How good was Barry McGuigan?

[saad]

I haven't seen any of his fights yet, but I've read about him. He supposedly had a ton of power in his right hand. He was voted the 6th best pound for pound fighter in the world by Ring in 1985. Was his victory over Pedroza the sole reason for the recognition? I've also read accounts of the Stevie Cruz fight suggesting that McGuigan's cornermen were terribly inept

[phil]

McGuigan was terrrific. All go never a moment's peace when he was fighting.

I have quite a bit of him on tape if you wish to buy some.

He talked as he fought as well....and a real credit to the sport and SPORT in general.

Pedroza had been undefeated since 1976? Of course he was getting on but McGuigan also beat the top contenders although a match with Azumah Nelson was never made.

His bout with Cruz should never have taken place. There were shenanigans about money (sadly) and the heat got to him in the end. He came back but Jim McDonnell ended his career and he is now a top analyst on SKY TV as well a ""Spokesperson" for the Boxers' Association I think.

Phil

[daniel_lawlor]

Barry McGuigan was one of Irelands and Britains best p4p off all time.
People say no sometimes coz he only held his WBA Feather title for only 3 defences with him lossing his last defence against Steve Cruz.
Well let me say if you,ve never fought in such heat like there was in Vegas that day then its gonna be hard to get used to it,If the fight was here in Britian McGuigan would of won.
Barry McGuigans fight plan was always pressure pressure and more pressure,The man never left you alone in a fight,and was such a lethal bodypuncher.
Barry McGuigan will always be remembered as a great fighter and such a lethal bodypuncher,he had tons of power in both hands and his best punch was the left to the body.Once he had you tied up to the ropes that was it you can forget about winning cause he kept on punching you.

[fatcity]

Barry was an excellent fighter, one of the people who first got me hooked into boxing. He was always going forward and had a great left hook to the body. Although Pedrosa was past his best when Barry beat him it was still a fantastic performance. After he won the title things started to go wrong I think Barry was unhappy with Eastwoods management by then.
Barrys corner in the Cruz fight was a complete shambles, totally unproffessional, the corner completely lost control and communnicated their panic onto Barry, who should never have been allowed to box at that time of day and in that heat.... madness.
Barrys a great spokesman for boxing now on Sky and always says it like he sees it.
Great a fighter as he was I d have picked Azumha Nelson to beat Barry if they had met, but it would have been a great fight and Barry would have been in with a great shout.

[Justin]

No matter how overmatched Barry was, he made up for it with power, heart, and pressure... It's not that he wasn't very skilled either, like say a Micky Ward, but he just came at you with that "one of us is gonna go down" mentality.

[fatcity]

Yeah, thats right, Barry was skilled, in fact I think that one of the draw backs to his winning the title was that he began looking for the knockout all the time and not ultilising his boxing skills enough. This happens to a lot of top flight fighters, look at Gatti for instance.
Incidentially Barry always reminded me of a slightly smaller version of Ray 'Boom Boom' Mancini. Very simular fightling style, affable personality and great crowd pleaser.

[mrshot]

I haven't seen any of his fights yet, but I've read about him. He supposedly had a ton of power in his right hand. He was voted the 6th best pound for pound fighter in the world by Ring in 1985. Was his victory over Pedroza the sole reason for the recognition? I've also read accounts of the Stevie Cruz fight suggesting that McGuigan's cornermen were terribly inept

he was a pretty good boxer that liked to mix it up,i think he was overrated

[Bricks]

At the time the New York press built him up massively so that by the time he arrived in the states they were totally smitten by him......the Cruz devastation and the ending of Barrys career prematurely (and that's what it was) meant a horrible backlash similar to what the same elements unleashed on Gerry Cooney.

For those of us who were there, Barry was a terrific remorseless body puncher and pressure fighter in his prime. To go with his power and chin and conditioning e had speed and guile in his attacks unlike say Hatton against Mayweather. Barry would set a terrific pace and fight hard for 15 rounds.

His reign was short but he was undoubtedly the best Featherweight in the world in 1985-86 on the back of wins over LaPorte, Pedroza, Cabrera and Bernard Taylor, and he was heading towards superfights with Azumah Nelson and Julio Cesar Chavez which would have been huge.

Barry had charisma and good looks (yeah i know hard to beleive when he has looked like a gnarled hobgoblin the last 17-18 years)

The Cruz fight was a life changing comedy of errors by Barney Eastwood. He took the pale skinned irishman McGuigan to fight in the mid day 1pm heat outdoors in June out in the desert in Las Vegas against an unknown late replacement with nothing to lose!

