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Eamonn Magee: Dignity in Troubled Times

An hour before the biggest fight of his career, Eamonn Magee stood outside the MEN Arena in Manchester, England, smoking a cigarette. Inside, more than 20,000 fans were preparing to vent their animosity toward the Belfast man ahead of his bout with hometown hero Ricky Hatton. Always one to show defiance, Magee later exacerbated the hostile crowd’s ire by wearing an outfit in the Irish tricolor with sunglasses of the same design.
As he was called to approach the ring for that 2002 fight, Magee (above, in Rich Wade photo, see more on RichWade.com) willingly stood in the aisle for what seemed like an interminably long time. Through a hardened visage defined by a misshapen nose, protruding cheekbones and a lack of front teeth, Magee smiled, absorbing the jeers and baiting the crowd for more. The louder the boos, the more energized Magee became.
Almost 13 years to the day later, Magee again found himself confronted with adversity while standing before a crowd. But this time there was silence. His tricolor attire was absent, replaced by a black suit and red tie. Through puffy eyes Magee stared vacantly into the distance. A tear ran down his cheek.
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Fighting in the ring has been the easiest part of Magee’s life, with an unwillingness to conform leading to turbulence throughout his 43 years. That appetite for dissent can be traced back to Magee’s upbringing in the epicenter of Northern Ireland’s sectarian violence.
Born in the Ardoyne, a Catholic enclave surrounded by Protestant strongholds, Magee’s family focused on boxing as an escape from the city’s conflict. Indeed, Magee’s mother told her three sons that boxing was as important as school.
“Growing up in the Ardoyne, you become used to the violence,” Magee said in 2004. “It was a normal part of life. You’re young and, in a funny way, you enjoyed it.”
It appeared that his mother’s guidance was justified as Magee’s talent for boxing was quickly evident, and in 1992 he seemed ready to represent Ireland at the Olympic Games. He won the Irish title that year, which traditionally guaranteed an Olympic berth. But in an unusual move, the Irish selectors decided not to automatically choose Magee and instead asked him to prove himself worthy by fighting an opponent he had already beaten. Unhappy with the new arrangement, Magee refused to partake in the fight, told the selectors to “stick it up their arses,” and promptly quit boxing altogether.
Magee’s stubborn nature also seemed to generate hostility from outside the boxing community. A couple of years prior, he was lucky to survive a street fight in which his neck was slashed by a broken glass bottle. Later in 1992 he was abducted by the IRA paramilitary group in what was known as a “punishment attack.” Magee’s assailants beat him, pinned him to the ground and shot him in the thigh. Occurrences such as this were typically carried out for a reason, and while Magee refused to reveal how he fell afoul of the IRA, he admitted that he “was up to no good.”
After several years of idleness on the streets of Belfast, Magee finally returned to boxing and entered the pro ranks at 24. Some early success seemed to convince him that committing to prizefighting was worthwhile, and under the tutelage of John Breen he gained recognition as one of the better 140-pound fighters in Europe. Despite his headstrong demeanor outside the ring, Magee was a thoughtful boxer who used patience and smooth defensive skills to wait for an opening before unleashing hurtful barrages on his opponents.
There were some stumbling blocks early in Magee’s career when he lost two bouts by points, decisions that could have gone his way. The defeats took the gloss off his record and dented his progress, resulting in some meager paydays.
“Boxing is the f—— hardest game in the world, and the one with the lowest wages,” recalled Magee. “It controls your life, and the lives of your wife and kids, too. They all have to look after you, mood swings and all.”
Despite the setbacks, Magee recorded victories over some of the top fighters in Britain and was eventually rewarded with a lucrative 2002 bout against rising superstar Ricky Hatton. In that fight Magee knocked the unbeaten Hatton down in the first round, silencing the shocked crowd.
The bout ultimately went the distance, with the judges declaring Hatton the victor. Yet Magee had defied the odds in rattling Hatton, and the unexpectedly strong showing was all the more impressive given that Magee’s preparation was not ideal. “He had been on the booze up until two weeks before the fight,” Magee’s trainer John Breen said in 2007.
