BoxRec

Heres my top ten irish boxers.
1. Steve Collins
2. Barry McGuigan
3. Wayne McCullough
4. Dave 'Boy' McAuley
5. Rinty Monaghan
6. Freddie Gilroy
7. Johnny Caldwell
8. Eamonn Magee
9. Eamonn Loughran
10. Charlie Nash

special mentions to ray close, spider kelly, noel magee, corbett, sinclair, kelly, duddy, dunne, mcalinden, storey, brian magee, russell, mcloskey & rock

As much as I love him, McGuigan is over rated on that list.

No place for The Nonpareil Jack Dempsey? What about Jimmy McLarnin?

Loughran above those calibre of men is just crazy.

james_leeds wrote:Heres my top ten irish boxers.

8. Eamonn Magee

I 'd put B magee, R. close and D. Kelly before Eamonn Mage anyday.

Personally I wouldnt put B.Magee above E.Magee, but there we go. Eamon has mixed in world class.

Jack Dempsey in my eyes is not an irish boxer. He is an american with irish blood but not a 100% irish man. Eamonn magee is above brian magee anyday. Eamonn loughran is included in my top ten because he won a world title and made 5 defences and also was undefeated commonwealth champion. Give me some top 10 lists.

james_leeds wrote:Jack Dempsey in my eyes is not an irish boxer. He is an american with irish blood but not a 100% irish man. Eamonn magee is above brian magee anyday. Eamonn loughran is included in my top ten because he won a world title and made 5 defences and also was undefeated commonwealth champion. Give me some top 10 lists.

I think you are getting your wires crossed mate - the original Jack Dempsey 'The Nonpareil' WAS Irish and deserves a far higher rating then the likes of Eammon Loughran. (no disrespect to Eammon but a WBO title at that time was not seen as a proper world title, certainly not in my eyes.)

Same goes for Jimmy McLarnin - just because he did his fighting in the states doesnt mean he wasnt Irish. Jack McAuliffe should be in that list aswell.

To be fair i havent seen enough of jack dempsey or jimmy, im 23 so my picks are based on fighters who i have seen live or have watched alot on tele and that is who i would pick. I not going to pick a boxer who i have never seen fight although i respect 100% some of these boxers achievements. Who are your top ten?

Fair enough mate I see where you are coming from. You are right it is a lot easier to rate fighters who competed in the era with wide spread TV coverage – I dunno who would be in my definitive top ten – I will have to give it some thought..

Don’t rule out all of the older Irish boxers who competed in the first half of last century though – there were some great fighters amongst them.

TerribleTerry wrote:Fair enough mate I see where you are coming from. You are right it is a lot easier to rate fighters who competed in the era with wide spread TV coverage – I dunno who would be in my definitive top ten – I will have to give it some thought..

Don’t rule out all of the older Irish boxers who competed in the first half of last century though – there were some great fighters amongst them.

Steve Collins at number one? Come on matey.....

McGuigan is overrated though, very true, if not for Pedroza his career was, at best, pretty good. He's no great, as much as he thinks he is.

Looking at this list got me thinking though, for a country steeped in history they have produced very few world class boxers. Why is that do you think?

Was quite amazed. Am racking my brains for anyone better than Collins and Mcguigan now, good thread mate!

Captain Hook wrote:Looking at this list got me thinking though, for a country steeped in history they have produced very few world class boxers. Why is that do you think?

Was quite amazed. Am racking my brains for anyone better than Collins and Mcguigan now, good thread mate!

Problem’s include:

Size of population – circa 3m for most of last century makes it a small country to draw the talent pool from.

Underdeveloped sporting infrastructure. With the majority of the Irish population living in small, country communities until relatively recently, the lack of 'urban sprawl' gives rise to poor access to boxing gyms, amateur or pro, for most of the population.

And most importantly:
Economic migration – it is often said of Ireland that it’s greatest export is it’s people and there is a lot of truth behind this. If you factor in 2nd generation Irish born abroad to Irish parents you suddenly see a far deeper, more representative band of successful fighters.

TerribleTerry wrote:

Captain Hook wrote:Looking at this list got me thinking though, for a country steeped in history they have produced very few world class boxers. Why is that do you think?

Was quite amazed. Am racking my brains for anyone better than Collins and Mcguigan now, good thread mate!

Problem’s include:

Size of population – circa 3m for most of last century makes it a small country to draw the talent pool from.

Underdeveloped sporting infrastructure. With the majority of the Irish population living in small, country communities until relatively recently, the lack of 'urban sprawl' gives rise to poor access to boxing gyms, amateur or pro, for most of the population.

And most importantly:
Economic migration – it is often said of Ireland that it’s greatest export is it’s people and there is a lot of truth behind this. If you factor in 2nd generation Irish born abroad to Irish parents you suddenly see a far deeper, more representative band of successful fighters.

Good points Terry. We've been lucky enough to produce half a dozen or so world class boxers, possibly more - Robinson, Jones (Colin), Calzaghe, Wilde, Winstone, Farr, Owen etc - but they have been few and far between. Our population is a lot less than Ireland's and Scotland's but you raise some great points there.

And if we were talking Irish-American fighters the list wouldn't be so hard to put together......

Cheers

mcneeley

'i came to fight !'

I'd put Jack Doyle in there at the end.

why aint ken norton in this list??

Do 'Irish' Mickey Ward, 'Irish' Gerry Cooney, and 'Irish' Ricky Hatton not count (I'm being facetious, but do remember they considered selling Hatton as Irish in the US because of some spurious irish connection.

Also (and seriously this time) what about Michael Carruth? I know he didn't do too much as a pro, but a gold medal is impressive.....what about number 10?

"sailor" Tom Sharkey
Peter Maher
Two top heavyweight contenders in the Corbett/ Fitzsimmons era. Irish born but had their careers in the U.S. Sharkey/ Dundalk and Maher / Galway

E wrote:Do 'Irish' Mickey Ward, 'Irish' Gerry Cooney, and 'Irish' Ricky Hatton not count (I'm being facetious, but do remember they considered selling Hatton as Irish in the US because of some spurious irish connection.

Also (and seriously this time) what about Michael Carruth? I know he didn't do too much as a pro, but a gold medal is impressive.....what about number 10?

Was thinking Carruth because of his amateur achievements.....definitely top 10.

Captain Hook wrote:

E wrote:Do 'Irish' Mickey Ward, 'Irish' Gerry Cooney, and 'Irish' Ricky Hatton not count (I'm being facetious, but do remember they considered selling Hatton as Irish in the US because of some spurious irish connection.

Also (and seriously this time) what about Michael Carruth? I know he didn't do too much as a pro, but a gold medal is impressive.....what about number 10?

Was thinking Carruth because of his amateur achievements.....definitely top 10.

He did also fight for a WBO title as a pro, and won the spurious WBB against former Commonwealth champ Scott Dixon