James “Buddy” McGirt: A Thinking Man’s Fighter in 2019 Hall of Fame Class

During the late 80s and early 90s whenever the name Buddy McGirt was mentioned it conjured up images of East Coast boxing.

“I’m all East Coast baby,” says McGirt whose given name is James McGirt Jr.

The two division world champion McGirt will be officially inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame on Saturday June 8, at Canastota, New York. He will be inducted along with Donald Curry, Julian Jackson, Tony DeMarco, Lee Samuels, Teddy Atlas, Don Elbaum, and Guy Jutras.

“I got emotional when I got the call,” McGirt (pictured with Sergey Kovalev) said upon learning of his selection.

Today, McGirt, 55, remains visible in the boxing scene as a trainer and can be seen bending over advising his younger charges like Kovalev the light heavyweight champion from Russia. For the past decade McGirt moved his home base to Southern California and has been sharing his knowledge of boxing to the young boxing guns of today.

But, during his fighting era, McGirt was quite a fighter.

Based out of Brentwood, New York the fighter known as Buddy burst on the pro boxing scene back in 1982 and in his professional debut fought against an opponent with two wins and no losses. McGirt fought to a draw. Over the years he showed a proficiency for being a very technically sound fighter with a stubbornness for not yielding to bigger and seemingly stronger competition. He accrued 80 professional engagements.

Winter Weather

Those freezing East Coast winters drove the native New Yorker to the boxing gym. Though he dabbled with football, it was boxing that kept him inside.

“Standing in the cold getting tackled was not my cup of tea,” said McGirt a Long Island resident back in the late 1970s. “When I first started boxing I started one game in football and it was freezing. The field was hard and cold and I said to myself I can be in a hot boxing gym instead of freezing my butt off. Once I started boxing that was it.”

During his early years as a professional, the established young stars were Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvin Hagler, and the Spinks brothers Leon and Michael. In one period Michael Spinks prepared at his gym under the guidance of the late great Eddie Futch.

“In 83 (Spinks) was training for a fight and I watched him train every day religiously. Loved his work ethic and admired the way he trained. Whatever Eddie Futch asked him to do he did it. He was knocking out guys with 20 ounce gloves,” said McGirt of Michael Spinks. “He was smart, he could fight. I really think he don’t get the credit. Look at his record and look at who he beat. He got one loss to a young prime Mike Tyson then he retired. He drew and beat every heavyweight out there in his era.”

Fighting smart was a trademark of McGirt too.

Though not blessed with the fastest hands or biggest punch, McGirt had plenty of weaponry and competed against legendary opponents that possessed some of those tremendous assets like Howard Davis, Pernell Whitaker, Simon Brown, Meldrick Taylor, Saoul Mamby, Frankie Warren and Tony Baltazar.

In 1988 he met undefeated Frankie Warren for the vacant IBF super lightweight world title in Corpus Christi, Texas and won by knockout in the 12^th round of a scheduled 15-round fight. It was payback for McGirt who lost his first pro fight to Warren a couple of years earlier.

McGirt made his first title defense against the ridiculously fast Howard Davis Jr. who many contend had the fastest hands of any prizefighter in the game. Most picked Davis to defeat McGirt but he had sparred with him years earlier and knew what to expect. He devised a game plan when they met in July 1988.

“Howard Davis, I sparred him as a kid. I don’t think there was anybody as fast as him. He was fast as lightning,” said McGirt whose plan to defend against superior speed proved foolproof. “You have to offset their rhythm. Sometimes you punch when they punch or when they get ready and you get out of the way, don’t try to stand there because they are too fast.”

Years later, he moved up to the welterweight division and fought the powerful Simon Brown for the WBC world title. The power punching Brown had been a long time IBF belt holder and then won the WBC version by knocking out Maurice Blocker in 1991.

“He was confident, the best welter in the division, he was knocking everybody out,” said McGirt of Brown. “He just knocked out his best friend Maurice Blocker. What’s he going to do to me? I had a game plan and stuck to it.”

Though McGirt couldn’t match the firepower of Brown he was not without his own mental weaponry and defeated him by nullifying his power to win by unanimous decision in Las Vegas in November 1991.

That was McGirt being McGirt.

“Boxing is a thinking man’s game,” said McGirt.

Now, the thinking man’s fighter has been chosen to enter International Boxing’s Hall of Fame.

“I just believed in fighting the best,” McGirt says adding that he wished he could have fought Julio Cesar Chavez and Sugar Ray Leonard. “Sugar Ray was in an era a little before me.”

But it’s his time to enter the Hall of Fame and join the others.

“Winning my championships were my two greatest moments, but now, getting into the Hall of Fame, you can’t get no higher,” said McGirt proudly. “Boxing fans are the best.”

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