Nice boxing redemption interview with Steve O'Meara

[Nondescript]

When Steve O’Meara walked out of prison in April, having served five and a half years for conspiracy to supply cocaine, the former professional boxer opened an Instagram account and posted a mission statement for the rest of his life.

“Do not judge my story by the chapter you walked in on,” O’Meara wrote alongside a picture of him leaving HMP Standford Hill, an open prison on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent. “I let a lot of people down . . . especially those close to me. But now it’s time to put things right.”

O’Meara is now working with troubled young people, to teach them boxing skills
O’Meara is now working with troubled young people, to teach them boxing skills
With that, he set about writing a new chapter of his story: the pursuit of redemption.

Three months later we met at a café on a housing estate in Lambeth, south London, where gang culture is rife and the soundtrack is drill, the rap genre blamed by police for inciting violence and knife crime.

This is where O’Meara, who will serve the rest of his 11-year sentence on licence, now works as a coach and a mentor, having been inspired to help vulnerable youngsters by the values he learnt playing rugby union in prison.


As we started to talk, O’Meara was preparing for one-on-one boxing sessions with two local schoolboys at risk of being lured into crime. At some point he will go back into prison, voluntarily, to work with young offenders.

O’Meara, a sparring partner and friend of James DeGale and George Groves who fought Liam Smith for the Commonwealth light-middleweight title in December 2012, is also in the process of reapplying for his boxing licence. At the age of 35, his ambition is to win the British title.

“It is about changing my story and making my kids proud, and for them to see that even when you have made bad mistakes there is a way to turn things around,” he said.

“When I tell people I am 35 and I haven’t boxed for six years, they nod and say, ‘Good luck to you,’ but inside they are thinking, ‘You are going to get your head punched in, you nutcase.’ ”

O’Meara chuckled. “I like the thought of them thinking that. Unless everyone in the gym is bluffing me, I still feel I have something left.”

Six years ago, O’Meara considered the British title to have been a formality, a stepping stone to greater honours. Then the phone rang while he was sitting in the car with his children outside a shop in Marbella, and it all came crashing down.

The first chapter of O’Meara’s story is the tale of a rising star of British boxing, who trained at the Dale Youth gym on the ground floor of Grenfell Tower along with DeGale and Groves, both of whom won super-middleweight world titles, and was managed by allegedly.

“I was fortunate to walk into a gym where the fighters were unreal,” O’Meara said. He is shy and softly spoken.

“When James had big fights, he would often pay for me to go with him to training camps. It is always good to have someone to compete with and we pushed each other. Things started to come together. I won the southern area title, defended that, then boxed Liam Smith for the Commonwealth title.”

O’Meara was knocked down in the first round after an accidental clash of heads and lost on points.“The better man won on the night,” he said. “I was hoping for a rematch but during this period I made some bad decisions.”

The family had moved to Marbella, O’Meara’s new training base, when a friend called to say that the police were looking for him. Although he joked that it must have been about the parking tickets he was racking up in Spain, O’Meara knew it was serious.

The police had spent 13 months tracking a smuggling network and intercepted 40kg of cocaine, with an estimated street value of £11 million, which was transported into the country in British Airways freight containers.

“As soon as I learnt I was wanted I went home and handed myself in,” he said.

The second act of O’Meara’s story, the downfall, begins in October 2013 with his arrest on an aircraft after it had landed at Heathrow.

When the case reached Southwark crown court 17 months later, he pleaded guilty to organising the collection of a consignment of the drugs and was sentenced to 13 years, reduced to 11 on appeal.

The leader of the gang, described by the judge as a “sophisticated criminal network”, was jailed for 30 years, including five years for smuggling ammunition; his right-hand man got 21 years.

So how could a boxer who was living a disciplined, professional life, surrounded by future world champions and some of the best trainers in the country, get caught up in such an operation?

“I ask myself the exact same question,” he said. “I was at a point where the doors were starting to open and my career was potentially going to a place where I could have fought for big titles, made good money and my kids proud.