Fair is fair in his showings against McGuigan and Esparagozza , Stevie Cruz showed he was top quality and better than the origional opponent. To compound matters the corner had no ice and Barry got dehydrated. People think of the 3 knockdowns and the aftermath and think it was a wipe out it wasnt..............for 12 rounds it was still Barrys fight.....and on the cards the last round and two late fifteen round knockdowns cost Barry a majority points win, thats how hard fought the fight was. It really was a horrific pace they set. I remember watching it as a 8 year old boy and my neighbours mom was irish and she fainted due to the severity of the action.

After the fight Eastwood caused hell for McGuigan out of the ring and Barrys father, whose renditions of "Danny Boy" had been a feature of Barrys championship nights died.....and Barry didnt want to fight without him.

Very sad but in a way its fitting Barry got inducted into the Hall of Fame and went on to have a good career as a pundit for 20 years.

[bennie]

He was dynamite on the way up and when he won the title against Pedroza but his overtraining, weightmaking and all-action style always meant for a relatively short reign and that's how it turned out, although his star fell remarkably quickly.

[Crease]

McGuigan was good... Very good and I would be astounded if he isn't mentioned among the best twenty Featherweights of all time.

[Bricks]

He was dynamite on the way up and when he won the title against Pedroza but his overtraining, weightmaking and all-action style always meant for a relatively short reign and that's how it turned out, although his star fell remarkably quickly.

The limited shelf life of this particular fighting style is well documented but McGuigans star fell as fast and suddenly as just about any in boxing history! He went to America to launch his career as a superstar....his first fight ended up being a funeral match for his career.

Can you beleive his madman manager Eastwood had Barry have 4 world title fights in 7 months in 1985!!! Laporte was a world title eliminator but the other 3 were against Pedroza, Taylor and Cabrera, outside of Nelson and Esparagozza arguably 4 of the toughest FW's in the world in 7 months!!!! and than he takes Barry to the vegas desert to do 15 rounds in the midday sun outdoors with no cold water or ice in the corner!

[Bricks]

No matter how overmatched Barry was, he made up for it with power, heart, and pressure... It's not that he wasn't very skilled either, like say a Micky Ward, but he just came at you with that "one of us is gonna go down" mentality.

He was never "overmatched" and he had a lot more skill and guile. He was a heavy heavy odds on favourite to beat Cruz.

[Duran Fan]

He was outstanding! And without doubt one the best light division fighters from the UK!
As for the Cruz loss, it was down to the heat, I think it was other 100 in that ring. And the pale skinned man from a cold country was at a big disadvantage.

[bennie]

He was dynamite on the way up and when he won the title against Pedroza but his overtraining, weightmaking and all-action style always meant for a relatively short reign and that's how it turned out, although his star fell remarkably quickly.

The limited shelf life of this particular fighting style is well documented but McGuigans star fell as fast and suddenly as just about any in boxing history! He went to America to launch his career as a superstar....his first fight ended up being a funeral match for his career.

Can you beleive his madman manager Eastwood had Barry have 4 world title fights in 7 months in 1985!!! Laporte was a world title eliminator but the other 3 were against Pedroza, Taylor and Cabrera, outside of Nelson and Esparagozza arguably 4 of the toughest FW's in the world in 7 months!!!! and than he takes Barry to the vegas desert to do 15 rounds in the midday sun outdoors with no cold water or ice in the corner!

Barney "Do it for the Kids!" Eastwood.

[bennie]

Dead man's eyes. This amazing image of Barry before the start of his disastrous 15th round against Steve Cruz was captured by Chris Smith of the Sunday Times. Look at the stupid Panamanian cornerman pinching Barry's ears.

[mrshot]

McGuigan was good... Very good and I would be astounded if he isn't mentioned among the best twenty Featherweights of all time.

in my books he is not even in the top 100,

[donnellon]

He was outstanding! And without doubt one the best light division fighters from the UK!
As for the Cruz loss, it was down to the heat, I think it was other 100 in that ring. And the pale skinned man from a cold country was at a big disadvantage.

What part of the UK was he from, exactly?

