiving business of boxing. But it didn’t mean much in the end.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ZXJFAF666BDFZNR527VEHCE57M","additional_properties":{"_id":1731745585260},"content":"Tyson is the former world champion who, in the mid-to-late 1980s, spread awe and terror as he tore through the heavyweight ranks. But, in the dog days of 2024, Tyson was trying to overcome years of abuse, after far too many drugs and far too much drinking, as well as recent troubling issues with a bleeding stomach ulcer and acute sciatica. Two years ago Tyson was in such pain that he had to be pushed around in a wheelchair and, this May, he threw up so much blood on a flight that his manufactured scrap with Paul had to be postponed for six months. He now looks like he also has a bad right knee.","type":"text"},{"_id":"UJ6CXMONGVCWNGR64ZOGMWLE3Y","additional_properties":{"_id":1731745585262},"content":"This was Paul’s opponent in a sad and abject bout. The fight had been reduced to eight rounds, lasting just two minutes each, and that relative brevity offered a modicum of relief. Paul received the unanimous verdict by two scores of 79-73 and a shutout 80-72.","type":"text"},{"_id":"UB5532V4TFA43IBTV6T4TFTD3U","additional_properties":{"_id":1731745585263},"content":"The near sold-out crowd at the AT&T Stadium was fiercely partisan in their early support of Tyson. Ninety minutes before the ring-walks, footage of Paul’s arrival was greeted with a muted hum. But we then saw Tyson walking slowly to his locker room. His jacket was emblazoned with his famous old boxing alias: “Iron Mike”. The huge and sustained roar was strangely moving.","type":"text"},{"_id":"34DSXLOQMNHQDE4KIQRDYRNFFU","additional_properties":{"_id":1731745585264},"content":"Jake Paul and his brother Logan were driven to the ring in a customised Chevy low-rider, instead of making the traditional fighter’s walk, to a stale old Phil Collins track. Tyson made a sombre, brooding trudge, wearing a stark black top in a deliberate attempt to echo the menace which once defined him. It was the high point of a long night for the once formidable Tyson. He looked weathered and aged as he was introduced in the middle of the ring.","type":"text"},{"_id":"PJY6K32PVBB2ZHOZIUVB2JI4EI","additional_properties":{"_id":1731745585265},"content":"Tyson came out with a modicum of intent and he soon caught the retreating Paul with a clipping left and a glancing right. He ducked under a few swinging punches but Tyson was then tagged by a much sharper right to the head. It was already plain that any vague hope of Tyson being able to summon his once trademark ferocity belonged to a forlorn fantasy. The two-minute round ended with Tyson, wearing a brace on his dodgy knee, trying slowly and unsuccessfully to close the distance between him and a cheerfully back-peddling Paul.","type":"text"},{"_id":"U7TLURZD4VCKBAIV7EQAAQ3F5A","subtype":"twitter","type":"oembed_response"},{"_id":"XBOPRCHQBFCLRLWLKVRBBEJS7A","additional_properties":{"_id":1731745585266},"content":"The second round was dulled by pedestrian exchanges, with Tyson looking bereft of any real intent while Paul landed a few decent punches. But the former world champion was soon in trouble when he was rocked to the soles of his black boots by a stream of left hands. Decades ago, Tyson would have been far too fast and elusive for such a telegraphed series of blows. He would have slipped under them and then punished and dropped a boxing novice for his audacity. But Tyson’s speed and ring savvy is long gone and he took his shots with bleak stoicism.","type":"text"},{"_id":"WSKKJIOASFH4PCRHODJ22QIYGI","additional_properties":{"_id":1731745585267},"content":"Paul cruised through the remaining rounds, winning them with little obvious effort. If he really did make $40m it must have felt easier than some of his teenage YouTube stunts which made his name and early fortune.","type":"text"},{"_id":"F7UV5NXUDZAGHCSFI5KHWBOYE4","additional_properties":{"_id":1731745585268},"content":"A muted, almost resigned atmosphere settled around the stadium. It was in stark contrast to the deep engagement the crowd had felt during the magnificent fight which Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano had produced. The two women showed the meaning of elite boxing while Paul and Tyson plodded on through their tedious exhibition of fisticuffs.","type":"text"},{"_id":"OYKK6VNUDJFFZLAA6QEJYXPGMM","additional_properties":{"_id":1731745585269},"content":"Booing resounded in the last two rounds as if the crowd finally accepted the bitter truth that this had never been a real fight. People headed for the exits even before the predictable scorecards were read out.","type":"text"},{"_id":"H33G7XT35VG43PRR4NNXRXIZMM","additional_properties":{"_id":1731745585270},"content":"Tyson had already put the result, as well as the protracted and ridiculous hype surrounding the circus, into bleak context the previous night. Dragooned into an interview with Jazlyn Guerra, a 14-year-old social media personality who tags herself as Jazzy’s World TV, Tyson was withering in the way he dismissed the fight and his historical reputation. His words carried a dark meaning which ridiculed his contest with a YouTuber.","type":"text"},{"_id":"CXVNABP2OFD5FNSLMWX24LPWI4","additional_properties":{"_id":1731745585271},"content":"Guerra, who appears to be an accomplished teenager, was initially gushing in her enthusiasm for the bout after the weigh-in on Thursday night. She said it would provide “a monumental opportunity for kids my age to see the legend Mike Tyson in the ring for the first time. So after such a successful career what type of legacy would you like to leave behind when it’s all said and done?”","type":"text"},{"_id":"QIQWWDNID5NDOHRYWP4TIUCNIQ","additional_properties":{"_id":"HHOCKTNKDJCIRC6SDBEDGJABRY"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"PAO3E4PNCRASHCH3MIRNNCJQBM","additional_properties":{"_id":1731745585272},"content":"Tyson paused. It wasn’t a terrible question but he was in the mood to dole out a grim truth. “Well, I don’t believe in the word ‘legacy’,” Tyson said. “I think that’s just another word for ‘ego’. Legacy means absolutely nothing to me. I’m just passing through. I’m gonna die and it’s gonna be over. Who cares about legacy after that? We’re nothing. We’re dead. We’re dust.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"AKK4N4KEUBEQPPILLZ42MTHNRE","additional_properties":{"_id":1731745585274},"content":"Guerra, to her considerable credit, was gracious. “Well, thank you so much for sharing that,” she said. “That’s something I’ve not heard before.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"PSB3QV6A6RHLXMNRV3PF3LTOYQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1731745585275},"content":"Tyson wasn’t done. “Can you really imagine someone saying I want my legacy to be this way or that?” he continued bluntly. “You’re dead. What audacity is that – to want people to think about me when I am gone? Who the fuck cares about me?”","type":"text"},{"_id":"GPFISS364VH35AA5EI62DDHZPI","additional_properties":{"_id":1731745585276},"content":"It was hard to care about anything in regard to this stunted show – apart from a sincere hope that Tyson did not suffer much damage from the blows he took. Walking out into the black Texas night, and away from such a contrived and cynical business, it felt like freedom to escape the madness and the sadness. – Guardian","type":"text"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"metered"},"credits":{"by":[{"name":"Donald McRae at AT&T Stadium"}]},"description":{"basic":"Social media personality defeats former world champion by two scores of 79-73 and 80-72 in tedious exhibition of fisticuffs"},"display_date":"2024-11-16T08:41:05.195Z","headlines":{"basic":"Jake Paul beats Mike Tyson in manufactured mismatch as Father Time comes calling","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"8948"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"JGVYEHU56Z4JETKIWXTBBNZ24U","auth":{"1":"99ed001b4babd2901a4cf9bbd11b57f56370a24163fd1354c2f8f282ae1b4070"},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/JGVYEHU56Z4JETKIWXTBBNZ24U.jpg"}},"subtype":"default","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Sport"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/sport/boxing/2024/11/16/jake-paul-beats-mike-tyson-in-manufactured-mismatch-as-father-time-comes-calling/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/sport/boxing","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Boxing"}}}},{"_id":"2QKVSJMYBFDOLHLVCR7N2VUY7M","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":396,"audio_url":"https://d22tbkdovk5ea2.cloudfront.net/audio/projects/5469/podcasts/2b118828-acf6-4b77-8ce5-8c578d9d7020/versions/1731739236/media/59468b83a43242f81c4dfa7d26fadc0f_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/sport/boxing/2024/11/16/katie-taylor-narrowly-beats-amanda-serrano-in-a-contest-wreathed-in-greatness/","content_elements":[{"_id":"344444WXLFBX3E3AU5SAMCVTP4","additional_properties":{"_id":1731737120954},"content":"‘Lawdy, Lawdy.’ Joe Frazier’s old refrain came whispering out of the decades here in Texas. The turf in this vast stadium where the Dallas Cowboys ply their trade is accustomed to bouts of violence but the latest meeting between <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/katie-taylor/\" target=\"_blank\">Katie Taylor</a> and Amanda Serrano, late on Friday night, served up a sustained and brutal 20 minutes of non-stop close-quarter fighting that was simply of a different nature.","type":"text"},{"_id":"Y4X2XN2ZCRESJIEHRR7BHUT5ZY","additional_properties":{"_id":1731737120955},"content":"Both fighters went beyond the normal realms of sport here, or the normal human limitations, to inflict physical punishment, to deliver an exhibition in fighting that easily eclipsed anything that the three male bouts could hope to reach. Given that both are figureheads of women’s sport and were fighting in the same ring where the 58-year-old <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/mike-tyson/\" target=\"_blank\">Mike Tyson</a> would make a glowering and much-anticipated return, it was a significant moment.","type":"text"},{"_id":"XJ7H4726I5DC3OJVXNHNFHZAI4","additional_properties":{"_id":1731737120956},"content":"There must have been 70,000 people here in the stadium in Texas and the audience of hundreds of millions around the world complained bitterly of delays in their live stream. Those who got to watch it live were treated to something unforgettable.","type":"text"},{"_id":"SNRSEQSDFVDQ3DDGG7XUSBGXAY","additional_properties":{"_id":1731742280822},"content":"When it was over, the battered fighters stood side by side and heard that all three judges – Jeremy Hayes (Canada), Nate Palmer (Indiana) and Jess Reyes (Texas) – scored the contest 95-94 unanimously. “And still” ... the booing drowned out the confirmation that Katie Taylor had retained her title. Serrano is a graceful competitor and hugged the Irish woman afterwards but her corner team offered a bitterly accusatory comment that Taylor is a dirty fighter who leads with her head.","type":"text"},{"_id":"JXV6FRCREJEVXIYXCWQS4GZCGM","additional_properties":{"_id":1731737120957},"content":"Feelings were running high, but it was still a nasty allegation to throw at one of the most decorated and respected boxers in the sport. But Taylor was too exhausted, too happy and too proud to care.","type":"text"},{"_id":"VF5RBNOX45DYZBBFR5ZRR4N4G4","additional_properties":{"_id":1731737120958},"content":"“It’s hard to score and fight the fight. I knew it was an absolute war in there,” she said through a swell of boos bouncing around the roofed in stadium.","type":"text"},{"_id":"VQZFAWWSBJHPZNG7JCFNH4W43E","additional_properties":{"_id":1731737120959},"content":"“Congratulations to Amanda, she’s a fantastic champion. We’ve agreed to 12 three-minute rounds in the next fight, so the triple is on. She’s a hard puncher and a tough warrior, so I was prepared for that. I don’t care what the commentary team or the crowd say, all that matters is the judges around the ring.