'When business is done, Murray will win' - Joe Gallagher by Terry Dooley Jul 8th 2008

My meetings with local trainer Joe Gallagher – who works with both John and Joe Murray – always remind me of my trips to my grandfather's birthplace of Kilkenny in Ireland. Not because Joe has an Irish name, nor is it due to the fact that Joe stems from Irish ancestry. The main reason is that speaking with Joe reminds me of visiting my Aunty Anne and Uncle Geoff over in Ireland. After a few visits to Kilkenny I realised that my aunty and uncle never directly speak to one another, they both, grudgingly one feels, come into the same room yet never exchange words, instead using their visitors as conduits through which they speak. Working with Joe over the past year it dawned on me that I had only ever interviewed Gallagher in relation to his two fighters - with Joe constantly batting aside my requests to do an interview that focuses solely upon him and his personal history. It was quite a blow to my self-image as a charming and persuasive individual. However, during my last visit to the gym Joe told me that he was now ready to speak to BBN without his two fighters present and without the conversation being solely geared towards them. Initially we did indeed speak about John Murray but on this occasion Joe was willing to also put across some of his hopes and aspirations as a coach. Gallagher had started life as an amateur coach – during his time in the amateurs he learned the ins and outs of the scoring system in order to produce winners – however he had also dreamed about finding success as a professional coach. Standing on the cusp of this success, Gallagher told me that should John Murray win the British title and Joe Murray win an Olympic medal he would feel a sense of personal satisfaction; to him it would be akin to guiding both boys to world titles. When turning his talent to the professional game, Gallagher had dreamed of nights like the upcoming British title fight (for the vacant lightweight title between John Murray and Lee Meager), for the chance to test himself against coaches of the calibre of Robert McCracken, now the time is here and Gallagher can barely contain his excitement ahead of the Murray-Meager dust-up. “I think it is going to be a brilliant fight, a close fight and a fight that will be the business. Desire is the key word for this fight. It will be a Gatti-Ward situation. Both fighters could get hurt. Both fighters could have bad moments and it is a case of who bites on the gumshield the most to come through the tough patches. “Lee is a smart kid, I've known him since he was a kid and I've told Mick (Hennessy) that this is a strange situation as I'm putting a kid in the opposite corner to fight a guy I've known for years. For the British title as well. It is a very weird feeling. The winner is a worthy winner. Both will have to go some to win it. “If Lee wins it he will have deserved it and if John wins it he will have deserved it. I think Lee would say the same. They are both honest kids. They are both nice kids. I'm glad Lee got another shot at the British title because the Lee Meager we saw fight Jon Thaxton was not the real Lee Meager. We saw the best of him the night he fought Dave Stewart, there was tenacity and hunger in him that night that was missing for the Thaxton fight. Lee will turn up right for this one. “Lee has been training with Carl Froch up in the mountains and this fight will be harder for John than a Thaxton fight would have been. That might sound weird but it is.” In recent times Murray has seemed a little flat in fights. Since winning the English title over Dean Hickman Murray has struggled with Miguel Angel Munguia in Las Vegas and he also had problems against Youssef Al Hamidi. Murray took us through the Hamidi fight in a recent interview, for his part Gallagher felt that there were reasons for the loss of form after the Hickman fight, and in the Munguia fight in particular. Said Gallagher, “John came into the gym after the Hickman fight on a big high and by the time we got over to Vegas a bit of that high had gone from him. He was a bit flat that night but his fitness was there because when I asked him to give me the last rounds he gave them to me. Kevin Mitchell went over and fought a US fighter recently and had a rough time with him. John McDonnell fought in Las Vegas and was stopped. These guys are no mugs and in many ways are tougher to fight than the British guys on the scene. “John was flat for the fight itself and it was probably a little too close to the Hickman fight for him. He lost his buzz at the wrong time for that fight. On the other hand you could fill a library with books full of boxing excuses and John really should be ready to fight every four weeks if need be. That is a lesson he has taken on board and it is also a lesson that I took onboard. “I have been keeping John focused this year. He went for the English title then