The Clones Cyclone

Born in the town of Clones in Ireland in 1960 the ever popular Barry McGuigan could be a deemed a British citizen by adoption, though before he was accepted as a Brit his roots would belong in the emerald isle. Clones it's self is a small town situated almost on the border between the North and the Republic of Ireland, and has recently been earmarked for investment by the Irish government due to it's low economic standing, caused by the split of the Irish country in the early part of the 1900's.

You may as why I'm sharing that little bit of local information, but like most boxers, this is an important part of McGuigans drive, coming from little to take the world crown is an often heard story in boxing folklore.
Fighters such as Manny Pacquiao, Mike Tyson and Muhammed Ali famously came from incredibly poor backgrounds before reaching the top of the sport, and either blowing their money (like Tyson), being ripped off (like Ali) or giving an awful lot of it to his fellow country man (like Pacquaio). McGuigan, despite his fathers career as a successful Irish singer, didn't come from a rich family , but a relatively poor one, Pat McGuigan (also known as Pat McGeegan) was never a giant earner as a singer, despite his status as a national hero after appearing at the 1968 Eurovision Song Contest (he came third with Massiel from spain winning it with "La, la, la").

Mcguigan's days as an amateur boxer would be highlighted with an Olympic appearance and an appearance at a commonwealth games (in Moscow 1980 and Edmonton 1978) . The Commonwealth games lead Mcguigan to his stand out result as an amateur winning the Gold medal, before his disappointment in the following Olympics in which he'd go out in the third round losing to Winfred Kabunda (who himself would lose to the eventual gold medallist Rudi Fink).

After the Olympics McGuigan would swiftly turn professional making his dbut in May of 1981 against Selvin Bell of Manchester, in Dublin would lead to a second round TKO win for McGuigan. Gary Lucas would be McGuigans second opponent and would also be a TKO victim, lasting until the fourth round on the undercard of the Alexis Arguello-Jim Watt card in London as Watt unsuccessfully defended his WBC lightweight title against the Nicaraguan idol.

McGuigans next fight would be one of the most controversial of his career against Peter Eubanks (older brother of the future 2 weight world champion Chris), McGuigan would lose his unbeaten record on a points decision that was decided by referee Roland Dakin who scored the bout 78-78 to Eubanks. Although McGuigan would avenge this defeat 4 months later (scoring an 8th round TKO). Oddly the first bout with Eubanks was 8 rounds of 2 minutes a rather peculiar format.

1982 would start with a fight against Jose Luis De La Sagra which McGuigan would win on points, before starting a run that went 18 straight fights won by stoppage. The rub started with two 3rd round stoppages in February of that year against Ian Murray and Angel Oliver before getting rid of Angelo Licata a round quicker. In his next fight he would record his first first round win against old rival Gary Lucas.

The next fight changed McGuigan's life and very nearly ended his career, as he fought a fighter called Young Ali from Nigeria, Ali had fought once previously (as far as the record books show, though African fighters records are often seen as being suspect), in a losing effort to Stix Macloud. McGuigan was10-1-0 with 8 KO's coming into the contest. Ali would lose by TKO in the 6th round before falling into a coma he'd never recover from, and sadly for Ali, and the world of boxing, he'd die around 5 months after the fight. McGuigan has admitted since that he almost quit the sport after this fight. In fact he wouldn't fight again for 6 months, taking his longest break from the ring as a professional until his fathers death.

Barry wouldn't fight again until October of 1982 a fight with Jimmy Duncan that would end via 4th round TKO for the returning Clones Cyclone. A fight the following month against the unbeaten Paul Huggins as a final eliminator for the British Featherweight Title (126lbs). This title fight would be against Vernon Penprase for the vacant belt, another stoppage win for McGuigan on the way to picking up his first professional belt, it wasn't long before he stepped up and won the next level of title.
A European title fight against Italian Valerio Nati (who would later go on to win the WBO Super Bantamweight title in 1989), Mcguigan won the vacant title which he would defend thrice (all by way of KO/TKO).

1985 would start with a fight against Juan La Porte, who had already been a world champion at featherweight (winning the WBC strap), and had lost to some of the best in the sport, such as Wilfredo Gomez, Salvador Sanchez and Eusebio Pedroza all in title fights (as well as a shocking upset in a non-title fight against Gerald Hayes). La Porte would lose on points an in turn be the first man to make McGuigan hear the final bell since Sagra in McGuigans 7th fight as a professional.