“To say I regret it is an understatement. All I can do now is to try and put it right and be a role model so I can look my kids in the eye.”

That process began in HMP Wandsworth. DeGale and his family kept in touch with O’Meara’s wife and two children, while inside prison he stayed fit by training in the gym and sparring with others in the laundry room. “I had to stay strong for my family,” he said.

Then came the unexpected chance to play rugby. At first O’Meara saw it as a way to get out of his cell for the day, but it proved to be the first step towards the rest of his life. O’Meara joined a course that was run by the 3Pillars Project, a mentoring charity that uses sport to help young offenders and vulnerable teenagers.

For seven weeks they trained on Tuesdays and Thursdays on a small astroturf pitch inside the prison. Inmates from different wings buried territorial rivalries and came together as a team.

“I loved rugby: I wish I had discovered it earlier,” O’Meara said. “We were thrown together and realised values of discipline and respect for each other. We became a team.”

Then it was time for a game. Battersea Ironsides, Kyle Sinckler’s club, sent a team into the prison. “I said to the guys, ‘Let’s just try our best,’ thinking we were going to get smashed,” O’Meara said. “We ended up doing well. It was on an artificial pitch that wasn’t up to scratch — but it was our World Cup and we won.”

O’Meara served five-and-a-half years in jail for conspiracy to supply cocaineO’Meara served five-and-a-half years in jail for conspiracy to supply cocaine
When O’Meara was transferred to open prison, he began working with the 3Pillars Project on day release, taking personal training sessions and coaching rugby in young offender prisons. He graduated to a full-time job after being released and began to write the third chapter. O’Meara does not volunteer his past to the kids. It is more effective that way. When a cocky inmate starts answering back and saying, “What do you know? You haven’t been in prison.” O’Meara tells them his story.

“It is a strong thing to say sport is life-changing, but it can be,” he said. “There are kids who turn up with so little confidence that they cannot shake your hand or say their name or they self-harm badly. Within a few weeks they are laughing and joking. There was a kid who at 17 years old could not do his shoelaces up. He was too embarrassed to admit it. He did not have a mum or a dad or anyone who was there for him enough to show him how.

“It puts a lump in your throat. Mike [Crofts, the founder of 3Pillars Project] taught him. And do you know what? The course was worth it just for that.”

I could hear the emotion in his voice as he talked. Lots of the boys O’Meara comes into contact with crave that same one-on-one attention that helped that teenager. “That is one of the reasons I am doing this job. I like to think there is always that one person who can help you,” he said.

O’Meara walked back into the café after the two boxing sessions. I noticed that he had been smiling as he held the pads. “I enjoy it. The first kid was quite intimidated but you saw him come alive,” O’Meara said. “I asked the other lad what he wants to do. He said he wants to be a professional boxer. He has only had two sessions!”

O’Meara is determined to show him the way. He is waiting for an interview with the British Boxing Board of Control in the hope of being granted a licence to fight again this year.

“I want to change the story and show my boys that you never give up on something,” he said. “I am trying to say, ‘See what I do now and judge me on that, rather than my past mistakes.’

“When I turned pro, the British title was a foregone conclusion. Now, that would be like my world title.”

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/spor ... ium=Social

[Nondescript]

Totally forgot about O'Meara. He was a good fighter back in the day.

[Coco]

Over 35 and still on licence, he has as much chance at getting relicensed as Scott Harrison.

I wonder if relocating to Marbella had any connection with the trouble he had!

Who was his promoters?

Nevertheless I'm glad he seems to have turned things around, I hope he keeps on the straight and narrow.

[margaret thatcher]

Nice to hear

Only thing ill say as critque though, 3 months out is nothing. still a bit of a honeymoon phase after release. lets hope he keeps it up a year and more from now

[brilo33]

redemption?, i mean i bet most of the crowd are on something let alone the fighters ,feel sorry for him, good luck too the man