Barry McGuigan crackles with so much ambition and passion it is easy to remember the force he brought to the ring when he was revered as the Clones Cyclone. That whirlwind energy remains three decades later as McGuigan stands on the brink of transforming boxing again. Carl Frampton, the electrifying world champion whom he manages, returns the sport to ITV on Saturday night.
Thirty years ago sport was not the shimmering beast that, now, exerts such a grip on our attention and our wallets. Football, especially, was an unfashionable game tinged with disaster and death. McGuigan made boxing different. On 8 June 1985, 20 million BBC1 viewers watched him win the WBA world featherweight title from Eusebio Pedroza. The imposing champion, from Panama, had not lost a fight for eight years and had defended his title successfully 19 times. Twenty‑six thousand fans crammed into Loftus Road and George Best, Lucian Freud, Norman Whiteside, Irvine Welsh, Willie John McBride and Mary Peters were among those watching McGuigan on a joyous night. Ten days earlier, on 29 May, 39 fans were crushed to death before the European Cup Final between Liverpool and Juventus at the Heysel Stadium in Brussels. Less than a month before, 56 people had died during Bradford City’s Third Division match against Lincoln City – when a fire swept through Valley Parade.
This was sport’s dark terrain in the early summer of 1985.
“I remember the security people were very paranoid at Loftus Road,” McGuigan says at the Battersea cafe which doubles as the Frampton camp’s unofficial training headquarters. “The Irish don’t listen to what you tell them. You say: ‘You can’t go there …’ And they say, ‘Right, no worries, mate …’ [McGuigan winks and gives a thumbs-up] and they walk straight over there. ABC [the American network which also screened the fight live] thought the crowd was amazing. But they had no idea, and nor did the security people, of an Irish crowd’s passion and craziness. Before I made my ring walk they said, ‘You’re going 30 foot to your left and then walking diagonally towards the ring.’ No chance.
“As soon as I came out of the dugout they swarmed around me. The police, because of Heysel, were very anxious. You couldn’t move. The crowd was going crazy. So they lifted the barriers and we walked through the seats, dodging people. It took 12 minutes to get to the ring. I can imagine the American producer screaming and cutting away to a commercial break and then coming back and I’m still making the ring walk.”
McGuigan laughs but he transfixed people with his unique ability to straddle the deadly sectarian divide between Republicans and Loyalists in Northern Ireland – so much so that, at the bloody height of the Troubles, both sides were united by a simple mantra whenever the featherweight ducked through the ropes. “Leave the fighting to McGuigan” was a literal celebration of a ceasefire when the little buzz saw of a champion went to war in a sporting arena, with the white dove of peace emblazoned on his blue velvet trunks.
“I was used to the mayhem,” McGuigan says, “so I was cool and calm. I repeated this little prayer to myself, Angel of God, over and over again. And so I kept my focus as I made the long walk to the ring. Lucian Freud and the Irish contingent were ringside. It’s incredible to think that great artists, bookies, business people and sportsmen came together for that fight. JP McManus [the Irish racehorse owner for whom AP McCoy had ridden so many winners] was with Lucian.
Colourful
“They had been to a Francis Bacon exhibition and then came to the fight. Lucian loved his boxing and his personal bookie was Alfie McLean, a Belfast guy, who was best mates with my manager, Barney Eastwood. Lucian owed him so much money he gave Alfie paintings as recompense. There were such colourful people there that JP told me it was so amazing he never wanted to go to another fight. He said, ‘You couldn’t top that night.’”
McGuigan touched more than 20 million because he was brave and true, and human above all else. His father sang Danny Boy in the ring before the fight and people cried openly as the roaring crowd understood how much McGuigan personified a line in the song which promised he would be there “in sunshine or in shadow.”
He had a Falls Road Supporters Club and a Shankill Road Supporters Club as intransigent enemies embraced him in a murderous time. McGuigan also cried once he had won as he remembered the boxer, Young Ali, who had died after they fought in London in 1982.
“I spoke about him in a BBC interview with Harry Carpenter just after the fight. At the pinnacle of my success I had to remember him. As soon as I started to talk I began to cry. Harry understood and he explained the meaning to everyone. It was lovely.”
McGuigan was the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year and his fame ran deep and wide.
“The Premier League was years away,” he says. “We didn’t have Sky and there weren’t three TVs in every house. There was a much bigger chance of coming across as a star because people watched TV together as families. That’s why I was so popular, and Frank Bruno too. Nigel Benn and Chris Eubank also did well because of ITV. Barry Hearn then took Eubank to Sky and boxing slipped away from terrestrial television.