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"4E23DKJHYFE53OU6OATB7XEDXM","additional_properties":{"_id":1731737120960},"content":"Asked what she thought about the claim that the head clash was deliberate, Serrano didn’t disagree. “I think 100% cos she does it in every fight. It’s not the first fight. She kept headbutting me. But we knew that from the very beginning, from the first fight. That’s what they do. She did it not only in my fight, she did it with Chantelle Cameron.","type":"text"},{"_id":"HDF7XOUBQNAE7EFH5B7V5MXIIM","additional_properties":{"_id":1731742280827},"content":"“Listen, I’m a Boricua. I’m going to die in this ring no matter how many cuts I have in my face. Everyone said the judges was gonna be a little shady but listen, I came here. I chose to be great. I went up three divisions. I dare to be great tonight. I am the featherweight champion of the world and I want to be great.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"7GDUL4432BKFZULPROBWFXOJYA","additional_properties":{"_id":"22LAQ45PYZBTFNHZYL344ELCHQ"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"IVZYVDCYZJGFNFWAHXGCIGXWGY","additional_properties":{"_id":1731737120961},"content":"The contest was wreathed in greatness. It will become a famous boxing match. By the end, the tied-back hair of both fighters was matted with blood and sweat and their faces were swollen, blood smeared. Taylor had a gash on her left eye while Serrano somehow managed to box through a fountain of blood pouring from the deep welt caused by Taylor’s head.","type":"text"},{"_id":"GMCC62Y4ZJHQ7PEZ5XKCGNWKCM","additional_properties":{"_id":1731742280830},"content":"The Irish woman was docked a point by the referee for headbutting and during a break in round nine, he was heard to warn her: “You better change something.” Going into the final two-minute round of 10, Taylor was told by trainer Ross Enamait to chase it. “You gotta hustle. Everything you got. We need this f***king round, you understand me. And you gotta get it.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"KFHDR52WNBCY5IGNZYHMDJ7Y24","additional_properties":{"_id":1731737120962},"content":"It is hard to know how deeply Taylor had burrowed into herself at this point. Although there were a few Tricolours scattered around the ground, she was on hostile terrain here and once the replays of Taylor’s head clash were replayed on the big screen, the boos rang around the AT&T Stadium. All through her extraordinary fighting life, Taylor has had a large cavalcade of devoted Irish fans. But this was a new frontier in every sense. She was entirely alone.","type":"text"},{"_id":"63Y7RBVDJBD33MILUQ2J2MJKC4","additional_properties":{"_id":1731737120963},"content":"This was a darker fight than the original meeting between Taylor and Serrano in Madison Square Garden four years ago. That night had an identifiable rhythm and plot line and revolved around Taylor’s depthless courage and conditioning which enabled her to climb out of a hole in round five. This contest became defined by increasing brutality and a kind of wildness that was redolent of the old days of boxing.","type":"text"},{"_id":"Y7IQPXQQQBDM7HTZXNXGLAGJVM","subtype":"twitter","type":"oembed_response"},{"_id":"64YY7GJMVRCCZHAT6G5Q6FTMQQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1731742280833},"content":"From the beginning, Serrano sought to attack and trap while Taylor was elusive and content to pick off shots until a slinging, flailing left hook from Serrano caught her flat-footed and a fleeting, stunned look crossed her face. They were evenly matched for the first half of the fight but after that grotesque cut opened up on Serrano’s face during the fourth-round collision – deepening with the choice jabs Taylor picked off as the fight wore on – both boxers punched and dragged and willed themselves to raise what is an exceptional rivalry on to a higher plane.","type":"text"},{"_id":"TK2ZHO5UMREJ5NPQ27DTNAIUT4","additional_properties":{"_id":1731737120964},"content":"It was difficult to watch and impossible to look away. There were several moments when Irish fans must have worried that this would be the night that Taylor finally met a hill she couldn’t summit. In the commentary box, Roy Jones Jr was moved to call the rivalry “the Ali-Frazier of female boxing” and that seemed about right. In round seven alone, they threw 170 punches at each other and 89 landed. And that wasn’t even the most memorable round of the fight. There were a few moments when the thought crossed our minds that this might be it for Taylor but even in the depths of exhaustion, the dazzling hand speed never failed her. The demand for a third encounter with Serrano will be deafening after this.","type":"text"},{"_id":"IDQX2YMNI5GQCQRS3AAMZYGC64","additional_properties":{"_id":"A2WOXAMWR5D7DF4LOY3PNBO5SQ"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"3TS75UH7SN377W3D46F6KNNOCY","additional_properties":{"_id":"2EP2WGVBYBC2DEMKYIX2QKIAEY"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"H6Y4PC5CQJHGLFVDAWMCDQAE7E","additional_properties":{"_id":1731737120965},"content":"And it wasn’t until the mega-hyped final bout of the night between Tyson and <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/jake-paul/\" target=\"_blank\">Jake Paul</a> started that the true, shocking brilliance of what they had just witnessed from Taylor and Serrano began to dawn on the crowd.","type":"text"},{"_id":"PRSUECDAC5GC5ADW6AS7KS63MA","additional_properties":{"_id":1731742280838},"content":"An old boxer, however magnetic his dark aura, against a non-boxer could never compare. They were unwilling – and perhaps unable – to seriously lay a glove on one another. It became a parody of an event, won unanimously by Paul on scores of 80-72, 79-73, 79-73, and by the last round, the booing started up again but this time it was because all they had been promised never materialised.","type":"text"},{"_id":"SBCP6DOAQBFT5CY23GO3CH4NOA","additional_properties":{"_id":1731742280839},"content":"Tyson-Paul was a non-event and it was shown up by following a match that stands as a shocking masterpiece. Boxing has been a male preserve for centuries but on a wild night in Texas, it was the women’s contest between Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano that took it to the rare place where only the greats reside.","type":"text"},{"_id":"UHY57VX7IJHN5KEBWW4UBDN2FA","subtype":"twitter","type":"oembed_response"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"metered"},"credits":{"by":[{"additional_properties":{"original":{"byline":"Keith Duggan"}},"name":"Keith Duggan"}]},"description":{"basic":"Irish boxer booed by crowd after head clash during controversial bout in Texas"},"display_date":"2024-11-16T06:31:50.177Z","headlines":{"basic":"Katie Taylor narrowly defeats Amanda Serrano in brutal contest","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"5469"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"5XUEVLO6FULTTWGJBL7IQAD3TY","auth":{"1":"39106d968de07683e8ce2e7c1770545833f64154ffe1496fe1891da0453256e2"},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/5XUEVLO6FULTTWGJBL7IQAD3TY.jpg"}},"subtype":"feature","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Sport"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/sport/boxing/2024/11/16/katie-taylor-narrowly-beats-amanda-serrano-in-a-contest-wreathed-in-greatness/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/sport/boxing","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Boxing"}}}},{"_id":"IG4THTDYQ5A25GIYYJOMMINPBA","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":377,"audio_url":"https://d22tbkdovk5ea2.cloudfront.net/audio/projects/8948/podcasts/9be09342-3c95-4b66-b5d8-dafd0d291ffe/versions/1731611334/media/4a49f6168cbcf999707194621c6638f4_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/sport/boxing/2024/11/14/katie-taylor-and-amanda-serrano-set-to-show-true-boxing-values-at-strange-big-money-event/","content_elements":[{"_id":"HVH72FK7KJEFNLT6G5ACZBNGJQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1731607757104},"content":"The official line from <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/katie-taylor/\" target=\"_blank\">Katie Taylor</a> and Amanda Serrano is that they are thrilled to costar in the Friday night fights in the Dallas Cowboys stadium. But the unspoken truth is that the next chapter of their old-school boxing rivalry, based on ferocity and respect, has legitimised the strange and voyeuristic contest between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul, the social media celebrity who concocted the entire affair.","type":"text"},{"_id":"2B6FRGDYXNHGLN3ZOJQ24MHGGY","additional_properties":{"_id":1731607757105},"content":"The November evenings are chilly in Dallas and Paul, not for the first time, may have wildly overestimated his personal appeal by booking the AT&T stadium, home to the Dallas Cowboys, for an outdoor event that was originally scheduled for July. The promoters are claiming that 70,000 people will truck it out to the big field in Arlington for an event that will be streamed live on Netflix. But tickets are still available as the hours count down and prices have fallen radically: $420 was the standard-seat cost last July. Now, tickets are going for under $70 and ringside seats are available at $1,475, down from the initial pricing of $40,000, according to World Boxing News.","type":"text"},{"_id":"PTCX6CUVTVFWLDAD2YVHLQPPEM","additional_properties":{"_id":1731607757106},"content":"The fear is that a diminished crowd and a cool evening will come nowhere near matching the unforgettable, frenzied atmosphere that Serrano and Taylor generated in Madison Square Garden in April 2022. Their breathtaking exhibition of skill and raw, unfiltered courage in their 12 rounds of two minutes had, by the end, everyone in the arena on their feet and the closing passage was special. Both women were still throwing wild, heavy punches in the closing seconds and opinion is still divided on who won that night.","type":"text"},{"_id":"MREQW6XCKJGQXJXPHWEMMWLLV4","additional_properties":{"_id":"WGLNRPHQG5E6LFFY33BRYQRY4Q"},"content":"Katie Taylor v Amanda Serrano: Irish fight time, how to watch on Netflix and ring walk times for Paul v Tyson","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"F65RAQCUIBHMXNGWG3SLF3LYAY","additional_properties":{"_id":1731609797140},"content":"Taylor edged it on the judge’s scorecard – 94-96; 97-93; 96-93 – and the Puerto Rican New Yorker has never disagreed with assertions that victory was hers that night in Manhattan. Taylor, who sat through the hyped-up press conference spectacle on Wednesday evening with barely concealed impatience, was typically diplomatic when that view was put to her.","type":"text"},{"_id":"XIWV4T3AIRF3JJDQEWFIEPJSM4","additional_properties":{"_id":1731607757107},"content":"“Well, I believe that I won the last fight clearly. I just have to go in there on Friday night and beat her again. This is an amazing opportunity that we both have and I just can’t wait to step in there and showcase what I can do again and get another win.