Magee’s performance in the high-profile event boosted his name recognition and in 2004 he was in negotiations for a bout with world titlist Sharmba Mitchell. But his ambitions were abruptly halted by a series of incidents triggered by the seemingly innocuous presence of a snowman.
A dispute between Magee’s children and those of his neighbors’ over the destruction of a snowman attracted the attention of the fathers. Words were exchanged and the dispute quickly escalated, resulted in the neighbors dragging Magee from his car and severely beating the boxer with a baseball bat. The attack left Magee with a broken left leg, fractured left knee and punctured lung.
Magee underwent surgery to have muscle grafted on his shattered leg, and doctors told him to forget about his boxing career; even walking would be a daunting challenge. Yet if there’s one thing that Magee doesn’t like, it’s being told what to do. Remarkably, Magee was back in the ring one year later, recording his 26th professional victory.
Even so, age and restricted mobility caught up with him, and after another win and two defeats, he retired from boxing in 2007 with a 27-6 pro record. Training up-and-coming boxers at Breen’s gym seemed like an ideal vehicle for Magee to transition into retirement, but it proved insufficient to rein in his fiery temperament.
The subsequent years saw Magee’s wealth dwindle, with gambling a major drain. “Everyone thinks I’ve made a mint from boxing and I’m rolling in it, but I’ve lost an awful lot,” he said in 2009. In addition, there have been convictions for assault, while his lawyer noted in 2013 that there are days when Magee is paralyzed by anxiety, forcing the ex-fighter to lock himself away from society.
Yet in Magee’s seemingly dark world, a shining light began to brighten his outlook last year. His son, Eamonn Jr., became a professional boxer, vowing to repeat Senior’s in-ring success. Magee showed a keen interest in his offspring’s new career, which indicated early signs of promise via two convincing victories.
Moreover, Eamonn Jr. also showed ambition beyond the ropes as he enrolled in university last September to study for a degree in housing management. During media interviews Eamonn Jr. cited his father as an inspiration, but Magee Sr. seemed just as energized by his son’s exploits, and in recent months he was regularly seen in Breen’s gym training young boxers with a spring in his step.
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In early June, Magee stood in front of a crowd on the outskirts of Belfast. Instead of fans, he was now surrounded by mourners. Walking alongside his son’s mother, Mary, Magee was once again thrust into the public eye. Undoubtedly, leading such a procession was a far more daunting task than anything he had previously experienced.
Several nights prior he received a phone call at three in the morning. The voice on the line asked Magee if he could travel across the city to identify a body. A 22-year old male had been stabbed to death in West Belfast. Eamonn Magee Jr.’s promising life had been cruelly extinguished.
Stepping out of a friend’s house to receive a pizza delivery at 2:30 a.m., Magee Jr. was savagely attacked by a 32-year-old man, Orhan Koca, who was lying in wait. Stabbed several times, Magee Jr. died soon after arriving in the hospital. The suspect’s petty motive made the crime all the more horrifying; he was reportedly jealous of Magee Jr. striking up a relationship with a former girlfriend of his.
The news stunned the Belfast community, with hundreds attending Magee Jr.’s funeral service. In addition, a large crowd supported Magee Sr. as he attended the court hearing that formally charged Koca with murder. Anger against Koca was also evidenced by an attack on him in jail and vandalism at businesses where he previously worked.
Yet throughout the tumult, Magee Sr. maintained a solemn dignity. Not always keen on doing media interviews, Magee summoned the strength to speak with reporters in the days after the tragedy, despite the emotional strain on his face. Magee’s words of grief focused on paying tribute to the young life lost, rather than the events surrounding the crime.
“(Eamonn Jr.) was always full of laughter, always full of fun, he went everywhere with me,” said Magee. “When he grew up he done everything for his mother, would have done anything for anybody.
“I don’t know how to get my heard around it. What a journey that is, from your house over to the hospital to identify your son. It’s a journey that I wouldn’t wish on any parent.”