“Then the Premier League came in. The Premier League is phenomenal and you get sucked into it. Other sports have become diluted as football gets bigger and bigger. But we now have the chance to help boxing move back into the mainstream with Carl Frampton. Carl is not as verbose as me but he’s genuine and a beautiful young man. He’s very smart, charismatic, witty. And he’s a lion. Frampton is going to take television by storm.”
McGuigan has conjured up a coup in striking a deal for a live screening of Frampton’s IBF super-bantamweight world title defence against the mouthy and dangerous American Chris Avalos. The fight is being held in Belfast’s Odyssey Arena, an intense cauldron, and an exhilarating atmosphere is guaranteed. As Frampton has shown in his last four visits to the Odyssey, which all ended in knockout victories, he is a compelling fighter. His capture of Kiko Martínez’s world title in a purpose-built stadium in Belfast’s Titanic Quarter last September confirmed his fierce class.
Primetime television will introduce Frampton to, as McGuigan says, “millions of viewers rather than 100,000 or 200,000 watching on BoxNation [Frank Warren’s subscription channel] or Sky. Carl knows this is a massive opportunity. Avalos is a bumptious talker, and he can fight. He’s never been dropped. He also has a better knockout record than Carl and he genuinely believes he can win. That’s great because we’ll have a real fight. It’s going to be spectacular.”
McGuigan is as effective a manager as he was a fighter and, apart from selling the contest with easy authority, he has a wider vision than most in boxing.
“ITV have a new head of sport, Niall Sloane, who came from the BBC,” McGuigan says. “Niall is from Portadown and he grew up watching me. He understands what boxing can do and ITV really get it. That’s great but the deal has to be structured differently.
“It has to be affordable for the channel. Television companies aren’t idiots and, on a terrestrial channel, they know they can lift your profile from here to there [McGuigan points to the ceiling]. ITV can make Frampton a star.
“Scott Quigg beckons. Léo Santa Cruz beckons. America beckons. HBO and Showtime are sniffing round. Top Rank [Bob Arum’s promotional company] are working with us – as is Oscar de la Hoya.
“Carl’s very disciplined and he’s got longevity because he fights off the back foot, and he doesn’t take unnecessary risks. But he has real punching power. He produces explosive victories. That’s why his ITV debut will be a wow event.”
McGuigan, especially in fight week, still feels trepidation. When one of your bouts as a fighter resulted in death it’s inevitable that boxing’s show-business facade is freighted with sombre restraint.
“I’m always nervous. I know the risks and that makes me apprehensive. Avalos can punch so Carl has to be respectful early on but I am reassured that Shane [McGuigan’s son] is his head trainer. Shane is one of the best coaches in the business and he brings all the composure Carl needs.”
We make the short walk to the gym to watch Frampton spar some of the 205 rounds he will complete in preparation for Avalos. McGuigan, as always, is entertaining and he talks affectionately about his father, Pat, who was a professional singer.
“My dad came third in Eurovision in 1968 at the Albert Hall. He sang in Malta in 1969 and David Bowie was the warm-up act. Can you believe it? Incredible.”
It’s pretty incredible seeing McGuigan’s ease and charm in the gym as he takes me round the roster of sparring partners he has flown in to help Frampton. “This is Horacio García,” he says, embracing a world-rated Mexican super-bantamweight who can’t speak a word of English.
“This guy is serious. 28 fights, 28 wins, 22 KOs. Here’s another very good Mexican fighter. Miguel Angel Gonzáles, also from Guadalajara, is in the top 15 world super-featherweights. And this is Yvan Mendy – the French lightweight champion who is high in the European rankings. You’ll enjoy watching him.”
Few boxing managers spend much time with their fighter’s sparring partners, let alone introduce them and praise their credentials, but McGuigan is different. Standing on the apron of the ring, watching the sweat and punches fly from Frampton as he faces two much bigger men in Gonzáles and Mendy, McGuigan looks lost again in boxing. “Beautiful,” he shouts. “Move those feet. Great. Speed, love it, beautiful.”
After 10 relentless rounds, McGuigan jumps down to engage in a playful sparring session with a bulldog puppy, Titan, named after the Titanic Quarter where Frampton won his title.
“He’s looking great, isn’t he?” McGuigan says, nodding in the direction of the ring where Frampton spits into a bucket as his breath falls fast and hard.
McGuigan smiles exuberantly for, sometimes, a glorious past can burst into life again. He will turn 54 on the day of Frampton’s ITV extravaganza and yet, gazing at his young fighter, the years seem to roll from him.
“Carl’s ready to put on another amazing show,” McGuigan says as he looks up in anticipation and delight. “I’m just happy that millions are going to see it live this time. It’s going to be some night.”
The fight will be shown on ITV from 10.50pm on Saturday, with undercard action on ITV4 from 7.30pm.