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"EK2XPLNCJZAYXGCHO2ZIMITJW4","additional_properties":{"_id":1731607757108},"content":"If the Tyson-Paul clash is based on entirely manufactured enmity and hot words dripping in testosterone, Serrano (36) and Taylor (38), speak of each other in words that never stray from cautious respect. Much of that surely emanates from the long road both have travelled to this multimillion dollar pay date but is more significantly attributable to their decades-long pursuit of boxing excellence. Their New York fight smashed ceilings in terms of quality and the old-fashioned thrill factor and both have a sharp eye on the lasting meaning of their contribution to the evolving story of women’s boxing.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ISYPXHXBUZLGDNFQKQSNDGCH5U","additional_properties":{"_id":"2AQFE7LQO5CQRDIS35NEDB5YTM"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"QAA5DK2UNBBPHNEDI5JF2EULSM","additional_properties":{"_id":1731607757109},"content":"“The question is always there when you are trying to be a face of a sport. But I feel like I am not just the face,” Serrano, the unified world featherweight champion, said.","type":"text"},{"_id":"EKCR5FUBHVHFPACL2XEKX2U6GM","additional_properties":{"_id":1731607757110},"content":"“There’s a lot of us that come together, we made history together. And I just have to go out there and make sure I perform like I did last time. I am going to do what I do best and that’s come to fight. Definitely legacy is very important – to motivate and inspire these young girls, the new generation in this sport that you can do anything you put your mind to. If you believe in yourself and have a great team, you can go far. When I say how much I make, it is not bragging. It is to show these women we can make it, we are capable of breaking records and just drive for excellence and you will achieve it.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"GVJK7LTTMNHDVJICUIYKINSTTY","additional_properties":{"_id":1731607757111},"content":"Their New York fight can be reduced to the relentless punishment Serrano piled on to Taylor through the two minutes of the fifth round during which time slowed down. The Bray fighter was out on her feet, her nose bloodied and her eyes glassy as she stayed upright through pure instinct and guts. “Katie looks dazed,” yelled the fight commentator. “We’ve never seen her like this.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"DV6VK34HIZD63EIZ77MISUPCG4","additional_properties":{"_id":"7JNUVQ7OQJCG3JOGKTVOE2GGSI"},"content":"Who is Jake Paul? The story of the YouTuber who will take on Mike Tyson","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"6RKY2QQC7ZGFXIIGCDFO3VCH2Y","additional_properties":{"_id":1731607757112},"content":"It seemed inconceivable then that Taylor would recover but within two rounds, she had transformed the fight from a brawl into her preferred state of a purist’s boxing match, hitting and moving and never allowing Serrano to corner her again.","type":"text"},{"_id":"TDP65E34INFEHOPF3O2QRKRCZU","additional_properties":{"_id":1731607757113},"content":"“I think for every fighter we are always prepared for moments like that,” Taylor said on Wednesday.","type":"text"},{"_id":"I4S4B7AVQ26K473BIC3R7WBUXU","additional_properties":{"_id":"NUI37QTC7BAWRGTW4FOWXPDR6Q"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"WYSQ3IVXBFFJRGDQ5XKNI3RVGU","additional_properties":{"_id":1731607757114},"content":"“It’s why we train so hard. When you are in shape, you’re fit, you recover so well from those moments and I take a lot of reassurance and confidence from that because I took her bigger shots and I wasn’t moved. I won the second part of that fight and I take a lot of reassurance going in because of that.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"PJEKYRHN4FCSZF5R2HJFJ5KBCA","additional_properties":{"_id":1731607757115},"content":"The rematch, which is expected to start at 3am on Saturday morning Irish time, has been set at a catchweight 138 pounds rather than the 140-pound limit super lightweight class of two years ago. Taylor has had just three fights since her last meeting with Serrano, including a defeat against Chantelle Cameron in May of last year, before she won the rematch six months later. Serrano has won five fights in succession since she met Taylor, her most recent being a second round stoppage of Stevie Morgan in July.","type":"text"},{"_id":"7Q5ORE2GH5EZDFDXN2M747ZWXQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1731609797152},"content":"For Serrano, the return fight gives her a chance to atone for the decision of two years ago while Taylor is intent on confirming her reputation as the pound-for-pound best female fighter in the world with a victory that is more decisive in nature.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ZIV74EKHUFFO7OJZ3EXEPC3HEE","additional_properties":{"_id":1731607757116},"content":"“I’ve put my body through the trenches over these last few months,” Taylor said, an understated message containing volumes.","type":"text"},{"_id":"V5NXJABHO5DNDL7YDOKXQKTUOQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1731607757117},"content":"Whatever about the other main event, Texas might be in for at least one touchstone sports event on Friday night.","type":"text"},{"_id":"YCDY6C2IB5FUNMX3YVDX7FFP3I","additional_properties":{},"type":"list"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"premium"},"credits":{"by":[{"additional_properties":{"original":{"byline":"Keith Duggan"}},"name":"Keith Duggan"}]},"description":{"basic":"Mike Tyson and Jake Paul top the bill in a voyeuristic contest whose appeal may have been overestimated"},"display_date":"2024-11-15T12:22:10.954Z","headlines":{"basic":"Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano set to show true boxing values at strange big-money event","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"8948"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"CMTUDZU3EIFD3IQK3JKL2SJ4OM","auth":{"1":"2a25404f7478a8016a0eaa42605a64a8d922db32db1a9fd9e3c37084449f1d7b"},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/CMTUDZU3EIFD3IQK3JKL2SJ4OM.jpg"}},"subtype":"analysis","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Sport"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/sport/boxing/2024/11/14/katie-taylor-and-amanda-serrano-set-to-show-true-boxing-values-at-strange-big-money-event/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/sport/boxing","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Boxing"}}}},{"_id":"IVA5JUV3FJBCTPY7OWXHV5DJNQ","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":408,"audio_url":"https://d22tbkdovk5ea2.cloudfront.net/audio/projects/8948/podcasts/2d59d926-5648-4f15-b395-2592bd5b60be/versions/1731599262/media/365c9d1256e360c197f03328ca29473d_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/sport/boxing/2024/11/14/who-is-jake-paul-the-story-of-the-youtuber-who-will-take-on-mike-tyson/","content_elements":[{"_id":"JFIVIEGQ7VAZ5LDNF5FUVGBZ5U","additional_properties":{"_id":1731597100272},"content":"Jake Paul is having his hands wrapped in the locker room as his older brother, Logan, who also became rich and famous on YouTube, speaks earnestly to him. “You’ve expanded your mind, your circle, your emotional intelligence and your capabilities,” Logan tells Jake.","type":"text"},{"_id":"BSMWHDTFS5A4DD34YZZHJQD6SU","additional_properties":{"_id":1731598920542},"content":"“From making silly home videos to changing the entire landscape of combat sports. Everyone in this room knows just how powerful a being you are and that’s why we’re all here, including Netflix. One day, if I run for president, I’d be honoured to have you as my vice-president or maybe secretary of defence. You’ll be in charge of the red button. The all-powerful nuke that also happens to be at the end of your right hand.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"KU5H4ETNXRD6TN2BM76B2WNV7A","additional_properties":{"_id":1731598920543},"content":"At least Jake laughs softly when his brother mentions the absurdity of running for president on a gleaming new Netflix documentary. It leads the splurge of content which Netflix hopes will entice millions of viewers to watch Jake Paul’s embarrassing fight against the 58-year-old Mike Tyson on Friday night in Arlington.","type":"text"},{"_id":"KYIJFUDVPZFTJCVKSFZQYKU5GE","additional_properties":{"_id":1731598920544},"content":"In this sun-kissed corner of north Texas, a week after Donald Trump sealed his return to the White House, the hype intensifies. Jake and Logan, two brothers from Ohio aged 27 and 29, are ardent Trump supporters and, like their political hero, they peddle a constant stream of bulls**t in the knowledge that some of it will eventually stick.","type":"text"},{"_id":"A2F5KLLEMRAVVNMRHIXDQA3RXU","additional_properties":{"_id":1731598920545},"content":"Jake can be heard proclaiming that “I’m a professional boxer, knocking people the f**k out” and “I could become the next Muhammad Ali”. His big brother shrugs: “Of course he’s delusional. We all are. It’s why we are where we are – until it becomes a reality. That’s the beauty of Jake Paul.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"XM4R3WHVZNEG3EGTSKQY347YJA","additional_properties":{"_id":1731598920546},"content":"Delusions of grandeur can become a kind of grim truth. Maybe, with the world turned upside down, Logan Paul will become president one day. There is more chance of that happening than Jake becoming a great boxer. He has applied himself with some seriousness, and trains hard, but it is difficult to give any credence to Paul’s claims of boxing authenticity.","type":"text"},{"_id":"Q2DZQDXDTFGMBGTI2T2VYY6CIM","additional_properties":{"_id":"CUAAZSS6MVGAXEV7ZYALZ73FPU"},"content":"Mike Tyson’s glowering silence cuts through Netflix show noise","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"XR2IFWJVYFHUVE2LRJAP2AVGAU","additional_properties":{"_id":"PPXWLKSRMJGTTG6KP6YHBGADGU"},"content":"Dave Hannigan: Katie Taylor’s presence lends a modicum of dignity to sporting farrago","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"HKJNQMPPMNAW7A72YLVRYN2VRQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1731598920549},"content":"He has had 11 fights so far and only one of his opponents, Tommy Fury, was younger than him and a professional boxer. Paul lost that bout to an average scrapper whose boxing credentials rest on the fact that he is Tyson Fury’s younger brother. Tommy Fury is also famous for being a contestant on Love Island and, since beating Paul in February 2023, he has had only one further bout – against KSI, another YouTuber.","type":"text"},{"_id":"4YUEP4KY6JAR5IMW6YPAB4NWDM","additional_properties":{"_id":1731598920550},"content":"But there is a more meaningful story about Paul. In the Netflix documentary he alleges that his father was violent towards him. Greg Paul denies any wrongdoing but he also implies that his boys should be grateful that he was so tough on them. Logan agrees that Jake was traumatised by his childhood but, together, they began making YouTube videos as teenagers which soon drew in millions of subscribers.","type":"text"},{"_id":"2ZCWXVQYRJDOHJFJQ5ODEVAP5Y","additional_properties":{"_id":1731598920551},"content":"“We’re f**king media whores who make content on phones, edit it on iMovie, post it on the internet and get people talking,” Logan says. Jake, meanwhile, suggests: “When they made the word ‘influencer’ they were talking about us.