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In late July, six weeks after his son’s death, Magee was back on the Belfast streets. This time he wore a wide smile. He gave a salutary wave to a crowd of several hundred that had turned out for a charity run organized in the memory of his son. The community cheered as Magee walked arm-in-arm with Mary. Dozens of well-wishers rushed over to offer a hug.
Despite the rawness of the tragedy, Magee kept a sanguine demeanor throughout the day, matching the uncharacteristically sunny weather.
“This event has been fantastic and it’s given me an opportunity to thank everybody in the whole community for what they’ve done for my son,” said Magee, with the emotion of the occasion creeping into his voice.
Magee may have been a divisive figure in the past, and known for being a hard man due to an inclination for combat. But under the harshest of circumstances that any parent could encounter, Magee showed true toughness in maintaining decorum, and unified a community behind him.
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Avila Perspective, Chap. 323: Benn vs Eubank Family Feud and More

Next generation rivals Conor Benn and Chris Eubank Jr. carry on the family legacy of feudal warring in the prize ring on Saturday.
This is huge in British boxing.
Eubank (34-3, 25 KOs) holds the fringe IBO middleweight title but won’t be defending it against the smaller welterweight Benn (23-0, 14 KOs) on Saturday, April 26, at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London. DAZN will stream the Matchroom Boxing card.
This is about family pride.
The parents of Eubank and Benn actually began the feud in the 1990s.
Papa Nigel Benn fought Papa Chris Eubank twice. Losing as a middleweight in November 1990 at Birmingham, England, then fighting to a draw as a super middleweight in October 1993 in Manchester. Both were world title fights.
Eubank was undefeated and won the WBO middleweight world title in 1990 against Nigel Benn by knockout. He defended it three times before moving up and winning the vacant WBO super middleweight title in September 1991. He defended the super middleweight title 14 times before suffering his first pro defeat in March 1995 against Steve Collins.
Benn won the WBO middleweight title in April 1990 against Doug DeWitt and defended it once before losing to Eubank in November 1990. He moved up in weight and took the WBC super middleweight title from Mauro Galvano in Italy by technical knockout in October 1992. He defended the title nine times until losing in March 1996. His last fight was in November 1996, a loss to Steve Collins.
Animosity between the two families continues this weekend in the boxing ring.
Conor Benn, the son of Nigel, has fought mostly as a welterweight but lately has participated in the super welterweight division. He is several inches shorter in height than Eubank but has power and speed. Kind of a British version of Gervonta “Tank” Davis.
“It’s always personal, every opponent I fight is personal. People want to say it’s strictly business, but it’s never business. If someone is trying to put their hands on me, trying to render me unconscious, it’s never business,” said Benn.
This fight was scheduled twice before and cut short twice due to failed PED tests by Benn. The weight limit agreed upon is 160 pounds.
Eubank, a natural middleweight, has exchanged taunts with Benn for years. He recently avenged a loss to Liam Smith with a knockout victory in September 2023.
“This fight isn’t about size or weight. It’s about skill. It’s about dedication. It’s about expertise and all those areas in which I excel in,” said Eubank. “I have many, many more years of experience over Conor Benn, and that will be the deciding factor of the night.”
Because this fight was postponed twice, the animosity between the two feuding fighters has increased the attention of their fans. Both fighters are anxious to flatten each other.
“He’s another opponent in my way trying to crush my dreams. trying to take food off my plate and trying to render me unconscious. That’s how I look at him,” said Benn.
Eubank smiles.
“Whether it’s boxing, whether it’s a gun fight. Defense, offense, foot movement, speed, power. I am the superior boxer in each of those departments and so many more – which is why I’m so confident,” he said.
Supporting Bout
Former world champion Liam Smith (33-4-1, 20 KOs) tangles with Ireland’s Aaron McKenna (19-0, 10 KOs) in a middleweight fight set for 12 rounds on the Benn-Eubank undercard in London.
“Beefy” Smith has long been known as one of the fighting Smith brothers and recently lost to Eubank a year and a half ago. It was only the second time in 38 bouts he had been stopped. Saul “Canelo” Alvarez did it several years ago.
