TWO of Limerick’s most celebrated boxers, Andy Lee and Willie ‘Big Bang’ Casey feature in a splendid new book.
Penned by Owen Ryan, Fight of My Life – available solely through Amazon – features some of Ireland’s greatest fighters of the past 50 years.
World Champion Lee said that the opportunity to train current star Paddy ‘The Real Deal’ Donovan was what got him into coaching, an avenue he hadn’t expected to go down after retiring, the book reveals.
“The boxing world….the boxers are nice but the business has a dirty underbelly and it’s unscrupulous. I didn’t really want to get back into all that but Paddy caught my attention and I was blown away by him,” the book reveals.
Reflecting on the famous night at the University of Limerick that he beat Paul Hyland to win a European title in 2010, Casey said: “It was the first time two Irish boxers fought for a European title and lucky for me, I managed to get in my home town. It just made it that bit more special.”
He continued: “Going professional, the mindset I had at the time was all about changing the perspective, changing the mindset of someone coming from a disadvantaged area or the travelling community…. to have a different view about where they come from.
“With the little bit of success I had, I wanted to change the view of coming from an area like Southill or Moyross or the Island Field… just because you’re living in a disadvantaged area it doesn’t have to be all negative; it can be all positive.”
Also featured are the likes of coach Billy Walsh, Barry McGuigan, Wayne McCullough, Deirdre Gogarty, Michael Carruth, Kenneth Egan, Paddy Barnes, and Aidan Walsh.