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"RSSUCN4CWLABUSENYEYPKRM64M","additional_properties":{"_id":"ZTJBNZ64JBDCPNQKX7SEFE4S6Q"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"4Q5EENX5MJFNTIHK5KLTZ5CSDM","additional_properties":{"_id":1731598920553},"content":"At 18, Jake was rich enough to buy a house worth $7.4 million (€7 million) but trading on his infamy wore him down. His brother and father were concerned that Jake might take his own life but then, in August 2018, boxing apparently transformed him. The Pauls launched YouTube boxing when they flew to England and Logan drew with his British rival, the big-talking KSI. Jake and Deji Olatunji, KSI’s brother, fought on the undercard.","type":"text"},{"_id":"4PEUC7GQJFFIHBSZ6WXSDBUUFY","additional_properties":{"_id":1731598920554},"content":"Jake was being beaten up in front of a packed and baying Manchester Arena. He says: “I felt like I was dying … and I f**king loved it … some other element inside me took over.” He won the fight and, sick of making YouTube content and being hated, decided to become a professional fighter. “Boxing reinvigorated something inside me,” he said. “It made me feel alive again.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"HH7RCZRWMFF4LMGBLZLROTEYFQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1731598920555},"content":"Jake Paul seems sincere in appreciating the self-worth that boxing can instil and since then, while beating a series of former UFC fighters, he has built a 10-1 record which looks decent on paper and flimsy in a proper ring. But he is smart and grinned with delight when, having beaten the then 47-year-old MMA great Anderson Silva, he turned to the cameras to reveal that the pay-per-view buys had reached 1.3m at “$50 a pop”.","type":"text"},{"_id":"KA5KXP2TOJHAFH2Z3HJALWBNLE","additional_properties":{"_id":1731598920556},"content":"There are rumours that Paul could make $40m against Tyson, which is ridiculous money for a novice who has none of the talent or hard-won ringcraft of the world heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk. But rather than getting angry it’s best to move on with a little nod in acknowledgement of Paul’s business savvy.","type":"text"},{"_id":"7VHGHIWII5EDPNB7TSJWOKHSDY","additional_properties":{"_id":1731598920557},"content":"President Trump spews out racism and misogyny. At his recent election rally at Madison Square Garden, Trump was preceded on a stage by an aspiring joker who described Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage”.","type":"text"},{"_id":"HUNZV2C7TFDGHL3PILL6Y3B2VI","additional_properties":{"_id":1731598920558},"content":"Yet Paul loves living in Puerto Rico and he is also passionate about supporting women’s boxing. He promotes Amanda Serrano, a Puerto Rican woman born in New York, and her life has been transformed. She spent years earning peanuts and gaining little recognition, despite winning world titles at multiple weights. It is rumoured she will make around $8m on Friday night, with her great rival Katie Taylor earning a supposed $6m, as their rematch is the only fight which really matters on the Paul v Tyson card.","type":"text"},{"_id":"YAA2DTVZGJFVLDKVNHV6UDF26A","additional_properties":{"_id":1731598920559},"content":"Jake Paul might be a limited fighter trying to feel better about himself, while raking in obscene amounts of money, but he can feel proud of that. He won’t be the next Muhammad Ali and, hopefully, not the vice-president of the United States either, but he has created a legacy of lasting significance for women in boxing. We can cling to that truth as the circus grinds on in Texas this week. - Guardian","type":"text"},{"_id":"YCDY6C2IB5FUNMX3YVDX7FFP3I","additional_properties":{},"type":"list"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"metered"},"credits":{"by":[{"additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Donald McRae"}]},"description":{"basic":"Despite his absurd persona and obscene wealth, would-be boxer’s support of female fighters is worthy of note"},"display_date":"2024-11-14T15:37:32.57Z","headlines":{"basic":"Who is Jake Paul? 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Now, they go on forever.","type":"text"},{"_id":"F62KASEWXVGXJF73X4JUZ7MPII","additional_properties":{"_id":1731564364654},"content":"The Rolling Stones led the way of old old-stagers flying into their 80s like the attic portraits of themselves escaped and running amok, but still full of attitude and still able to transport their audience to the decades when their faces carried no lines of age. And still able to make music.","type":"text"},{"_id":"F2D6OQ3BTVFEFKCAN7QAFO2VYY","additional_properties":{"_id":1731564364655},"content":"Sport is a crueller form of expression. Years ago, playing a storming reunion gig at Electric Picnic, Andy McCloskey, the lead singer for Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, looked down on an ecstatic crowd after launching himself through another synth pop classic and uttered a blunt truth. “It doesn’t get any more f**ken dignified,” he said.","type":"text"},{"_id":"H3YE7NRSSBESNCJWBQZTAVHJK4","additional_properties":{"_id":1731564364656},"content":"It seemed, on the concrete fringes of Dallas on Wednesday night, as if <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/mike-tyson\" target=\"_blank\">‘Iron’ Mike Tyson</a> was reaching the same conclusion. He sat centre stage with the cast of boxers who will feature on Friday night’s streamed live show by <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/netflix/\" target=\"_blank\">Netflix</a>, which purports to be the future of boxing. And maybe it is.","type":"text"},{"_id":"TX526MDJOBF2JAUPBH6OGD6XRU","additional_properties":{"_id":1731576996164},"content":"Tyson will earn a reported 20 million dollars for his troubles. Not an eye-watering sum for a fighter who once bought the biggest house in Connecticut – 21 bedrooms, 25 bathrooms – just because, and later admitted he wasn’t sure he ever visited every room in the house. But not bad for 16 minutes (max eight rounds of two minutes) against a 27-year-old with a big attitude and bigger mouth. Jake Paul was forced to do all the talking for the pair in the hyped-up press conference because Mike, clad in dark denim, had reverted to impenetrable, monosyllabic silence.","type":"text"},{"_id":"WSHPNJPUSZEARDANVVEIKV2CUE","additional_properties":{"_id":1731564364657},"content":"“Is the old Mike back, is vintage Mike back?” asked the announcer Ariel Helwani excitedly.","type":"text"},{"_id":"NXVQOJAJOFHOPDTR6WLFU6RO74","additional_properties":{"_id":1731564364658},"content":"“You talkin’ to me?” Tyson asked.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ACIUYQFP2JC5HLOZ7APKYED7HA","additional_properties":{"_id":1731564364659},"content":"“I’m just happy to be here,” he said – and that was about as chatty as he got.","type":"text"},{"_id":"NBSOS2QNLFFPPLVUHV2HGTEELY","additional_properties":{"_id":1731576996168},"content":"When Bruce Carrington, the Brooklyn boxer thrilled to be on the same card as Tyson, offered an imitative reprise of a famous Tyson riff from back in the day, the older man sat in silence with no emotion.","type":"text"},{"_id":"XZFANTWQYZGS3MSU6NPNJORCMM","additional_properties":{"_id":1731564364660},"content":"“Well, it’s very eloquent” he said when asked for a reaction. “But that day, I was off my meds.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"THWUXVRPN77XJWTBWORLY5QQJQ","additional_properties":{"_id":"TR5T2DHHEFDN3PPWR26K5UGAM4"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"ZDBYKZ2GYFD5NIET32UM5AVZW4","additional_properties":{"_id":1731564364661},"content":"In such a relentlessly promoted environment, there was something piercing and uncomfortable about the line. Whether Tyson was hamming up the glowering, menacing figure of old for a new generation didn’t really matter. Throughout his life, Tyson has battled mental health issues and has spent the last two decades, in retirement, chronicling his worst fears and thoughts and self-loathing.","type":"text"},{"_id":"PGLAI2ME3NF47NGKRJS2OKRCPA","additional_properties":{"_id":1731564364662},"content":"“Yeah, it’s cute,” Jake Paul said of his opponent.","type":"text"},{"_id":"AZXOMH3EDNADTMOEB2HBCVMIMY","additional_properties":{"_id":1731564364663},"content":"“I fear no man, so I want him to be that old savage Mike. He says he’s going to kill me – is that what you are going to do Mike? Cos I’m ready, I want that killer. I want the hardest match possible Friday night and I want there to be no excuses from everyone at home when I knock him out. So, is that what you are gonna bring? Homicidal?","type":"text"},{"_id":"UU2YDE6XWFGI7IEHR6CRSGB4RA","additional_properties":{"_id":1731564364664},"content":"“I’m just ready,” Tyson replied in that whispery voice of his.","type":"text"},{"_id":"TQVABDLCMVAPZKPMG7LXZRFMX4","additional_properties":{"_id":1731564364665},"content":"There are several generations of fight fans for whom this spectacle is deeply dismaying. Paul is a s**t talker of the very first rank: he could chirp and chatter unpleasantries for hours. As a practitioner in pure commerce, he has managed to suck the old game of boxing out of its smoky, pinstripes-and-dames past and into Paul’s own world of “content” and “platforms” where everything is disposable. Still, he managed to stumble on the only relevant question of this bleak moment in sport when he asked Tyson: “So, is that what you are gonna bring?”","type":"text"},{"_id":"PWGFMK5NHFDWDABPPNULC7U55E","additional_properties":{"_id":1731564364666},"content":"Iron Mike, of course, ignored the question completely. It could be that he was just playing his part. And it could be that he simply doesn’t know the answer himself.","type":"text"},{"_id":"CSV6IN6FUBHZ7JFJ2ZPLVGRV7I","additional_properties":{"_id":1731564364667},"content":"Friday night’s live-stream fight card will feature a classic rematch in <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/katie-taylor\" target=\"_blank\">Katie Taylor</a> and Amanda Serrano.","type":"text"},{"_id":"BPLR5H4AEBBDFH6S3WYIYENALA","additional_properties":{"_id":1731576996178},"content":"The men’s main billing may have nothing to do with boxing but it has plenty to do with ageing. Almost 20 years have passed since Tyson ran out of all the old rage against Kevin McBride, a decent Monaghan man and an ordinary boxer, who met the legend on the right night in Washington. Tyson’s lightning right upper cut no longer carried the same lethal force. The stamina was gone. He was finished. And that was then.","type":"text"},{"_id":"SMGN5IDQBNBCJAX3SBXARJWRBA","additional_properties":{"_id":1731576996179},"content":"The price that Tyson may pay now for his lucrative pay cheque is the lasting ignominy of a defeat – and worse, a knock-out – against Paul, an opponent who doesn’t even qualify as a professional boxer.","type":"text"},{"_id":"RMIJZAMIRNBTFEN57ZGD74ELOQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1731564364668},"content":"“Just excitement,” big Jake said when asked what it is he feels he has to offer boxing.","type":"text"},{"_id":"VHO6KMTKH7CBYMHRMGUDJXQMDY","additional_properties":{"_id":"CHX2JUCP6RG63BSE4JLL6BD2IU"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"TSV2IN3SCRCRTLX6JW54YNIXSA","additional_properties":{"_id":1731564364669},"content":"“Big fights. Big knockouts. A lot of fighters go in there and they have boring-ass fights like Floyd Mayweather. I’ve brought a lot of excitement to the fights knocking people out on the biggest platforms possible, knocking out the biggest names and making match-ups that people want to see, crossover MMA fights, things like that. So, I am gonna continue to do the biggest fights and pay per views, the biggest streams across the board and people resonate with my content and promotional ability.