fought in Vegas and now this fight. He is doing everything he should be doing and I'm doing everything I should be doing. “My first job when hearing we were fighting Meager was to get the best cutsman in the business in Mick Williamson. Lee gets damaged. John gets damaged. I needed the best so that John could be at his best and we can see the best of John Murray. I know that the best John Murray will beat the best Lee Meager.” Gallagher gives the impression that he is relishing every aspect of the upcoming fight. Not least the fact that he can engender a ‘backs to the wall' mentality in his fighter ahead of the bout, taking a leaf from his favourite football manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, Gallagher feels that his fighter needs to be placed under a siege mentality in order to look his best. “We are treating this fight as an away fight. Lee is still British champion in my eyes, he is one of the Hennessy ‘Class of 2000'...he is trained by Robert McCracken – who is a brilliant trainer – so the way I look at it is that we are the away team and have to win the title and really take the title away. It (the title) may be vacant but we take that view of this fight. “Robert knows how much of a demon and a tough fighter John is so the respect is there on show on both sides. I just hope the fight – and I'm sure it will – is up to everyone's expectations.” To be fair expectations are not high in some quarters. Lee looked finished as a force when fighting out a draw with Jose Alberto Gonzalez. With this in mind the feeling is that anything less than a big win for Murray would be unimpressive. Unsurprisingly Gallagher disagrees with this assessment. “People will see Meager as looking bad in his last few performances. They will see Murray as looking bad last time out. They will think this won't set the world alight but I know, Rob knows, and Mick knows, that potentially this is a Moore-Macklin type of fight. I'm excited about it. This is what I turned professional for. This is what John turned professional for. Hopefully it is the start of a great summer for me personally.” Gallagher, like many boxing trainers, has to supplement his boxing involvement with a full-time job, sometimes working night shifts before doing his gym work, all the while getting by on a few hours sleep per night. In many senses he is a study in dedication, wins for both Murray brothers in coming months would see those years of dedication reap rewards. “I did once say that if John wins the British (title) and Joe wins an Olympic medal I would pack it all in as you can't get better than that," said the trainer. "It is downhill after that! They are both talented lads. “Twelve months ago you were here when John was ticking over with Paul Truscott – who has recently won a title and is a fantastic fighter – and Joe was ticking over with England, here we are twelve months later with both lads going great. Who knows what will happen another twelve months down the line? My dream is for them to share a bill as professionals. I think that would be fantastic.” There would be a sense of personal satisfaction also, despite his hesitance about bringing himself to the forefront I put it to Joe that success for his fighters would reflect well on him. “I feel I've done a good job with them both and not many coaches out there can take two kids from scratch and get one fighting for a British title and one fighting at the Olympics. I'm quite proud of that and it takes a lot of strings to be pulled. I'm pleased with what Mick has done to get John the title shot. “Mick has got a few lightweights now and he's got me moaning for titles, Robert is working on Lee's behalf, and the Ingles have got their fighters as well so Mick is trying to keep all the balls in the air. We've been presented with this opportunity and John knows he has to take it. That is all he can do.” Murray's last opportunity went by the by as a fight with John Fewkes was pulled late in the day. For Gallagher this was a blessing in disguise, Murray-Fewkes for the English title was a contest that had never sat well with him. “I always thought the Fewkes-Murray fight was bigger than the English title belt so why not have them fight for the British?" said Gallagher.  "I'm pleased it never happened in one way because if it does happen we will get two rounds extra (to work). When the kids do fight I want them to get paid their worth.” Another fighter who will be considered down the line, should Murray keep on winning, is European kingpin – forget his jettisoning of the title, he is still the best in Europe by a long distance – Yuri Romanov. “Romanov, phew. He blows hot and cold. He can get his head boxed off then pull off a big right hand that takes your head off. Now he has the smell of the world title in his nostrils but can he maintain performances all the way through? For some fighters – including Lee and John – the consistency is not always there and that is hard, but Romanov has that sledgehammer right and showed us how to beat (Jon) Thaxton. “Hopefully we get Thaxton down the line. This fight gives us the opportunity to get the Thaxton fight. I hope Thaxton wins the European because people have sneered about our ability to fight Thaxton and it is personal now for me and John. We want to fight Thaxton for the British and European titles.” John's inconsistency has been a point of much debate. Against Hickman he looked sensational. John then looked jaded in subsequent fights – although the Hamidi fight seemed to cause some mild hysteria, Murray was not as bad as people said he was – resulting in many doubts about his ability to obtain, let alone win, a fight with Amir Khan. ITV showed lowlights of the Munguia bout and in the mind of Gallagher it is becoming increasingly difficult for Murray to get a decent shake of things. However the trainer also acknowledges that John has not always made the right in-ring statements, his peregrine form has been a source of much concern, as Gallagher admits. “It is hard to explain away the inconsistency. I know why there is the inconsistency but I cannot go into too much detail. John has had problems but he is thirty-six minutes away from settling himself (up) for life financially and setting himself up as a person. That will go a long way to settling the person and the fighter in John. It will make him fall in love with the sport again. John fell out of love with the sport a little bit. The politics that go on are another thing you have to deal with. Plus some fighters have to worry about what their life will hold after boxing, both financially and in terms of their futures. “John has been professional for five years and he has gone through some right stuff – inside and outside of the ring. He had a grotesque swelling on his head versus Nacho Mendoza and injured the back of his head outside of the ring – causing a Canadian fight not to come off – plus he was cut on his head in his last fight. He's been through a lot for a young kid and also had some politics outside of the ring. You think “god he's seen some stuff for a young lad”. He could be twenty-three going on thirty-three after the time he's had in boxing. “People say John's had all these fights and only just gone for a title but would he have been mentally prepared to be British champion a few years ago? These hardships outside of the ring will stand him in the tough fights ahead. The past two years have mentally hardened John. The professional game is not a sport, it is a hard business.” The cut on the head, in-ring, came during the Hamidi fight, it was a gushing crescent of blood that must have pained Gallagher, leaving Gallagher in turn to trust in the man he places great emphasis on, cutsman Mick Williamson. “At the time it was very hard for me to see that wound. It is like being a parent. You have to look after the welfare of the fighter and Hamidi was making the blood spray everywhere. I looked at Mick and told him it was hard to see John going through that but Mick told me to let him work and he kept John Murray in the fight. Mick is the best in the business. John might get cut again in a fight but when you've got the best cutsman in the business you don't worry about those things.” Finally, I asked Gallagher what he was expecting from the Meager fight, his answer was both expected and unexpected. “A tough, hard fight. A part of me would be pleased if Lee wins because he deserves a big win and to beat John Murray it would be a deserved title win. I will be over the moon if John wins as you might expect. People tease me about jumping into the ring to celebrate when John beats a journeyman but that is my sheer adulation of the kid. I said to John that we might have a Ricky and Billy moment when Ricky and Billy were rolling about on the canvas after the win over Kostya Tszyu. “It is going to be hard fighting Lee but as Mick said it is strictly business and when business is done John will come out the winner.” This particular interview had started off as a chance for BBN readers to get to know Joe Gallagher outside of his work with the Murrays, yet at this point the trainer is so involved with the careers of both fighters that it may be months before we can sit down and get to know Gallagher the man, on the other hand his fierce dedication, and loyalty, fills in some of the blanks in the portrait for us. However, unlike Aunty Ann and Uncle Geoff, at least the dialogue is now open, and long may that be the case. Photos by Knockout Images and Allan Stevenson

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Good Read Jul 8th 2008, 10:39:38 by geoff_r Terry spent sometime on the phone with Joe yesterday and did the shoot a week or two ago and reflects everything Joe has said.....nice read and I for one am really looking forward to Friday night. It will be interesting to see what John Murray gets offered if he wins. best Geoff