McGirt is one of 9 picked for boxing Hall of Fame
James McGirt played little league football when he was a kid growing up on Long Island, and it didn’t take him long to realize that wasn’t his sport.
“When I was 11 years old, I was maybe 65 pounds soaking wet,” McGirt recalled Wednesday. “One day I was standing outside and it was cold as hell. I said, ‘This ain’t for me,’ told coach, and I brought my uniform in the next day.”
The kid nicknamed “Buddy” quickly found his niche after watching professional boxers such as former middleweight champion Vito Antuofermo train in the local recreation center. When he came of age, McGirt stepped into the ring for his first fight on his 12th birthday, and that was it.
“I fell in love with it. I was hooked,” McGirt said. “It was like a drug. My mom told me, ‘You can box, but you’ve got to have good grades in school.’ So I got my grades up because I wanted to box.
“My mom used to always tell me, ‘I hope you make it as a boxer because you’re not going to make it doing anything else,’” he said with a chuckle.
Suffice to say he succeeded — in a big way. The International Boxing Hall of Fame announced Wednesday that McGirt, who went on to become a two-division champion, is one of nine people selected for induction. Also to be enshrined next June 9 in Canastota, New York are two-division champions Donald Curry and Julian Jackson; Tony DeMarco in the old-timer category; promoter Don Elbaum; referee/judge Guy Jutras; publicist Lee Samuels; and broadcaster Ted- dy Atlas. Puerto Rican journalist Mario Rivera Martino was selected posthumously.
Inductees were voted in by members of the Boxing Writers Association and a panel of international boxing historians.
For McGirt, the news was like a right hook to the jaw — it caught him off-guard.
“This is the greatest day of my life. I’m overwhelmed. You can’t really explain it,” he said. “Your dream is to be a world champion. Your ultimate dream is to be in the Hall of Fame.”
McGirt turned pro in 1982 as an 18-year old high school senior and three years later won the WBC Continentals Americas light welterweight title from Sugar Boy Nando with a fifth-round knockout. He captured the vacant IBF light welterweight title in 1988 with a 12th-round knockout over Frankie Warren, whom he called his toughest foe.