McKenna is a familiar name in Southern California. The Irish fighter fought numerous times on Golden Boy Promotion cards between 2017 and 2019 before returning to the United Kingdom and his assault on continuing the middleweight division. This is a big step for the tall Irish fighter.
It’s youth versus experience.
“I’ve been calling for big fights like this for the last two or three years, and it’s a fight I’m really excited for. I plan to make the most of it and make a statement win on Saturday night,” said McKenna, one of two fighting brothers.
Monster in L.A.
Japan’s super star Naoya “Monster” Inoue arrived in Los Angeles for last day workouts before his Las Vegas showdown against Ramon Cardenas on Sunday May 4, at T-Mobile Arena. ESPN will televise and stream the Top Rank card.
It’s been four years since the super bantamweight world champion performed in the US and during that time Naoya (29-0, 26 KOs) gathered world titles in different weight divisions. The Japanese slugger has also gained fame as perhaps the best fighter on the planet. Cardenas is 26-1 with 14 KOs.
Pomona Fights
Super featherweights Mathias Radcliffe (9-0-1) and Ezequiel Flores (6-4) lead a boxing card called “DMG Night of Champions” on Saturday April 26, at the historic Fox Theater in downtown Pomona, Calif.
Michaela Bracamontes (11-2-1) and Jesus Torres Beltran (8-4-1) will be fighting for a regional WBC super featherweight title. More than eight bouts are scheduled.
Doors open at 6 p.m. For ticket information go to: www.tix.com/dmgnightofchampions
Fights to Watch
Sat. DAZN 9 a.m. Conor Benn (23-0) vs Chris Eubank Jr. (34-3); Liam Smith (33-4-1) vs Aaron McKenna (19-0).
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Floyd Mayweather has Another Phenom and his name is Curmel Moton

Floyd Mayweather has Another Phenom and his name is Curmel Moton
In any endeavor, the defining feature of a phenom is his youth. Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Bryce Harper was a phenom. He was on the radar screen of baseball’s most powerful player agents when he was 14 years old.
Curmel Moton, who turns 19 in June, is a phenom. Of all the young boxing stars out there, wrote James Slater in July of last year, “Curmel Moton is the one to get most excited about.”
Moton was born in Salt Lake City, Utah. His father Curtis Moton, a barber by trade, was a big boxing fan and specifically a big fan of Floyd Mayweather Jr. When Curmel was six, Curtis packed up his wife (Curmel’s stepmom) and his son and moved to Las Vegas. Curtis wanted his son to get involved in boxing and there was no better place to develop one’s latent talents than in Las Vegas where many of the sport’s top practitioners came to train.
Many father-son relationships have been ruined, or at least frayed, by a father’s unrealistic expectations for his son, but when it came to boxing, the boy was a natural and he felt right at home in the gym.
The gym the Motons patronized was the Mayweather Boxing Club. Curtis took his son there in hopes of catching the eye of the proprietor. “Floyd would occasionally drop by the gym and I was there so often that he came to recognize me,” says Curmel. What he fails to add is that the trainers there had Floyd’s ear. “This kid is special,” they told him.
It costs a great deal of money for a kid to travel around the country competing in a slew of amateur boxing tournaments. Only a few have the luxury of a sponsor. For the vast majority, fund raisers such as car washes keep the wheels greased.
Floyd Mayweather stepped in with the financial backing needed for the Motons to canvas the country in tournaments. As an amateur, Curmel was — take your pick — 156-7 or 144-6 or 61-3 (the latter figure from boxrec). Regardless, at virtually every tournament at which he appeared, Curmel Moton was the cock of the walk.
Before the pandemic, Floyd Mayweather Jr had a stable of boxers he promoted under the banner of “The Money Team.” In talking about his boxers, Floyd was understated with one glaring exception – Gervonta “Tank” Davis, now one of boxing’s top earners.
When Floyd took to praising Curmel Moton with the same effusive language, folks stood up and took notice.
