Tales from the Ring

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

He is now about to have a rematch with Gerard Hughes on a big stage at the SSE Arena in August after their controversial draw last year. He talks about his mindset going into this rematch and his ambitions for the future. Ruadhan is a young man that speaks from the heart and is someone who clearly believes in himself.

Mick Kelleher is a former 4 x Irish amateur champion from

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

including the World Senior championships in 1989.

Mick is a real boxing historian and talks a little about

the history of boxing in Cork and the recent boxing museum that opened which celebrates the greats from the county. Mick in recent years has played a massive part in the Cork Ex Boxers Association and has started numerous social media pages to share boxing around the country. He is someone who has a great passion for the sport and continues to play a big part in Irish boxing to this very day.

boxing in May. We focus on the recent heavyweight undisputed contest between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk. Will we agree on who we thought won the fight and who do we fancy for the rematch? We also look back at the amazing performance from Anthony Cacace to rip the IBF World title from Joe Cordina. The much anticipated rematch between Josh Tyalor and Jack Catterall did not disappoint also. We also chat about some of the recent performances of Lomachenko, Canelo

and Inoue. Finally, we look ahead to some of the big shows and contests coming up in Irish boxing including Lewis Crocker, Conor Quinn, Feargal McCrory, Pierce O’Leary and Owen O’Neill.

Padraig McCrory grew up in St. James' in West Belfast. After starting boxing around 15 years of age, he would have success winning various Antrim and Ulster titles before taking a gap in his 20's of 4 years. After deciding one Christmas to give boxing another go at the upcoming Ulster Senior championships, he would go on to win that title a month later. After missing out on the Commonwealth Games later that year, he would decide at 28 years of age to go professional.

Padraig took to the pro game like a duck to water and would soon go undefeated in 8 fights. He would then win the BUI Celtic title, defeating Steve Collins Jr before adding the WBC International title in 2021. Padraig was then given the unexpected opportunity to move up in weight and challenge undefeated Leon Bunn in Frankfurt, Germany for the IBO world Light-Heavyweight title in late 2022. Padraig would give a career best performance to stop Bunn in 6 one sided rounds. Massive celebrations took place back home on his arrival when he arrived home to St. James' with the belt.

Padraig then decided to move back down in weight to his more natural Super-Middleweight and remain unbeaten before taking a big step up in February this year when facing Edgar Berlanga in Florida, USA. Padraig battled bravely but came up short against the very talented Berlanga. He talks about coming to terms with the disappointment of this defeat. Padraig talks about his plans for the future both inside and outside of the ring. Could a comeback be on the cards? He has also recently started to manager boxers under "Hammer boxing" and he hopes to pass on his own experiences to look after these fighters in the future.

Owen O’Neill is currently undefeated in 13 professional contests. He had a relatively short amateur career contesting 18 fights in total. Owen talks about the highs of his short amateur career, representing Antrim in various countries and the lows of losing close finals and failing to win an amateur title. He turned professional in 2019 under the radar and soon racked up early wins in front of his big fan base. He would then win his first boxing title in 2022 after a fight of the year contender and knockout of the year against Owen Duffy to claim the BUI Celtic title. Since then he has continued to win, but has had difficult times outside of the ring. Owen talks about losing his beloved Granny last year and how this loss impacted him when missing weight for his Irish title fight against Declan Geraghty. After this disappointment, he is now rebuilding under new trainer, Dan Anderson and manager, Padraig McCrory. The North Belfast man also talks about his love for Cliftonville football club as well as stories about sparring Chris Eubank Jr and much more.

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

Brandon McCarthy is a Kilkenny boxer that had a fantastic amateur career. He won an amazing 16 Irish national titles from Boy 1 all the way to Elite level. He also represented Ireland at multiple European and World championships and won a silver medal at the European schoolboy championships in Russia. His aim was to reach this years Olympic Games in Paris, but an eye injury ended this dream. He has now moved across to the professional scene and has won his first pro contest back in March. He is wanting to stay very active and move into title contention soon. Something tells me the future is very bright for Brandon.

Resident guest, Paul Quinn and I chat about some of the big boxing stories from April. We discuss the recent Ryan Garcia v Devin Haney fight as well as the outrageuos Sean McComb points defeat on the same bill. We recap the amazing contest between Fabio Wardley and Frazer Clarke. Finally, we preview some massive fights coming up including Taylor v Serrano, Fury v Usyk, Bivol v Beterbiev and the Matchroom v Queensbury 5 v 5.

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