Shane gives me what I’ve been missing, says Haye
DAVID HAYE believes he has been revitalised by joining the London fight stable of boxing’s most promising young trainer.
The former world heavyweight champion’s preparations for his grudge match against Tony Bellew (below) on March 4 are being guided by 28-year-old Shane McGuigan, son of the great former featherweight champion, Barry.
McGuigan Jr is one of the youngest cornermen to take a fighter to world title success after Carl Frampton’s featherweight win against Leo Santa Cruz last year, although the Mexican won their rematch last month.
His famous father — whose own epic world title triumph at Loftus Road in 1985 remains one of the greatest nights in the capital’s boxing history — has no qualms in saying: “Shane is one of the finest trainers of professional boxers in the world today. And that is not just his dad showing nepotism.”
Along with Belfast’s Frampton and London’s super-middleweight world title hopeful George Groves, Haye works at McGuigan’s Hammersmith base and at his own HQ in Vauxhall.
Now Haye,y, 36,, insists McGuigan Jr will enhance his grgrowing reputation by helphelping him achieve his own aaim of challenging AnthonyAnt Joshua and regaining ththe world heavyweight crcrown.
Haye, who has recently returned from a training trip to Miami, wherwhere he was pictured workinworking out on a £27million super yayacht, said: “Shane rreally gets this businessbusine like nobody I have known. He has brbrought a young outlook and a youthyouthful enthusiaenthusiasm to my training anand it has rubbed off on me.
“These are thingsth I believe I’ve missed iin years gone by. Even wwhen we’re not tratraining, we are stilstill training — in
our heads.
“Even when there is no fight lined up, he still wants to come to work with me and improve me. The fact that he is only 28 is a real bonus.
“He has so much energy to train that he’ll work with me at 7am or at 1am. He is there whenever I need him. He is putting so much time and energy into me and his allknowing eye is very advanced for a man of his age. His father was an all-time great. And whenever Barry was working as a TV commentator, he would take Shane along.
“He’d watch all the fights at ringside from the first one on the undercard to the main event. He soaked it all up. So he really gets it like no one I’ve ever known.”
McGuigan Jr, who ended his amateur career at 21 to become a trainer, is also the brains behind Groves’ fourth attempt to win a world crown, the Londoner having twice been beaten by Carl Froch and once by Sweden’s Badou Jack.
Groves will take on Russia’s Fedor Chudinov for the WBA super-
‘He gets this business like nobody I have known. He has brought a youthful enthusiasm to my training’ David Haye
middleweight belt this spring. He could also guide Frampton to a third fight against Santa Cruz, though the WBA may order a mandatory bout between the Mexican and his fellow countryman Abner Mares.
McGuigan Sr famously won the WBA featherweight title by defeating Panama’s Eusebio Pedroza and now runs the Londonbased Cyclone Promotions outfit with Shane and his brother, Blain.
They are close to opening a new gym next to Wandsworth Town station. McGuigan Sr, 55, said: “It can become a real beacon for boxing in London.
“Shane was an amateur fighter himself and won three national titles in Ireland. But I trained him like a pro and he is very similar to me in his mannerisms.
“He can spend 10-14 hours in the gym with his fighters so he has earned his rewards. He knows that each one needs to be treated differently. He has a phenomenal way of getting the best out of them.”