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"LPXVIULOKJA3NBIIOQBO7CY6EY","additional_properties":{"_id":1731564364670},"content":"In other words, he can rifle through the faded treasure chest of 20th-century boxing and take whatever gem and costume he chooses to use in his ephemeral world of disposable clips, which millions around the world munch happily and quickly forget about.","type":"text"},{"_id":"CXPNQ3D3RJFI5KSBAQGI4JDULE","additional_properties":{"_id":1731564364671},"content":"And this is where Mike Tyson finds himself. Even in his younger days, when his edge and violence fascinated and appalled a more impressionable world, Tyson was quick to depict himself as a freak, as a nobody: as the John Merrick of his age. And he is such a smart and bleak observer of human behaviour that beneath his showtime glowering darkness in Dallas, it is possible that Tyson was absorbing the hollow fact that here he is again, back in that old place. Still the outsider, still the savage performer capable of drawing the diamonds-and-pearls-and-limos crowd. But 58 years old now.","type":"text"},{"_id":"PIS2YH75QVHRHGWCAV43YTLSGU","additional_properties":{"_id":1731564364672},"content":"And Paul’s instincts are right. Around the world, boozed and restless on a Friday night, millions will tune in to see what happens when you pluck a dark anti-hero from the old century of boxing and have him ‘fight’ against one of the original stars of online self-made personalities. Can Tyson shut him up, knock him out, make him scared?","type":"text"},{"_id":"FXSX2KMEYJGUXELPITSQ22VNNU","additional_properties":{"_id":1731564364673},"content":"Mike Tyson stared ahead and said nothing. In a mood like this, he has the eyes of a shark. Who knows what he was thinking.","type":"text"},{"_id":"YCDY6C2IB5FUNMX3YVDX7FFP3I","additional_properties":{},"type":"list"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"premium"},"credits":{"by":[{"additional_properties":{"original":{"byline":"Keith Duggan"}},"name":"Keith Duggan"}]},"description":{"basic":"Tyson is set to earn $20 million for fighting Jake Paul in live-streamed event that also features Katie Taylor-Amanda Serrano rematch"},"display_date":"2024-11-14T06:50:26.966Z","headlines":{"basic":"Mike Tyson’s glowering silence cuts through Netflix show noise ","native":"Keith Duggan: Mike Tyson’s massive payday for Jake Paul fight comes at a price"},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"8948"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"SHXLXBI5UJ7ZRCXDHMNPQOL2CA","auth":{"1":"ee4cd3d4720ceeaeb06c06b0e956364c0c814be6434fca5ccc3b31a48becb036"},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/SHXLXBI5UJ7ZRCXDHMNPQOL2CA.jpg"}},"subtype":"feature","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Sport"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/sport/boxing/2024/11/14/mike-tysons-glowering-silence-cuts-through-netflix-show-noise/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/sport/boxing","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Boxing"}}}},{"_id":"7OV7UKYEQBBRFHPQCL2SIUPVAQ","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":228,"audio_url":"https://d22tbkdovk5ea2.cloudfront.net/audio/projects/8948/podcasts/74740e84-d088-4cbe-a4a1-b1695702c1d6/versions/1731515783/media/677282d97cb6838dd7d480b2493b94cc_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/sport/boxing/2024/11/13/from-ali-v-inoki-to-mayweather-v-mcgregor-five-bizarre-boxing-bouts/","content_elements":[{"_id":"HWPHXNQ4CRGJVCGMKJTPUAJ2IU","additional_properties":{"_id":1731515059366},"content":"Floyd Mayweather v Conor McGregor","type":"header"},{"_id":"WEVSBH454FC3LPFMDFZB4MEQYY","additional_properties":{"_id":1731515059367},"content":"It’s August 2017 and the finest boxer of his generation, unbeaten in 49 paying fights in five weight classes, faces off against an opponent with no professional boxing experience but a big noise in mixed martial arts.","type":"text"},{"_id":"G4UINAXIYRFCJD4QO6FSL723CA","additional_properties":{"_id":1731515059368},"content":"Mayweather is lined up to pocket $100 million from the PT Barnum-style “superfight”, and announces his retirement from boxing straight after his 10th-round, 30-minute TKO victory.","type":"text"},{"_id":"5DWEN44VDZBERM5RKGVLBG5SJ4","additional_properties":{"_id":1731515059369},"content":"George Foreman v the Toronto five","type":"header"},{"_id":"SS2IHL3QHBHVFJFBBOZT3NATMY","additional_properties":{"_id":1731515059370},"content":"In 1975 the former heavyweight champion Foreman takes on five opponents on the same afternoon in bouts of three three-minute rounds each in Toronto.","type":"text"},{"_id":"2A74P3PFR5DVJFZFBSQDP3BRWM","additional_properties":{"_id":1731515059371},"content":"Muhammad Ali is ringside providing withering put-downs for the ABC television network six months on from their colossal “Rumble in the Jungle”.","type":"text"},{"_id":"BJ33OJJSJ5E4JOVBI5KJIEPCBI","additional_properties":{"_id":1731515059372},"content":"Foreman, who is attempting to rebuild his reputation, takes on respectable fighters in Alonzo Johnson, Pedro Agosto, Mac Foster, Terry Daniels and Boone Kirkman. To a background of booing, Foreman wins the lot.","type":"text"},{"_id":"2XHIZTIFMBDBDFH5F3G52E25A4","additional_properties":{"_id":1731515059373},"content":"“I’d put on a show. I’d fought five guys, and I’d made it through. 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But when the bell rings, we rumble. You’ve got some nerve. I’m not in shape to fight no Joe Frazier or Foreman, but I’m in shape for a football player.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"LB2ZRCMZJRCFVGKP2SVRRKW5AQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1731515059384},"content":"Amid all the blather, 15,000 turn up to watch, leaving 60,000 empty seats for a forgettable waltz around the ring that Ali struggles to take seriously.","type":"text"},{"_id":"B45NGFTETZAQTLQ6XVWVDTFLNU","additional_properties":{"_id":"LBGZMYQOLNEFXJT553J4BUNEEQ"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"SBP4NQFVT5F63NXUZ5CPAELYLM","additional_properties":{"_id":1731515059386},"content":"Shaquille O’Neal v Oscar De La Hoya","type":"header"},{"_id":"WGADUZAMMFA2PIZY3BJD2CS4OE","additional_properties":{"_id":1731515059387},"content":"The 2009 bout is part of a TV series called “Shaq Vs” where the basketball legend takes on other big sporting figures in the boxing ring. The fight takes place in Paradise, Nevada and consists of four two-minute rounds and a one-minute fifth round.","type":"text"},{"_id":"YCEKNXSHAFBGVCJKSOIPQNWVAY","additional_properties":{"_id":1731515059388},"content":"The undersized De La Hoya outboxes O’Neal and walks away with a unanimous decision, but the former LA Lakers great later says: “I held back ‘cause he was my friend.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"YCDY6C2IB5FUNMX3YVDX7FFP3I","additional_properties":{},"type":"list"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"metered"},"credits":{"by":[{"additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Andy Martin"}]},"description":{"basic":"Ahead of Mike Tyson’s controversial fight with the YouTuber Jake Paul, here are five other memorable oddities"},"display_date":"2024-11-13T16:31:10.29Z","headlines":{"basic":"From Ali v Inoki to Mayweather v McGregor: five bizarre boxing bouts","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"8948"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"QVA4FIW6HNGKFLVKKWPN7GN2ZY","auth":{"1":"2a90c4fe7f30cbda5c80686140a5f248fb00290e4b9349c976a03a4ed67c485f"},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/QVA4FIW6HNGKFLVKKWPN7GN2ZY.jpg"}},"subtype":"default","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Sport"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/sport/boxing/2024/11/13/from-ali-v-inoki-to-mayweather-v-mcgregor-five-bizarre-boxing-bouts/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/sport/boxing","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Boxing"}}}},{"_id":"XEWM3WCNFNDMBGG5PKRF7737ZU","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":330,"audio_url":"https://d22tbkdovk5ea2.cloudfront.net/audio/projects/5469/podcasts/5ad7b451-5e99-4dd7-b581-d28e1d25db5b/versions/1731428401/media/353e3a605caba812c47965017e4f2726_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/sport/boxing/2024/11/13/dave-hannigan-katie-taylors-presence-lends-a-modicum-of-dignity-to-sporting-farrago/","content_elements":[{"_id":"GQ7U3MG2MJD7RPV53UGBWATCAA","additional_properties":{"_id":1731414483109},"content":"Whindersoon Nunes is a 29-year-old Brazilian who has made a fortune as a streamer, comedian, actor and musician.","type":"text"},{"_id":"SSCCZ5FSC5H4VBYCQIFTSGLDSM","additional_properties":{"_id":1731427768856},"content":"His Wikipedia page also rather fancifully describes him as a professional boxer. A bit of a stretch. He lost his only paid four-rounder to My Mate Nate, another YouTuber prankster, by unanimous decision in Manchester last year. Evincing no real fistic talent, Nunes’s clash with Neeraj Goyat, an actual boxer, will take place a couple of fights before <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/katie-taylor/\" target=\"_blank\">Katie Taylor</a> squares off with Amanda Serrano at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas on Friday night.","type":"text"},{"_id":"NMXOO3KFYFC73EZMHVIMSXOT2M","additional_properties":{"_id":1731414483110},"content":"By dint of an Instagram following of 59 million, Nunes gets to make the same ring walk as a groundbreaker who fought in Ireland’s first sanctioned female bout at 15 and spent more than two decades shattering glass ceilings in her sport.","type":"text"},{"_id":"VGZ5NVHUVJF5DC5CDKY3YP3THQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1731427768858},"content":"To reach this impressive venue that will host 80,000 and a potential television audience of half a billion, Taylor honed her craft, put her body on the line, and battled prejudice while testing herself against some of the finest women’s fighters ever.","type":"text"},{"_id":"KMXTDHOEO5H57JUVUYHAT3F6UA","additional_properties":{"_id":1731427768859},"content":"Nunes got here by carving out a lucrative niche filming jolly japes like filling a square in Sao Paulo with fake statues and jumping in a coffin at a funeral.","type":"text"},{"_id":"C56XEZ52WRCHLHFC256E2GMHO4","additional_properties":{"_id":1731414483111},"content":"Not the first serious champion to end up having to participate in some grotesquerie to improve her bank balance, here’s hoping Taylor is taking home a reported $6.1 million purse. She’s earning every cent because her typically understated presence at this <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/netflix/\" target=\"_blank\">Netflix</a>-endorsed sporting farrago featuring <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/jake-paul/\" target=\"_blank\">Jake Paul</a> versus <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/mike-tyson/\" target=\"_blank\">Mike Tyson</a> lends it an air of dignity and credibility the promotion scarcely deserves.","type":"text"},{"_id":"5XTUEG7BWJBYJE52YCWYFU3HEU","additional_properties":{"_id":1731427768861},"content":"In what may well be her last fight, she is the warm-up act for a farce involving a professional irritant with a keen eye for turning a quick buck and a heavyweight great within touching distance of 60 who has not really mattered since 1990.","type":"text"},{"_id":"QSMBSPRQHBH6JNVIO72PLC6LDU","additional_properties":{"_id":"FYP4JZ22O5BVZGUK7LYOWQ6KHY"},"content":"Katie Taylor set for record payday on Tyson v Paul Netflix card that has baffled and dismayed many boxing insiders","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"WKMYTK653NCLFNM5Q5UJ7YYDZA","additional_properties":{"_id":1731414483112},"content":"Boxing has always been a fecund space for money men peddling freak shows to easily part fools from their money. This particular pantomime reeks of those 19th century carnival sideshows where ordinary Joes were invited to try to last a single round against some hard-up, senescent, one-time champ. Only the purses and the tent pole are bigger now, the big top drenched with the faux glitter of just-add-water celebrities. And still the rubes come.","type":"text"},{"_id":"AKD3CO5LYBDU3APZA3HUCZZA4Q","additional_properties":{"_id":1731414483113},"content":"“Jake Paul is an amazing businessman and it’s amazing what he’s done for the sport,” said Taylor, dutifully reciting the script upon arriving in Dallas last week.","type":"text"},{"_id":"7JS6D7QBHZAXHORSY2MVNC5RIM","additional_properties":{"_id":1731427768864},"content":"“He’s one of the biggest names in boxing. Myself and Amanda have this amazing opportunity as well. On Netflix, many people are going to see women’s boxing, maybe for the first time. I think the fight in Madison Square Garden was very historic and inspired a lot of young girls into the sport.