Barry McGuigan reflects on an 'incredible night' 40 years on from Pedrosa fight

Irish Daily Mirror

4 hours ago

It is 40 years today since Barry McGuigan beat Panama's Eusebio Pedroza to win a world title at Loftus Road on 8 June 1985.
Set against the backdrop of the Troubles, the Clones man was a beacon of hope during perilous times, and his world title victory was a moment that defined a boxing era.
McGuigan, 64, told BBC Sport: "Those sort of vivid memories are so burned into your brain that you'll never forget.
"Winning the world title against Pedroza, having an audience of almost 19 million people. Winning BBC Sports Personality of the Year, the year that Dennis Taylor won the snooker. It was an amazing year for sport, and yet there were lots of tragedies and people dying here because of the Troubles.
"Walking to the ring took us 12 minutes to walk 60 yards because the fans were so fanatical.
"Then Pedroza came out to some sort of Spanish music, and he took him all of 25, 30 seconds to go from the away dugout dressing room to the ring as opposed to mine.
"But it was the fanatical support that we had. You know, we reckon 14,000 people travelled over from Dublin and Belfast and Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland.
"It was an incredible night. It just fizzed and the old man got in and sang Danny Boy and everybody sang it back, and then the bell went, and off we went and it was flat out."
After many defences of his European featherweight title, McGuigan finally got a shot at the world belt.
But he was taking on a boxer who had held the world title for seven years, defending it against 18 different fighters.
"I knew I had to pressurise him because technically he was much better than me," McGuigan said. "I had to beat him with pace and pressure, and I just was on him from the start, putting him back, backing him up, making him fight at a pace that was uncomfortable for him.
"And that's how you take away their technique advantage, just being on them non-stop, and that was my style.
"Then whacking the body when I could, and then the round that changed it all was round seven, bang, down.
"Suddenly everything went bonkers. The noise was deafening. Stanley Christodoulou was the South African referee, and he was looking around for me. I ran to the neutral corner immediately because I knew I'd hurt him, and then he counted him and then waved us on
."I came in and I went, I'm going to throw a right hook at him. And I went left side, right side, left side, and I swung, and he just went, shh. I went whizzing past him, missed him by about that much.
"But that told me that he wasn't that badly hurt. So I knew at that stage, you know, he was very alert and he was stunned, but he was still very compos mentis.
"I tried a right hook and I chased him back, hit him with a couple of left hands, but I never hit him with that right hand again in that round.
"Then I had him in real trouble in the 9th round, and then he was out on his feet in the 13th. Legs went, but again, he was a formidable champion. He just stayed in there to the end of the 15 rounds.
"But that night I was on such a high, I could have fought 20 rounds. I was just so up for the fight. I was so emotionally fired up for it."