FIGHTING MY BACK WAY
John Joe Nevin’s career looked over in 2014 when his legs were broken in a family row...now he’s on the same bill as Katie Taylor and relishing a new beginning
WHEN it came to introducing the fighters to the Philadelphia public during the week, John Joe Nevin was overlooked. Eddie Hearn bestowed that honour on two other Irish fighters – Katie Taylor whom Hearn, with typical bluster, called ‘my favourite fighter at the moment’, and undefeated Dubliner Jono Carroll, who is hoping to replicate the Rocky story by challenging IBF super-featherweight champion Tevin Farmer, a hometown favourite.
There’s a distinctly Irish flavour to Matchroom’s card in Philly on St Patrick’s weekend but Nevin, as the third Irish fighter, is only a support act. He’s buried deep on the undercard, a name with which you were once familiar and to which you may become acquainted.
Five years ago, following his impressive pro debut in Boston, had Nevin been told that two Irish boxers would be involved in world title bouts in Philly on Patrick’s weekend 2019, it would have been reasonable for him to assume he’d be one of them. He had relocated to ‘the city of Brotherly Love’ to follow his professional dream. The world seemed alive with possibilities.
Life outside the ring got in his way, though. Home from Philly after his first pro fight, he got tangled up in a family dispute in Mullingar that saw him left with two broken legs. Yet, having been told he might never fight again, he was back in the ring within seven months, knocking Calvin Stifford out in 86 seconds. A month later, the same fate befell Jack Heath at the 3 Arena – Nevin’s one and only pro bout in Ireland.
As was clear from the London Olympics, when his dazzling boxing skills took him to a silver medal, he was as talented a fighter as Ireland has produced and seemed destined for the top. There’s been a lot of trouble along the way, though – starting with the broken legs. Unable able to train or shuffle his feet, alcohol relieved the boredom. There were more court appearances. Altercations outside pubs. He was made to denote to the poor box and St Vincent de Paul. In April 2015, one judge barred him from every pub in Mullingar. It didn’t help that his boxing career stalled at the same time. Over a two-year period, he managed just one fight. Next month in Philly will be only his 12th pro fight. His old friend Taylor has managed that amount in just over two years.
If Hearn had been so inclined at Wednesday’s press conference, with his promotional patter, he might have talked about how Nevin made the Mullingar shuffle famous in London and claimed that this was a new beginning for the fighter. Nevin believes it to be.
‘I feel like I’m starting over. This is a new start for me,’ Nevin, now 29, says quietly down the phone from Mullingar. He had just arrived back from London where he’d been training under the watchful eye of Jim McDonnell, before heading off to Philly to enter training camp for next month’s bout.
‘I’ve had my troubles, everyone knows that. I’ve had injuries, other problems. But that’s all in the past now. I can look forward. This is a great opportunity to fight on this card and I am ready to show what I can do.’
Nevin will be in the margins as he watches Taylor attempt to collect her third world title belt against Brazil’s WBO champion Rose Volante. There was a time when the two friends stood side-by-side as the best pair of fighters produced by the IABA’s high performance programme.
‘It will be great to catch up with Katie. We haven’t boxed on the same card in five or six years, so it will be like old times, catching up. She has done brilliantly since turning professional, but everyone knew she would.’
Nevin wants to follow his friend to the top of the boxing world. Everywhere he looks, he sees reminders of his greatness as an amateur. Oscar Valdez, whom he beat in the quarter-finals in London, is currently the WBO featherweight champion. Dennis Ceylan, the Dane that he trounced in the first round, has been European champion. Luke Campbell, who narrowly beat him in that Olympic final, has challenged for a world title.
‘The plan is to fight for a world title in 2020. I believe that I could fight for a world title now but you have to bide your time and you can’t skip the queue. I understand that, I have to show that I can. But Valdez is the WBO champion, Ceylan has been European champion. There will be opportunities for me when I start climbing the ladder.’
Everything in Nevin’s life revolves around that fateful afternoon in April 2014 when he intervened in a family dispute. A professional career that had promised so much lay in ruins as he left Mullingar hospital in a wheelchair.
‘When it happened, when I got both my legs broken, they told me that I would never fight again,’ Nevin recalls. ‘So, I know what it is like to have your dream snatched away, or feel like it has been snatched away. Anything other than that is just a setback. I’ve had to pull out of shows a week before a fight because of a hand injury, chest injury, but they are nothing compared to being told that.’
But, even if he was able to fight again, there was a fear that he wouldn’t be the same fighter. His boxing skills depend on his fast footwork, his ability to evade danger – the origin of the Mullingar shuffle.
‘They told me my footwork wouldn’t be the same again, because of my broken legs. But my legs are better than they have ever been,’ he explains.
Nine months after the attack, he met his assailant. ‘We made our peace. It was about doing things right and that was the right thing to do.’ Under the guidance of Billy Walsh, who was a father figure in the high performance programme, Nevin had rarely been out of the ring. Always training, or finding ways to fill his days. Months with nothing to do took some adjusting.
Being away from home was equally difficult. But after being taken under McDonnell’s wing in London, they worked out a deal where he would travel over on the Monday for training and come back the Friday.
‘When I first turned over [to being a pro], I did change my style a little bit because I went over to Philly and thought I had to get away from the amateur style, but working with Jim in London, he told me that I shouldn’t change the style that got me to an Olympic final, made me the number one ranked amateur boxer in the world. So, I have gone back to what I knew before.
‘And it is tough being away from the kids for a few weeks at a time. But this is why I am doing it, I am doing it for their future, so they can go to college. There are lads who are doing life in prison who can’t see their families. There are people in far worse situations. I miss my family, but I am doing it for them.’
John Joe Nevin is looking forward to catching up and reminiscing about their days as top amateurs with Katie Taylor in the next couple of weeks. He’s looking forward to making a fresh start, in front of a typically rabid Philly crowd, many of whom already follow him.
He feels the year ahead is going to be significant.
‘Light a few candles and say a few prayers that there will be no hiccups and that I can get a clear run, because then I will be able to show what I can do.’
‘I KNOW WHAT IT IS LIKE TO HAVE YOUR DREAM TAKEN FROM YOU’