La Porte would for the rest of his career continue as a perennial title challenger often losing only to the top fighters of the era such as Puerto Rican John John Molina, Ghana's legendary Azumah Nelson, Kostya Tszyu, Eusebio Pedroza and Mexico's national hero Julio Cesar Chavez. Before fighting on too long to a point where he probably damaged his legacy.

The win over La Porte would help McGuigan up the rankings to a point where he himself could have a World Title fight against a fellow victor over La Porte. Eusebio Pedroza had won the title against Cecilio Lastra in 1978 and had held it for over 7 years before facing McGuigan. With 19 successful defences of the WBA title (18 wins and 1 draw), and having not lost for just shy of 10 years, the Panamanian was regarded by many as one of the top featherweights of all time having been the longest champion in the divisions 88 year history and also making more defences of the title than anyone else in the history of the division. Infact Boxrec have him ranked 13th overall, and Ring had him as their champion going into the McGuigan contest.

The WBC title was being passed around whilst Pedroza kept his title the WBC belt went from Danny "LittleRed" Lopez (holder 1976-1980) to Salvador Sanchez (1980-1982) (Sanchez died in a car accident), to Juan La Porte (1982-1984) to Wilfredo Gomez (1984) to Azumah Nelson who made a good run with the title losing it after McGuigan had retired.

Back on track, McGuigan would end Pedroza's unbeaten streak and take his belt back home with a career defining win at the Loftus Road football stadium in Shepards Bush, London. A defence of his newly acquired title followed 3 months later against unbeaten American Bernard Taylor (33-0-1), in which McGuigan would get back to his old ways of stopping opponents, with Taylor retiring at the end of the 6th round in a contest held in Kings Hall in Belfast.

Another successful defence of the title for McGuigan would follow at the start of the following year against Danilo Cabrera, held at The Point in Dublin. Cabrera had a record of 24-1-0 but had never been stopped, the fight would be controversially stopped when Cabrera bent over to pick up his gum-shield.

After this McGuigan would go to American to to defend his title in a contest against the, then little known Stevie Cruz, both fighters had 1 loss each on their record (Cruz had been stopped in the first round of a contest with Lenny Valdez), and 53 wins between them.

In Caesar Palace, Nevada Mcguigan was to make his US dbut, in what would turn out to be the Rings fight of the year for 1986, Cruz would win a unanimous decision and the title in what was regarded as an upset. The loss was blamed on dehydration due to the Nevada heat, and McGuigan went to the hospital to receive treatment for dehydration post fight. In what was his first "proper" loss in many people's eyes, the fight however was close, with 1 point difference on 2 cards and 4 points on the third.

He then retired from the sport, partly due to the loss and partly due to another loss in his life, the death of his father, who he'd always said was his biggest inspiration, had died after a battle with illness. Although like most boxers McGuigan's retirement was fairly short lived with a short 4 fight comeback starting in 1988.

The comeback began with a fight against Nicky Perez on the undercard of Nigel Benn's first international title shot (a fight for the Commonwealth crown at Middleweight). Perez was KO'd in the 4th round and 2 months later Francisco Tomas Da Cruz followed also lasting until the 4th round. The third fight of the of the comeback was against Julio Cesar Miranda, who would last until midway through the 8th round.

The final fight of the comeback was against Scotsman Jim McDonnell who'd lost 6 months earlier (his only loss going into the fight) to WBA super featherweight champion Brian Mitchell who beat him on points over 12 rounds. McDonnell would be the first and only man to stop Mcguigan, via a cut on the eye, after the 4th round TKO McGuigan retired from boxing as an active fighter and took up other roles with in the sport.

He had tried to set what would have effectively been a sort of boxers union, to try and prevent the crooked promoters and managers from taking too much control over a boxer, though this never fully developed he did managed to help start the Professional Boxing Association. The PBA help boxers to develop skills, education and training for work if and when their boxing careers are no longer profitable, this was set up in 2007. McGuigan is also a commentator working for ITV in the UK at boxing events along side Jim Rosenthal and 3 weight British World Champion Duke Mackenzie.

Away from boxing McGuigan and his wife have close links with the charity CLIC Sargent, who are an active cancer charity. And even had some crisps (potato chips) names after him in "Barry's stinging jabs" which were a limited product sold only in northern Ireland.

In his personal life Mcguigan has stood, much like George Best did before him as non-sectarian sporting icon, as he, a Roman Catholic, married a Protestant, and the phrase "Leave the fighting to McGuigan" was used to try and promote peace between the factions during "the troubles".

All in all McGuigan, who was by no stretch of the imagination an re-incarnation of Henry Armstrong inside the ring, was a hero and a national treasure. Standing up for peace in Ireland, trying to help boxers less fortunate than himself and being a genuine good guy.