‘HE WAS ALWAYS THERE FOR ME’
Tribute to Billy Mckee, the founder and head coach of Midland ABC
BILLY MCKEE, the founder, head coach and former president of Midland ABC in Belfast, has died at the age of 83.
Among his achievements, he trained two-weight world champion Carl Frampton from the beginning of his amateur career and set him on the path towards the great success he enjoyed. He was Carl’s coach from the age seven right up until he turned professional at 22 and so was a real mentor for him.
Speaking to Boxing News, Frampton described the impact Mckee had on him. “He was ill for a while, he had Covid. He got over it around November and then he had this long Covid but I believed was he was going to recover from it, he was going to come out of this long Covid and he didn’t. Very, very sad. Billy’s a great man. He hated the pro game, so many amateur coaches do. He was always there for me. Very, very wise, just full of wisdom. He seemed to have an answer for everything, just a very, very wise man that I owe so much to. He done so much for me, fought my corner as an amateur constantly,” Carl said. “He was just a great man. He was 83 years old but when you’re not expecting someone to die, when you’re expecting them to get better, it’s still a bit of a shock.”
“He’s a real family man and he always tried to instil those sort of beliefs – your family is more important than boxing or anything else. It’s always important to look after your kids, be a good person. Obviously success stories in amateur clubs are people winning titles but he always put the big success stories down to kids and adults who were on the wrong path and maybe changed that direction through boxing and being in the club,” Frampton continued. “There’s so many and for him they were always the real success stories.
“He often described the club as more like a community centre and the coaches were like unqualified counsellors.
Because the people that come through the club, the amount of problems that people have. People let off a bit of steam down there and they could talk to people down there. Billy dedicated his life to helping others through boxing. He’ll be sadly missed.”