Crum and have a go!
MAC’S FIRST CLUB BACK THEIR BOY
THE walls of Crumlin Amateur Boxing Club in Dublin are adorned with pictures of past and present members.
There are boxers who have represented Ireland at world and European championships as well as the Olympics.
But you won’t find any pictures of their most famous graduate – not yet anyway.
In three days’ time, UFC superstar Conor McGregor takes on Floyd Mayweather in what is likely to be the richest fight in history.
It was at Crumlin where he first learnt to box.
Head coach Phil Sutcliffe (below) can still remember the moment McGregor first came through the doors.
“He walked in with football boots on when he was about 10,” said Sutcliffe, who remains the only boxing trainer to have worked with McGregor.
“He started messing with the bag and one of the coaches told him to take the boots off. His mother, Mags, then came in asking how he could join as he wanted to.
“He was in the club on and off until he was 17. He didn’t do much competing as he was into everything.”
Sutcliffe is referring to McGregor’s love for the other codes which make up Mixed Martial Arts.
It was what would eventually turn him from an out-of-work plumber on benefits to a millionaire fighter.
“I did say, ‘What you doing that nonsense for?’ and tried to convince him to stick to boxing,” said Sutclffe, whose son Phil Jnr is good friends with McGregor.
“Conor has got his fame by putting people to the floor, not through his MMA skills but through his boxing skills. He learned that here.
“Where did he learn his boxing fundamentals? Where did he learn to keep his hands up, chin down and elbows in? In Crumlin.”
Sutcliffe was a talented fighter who fought at the 1980 and 1984 Olympics. Now he is busy training the next generation of talent.
“They all talk about Conor,” he said. “I tell them to ignore all that language he uses as I don’t like it, but I do tell them to look at his dedication.” Sutcliffe believes McGregor faces a huge challenge to upset one of the greatest undefeated boxers in the sport’s history. “Conor is not going to be able to outbox him,” he said. “Mayweather is the best thinking man in boxing but if he loses this then he was beaten by an MMA guy and if he wins then he beat a novice boxer.
“He can’t win – except with the money he will earn.
“But it would make me so proud if the man who finally beat Floyd Mayweather came from Crumlin Boxing Club.”