Curmel made his pro debut on Sept. 30, 2023, at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on the undercard of the super middleweight title fight between Canelo Alvarez and Jermell Charlo. After stopping his opponent in the opening round, he addressed a flock of reporters in the media room with Floyd standing at his side. “I felt ready,” he said, “I knew I had Floyd behind me. He believes in me. I had the utmost confidence going into the fight. And I went in there and did what I do.”
Floyd ventured the opinion that Curmel was already a better fighter than Leigh Wood, the reigning WBA world featherweight champion who would successfully defend his belt the following week.
Moton’s boxing style has been described as a blend of Floyd Mayweather and Tank Davis. “I grew up watching Floyd, so it’s natural I have some similarities to him,” says Curmel who sparred with Tank in late November of 2021 as Davis was preparing for his match with Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz. Curmell says he did okay. He was then 15 years old and still in school; he dropped out as soon as he reached the age of 16.
Curmel is now 7-0 with six KOs, four coming in the opening round. He pitched an 8-round shutout the only time he was taken the distance. It’s not yet official, but he returns to the ring on May 31 at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas where Caleb Plant and Jermall Charlo are co-featured in matches conceived as tune-ups for a fall showdown. The fight card will reportedly be free for Amazon Prime Video subscribers.
Curmel’s presumptive opponent is Renny Viamonte, a 28-year-old Las Vegas-based Cuban with a 4-1-1 (2) record. It will be Curmel’s first professional fight with Kofi Jantuah the chief voice in his corner. A two-time world title challenger who began his career in his native Ghana, the 50-year-old Jantuah has worked almost exclusively with amateurs, a recent exception being Mikaela Mayer.
It would seem that the phenom needs a tougher opponent than Viamonte at this stage of his career. However, the match is intriguing in one regard. Viamonte is lanky. Listed at 5-foot-11, he will have a seven-inch height advantage.
Keeping his weight down has already been problematic for Moton. He tipped the scales at 128 ½ for his most recent fight. His May 31 bout, he says, will be contested at 135 and down the road it’s reasonable to think he will blossom into a welterweight. And with each bump up in weight, his short stature will theoretically be more of a handicap.
For fun, we asked Moton to name the top fighter on his pound-for-pound list. “[Oleksandr] Usyk is number one right now,” he said without hesitation,” great footwork, but guys like Canelo, Crawford, Inoue, and Bivol are right there.”
It’s notable that there isn’t a young gun on that list. Usyk is 38, a year older than Crawford; Inoue is the pup at age 32.
Moton anticipates that his name will appear on pound-for-pound lists within the next two or three years. True, history is replete with examples of phenoms who flamed out early, but we wouldn’t bet against it.
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Arne’s Almanac: The First Boxing Writers Assoc. of America Dinner Was Quite the Shindig

The first annual dinner of the Boxing Writers Association of America was staged on April 25, 1926 in the grand ballroom of New York’s Hotel Astor, an edifice that rivaled the original Waldorf Astoria as the swankiest hotel in the city. Back then, the organization was known as the Boxing Writers Association of Greater New York.
The ballroom was configured to hold 1200 for the banquet which was reportedly oversubscribed. Among those listed as agreeing to attend were the governors of six states (New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and Maryland) and the mayors of 10 of America’s largest cities.
In 1926, radio was in its infancy and the digital age was decades away (and inconceivable). So, every journalist who regularly covered boxing was a newspaper and/or magazine writer, editor, or cartoonist. And at this juncture in American history, there were plenty of outlets for someone who wanted to pursue a career as a sportswriter and had the requisite skills to get hired.
The following papers were represented at the inaugural boxing writers’ dinner:
New York Times
New York News
New York World
New York Sun
New York Journal
New York Post
New York Mirror
New York Telegram
New York Graphic
New York Herald Tribune
Brooklyn Eagle
Brooklyn Times
Brooklyn Standard Union
Brooklyn Citizen
Bronx Home News
This isn’t a complete list because a few of these papers, notably the New York World and the New York Journal, had strong afternoon editions that functioned as independent papers. Plus, scribes from both big national wire services (Associated Press and UPI) attended the banquet and there were undoubtedly a smattering of scribes from papers in New Jersey and Connecticut.
