Big Bang Theory: O'Leary finds true happiness back in Dublin
It was Mike Tyson who said “there is nothing more deadly or proficient than a happy fighter”.
Now big-punching junior welterweight contender Pierce O’Leary (19-0, 11 KOs) is out to prove that theory right, having found true happiness in his craft following a simple return home.
COVID restrictions were still in place when O’Leary, 22 at the time, decided to leave Dublin for London with €1000 in his pocket and the knowledge that only one scenario would ever allow him to return.
“I told myself that I can't come home until I’ve made it,” O’Leary tells The Ring. “Because if I was coming back, I was coming back to nothing. So it wasn’t a question of wanting to make it, I had to make it.”
On March 14, he returned for his first professional fight in his home city and punctuated the occasion by stopping experienced former world title challenger Maxi Hughes in the fifth of their 12-rounder at 3Arena.
And what made the triumphant homecoming even more memorable was he had finished his training camp at his first boxing club, Docklands, in the heart of Dublin’s inner city. Having trained in Surrey and Liverpool since that switch to London, it meant reuniting with his first coach Philip Keogh.
After so many years of grafting away from home, how did that moment feel?
“That’s a really great question,” he says before pausing to think. “My first born daughter, she was six months old when I moved to London and I didn't see her for the first four months of her life due to COVID. I couldn't keep flying back and forth so I had to base myself in London. I went through the horrible winters in London; snowing, living in a damp place.
“So to be able to come back and finish the camp and get the opportunity to fight in the 3Arena, which is 400 meters from my house, and to be surrounded by the people who grew up here — with the familiar faces who pushed me on, who believed me, who spoke to me, who trained me — and be in the gym and have my coach Joe McNally and Philip there together as a team ... it was the best feeling. I swear to God, it was the best feeling.”
His reward for beating Hughes was a second successive outing at the arena which stands just 400 meters from where he grew up. This time, however, “Big Bang” is headlining as he takes on Mark Chamberlain (17-1-1, 12 KOs) in the main event of Queensberry's August 1 show, broadcast worldwide on DAZN.
And far from just finishing his preparation in Dublin, this time O’Leary has split his whole training camp between Liverpool and the Irish capital.
“That's the reason why I'm probably one of the happiest I’ve ever felt,” he says. “I've never, ever been this happy before in the training camp. That has just been training back home. It's beautiful, mate. People say you need to go away from your family to train, blah, blah, blah, but I’ve done all that at the start. It was hard.
“I'll never forget those tough times I had. I had to keep on digging in deep and whatever. But now I'm in the gym, and if my kids want to come to the gym with me and see me spar they're going to come, because that's just motivation in itself.
"It doesn't matter who you are, it's an opportunity to bring your family into your work life and that’s great. And when I leave the gym, I come outside and you’re seeing posters on lamposts with your name on them, Irish flags everywhere from pole-to-pole down the whole street. It’s a magical feeling.
“It's a beautiful thing, going down, going training. I've never been more motivated in my life. I'm always hungrier. I'm just ready to fight. Everyone was raving about the Maxi Hughes win but that’s not even a quarter of what I’ve got.”
The more regular return to Docklands comes nearly two decades on from the night he first walked through the doors as he tried to find some respite from the icy Dublin winter.
“I was always a kid who was up to no good,” the 26-year-old says. “I was always rambling with my mates. My nanny only lived about 50 meters from the gym and I remember it was a winter’s night — I’ll never forget it —where it was freezing outside but the door to the gym was open and I could see the humidity from the gym mixing with the coldness in the air.
“I could see inside and it seemed like everyone was in there, sweating, there was steam everywhere and I just heard the bags going bang, bang, bang, everyone shouting, the chains holding the bags rattling. I just thought, 'What on Earth is this?’ So I crossed the road and had a peep inside, saw people sparring and everything, and thought I wouldn’t mind a bit of that.
“I asked if I could join, they asked me how old I was and I said seven. They said you have to be nine to join. That was on the Monday so I waited until Friday and went back in, they asked how old I was, I said nine. He said “OK, you’re in.’
“Boom, the rest is history.”
Announced: Pierce O'Leary returns to Dublin to fight Mark Chamberlain on August 1st, live on DAZN 
TYSON FURY RETURN ON AUGUST 1 IN DUBLIN
Fury & Joshua now have warmup fights within a week of each other before their clash in November.