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"3MWOMZJTOPTKLOFC3BWKRKRQZY","additional_properties":{"_id":"747P2KFDX5G5TOVQAYVCIUVS5A"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"33UY4LC7MRGJXJB6FSEBFL7LXQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1731414483114},"content":"Paul’s MVP promotional outfit are no doubt crowing that the Irishwoman’s rematch with Serrano is one of two women’s world title fights on the card as part of an evening they are billing rather ambitiously as “the most watched event in boxing history”.","type":"text"},{"_id":"EMO5XK2NWFHTRGHNVLS2LPHI2Q","additional_properties":{"_id":1731427768867},"content":"Certainly, Melinda Watpool and Shadasia Green doing battle for the vacant WBO super middleweight crown makes the whole affair seem quite progressive. Except it isn’t really. From Canada, Watpool is 35, took up boxing two years ago, and with seven wins from seven outings, is now, somehow, some way, on the cusp of becoming world champion.","type":"text"},{"_id":"JOZYSJ46OZEH7AQFPMFKQB6CJU","additional_properties":{"_id":1731414483115},"content":"Rising without trace, two of her victories came against opponents with one win to their name each, another was over a woman who has never won a fight. Before or since.","type":"text"},{"_id":"5RQLJDZWOVFTJAVDVAW7GPWMHA","additional_properties":{"_id":1731427768869},"content":"Watpool’s last bout in September was a trouncing of Natasha ‘The Nightmare’ Spence, a fighter who, belying her fearsome nickname, has not won a contest since 2016. Worse again, that was the second clash between the two women, 39-year-old Spence having previously lost to her compatriot just nine months before.","type":"text"},{"_id":"NNKWPF6GENHEZBOJ6PC3TJ3EIY","additional_properties":{"_id":1731414483116},"content":"Green can’t be considered a serious contender either. A scroll through her more substantive 14&1 pro ledger reveals her warm-up outing for this so-called world title fight was a victory over the unfortunate Spence back in July.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ENEAZHA7R5CQZJGBTLEQJWH7VU","additional_properties":{"_id":1731427768871},"content":"If this jokeshop contest shines a negative light on the distaff side of the sport, another undercard fight looks equally suspect. Mario Barrios puts his WBC world welterweight title on the line against Abel Ramos, the 61st ranked fighter in the division, somebody with no business vying for any belt. Quality matchmaking there.","type":"text"},{"_id":"SWABEYWP4NBGTI7JBISHBARDNU","additional_properties":{"_id":"IQFKRRKGM5FBHMJZKEP6D2DLMM"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"PI3UVWJ74JHQBA7G6R3F2TVIHM","additional_properties":{"_id":1731414483117},"content":"With plenty of scuttlebutt that Paul’s victory in the main event is predetermined in the contract, it’s almost like this is not a serious night of boxing at all. Just a sorry burlesque in which the rapist is supposed to be the good guy.","type":"text"},{"_id":"5JKNK5QJK5HUPEEBGIW73PF3XQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1731427768874},"content":"Over the past decade, Tyson’s 1992 conviction for attacking Desiree Washington seems to have conveniently slipped everybody’s mind. In a remarkable metamorphosis, he’s been reimagined by gullible media and fans alike as an almost cuddly, slightly comic grandpa figure. Witness Taylor gushing overmuch about him to journalists the other day.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ZZECBKJJUBBO7FGX66GOFUL5TI","additional_properties":{"_id":1731414483118},"content":"His history of sexual assault came back into focus this past week when it emerged another woman has refiled a lawsuit amending the date on which she alleges he raped her in 1990. Attempts by a reporter from USA Today to question Tyson about the case were quickly shut down because, presumably, Netflix didn’t want his horrific past intruding on what they are selling here. Whatever it is they are selling here.","type":"text"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"premium"},"credits":{"by":[{"additional_properties":{"original":{"byline":"Dave Hannigan"}},"name":"Dave Hannigan"}]},"description":{"basic":"Dubious bill in Texas topped by the clash of Jake Paul and Mike Tyson akin to one of those 19th century carnival sideshows"},"display_date":"2024-11-13T15:00:00Z","headlines":{"basic":"Dave Hannigan: Katie Taylor’s presence lends a modicum of dignity to sporting farrago ","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"5469"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"AKARPJEGYNB4PM5ZNQCQKK646A","auth":{"1":"837e4108669c0facae427ed72480c8e0cc8e616b425fe3493300d3303a904a1a"},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/AKARPJEGYNB4PM5ZNQCQKK646A.jpg"}},"subtype":"columnist","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Sport"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/sport/boxing/2024/11/13/dave-hannigan-katie-taylors-presence-lends-a-modicum-of-dignity-to-sporting-farrago/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/sport/boxing","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Boxing"}}}},{"_id":"P5FQEA52TZGWXA74JT3I6E2XAY","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":579,"audio_url":"https://d22tbkdovk5ea2.cloudfront.net/audio/projects/8948/podcasts/76342b7e-08b8-4ac7-bcd1-9f0a94d0795c/versions/1731516814/media/dbf61821c473069f9f836da433de04b6_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/sport/boxing/2024/11/13/katie-taylor-follows-path-of-pioneers-in-strange-boxing-alliance-with-mike-tyson/","content_elements":[{"_id":"2O2Y6XMTKVBYVPVJTPLVTOFFKQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1731477632496},"content":"What a place for <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/katie-taylor\" target=\"_blank\">Katie Taylor</a> to find herself: stepping into the ring immediately after <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/mike-tyson\" target=\"_blank\">Mike Tyson</a> for her open workout in a Dallas concert venue with a touch of the nightclub about it.","type":"text"},{"_id":"5E7ZYI4RRJCM5ETR46RZ7KZAKY","additional_properties":{"_id":1731480359056},"content":"The biggest payday of her life beckons and on Tuesday evening, she found herself torn between her two public guises: the cool professional face of women’s boxing and the fearless child of 20 years ago who chased what was, at that stage, an illusion.","type":"text"},{"_id":"ER4QPANJ55DYDJSO55BHMKW7CA","additional_properties":{"_id":1731477632497},"content":"“When I first started boxing as a nine- or 10-year-old I was the only female fighter I really knew of,” Taylor marvelled on Tuesday evening after going through the motions for the crowd. “And to go home now, every single gym in Ireland is full of female fighters and that to me is the absolute best.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"AXRQAQTJHVAHVJ4ZYW3BN3IURY","additional_properties":{"_id":1731477632498},"content":"Friday night’s <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/netflix/\" target=\"_blank\">Netflix</a>-sponsored event is a mad invention: proof that the streaming age reigns supreme. It showcases what will be a high-octane rematch between Taylor and Amanda Serrano, who served up the fight of the year in 2022 with their brutal, thrilling encounter in Madison Square Garden.","type":"text"},{"_id":"VDMZSIAOMJCKNCULRKAEDYMHAA","additional_properties":{"_id":1731480359059},"content":"But if that bout features two fighters at the top of their game, the main event, which pits the 58-year-old Tyson against the YouTube celebrity Jake Paul, has baffled and dismayed many boxing insiders.","type":"text"},{"_id":"O2OCQ2MK2VDPHKTEQBY7POV3QU","additional_properties":{"_id":1731480359060},"content":"As ever, Taylor has been diplomatic about the nature of the fight but is also unabashedly in awe of Tyson. In addition to starring on the same card as Tyson on Friday, she shares the volatile New Yorker’s love of boxing folklore.","type":"text"},{"_id":"YD3KMFK5K5BA5HYROPPBXP4YSY","additional_properties":{"_id":1731480359061},"content":"So, she was quick to take up the invitation to reflect upon a long-forgotten footnote in Tyson’s career during which he has burned through all of the excess and nihilism possible in the fight game and is now coming back for more, with the trademark tattoos and black trunks.","type":"text"},{"_id":"7UHV2VGCUBFZDMJTXPJR3OMNJM","additional_properties":{"_id":"BQNR7XNV4FAZ7MVNWOTWOXUIIU"},"content":"Dave Hannigan: Katie Taylor’s presence lends a modicum of dignity to sporting farrago","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"SAKKJKCHCI4DKSU6ZG7Z2E2D2U","additional_properties":{"_id":"AWCOYDYOXBEDXAJYNRTU37XXAU"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"SP7RLHZT6NE63F6RD43QW5VQWM","additional_properties":{"_id":1731480359062},"content":"In March 1996, when Tyson fought Frank Bruno in Las Vegas, Louth fighter Deirdre Gogarty met Christy Martin on the undercard. The fighters were paid a paltry sum. Taylor had not yet turned 10.","type":"text"},{"_id":"NFYAD3OIKZFLXDM3WKOXC3K3NY","additional_properties":{"_id":1731477632499},"content":"“Yeah they were pioneers of the sport and I don’t feel we would be in the position we are in today if it wasn’t for those women,” Taylor said.","type":"text"},{"_id":"KR6Y6MOB2NBOJBOOKNBFACTT7Q","additional_properties":{"_id":"4Q5ASSNY2JDBDJKZPEE3KZA6RM"},"content":"Katie Taylor v Amanda Serrano: TV details, fight time and all you need to know","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"NBO2DAJSUZD6LGAMWRDP6BWSSE","additional_properties":{"_id":1731477632500},"content":"“They were also on a Mike Tyson undercard and absolutely incredible ... I think they were getting booed going into the ring that day. But it was the fight of the night. On the way out they got a standing ovation. That was one of the biggest moments for women’s boxing for men, that moment alone.","type":"text"},{"_id":"7YJ4MKO6VRB7BCTEXTDUIXHPYE","additional_properties":{"_id":1731480359065},"content":"“I don’t think it gets talked about as often as it should, really. We talk about pressure. Those girls had pressure going into the ring that day and they came out as heroes. And I will be forever grateful for them because they are the reason we are here right now.