MARTIN Quinn took up boxing when he got out of prison a few years ago. He was 28 then and he’s been round a few corners since.
You get what you see with the unfiltered 3-2 Dublin welterweight who goes head-to-head with Belfast’s Owen O’Neill in an all-Ireland battle at the Europa Hotel on September 24 (live on TG4).
Quinn has gone into fights having barely trained and he’s been hungover or even tipsy in the past but he says he’s been clean for 10 weeks now and is fitter than ever before.
Working with Pete Taylor these days, he is confident that he’ll beat home boy O’Neill next month.
“I’m 35 now and I only start boxing when I was 28,” he explains in a thick Dublin accent.
“I got out of prison and they asked me to fight on a semi-pro show in England…”
So what was he in prison for?
He laughs: “Ah, just a few stupid things – drinking and that sort of thing. I’m from the flats – Chambers Street in Dublin, the city centre, and I used to get into a lot of trouble. I used to love cars and bikes and fighting and what have ye…
“Anyway, we’re here to talk about boxing!”
His street-fighting skills led to his “sister’s fella’s brother” asking him to fight on a semi-pro card in Birmingham seven years ago. He went over to the English midlands and knocked out his opponent and things started from there.
“I put the boy down and then went back to the corner as you do and I remember the fella saying to me: ‘When he gets up just run at him and start hitting him again’,” he explains.
“So I ran out and gave him another couple of smacks and he collapsed.
“I didn’t even know you got money for it. When I heard the other boys were doing it for money, I was like: ‘Am I getting paid too?’
He had trained for a fortnight before the fight and after his win Dublin coach Phil Sutcliffe invited him to train in his gym.
“I thought: I’m not bad at it, so why not?” he says and so he punched in his time in the amateurs and turned pro in 2017. He won three out of his first four and disputes his two losses; against Karl Kelly and, in June after over two years out of action, against Ezequiel Gregores in Spain.
He has switched trainers to Pete Taylor now but on paper you’d say that unbeaten O’Neill would be a step up for him. Quinn argues that it’s the other way around.
“He hasn’t fought anyone like me,” he says.
“He hasn’t even fought anyone like the fighters I’ve fought. I love Owen and I love Dee (Walsh, his coach) and I would never disrespect them just because we’re fighting. He’s a boxer, he boxes like me but he comes to have a fight.
“People keep saying: ‘He’s 8-0 and he’s heavier than you but the second fight I had, against the Spanish fella (Iago Barros), he nearly knocked me out every time he hit me… But I edged the fight.
“For my third fight (Kelly) I got fight of the year and my fourth fight (against fellow Dubliner Francy Luzoho) was fight of the night…
“He hasn’t fought anyone like that but I have and I won them, I won them with grace. So people are making him the favourite but I don’t see why. Weight doesn’t bother me in a fight, it’s about experience and how I’m fighting. We’re the same kind of fighters – we come and try and bang but I can actually box, I think I’m a better boxer than him and I think it’ll be a good fight. Me and him are gonna kill each other and losing isn’t an option for me.”
For tickets, go to www.eventbrite.co.uk.
BOXING is a game of snakes and ladders. A couple of wins will see a fighter climb up the rankings, one loss and they’ll slide back down again…
Tommy McCarthy was so close to making a definitive breakthrough when he pushed Chris Billam-Smith to the brink in London last year. Shane McGuigan-trained cruiserweight Billam-Smith took a split-decision win however, then won the rematch by stoppage in April and went on to beat Isaac Chamberlain in his native Brighton earlier this month. Now he’s on the verge of a world title shot.
Meanwhile, after slipping down the snakes, McCarthy had to go back to the proverbial drawing board but he’s back climbing ladders again and he returned to action with an undercard stoppage win in Estonia and next month
On September 24 he’s chief support to Kildare’s ‘Lilywhite Lightning’ Eric Donovan who challenges Khalil El Hadri for the European super-featherweight title. McCarthy is up against Reinis Porozovs who has been in against the likes of Luke Watkins and Ricards Botolniks in the past. At 31, McCarthy still has time on his side and he remains determined to use it wisely.
“That fight in Estonia was such a downgrade from what I’ve been used to,” he said.
“Since 2019 it’s all been big shows and big events and I was on the cusp (of challenging for a world title). I got myself into the top five of all the major bodies. I was right there but then I was right back down to fighting in Estonia on the undercard, right down to the bottom of the pecking order.”
Beating Porozovs over eight rounds will be a step back towards “the big time” again, he says, and he is confident that more opportunities will come in a claustrophobic cruiserweight division.
“A good win and a good performance and the opportunities will come knocking again,” he said.
“Providing everything goes the way I want it to go, I’ll get another shot at the big time. Worldwide the cruiser division isn’t that deep and they’re all fighting each other. There is a crop of guys who are all at the same level in the UK, me in Ireland, Fabio Turchi in Italy, a couple of Americans and even Ilunga Makabu (WBC champion) - he can’t keep fighting African guys forever.
“I’ll be right back in the mix because it’s not like I got beat by some eejit, I got beat by Billam-Smith who is right there on the cusp for a world title now. So I’m not too far away and I need this win to get back into the big leagues.”
