EUBANK FELT HE HAD BEEN INSULTED

IT’S no surprise that Breathnach will be cheering Katie Taylor on in New York next weekend. Boxing has always been a passion.

From listening to the great fights of the 1950s and 1960s on the radio to tracking the career of fellow Connemara man, Sean Mannion to commentating on fight nights for TG4 more recently.

He’ll always put the battles between Steve Collins v Chris Eubank up near the top of his list.

“There was a press conference in Dublin and Steve was interested in learning a bit of Irish at the time,’’ he said.”

“He asked me to write something down on a piece of paper — it was something simple like ‘I’m going to beat Eubank’.

“Sure enough, Collins read it out and that was the cue for Eubank to get up out of his seat and walk out.

“I followed him and asked what was wrong. He said that he wouldn’t sit there and be insulted. I was trying to convince him that it was just a bit of Irish and there was no insult.”

Situation

After Collins won the rematch against Eubank in Pairc Ui Chaoimh, Breathnach found himself in another tricky situation but, at first, he thought he’d been blessed.

The Dubliner’s hand had been raised in victory and Sky Sports moved in to get their post-fight interview, but their sound went.

Breathnach grabbed his chance, figuring he’d get a few words with Collins as Gaeilge.

He was just about to get his first question out when this big hand descended on his shoulder.

“He was from Sky and talking to his producer in this Cockney accent,’’ said Breathnach.

“He was going ‘the sound’s gone, George, and I think this baldy b******s speaking Mongolian has something to do with it’.”