McGregor’s shining light Maddy has shifted his ringside darkness
SUCH has been the presence of ghosts from a dark and painful past on his nights in the ring that Lee McGregor yearns to let the shining light at the centre of his present flood his biggest one yet.
Maddison-Blue, his baby daughter, came into the world nine months ago.
And her sweet nature, coupled with the sense of wonder a first child brings to all parents, has given the 22-year-old Commonwealth champion fresh drive and perspective in the wake of a traumatic spell which saw him lose his mother, grandmother and grandfather within the space of a year.
She also celebrates her first birthday in November, around the date tentatively pencilled in for a face-off with Kash Farooq, who won a Lonsdale Belt outright when making the third defence of his British bantamweight title against Bristol’s Duane Winters in Glasgow on Saturday night.
McGregor’s dream, just one of many, is to celebrate with little Maddy at ringside for this Scottish superfight he has been agitating for since before her birth. The reality, however, is somewhat different.
Even if Farooq signs up for a contest with the Saughton lad now listed as mandatory challenger, McGregor’s partner Amber is refusing to contemplate their daughter being by the canvas on fight night rather than in her cot.
And as opponents go, she is proving considerably more stubborn than any of the seven fighters McGregor has rolled over in his professional career to date.
‘I’d love to bring Maddy to my next fight, but her mum’s not having it,’ he laughed. ‘I don’t know if she ever will.
‘I just can’t think of any better motivation than walking out and Maddy being there. I could see her and give her one last kiss before going into the ring.
‘I’m going to try to sweet-talk my
girlfriend. Maybe we could do it at the Kash fight. The talk is that it is going to be in November if it is going to happen and she’ll be one year old on November 14, so…’
That McGregor should speak with such happiness of new beginnings and future hopes is uplifting, in itself. After all, his career to date has largely been set against a narrative of heartbreak.
On the night he took the British amateur title in Cardiff in May 2017, his mother Elizabeth died after a battle with throat cancer. His grandparents followed soon after with McGregor at the bedside of grandpa Jim, his ‘second dad’, as cancer took him, too. When taking home the Commonwealth belt against Thomas Essomba in London last October in his fifth pro contest, he spoke of them all being there on his shoulders, protecting him.
They will continue to walk with him, of course. A tattoo on his right bicep pays lasting tribute to Elizabeth’s memory. Yet, things are different now. McGregor is different now. That fighter’s heart within him has been energised and fortified by a love he never knew existed.
‘We had a brutal time within the family and I don’t know where I’d be now if I didn’t have Maddy. She makes every day so much better,’ he said.
‘I have a niece and nephew, who are two, and they came the same year my mum died, so they kept us all going.
‘I battled through things before we knew Maddy was coming, but she has given me the kind of motivation I never had before. She has introduced me to a depth of love I’d never experienced.
‘Maddy’s changed my life. She’s brought so much more happiness to the family. She makes me feel better about myself.
‘She’s the best thing that’s ever happened. There is nothing better than fighting in front of thousands, seeing all my fans, friends and family having a great time. I’ve had the best nights of my life fighting, but I now love just getting home to see my daughter with those belts, enjoying the quietness and then getting away for a bit with her and Amber.’
Dreams are necessary when life takes you into places of darkness and McGregor holds his closely. As he talks, though, he just can’t help but show them and share them one by one.
A lifelong Hearts fan, even though he played pro-youth with Livingston before choosing boxing, he has paraded his belts at Tynecastle, met owner Ann Budge and is convinced a big fight in Gorgie is ‘a goer’.
Whether it is a world title fight or not is open to question, but McGregor sees opportunities opening up on that front soon.
Naoya Inoue of Japan will clean up the belts at bantam in the World Boxing Super Series, he believes, and then vacate them to move up a weight. The British
crown will come first, though. McGregor is in line to contest it before the end of the year and aches for it to go on the line in an Edinburgh-Glasgow blockbuster with Farooq. Farooq says he is open to the contest, but prefers to leave his career path to his management team. That coolness just feeds into McGregor’s niggling fears that it might not come to pass right now, even though everything suggests it should. ‘Whatever happens, I am the mandatory challenger and I will be fighting for the British title whether it is against Kash or not,’ he said. ‘I just hope it is him. I can’t see anything bigger in Scotland right now. Both our profiles will go through the roof. ‘I do think he wants the fight, but I am just not 100 per cent sure it’ll happen. ‘Kash might vacate, fight for the European or something. Maybe there is a feeling on his side that a fight between us would be bigger and better further down the line, but I want it now.’ And even if Amber doesn’t give the green light to Maddy going along, a pre-bout ritual established ahead of McGregor’s last win over Scott Allan will remain. He pinned photos of his baby girl under his peg in the dressing room that night and let those images and powerful emotions they invoked carry him through the crowds until the first bell rang and the lights went up for showtime. ‘When the music’s on before the fight and the butterflies are going, just having a look at your daughter there on the wall is the best idea I have ever come up with,’ he smiled. ‘I don’t need anything else. ‘I look at those photos and just think: “I am doing this for you”. ‘It makes me emotional. But I need that extra bit to make me bite down on my gumshield and go into the arena with Maddy the only thing in my head until the bell goes. ‘If I am doing it for her, I am not going to quit when it gets tough. ‘I’m going to have to be knocked out, taken out on my shield, and I just don’t see that happening.’