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"HUHHQKIJVJHR7J5JDPSTU6XRD4","additional_properties":{"_id":1731477632501},"content":"Taylor will reportedly earn just over €6 million dollars from this fight. It’s a sum she could hardly have imagined when she turned professional after her tortuous exit at the Rio Olympics. Asked about what it was like to have her mother, Bridget, as her constant companion, Taylor started to respond.","type":"text"},{"_id":"S6QSLM4KAJBCDE72WRRYNISYEI","additional_properties":{"_id":1731477632502},"content":"“Well, it’s amazing,” she began. “She is my biggest support.” And then, distracted by whatever torrent of memories, Taylor was overcome and started to cry. We can only guess what the Taylor women have gone through to arrive at this moment in Dallas. The Serrano camp has claimed that their fighter’s purse will exceed even the Irish fighter’s: a far cry from the $1,200 Serrano says she earned for her debut back in 2009.","type":"text"},{"_id":"BAEX23QAYZEMLFPRBR4DMNGZ4Y","additional_properties":{"_id":1731480359068},"content":"The wild and all-but-inseparable New York duel between the two served to announce women’s professional fighting as an entertainment that can draw crowds and Taylor acknowledged that their individual boxing characteristics cause rare sparks to fly in the ring.","type":"text"},{"_id":"YA2QZLYHQZGYTOOXC6CVOXOXQE","additional_properties":{"_id":1731477632503},"content":"“Yeah that’s exactly what it is. You have to have a good dance partner. And myself and Amanda’s name will be embedded forever in the history of the sport. And we are doing it again on Friday night. Hopefully this one won’t be as close as the last one and hopefully it won’t be as exciting.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"2CNFDXP355FTFI5TP6LQNOERGE","additional_properties":{"_id":1731477632504},"content":"The Taylor-Serrano fight speaks for itself. What, then, are we to make of the co-main event – Mike Tyson versus Jake Paul – other than that as further evidence of a fallen world?","type":"text"},{"_id":"VMGQDKUOJFFBFEGMLIEMWENUF4","additional_properties":{"_id":1731480359071},"content":"The meeting of the 58-year-old former heavyweight champion and Paul, a 27-year-old boxing novice, has scandalised many in the world of boxing – which is not a world easily scandalised.","type":"text"},{"_id":"KM4FEWI36FDN5IGHVKUT6B6XH4","additional_properties":{"_id":1731480359072},"content":"There is the complaint that the match brings the noble art into disrepute. There is also the danger to the combatants: you can find plenty arguing that it is wrong to allow a man of Tyson’s years back into the ring – and that it is equally wrong to allow a callow amateur into the ring with the most destructive boxing force of the colour-television era. There is, finally, the unspoken possibility that neither man is currently capable of doing any damage and will thus bore the worldwide Netflix audience to death.","type":"text"},{"_id":"COVJDZQC2RE3XDG35MYQ6YUNNI","additional_properties":{"_id":1731477632505},"content":"Paul is a Clevelander who, 10 years ago, found himself a pioneer of YouTube content celebrity by posting personal videos, promptly made himself a millionaire many times over and now finds himself destined to wander through the hinterland of American success as restless as the fictional Tom Buchanan, “forever seeking, a little wistfully, for the dramatic turbulence of some irrecoverable football game”.","type":"text"},{"_id":"QAOUO5SLWJBAVODD4MNYI3OX7Y","additional_properties":{"_id":1731477632506},"content":"Or in this case seeking, a little violently, the ghost of the most feared boxer of the television age. In the three-part Netflix advertorial, Paul comes across as amicable with an inexplicable surfeit of confidence and is given to outbursts of mind-numbing earnestness. Which is a tough station when your dramatic lead is Tyson, who will never tire at looking back at his stunning emergence from the ghetto of 1980s Brownsville in astonishment.","type":"text"},{"_id":"4EIWRMXE3BAZRJI5WPXJ6UXQ74","additional_properties":{"_id":"2QGXZXZUJVESNKJEZ5CGEM5CDY"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"AYNNNCJ3HRGVJB5U4YUCO7XNBA","additional_properties":{"_id":1731480359075},"content":"There is a genuinely poignant moment in the documentary when the crew has Tyson return to his childhood apartment, which in his eyes remains a rat-infested nightmare. In tandem with the city, it has become modernised and gentrified. But part of Tyson remains locked into that period of vicious New York and to the ferocious animalistic fighter who thrilled and appalled boxing afficionados of the mid-1980s.","type":"text"},{"_id":"TRLYACIL6RHSZHGWOJBJHHHLZ4","additional_properties":{"_id":1731480359076},"content":"“People are branding this as potentially the biggest fight ever,” Paul, who rose to online fame along with his brother, tells Tyson at some stage.","type":"text"},{"_id":"CQOYQEIHQZETJJ2GTPMSY6FWSU","additional_properties":{"_id":1731477632507},"content":"“Stop,” Tyson says lispily. “The”.","type":"text"},{"_id":"IBBSATZBANBJ5GDPIQZXCVNN6I","additional_properties":{"_id":1731477632508},"content":"“The biggest fight ever.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"2AVUG24ATVD5NF3OZPTFXSBDF4","additional_properties":{"_id":1731477632509},"content":"Tyson is one of the most dedicated boxing historians out there. He knows this is nonsense. And those of us who were in the Capitol arena in downtown Washington on a May night back in 2005, when Tyson’s wild and wildly uneven career ended as he remained on his stool when the bell sounded for the eighth round of his fight against Clones man Kevin McBride, could not have believed then we would see Tyson in gloves again. Iron Mike was spent, hollowed out that night. He looked the same but the kryptonite was gone. McBride was ecstatic and the occasion was graced by one of the final public appearances of Muhammad Ali, there to see his daughter Laila fight on the undercard.","type":"text"},{"_id":"YMNNQBOG3ZHG3MLYOVWEURWTCM","additional_properties":{"_id":1731477632510},"content":"Now, when he took to the ring in the Music Factory, a determinedly soulless venue in concrete-and-highway heartland between Fort Worth and Dallas, Iron Mike still looked the part. There is something of the timeless comic-book anti-hero about Tyson in silhouette: the broad frame, the chiselled skull and the classic stance when he slips into his dark, skulking version of the orthodox stance.","type":"text"},{"_id":"4OMLT7PB75EPRD6PYWNCRZI5QQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1731480359081},"content":"Paul, at 6ft 1in, is athletic in a cumbersome sort of way and has come through a series of respectable exhibition fights and is the right age. But there is no question that if he met Tyson in his prime he may have lost his life. The mystery over how much – if any – of that animal coldness Tyson still possesses is what lends this odd exhibition the necessary allure of danger.","type":"text"},{"_id":"EBTAQVEI3JBFTFYULZ6M7XNR54","additional_properties":{"_id":1731477632511},"content":"To many, it is a dismaying spectacle. But boxing has a reputation for killing its darlings. It doesn’t do to become too sniffy. Boxing left poor Joe Louis to live out his twilight as a Vegas greeter, left the beloved Ali a diminished figure and ushered Tyson’s personal hero, Sonny Liston, out of the world as soon as he was done in the ring.","type":"text"},{"_id":"DVZBZ4OJLNFQTDXPM2K2XI5GDM","additional_properties":{"_id":1731480359083},"content":"Tyson was hardly out of his teens when forecasts of his inevitable path towards self-destruction were made, most frequently by himself. But here he is in a strange boxing alliance with Ireland’s most famous sportswoman and in for a multimillion dollar payday as he approaches the age of 60. Many old champions would have jumped at the chance.","type":"text"},{"_id":"JE3XAE3RF5E3LELXPC7VXE4UYU","additional_properties":{"_id":1731477632512},"content":"The venue was becoming quiet when Tyson was asked, theatrically, if he would be bringing the familiar darkness with him into the ring on Friday night. “Better again,” he answered, the voice turning suddenly icy.","type":"text"},{"_id":"GDRKRBX7T5ACDHSFTRC7LPLPLM","additional_properties":{"_id":1731477632513},"content":"“I’m gonna bring the devil himself.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"YCDY6C2IB5FUNMX3YVDX7FFP3I","additional_properties":{},"type":"list"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"metered"},"credits":{"by":[{"additional_properties":{"original":{"byline":"Keith Duggan"}},"name":"Keith Duggan"}]},"description":{"basic":"Irish fighter’s biggest payday beckons as she fights Serrano on the undercard of the Netflix-sponsored Tyson-Jake Paul fight"},"display_date":"2024-11-13T07:00:00Z","headlines":{"basic":"Katie Taylor set for record $6m payday on Tyson v Paul Netflix card that has baffled and dismayed many boxing insiders ","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"8948"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"7XF7LNRV65UO47CV77U7JDLERM","auth":{"1":"d9681aecd23f2341335d8e6cc7fa6b6d61f20ab9c24b13825483eb5aac5817e7"},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/7XF7LNRV65UO47CV77U7JDLERM.jpg"}},"subtype":"default","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Sport"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/sport/boxing/2024/11/13/katie-taylor-follows-path-of-pioneers-in-strange-boxing-alliance-with-mike-tyson/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/sport/boxing","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Boxing"}}}},{"_id":"W5IUAMUUWVHGRILFHBWVSL3C7M","additional_properties":{"audio_duration":503,"audio_url":"https://d22tbkdovk5ea2.cloudfront.net/audio/projects/8948/podcasts/045f00c2-984c-4a7e-b51e-e716a16acdf9/versions/1731446450/media/6dfa44604c680a698225f1a478a7191d_compiled.mp3"},"canonical_url":"/sport/boxing/2024/11/12/katie-taylor-if-youre-a-boxing-person-it-really-matters-mike-tyson-does-well-against-jake-paul/","content_elements":[{"_id":"YSA5BBLNVRBLJEMLCQ3PPFHPLA","additional_properties":{"_id":1731430488991},"content":"When <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/katie-taylor/\" target=\"_blank\">Katie Taylor</a> and Amanda Serrano were locked in battle during the last round of their first <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/boxing/\" target=\"_blank\">fight</a> at <a href=\"https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/other-sports/taylor-stands-tallest-on-a-magical-night-at-the-garden-1.4866855\" target=\"_blank\">Madison Square Garden in April 2022</a>, I could not help myself. Alongside an entire row of ringside reporters, I stood up to watch the final minute of a riveting contest. ","type":"text"},{"_id":"24BSB3JMXNCLPGYJPZJSHO65VU","additional_properties":{},"content":"Suddenly oblivious to the march of our urgent deadlines and the etiquette of remaining above such raw human emotion, we were swept away by the courage and determination of both women in one of the greatest fights ever staged at the Garden.","type":"text"},{"_id":"BGNZSJE3BZHUBPKU4WOK3EWQDM","additional_properties":{"_id":1731430488992},"content":"“It was only afterwards, when you’re looking back and hearing people’s reactions that you think: ‘Gosh, that was a huge moment for women in boxing’,” Taylor says now. “You’re hearing stories of young girls being inspired by that night and how people are calling it historic. It’s then that you just say: ‘Wow, that was an amazing night.’”","type":"text"},{"_id":"BHR3FEVJEZBNJI46MHBLG7PNA4","additional_properties":{"_id":1731430488993},"content":"It seems bizarre that their long-awaited rematch should now take place on Friday night as the main support to a circus stunt in Arlington, Texas, which sees a 58-year-old Mike Tyson fight Jake Paul, the 27-year-old YouTube influencer who is trying to become a boxer. ","type":"text"},{"_id":"MXURCBIV6VFWNFWIV4TEOIFHXM","additional_properties":{},"content":"Tyson last fought professionally more than 19 years ago, when he was beaten up and stopped by Kevin McBride, an Irish journeyman, and his lifestyle since then has been typically wayward, marked by continued drink and drug problems. The scrap