Joe Gallagher talks to BritishBoxers about his life in the game he loves; from an amateur fighter for Jimmy Egan and Phil Martin, Gallagher decided his eventual future in boxing lay as a coach, like the two men who had made a massive impression on the young boxer and who were role models he looked up to and wanted to emulate.
Gallagher, 44, moved from Egan’s Boxing Club in Wythenshawe and joined Mosside’s Champs Camp were he fought as a senior in the boys clubs, travelling the country and training alongside some of the City’s best boxing talent at the Princess Road gym.
Joe with mentor first coach the late Jimmy Egan
After realising he wasn’t going to hack it working on the roads with his dad, the young boxing fanatic who had given up boxing to get a job and seek a living as a builder, one day decided he was instead going to pursue a career doing something he loved. Boxing!
Joe has gone on to coach numerous British, commonwealth and European champions, but it is still a world title belt that is missing from his coaching resume. But It isn’t for want of trying and Matthew Macklin who he coached almost won the middleweight title only to get a draw against Felix Sturm in Germany, a fight Joe is still adamant Macklin won. John Murray the lightweight former British and European champion who Joe had coached from the schoolboys, lost in his challenge to Bam Bam Rios getting stopped in the 11th after a typically brave effort, again so near, yet so far. The gym was thriving at the time and afterwards everyone went their separate ways, Joe included.
He decided to follow in Phil’s footsteps and use his memory to fuel and help fulfill his dream of taking a boxer on to win a world title so he could dedicate it to Phil Martin and Jimmy Egan.
Joe with anther of his boxing mentors the late Phil Martin
He is still as determined now as the young starry eyed boy who would hang on every word of Phil Martin and Jimmy Egan. That burning desire to be someone, to make a change, to nurture, guide and push the fellow human beings who seek his method and hire him to become a better boxer.
But only them who want it as much as him will prosper in his strict domain, the man who has been referred to as ‘boxing obsessive’ continues in his quest to achieve his goals in the game.
Part 2
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