[giacomino]

I remember cheering McGuigan against Pedroza because I had watched Pedroza get one close decision after another for years. It was clear Pedroza was well past it but he showed a lot of heart by lasting the distance while taking a pretty good pasting. McGuigan's win over Taylor was pretty impressive because Taylor had been a top contender for a few years and he had a lot of speed and boxing skills. McGuigan simply broke him.
As for the loss to Cruz, it was extremely hot, but a lot of title fights are fought in extreme conditions. Cruz, while a fairly talented boxer, was not in McGuigan's league and McGuigan should have KO'd him well before the 15th. Cruz simply had the fight of his life and Barry simply ran out of gas. Happens to the best of fighters and it's too bad he couldn't come back from it

[bennie]

He was outstanding! And without doubt one the best light division fighters from the UK!
As for the Cruz loss, it was down to the heat, I think it was other 100 in that ring. And the pale skinned man from a cold country was at a big disadvantage.

What part of the UK was he from, exactly?

From the part that allowed him to win the British title.

[Bricks]

I remember cheering McGuigan against Pedroza because I had watched Pedroza get one close decision after another for years. It was clear Pedroza was well past it but he showed a lot of heart by lasting the distance while taking a pretty good pasting. McGuigan's win over Taylor was pretty impressive because Taylor had been a top contender for a few years and he had a lot of speed and boxing skills. McGuigan simply broke him.
As for the loss to Cruz, it was extremely hot, but a lot of title fights are fought in extreme conditions. Cruz, while a fairly talented boxer, was not in McGuigan's league and McGuigan should have KO'd him well before the 15th. Cruz simply had the fight of his life and Barry simply ran out of gas. Happens to the best of fighters and it's too bad he couldn't come back from it

I think it went beyond "extremely hot" and not a lot of fifteen round battles were fought at this pace with no ice or cold water in the corner!!! Simply saying McGuigan ran out of gas as if it was a stamina thing is incorrect. It was a inept corner and inept manager thing.

Cruz was a little better than people thought too. It took a Esparagozza to beat him and Antonio held onto the title for many many years

[Deno1986]

He was outstanding! And without doubt one the best light division fighters from the UK!
As for the Cruz loss, it was down to the heat, I think it was other 100 in that ring. And the pale skinned man from a cold country was at a big disadvantage.

What part of the UK was he from, exactly?

From the part that allowed him to win the British title.

He is actually from Co.Monaghan in the Republic of Ireland.

[Deno1986]

McGuigan was good... Very good and I would be astounded if he isn't mentioned among the best twenty Featherweights of all time.

in my books he is not even in the top 100,

I'm all about people having different opinions but your opinion is rubbish.

People should keep on eye out for another Irish boxer, Carl Frampton, who is managed by McGuigan. He is very similar to McGuigans style but could be better in my opinion.

[bennie]

What part of the UK was he from, exactly?

From the part that allowed him to win the British title.

He is actually from Co.Monaghan in the Republic of Ireland.

I REALLY didn't know that.

[bollox]

This thread was bumped after 8 years?

I remember the hoopla surrounding a proposed fight with Azumah Nelson was huge in the mid 80's. There was a lot of talk and dithering around, then Barry lost to Cruz which effectively killed the fight. The Americans loved Barry that's for sure, and they hadn't really taken to Nelson despite his achievements. In their analyses a lot of the US boxing press had Barry either outpointing Nelson or stopping him with a left hook to the body

I reckon Nelson would have been a bit too good for McGuigan although it would have been a good scrap. At the time I kept thinking that McGuigan's management didn't seem to go out of their way to make the fight happen. Maybe others remember things a bit differently?

[Ezzard]

Barry was a very entertaining fighter. He was also tremendously skilled, had great psychology and great physical attributes.

The Cruz fight was amazing. Barry got back into that fight by sheer force of will. But he just seemed unable to avoid Cruz's right hand and it was the accuracy coupled with his dehydration that made him tumble.

There was talk that he was offered a fight at 130 with the shopworn Gomez. Would have been a good option but then again guys back then couldn't jump up and down the weights quite so easily as they do these days.

There were lots of mega fights around that division at the time. Shame Barry's career got curtailed.

If I had to criticise him then I'd say he was a come-forward fighter who couldn't adapt to fighting on the back foot. He had one way to win, come forwards. And this was the difference with Nelson. Azumah had more to his game. Even so, it's not a foregone conclusion that Barry would have lost.

Fenech, Mitchell, Gomez, Lockridge and Fenech... Even a small window for a fight with Chavez.