between Tyson and Paul would be laughable if it did not carry a serious risk.","type":"text"},{"_id":"J3CE5IJVIZBSPII7GECXD7IWRI","additional_properties":{"_id":"FS2I3PC7RVA7VGSGF36M6WS43U"},"content":"Katie Taylor v Amanda Serrano: TV details, fight time and all you need to know","type":"interstitial_link"},{"_id":"OZZ5AUZBBBBNBO4ODGTLJ3PPKY","additional_properties":{"_id":1731430488994},"content":"In stark contrast, the first fight between Taylor and Serrano captured all that is best about boxing – and the rematch is full of intrigue. Taylor lost her long unbeaten record in May 2023, when she moved up in weight and Chantelle Cameron won a majority decision against her in Dublin. ","type":"text"},{"_id":"LJGQKH4SVFDMZJKVKZNIU6K3CA","additional_properties":{},"content":"It was suggested then that Taylor, who is now 38, should retire after her long and glorious amateur and professional career. Taylor was quietly indignant and, a year ago, she became the undisputed world super-lightweight champion when she outpointed Cameron in the rematch.","type":"text"},{"_id":"2LPLXMY7LNEKPJK33EQ3OCDBJM","additional_properties":{"_id":"FFP4AVRE7RA3TA42HKL2C4BGH4"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"6J3K6D7W4NCWBFXQLKJP6W5MZU","additional_properties":{"_id":1731430488995},"content":"She and Serrano were due to meet in Texas this July but the entire promotion had to be postponed after Tyson fell ill because of a flare-up of his stomach ulcer. It was another sign that Tyson-Paul should be scrapped but, with hundreds of millions of dollars being generated on Netflix, the entire show was rescheduled for this week.","type":"text"},{"_id":"E2VIZ3XHPRGDRBRVGHWGUJT7ZA","additional_properties":{"_id":1731430488996},"content":"Taylor generally avoids interviews but it helps that we have spoken often over the years. She is typically friendly and polite and in a positive mood. She, understandably, has also chosen to be a diplomat while focusing on the undoubted chance for her and Serrano to display their grit and skill to a completely new audience. ","type":"text"},{"_id":"AY4FPRGMJZATPEIA7VSQ4SPSS4","additional_properties":{},"content":"“It’s an amazing opportunity because millions of people will be tuning into this fight,” Taylor says. “I think people are going to see women’s boxing at its very best.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"654IIE5H7ZAPXAMBK7ATJNKJNA","additional_properties":{"_id":1731430488997},"content":"Taylor listens to my misgivings about the night at the AT&T Stadium, the home of the Dallas Cowboys, and the fact that Tyson should not be allowed back in the ring for a competitive fight. ","type":"text"},{"_id":"EC5LR242LJAP7BKONLN3TLPAEM","additional_properties":{},"content":"“I have those same concerns,” she admits, “but he did look very good against Roy Jones [in a drawn eight-round exhibition in November 2020]. He hasn’t lived the cleanest life since then but I think over the last few years he’s cleaned himself up. We’re hoping that shows through on the night, but he obviously has amazing experience and nothing is going to faze Mike Tyson.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"E7K76P2FZVD4BIHBIPBHQK6Z7I","additional_properties":{"_id":1731430488998},"content":"Taylor is an ambassador for the old-school boxing company, Everlast, which has been making fight clothing and equipment since 1910, and aligns herself firmly with traditionalists of the ring. Taylor clearly loves the sport with an enduring fervour and sounds hopeful when I ask if Tyson could beat his much younger rival. “I’ve seen clips of him training recently and he looks very good on the pads. But Jake is a fit man, a young man and a good athlete as well. He seems to have an OK punch and he’s starting to prove himself as a fighter. It’s very interesting.","type":"text"},{"_id":"JB3MXGINMBDKTGPAMMHGBLFEKY","additional_properties":{"_id":1731430488999},"content":"“I think if you’re a boxing person, it really matters that he does well and hopefully wins because Mike Tyson is an absolute legend in sport. He was once known as the baddest man on the planet. He’s super exciting to watch. I have so much respect for what he did in the sport and I’d hate for a legend like him to lose a matchup like this. He’s a hero to many of us fighters.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"3MWOMZJTOPTKLOFC3BWKRKRQZY","additional_properties":{"_id":"F5RFN5F2NJB4BBBAYMYAXQ2H5M"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"MX7MI6V2ZFCKXJRRZTOF5V4DPM","additional_properties":{"_id":1731430489000},"content":"Taylor and Tyson are seen as the away fighters on the bill as Serrano is promoted by Paul – whose company is staging the event in conjunction with Netflix. Their kinship has been strengthened by a long exchange they had before the first press conference back in May. “We had a great conversation and his knowledge of the sport is second to none. He’s a great boxing historian so having a chance to sit down and speak to someone who is so knowledgeable, and has a great mindset, was pretty special for me.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"C4MQS5PVEZFNFFTN5D5EGQZWIY","additional_properties":{"_id":1731430489001},"content":"She hates talk of retiring but Taylor laughs when I ask if she could imagine doing something similar when she is 58? “No! Once I do retire from the sport that will be it. I’ve been punched enough over the last 20 years.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"KYCLUN5RPVGKBCHI2XROVOTOOE","additional_properties":{"_id":1731430489002},"content":"Some of us hope that Taylor will soon choose life on the safe side of the ropes. But she talks seriously, and passionately, about her desire to keep fighting for a few more years. She wants “a very special” decider in a trilogy with Cameron and, she says, “there definitely are other people I’d love to fight. Alycia Baumgardner and Caroline Dubois are both fantastic fighters as well.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"ZE6DTSERKVAT5A5N6HR6EFSQFQ","additional_properties":{"_id":1731430489003},"content":"Yet she now faces an extraordinarily difficult night against Serrano. Is she ready to go back into that dark and painful place where she was on that brutal night of their first fight? “I am very aware that I could go back into that place,” Taylor says. “That’s why I train so hard. I’m in dark places throughout training camp, and the male and female sparring partners that I’ve had over with me these last few weeks have been phenomenal.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"PSXBIYD74DRRYTEF6LEJVXV7FE","additional_properties":{"_id":"CYYVI7V4WZCTNIVYP2KAKQ776Y"},"type":"image"},{"_id":"KUA2YYWLYBBGJM5HWLHDM4D4TA","additional_properties":{"_id":1731430489004},"content":"Midway through the first fight, Taylor was in such trouble that it looked as if Serrano was about to stop her. “Afterwards people were talking about the fifth round and I was like: ‘What happened?’” Taylor says with a complicated smile. “I was lost in the fight and, really, I’m just there to throw punches. But at the end of that fifth round, I was throwing punches back at her. My head soon cleared and I won the second half of the fight.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"W7TANHLNCJGXBMAQP4VS3LX6H4","additional_properties":{"_id":1731430489005},"content":"Taylor loves to fight in the trenches but she has the skill to outbox Serrano if she follows a more tactical approach. “I just have to be more disciplined in doing it and that’s something that I’m trying to focus on.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"HAUNEWTB5ZCQPBOP74CBTFHYDU","additional_properties":{"_id":1731430489006},"content":"She grins wryly but then shakes her head when I ask if she is concerned how the fight may be judged as this is a Jake Paul promotion in Texas. “That’s not something I ever think of,” she says. “My job is to fight and you hope and pray that the judging is very fair.”","type":"text"},{"_id":"S6TVYX5QRJHV7OVK4NUX3IAC7E","additional_properties":{"_id":1731430489007},"content":"There is a purity about Taylor’s love of boxing and she approaches the fight game very differently to most. It’s striking that she and Brian Peters, who has managed Taylor since she turned professional in 2016, have never signed a contract to cement their working relationship. They prefer to rely on their mutual trust.","type":"text"},{"_id":"FBZUB3S57RGGNFV4ZUFVKCDVIA","additional_properties":{"_id":1731430489008},"content":"So it is easy for Taylor, who is deeply religious, to rise above the charade of Tyson against Paul and revel in the gravitas of her own fight. “I think our styles mix very well,” she says of Serrano. “Both our mentalities are that we’re going to do whatever it takes to win the fight so it’s going to be another explosive night. I’m just excited to go in there and perform because I think my best will beat Serrano’s.” – Guardian","type":"text"},{"_id":"YCDY6C2IB5FUNMX3YVDX7FFP3I","additional_properties":{},"type":"list"}],"content_restrictions":{"content_code":"metered"},"credits":{"by":[{"additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Donald McRae"}]},"description":{"basic":"World super lightweight champion faces Amanda Serrano in Texas on Friday night"},"display_date":"2024-11-12T21:15:44.053Z","headlines":{"basic":"Katie Taylor: ‘If you’re a boxing person it really matters Mike Tyson does well against Jake Paul’","native":""},"label":{"audio_project_id":{"text":"8948"}},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"AZ3ANUOB6JGBBOXLYWGY4YDYDA","auth":{"1":"ff98f6448f11face33048c8cfbe9cd46b01ccb460d14bef2d580f54f62f73461"},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/AZ3ANUOB6JGBBOXLYWGY4YDYDA.jpg"}},"subtype":"default","taxonomy":{"sections":[{"name":"Boxing"},{"name":"Sport"}]},"type":"story","website_url":"/sport/boxing/2024/11/12/katie-taylor-if-youre-a-boxing-person-it-really-matters-mike-tyson-does-well-against-jake-paul/","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/sport/boxing","additional_properties":{"original":{}},"name":"Boxing"}}}}],"count":383,"_id":"59e81cf07e1f17b4ec47c7621bf3d6253a5e6382c166816071a813fdb87be567"},"expires":1742870088932,"lastModified":1742869788510},"{\"excludeSections\":\"\",\"feature\":\"results-list\",\"feedOffset\":15,\"feedSize\":40,\"includeSections\":\"/sport/boxing\"}":{"data":{"content_elements":[{"_id":"6TF6SHX6HBBRTPWZHYCADLD5B4","credits":{"by":[]},"description":{"basic":"‘I never feel like you should lay a hand on a fighter at a press conference, especially not with an object’"},"display_date":"2025-02-26T13:21:19.655Z","headlines":{"basic":"Eddie Hearn warns ‘boxing has changed’ after Eubank hits Benn with egg at face-off"},"label":{},"owner":{"sponsored":false},"promo_items":{"basic":{"_id":"W5AV66BX3DFZ6HC27UT45HJKBA","auth":{"1":"a22aa6b9b64d86ff8c117fa104c65da6e620da9d1768f7973bf4c90c241b0060"},"type":"image","url":"https://cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/W5AV66BX3DFZ6HC27UT45HJKBA.jpg"}},"type":"story","websites":{"irishtimes":{"website_section":{"_id":"/sport/boxing","name":"Boxing"},"website_url":"/sport/boxing/2025/02/26/eddie-hearn-warns-boxing-has-changed-after-eubank-hits-benn-with-egg-at-face-off/"}}},{"_id":"AQKPTBQWINABPAKTDUUYK7CLW4","credits":{"by":[{"_id":"johnny-watterson","additional_properties":{"original":{"byline":"Johnny Watterson"}},"name":"Johnny Watterson","type":"author","url":"/author/johnny-watterson/"}]},"description":{"basic":"While estimates vary, as many as 500 boxers have died since the sport was formalised in 1884"},"display_date":"2025-02-14T06:00:00Z","headlines":{"basic":"John Cooney’s death won’t change boxing. 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