Back then, the event’s organizer Nat Fleischer, sports editor of the New York Telegram and the driving force behind The Ring magazine, had little choice but to limit the journalistic component of the gathering to writers in the New York metropolitan area. There wasn’t a ballroom big enough to accommodate a good-sized response if he had extended the welcome to every boxing writer in North America.
The keynote speaker at the inaugural dinner was New York’s charismatic Jazz Age mayor James J. “Jimmy” Walker, architect of the transformative Walker Law of 1920 which ushered in a new era of boxing in the Empire State with a template that would guide reformers in many other jurisdictions.
Prizefighting was then associated with hooligans. In his speech, Mayor Walker promised to rid the sport of their ilk. “Boxing, as you know, is closest to my heart,” said hizzoner. “So I tell you the police force is behind you against those who would besmirch or injure boxing. Rowdyism doesn’t belong in this town or in your game.” (In 1945, Walker would be the recipient of the Edward J. Neil Memorial Award given for meritorious service to the sport. The oldest of the BWAA awards, the previous recipients were all active or former boxers. The award, no longer issued under that title, was named for an Associated Press sportswriter and war correspondent who died from shrapnel wounds covering the Spanish Civil War.)
Another speaker was well-traveled sportswriter Wilbur Wood, then affiliated with the Brooklyn Citizen. He told the assembly that the aim of the organization was two-fold: to help defend the game against its detractors and to promote harmony among the various factions.
Of course, the 1926 dinner wouldn’t have been as well-attended without the entertainment. According to press dispatches, Broadway stars and performers from some of the city’s top nightclubs would be there to regale the attendees. Among the names bandied about were vaudeville superstars Sophie Tucker and Jimmy Durante, the latter of whom would appear with his trio, Durante, (Lou) Clayton, and (Eddie) Jackson.
There was a contraction of New York newspapers during the Great Depression. Although empirical evidence is lacking, the inaugural boxing writers dinner was likely the largest of its kind. Fifteen years later, in 1941, the event drew “more than 200” according to a news report. There was no mention of entertainment.
In 1950, for the first time, the annual dinner was opened to the public. For $25, a civilian could get a meal and mingle with some of his favorite fighters. Sugar Ray Robinson was the Edward J. Neil Award winner that year, honored for his ring exploits and for donating his purse from the Charlie Fusari fight to the Damon Runyon Cancer Fund.
There was no formal announcement when the Boxing Writers Association of Greater New York was re-christened the Boxing Writers Association of America, but by the late 1940s reporters were referencing the annual event as simply the boxing writers dinner. By then, it had become traditional to hold the annual affair in January, a practice discontinued after 1971.
The winnowing of New York’s newspaper herd plus competing banquets in other parts of the country forced Nat Fleischer’s baby to adapt. And more adaptations will be necessary in the immediate future as the future of the BWAA, as it currently exists, is threatened by new technologies. If the forthcoming BWAA dinner (April 30 at the Edison Ballroom in mid-Manhattan) were restricted to wordsmiths from the traditional print media, the gathering would be too small to cover the nut and the congregants would be drawn disproportionately from the geriatric class.
Some of those adaptations have already started. Last year, Las Vegas resident Sean Zittel, a recent UNLV graduate, had the distinction of becoming the first videographer welcomed into the BWAA. With more and more people getting their news from sound bites, rather than the written word, the videographer serves an important function.
The reporters who conducted interviews with pen and paper have gone the way of the dodo bird and that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. A taped interview for a “talkie” has more integrity than a story culled from a paper and pen interview because it is unfiltered. Many years ago, some reporters, after interviewing the great Joe Louis, put words in his mouth that made him seem like a dullard, words consistent with the Sambo stereotype. In other instances, the language of some athletes was reconstructed to the point where the reader would think the athlete had a second job as an English professor.
The content created by videographers is free from that bias. More of them will inevitably join the BWAA and similar organizations in the future.
Photo: Nat Fleischer is flanked by Sugar Ray Robinson and Tony Zale at the 1947 boxing writers dinner.
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