Pat O'Connor, BoxRec's No.1 Irish L-HW of all-time
Posted: 02 Apr 2006, 19:55
Pat O'Connor, BoxRec's No.1 Irish L-HW of all-time!
The Irish boxing site doesn't have anything on him(???).
His boxing career can be divided into three phases namely England, Ireland and America. In fact the England and the Ireland phases overlap.
In 1939 he moved from Essex where he worked on a farm, to London where he joined an Irish Amateur Boxing Club in Romford. Here he took part in a good many bouts and was eventually entered for a middleweight competition in Hammersmith.
The contenders included firemen, soldiers and policemen. But he defeated the four men he was drawn against and won the competition and a silver cup that was valued at five guineas. Later on that year he won the Open Amateur middleweight championship at Chiswick. He won a further fourteen contests in England and Wales. He was now "hot property" and managers were queuing up to "sign on" this hard hitting Geal.
In 1940 at nineteen years of age Pat O'Connor joined the professional ranks and won his first professional contest by knockout in the second round. He moved to the Channel Island of Guernsey, where he defeated the reining middleweight champion.
His reputation in England was established in 1941 when he defeated the southern area title holder George Davis. He returned to Ireland, won several more bouts and was then matched against the then Irish middleweight champion Paddy Roche, another Corkman. The fight took place in Clonmel in 1942. At the end of fifteen thrilling rounds, Pat O'Connor was the new Irish middleweight champion. He remained undefeated middleweight champion until 1944 when he took the Irish cruiserweight title from Pat Mulcahy and he successfully defended it in 1945 against Spike McCormack in a terrific contest in Dublin.
Jimmy Ingle, in a tribute to Pat, on the occasion of his death, wrote and I quote "One night I shall always remember was February 17th. 1945, when Pat defeated John "Spike" McCormack at the Theatre Royal, Dublin, in defence of his Irish light-heavyweight title, "Spike" took an awful hammering in rounds nine and ten and he retired in the following round". He thus had the very rare distinction of holding two Irish titles at the same time.
One of his greatest fights in Britain was against Ernie Roderick, the British Empire middleweight champion whom he defeated in London in 1943. Defeating Tom Reddington further added to his reputation and he was now regarded as "the hardest hitting middleweight in the world" and chief contender for the middleweight title held by Jock McAvoy. But the champion Jock was not too anxious to meet the Duhallow man who regularly trained and sparred with Freddy Mills. Sadly this contest never took place.
He was a great favourite at the Queensbury Club where he had thirteen bouts against the best in Britain including, Bert Gilroy, Jim Laverick, Ginger Sadd, Tommy Davis, Jake Kilrain and Vince Hawkins. He also fought Dick Turpin in Coventry.
In 1947 with almost 200 successes to his credit and on the advice of no lesser men than Ted "Kid" Lewis and Tommy Farr, he decided to go to America where his all action style of boxing would be appreciated. There, he adapted new training methods under the management of Connie McCarthy and later under the legendary Kerryman John Kerry O'Donnell. He had 18 undefeated bouts across the USA. including one over Clem Fitzpatrick a leading contender for the world middleweight crown. The American Press hailed Paddy as a potential world champion but injuries prevented him meeting the great man himself Sugar Ray Robinson.
He continued to fight until November 1st 1949 when defeated by Billy Brown, he retired and settled down with his wife Ann, a native of Keady, Co. Armagh, in San Francisco.
The Irish boxing site doesn't have anything on him(???).
His boxing career can be divided into three phases namely England, Ireland and America. In fact the England and the Ireland phases overlap.
In 1939 he moved from Essex where he worked on a farm, to London where he joined an Irish Amateur Boxing Club in Romford. Here he took part in a good many bouts and was eventually entered for a middleweight competition in Hammersmith.
The contenders included firemen, soldiers and policemen. But he defeated the four men he was drawn against and won the competition and a silver cup that was valued at five guineas. Later on that year he won the Open Amateur middleweight championship at Chiswick. He won a further fourteen contests in England and Wales. He was now "hot property" and managers were queuing up to "sign on" this hard hitting Geal.
In 1940 at nineteen years of age Pat O'Connor joined the professional ranks and won his first professional contest by knockout in the second round. He moved to the Channel Island of Guernsey, where he defeated the reining middleweight champion.
His reputation in England was established in 1941 when he defeated the southern area title holder George Davis. He returned to Ireland, won several more bouts and was then matched against the then Irish middleweight champion Paddy Roche, another Corkman. The fight took place in Clonmel in 1942. At the end of fifteen thrilling rounds, Pat O'Connor was the new Irish middleweight champion. He remained undefeated middleweight champion until 1944 when he took the Irish cruiserweight title from Pat Mulcahy and he successfully defended it in 1945 against Spike McCormack in a terrific contest in Dublin.
Jimmy Ingle, in a tribute to Pat, on the occasion of his death, wrote and I quote "One night I shall always remember was February 17th. 1945, when Pat defeated John "Spike" McCormack at the Theatre Royal, Dublin, in defence of his Irish light-heavyweight title, "Spike" took an awful hammering in rounds nine and ten and he retired in the following round". He thus had the very rare distinction of holding two Irish titles at the same time.
One of his greatest fights in Britain was against Ernie Roderick, the British Empire middleweight champion whom he defeated in London in 1943. Defeating Tom Reddington further added to his reputation and he was now regarded as "the hardest hitting middleweight in the world" and chief contender for the middleweight title held by Jock McAvoy. But the champion Jock was not too anxious to meet the Duhallow man who regularly trained and sparred with Freddy Mills. Sadly this contest never took place.
He was a great favourite at the Queensbury Club where he had thirteen bouts against the best in Britain including, Bert Gilroy, Jim Laverick, Ginger Sadd, Tommy Davis, Jake Kilrain and Vince Hawkins. He also fought Dick Turpin in Coventry.
In 1947 with almost 200 successes to his credit and on the advice of no lesser men than Ted "Kid" Lewis and Tommy Farr, he decided to go to America where his all action style of boxing would be appreciated. There, he adapted new training methods under the management of Connie McCarthy and later under the legendary Kerryman John Kerry O'Donnell. He had 18 undefeated bouts across the USA. including one over Clem Fitzpatrick a leading contender for the world middleweight crown. The American Press hailed Paddy as a potential world champion but injuries prevented him meeting the great man himself Sugar Ray Robinson.
He continued to fight until November 1st 1949 when defeated by Billy Brown, he retired and settled down with his wife Ann, a native of Keady, Co. Armagh, in San Francisco.