Future looks bright for talented James
JAMES CAHILL INTERVIEW
MUHAMMAD Ali stumbled into the boxing world at 12 years old. The sporting icon’s bicycle had been stolen and a police officer, who doubled up as a boxing coach, happened upon young Cassius Clay promising to “whup” the thief. He suggested that the self-declared Greatest of All Time should channel his aggression in the ring and the rest is history.
James Cahill was on the wrong end of a whooping at 12 and that is how life in the ring began for him. Fast-forward seven years and he has just picked up a professional victory at the first time of asking. In that time, he’s been through three boxing clubs and many, many opponents but the next thing on his to-do list is to find a belt to wrap around his waist.
The 19-year-old hasn’t looked back since his tentative steps into the boxing world.
“I got into a fight with a lad and I got beaten up so that’s why I started boxing! I wanted to get trained to fight.
“I was in Ballywaltrim when I first started. I was there for about two years, then I moved to Enniskerry and now I’m in St. Theresa’s.
“Straight away, after my first fight I just thought, ‘this is deadly’. I won my first fight and I think I lost a few after that but it was the thing for me.
“I was scared (at first) but once I got over it, it was grand.”
Cahill spent approximately seven years as an amateur, taking glory in Leinster and Michael Andrews in that time. He also reached the last eight of the All-Irelands and got to box in Poland, America, Lithuania, Wales and England.
But the Kilmacanogue man find himself stagnating at that level so took the plunge and committed to becoming a professional boxer. There is normally a rigorous assessment required when doing so but Cahill’s catalogue of fights up to that point saw him fast-tracked.
The proof was in the pudding for Cahill as suddenly he reached levels he didn’t think he was capable of – but it didn’t come for free.
“Since I’ve turned pro I’ve been training twice a day but when I was an amateur, I never really put enough in I think and that’s why I didn’t do as well but now that I’m training twice a day – I’m flying.
“When I moved to Bray (St. Theresa’s boxing club, I decided to turn pro). My new manager (Mark Buckley) got me to put the work in and I started beating lads in sparring that I would’ve thought were really good and I’d be bateing the head off them so I started to think I actually am good.
“I’ve always had a bit of a pro style to me and I was going to get nowhere at amateur because I was getting robbed. I was robbed easily 10 times and that was in big fights so that’s when I said I’d give being a pro a bash. You could still get robbed there but it’s a different route.”
Poland’s Tomasz Goluch was the man that felt the force of all those hours of training Cahill endured. Goluch had a record of four wins and eight defeats before going toe-to-toe with Cahill.
The standard practice for pro debutants is that they will rattle through a few journeymen in their first few fights but Cahill explains that Goluch was far from a hired punching bag.
“The build-up to it was deadly. I’ve never really trained for just one fight before. When I’m training that much – I’ve never trained twice a day, every day before – it was just so much time put into it. I had been training three of four times a week and suddenly it was twice a day with only a Sunday off. It was a big step up but you can see it already in the last few weeks how far I’ve come on just with the extra training.
“I’m only going to get better but I’m at my peak at the moment – this is the best condition I’ve ever been in.
“They asked would I be okay fighting this lad and I said “yeah –no bother”. I just wanted to fight. I love to fight and I’ve another fight now in another seven weeks.
“He was a good journeyman. He can scrap. He was a good tough lad. I won’t be looking for easy opponents, I don’t want that.”
Although happy to pick up the victory on the night, Cahill can’t help but wonder should he have wrapped the contest up before the judges scored it in his favour.
“In sparring, I was twice as good as that. I wasn’t throwing as many shots as I should’ve been, I smothered a few shots too but I still got the win. I got the job done but there’s a lot more there. The excitement got to me and wanting to impress everybody.
“My timing. I can throw stupid shots when I should be throwing others. In sparring, he would’ve been dropped but I wasn’t throwing enough and I was getting cagey. It wasn’t bad but I wasn’t myself. In the next one I’ll show that I’m a lot better than that.”
The next one is seven weeks away. Cahill shouldn’t have to worry about making weight this time around but he will be strict with what he eats and drinks.
“Especially coming up to a fight, you have to cut everything out. I struggled trying to get the weight down for that fight, I had to come down by 10 kilos. I hadn’t fought for a while (nine months) and then I had to get back down to where I started off at. I’d bumped way up in weight and then I had to get back down but I’ll be staying down now. I’m 147 pounds (67 kilos). I’d like to get down more but I don’t think I will. I’m small for the weight but I’m heavy boned.”
Cahill wants to pack in a few more bouts before the festive season which would leave him in a promising position next year when he goes in search of some gold.
“I’ll be hoping to get three or four fights in before Christmas and then another couple next year and hopefully a title shot. There’s no messing around, I want to go straight to the highest level I can.
“I am strong. We’re doing strength and conditioning a lot and my power is really coming along. I’m half-decent at everything. If you’re only good at one or two things, you’re not going to make it far in boxing. You have to be good at it all.”
Cahill looks at home in the ring and he seems to have found a home at St. Theresa’s, where he is one of two professionals.
“It’s a good club. There’s a few very good young lads coming up.
“There’s probably bigger named clubs out there but I think Mark (Buckley) is one of the best coaches there is. Look at what he’s done with Regan (fellow pro and Mark’s son) and the minute he gets a chance with me he bumps me up. I won’t be moving.”
Any moving James does do will only be up the ranks.