Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
60 years old tomorrow ...and these fights are MY BIRTHDAY TREATS
OUR columnist turns 60 tomorrow, a life that has seen him feature in some great fights and witness many more.
As a birthday treat, Barry has been taking a trip through the archives and has selected one great bout from each decade – from the 1960s to the 2010s – each leaving an indelible mark.
CASSIUS CLAY v SONNY LISTON I
February 1964 announced the most charismatic boxer in history. We’d never seen anything like Clay before. He was not only a brilliant fighter, he was brash and beautiful. He wasn’t the greatest heavy of all time, but this fight changed the game forever. People were stunned when Liston, a heavy favourite, refused to come out for the seventh round. The shock of his defeat (above) went around the world and a star was born.
MUHAMMAD ALI v JOE FRAZIER I
The fight of the century. It was March 1971, I was 10 years old and this was my introduction to boxing, the first fight I remember seeing. Clay was now Ali and was fighting for his old world title following his ban over Vietnam. It was relentless from the first bell. Featherweights could not fight at that pace. Both fighters gave everything until Frazier dropped the great showman in the 15th and broke his jaw.
The imperious Sugar Ray Leonard was involved in one amazing fight after another. If I have to pick a favourite, it would be the first meeting with Duran in June 1980. I was captain of Ireland’s boxing team preparing for the Moscow Olympics. Everyone in our training camp picked Leonard to win. I chose Duran. I remember coming in the next day saying, ‘Bow your heads, lads’. Two unbelievable fighters, one incredible spectacle.
EVANDER HOLYFIELD v RIDDICK BOWE I
Another bout fought at incredible pace in November 1992. Bowe was a 21stcentury heavyweight. Holyfield had come up from cruiserweight and was the most dedicated athlete. They fought each other to a standstill. It was high-class boxing, mixing technique and power. Bowe won by unanimous decision, but both demonstrated limitless courage and strength. These are the kind of fights that take a little something from a fighter. And they never quite get it back.
ERIK MORALES v MARCO ANTONIO BARRERA I
What a start to the new millennium, 50 days into the year
2000. Morales was a banger, long and rangy and big for a super bantamweight. Barrera was an educated fighter, a devastating combination puncher with a great chin. It was breathtaking, shots given and taken at a brutal pace all the way through. You could have tossed a coin. Morales got it, though many thought Barrera deserved it. He would get his revenge in the rematch.
Pacquiao was unique but Marquez was his bogeyman. Incredibly, it was not until their fourth meeting in December 2012 that Marquez got the victory he perhaps deserved in the first two. It was all Pacquiao until Marquez caught him with a right that sent him to the deck in the third. Pacquiao responded with a knockdown in the fourth, and looked to be closing on the win in the sixth, when a shattered Marquez landed with a counter right for a sensational knockout. Follow Barry on Twitter at @Clonescyclone
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LARRY MCCARTHY will become the 40th president of the GAA this afternoon.
Although a native of Bishopstown in Co Cork, Mccarthy will be the first president from an overseas unit having moved to the US in 1985 and served as both the New York county board chairman and secretary within the last 20 years.
He became a trustee of the GAA in 2018 and has also been a member of the GAA’S Management Committee.
Mccarthy will base himself in Dublin for the three years of his presidential term and has taken a career break from his job as an associate professor in the School of Business at Seton Hall University in New Jersey, where he has been based since 1998.
He has written and lectured extensively on the subject of sport management, as well as sports marketing and sponsorship and has presented on related topics at conferences around the world.
But before the handover of power from incumbent John Horan at today’s GAA Congress, 37 motions stand to be debated by delegates.
Ten have been deferred due to the constraints of holding the meeting online, with the hope being that a Special Congress can be held later in the year with delegates attending in person.
There are some key motions remaining, however, particularly the introduction of a sin bin and penalty for cynical fouling in both hurling and football that prevents a goal scoring opportunity inside the D or 20-metre line.
The GPA has asked that the motion be deferred but, at the very least, it is set to be debated and the mood of that discussion will influence whether it goes to a vote or not.
Also down for decision is a vote on the split season, which would see the All-ireland finals played in July, and the extension of the blood sub to cover head injuries.