'I can't not get emotional' - Barry McGuigan reflects on life and loss 40 years after Pedroza bout

Extra.ie​

26-04-2025

Forty years ago, a 24-year-old man from Clones in Co Monaghan, just 5ft6 tall and weighing 8st 13lb 12oz, stepped into the boxing ring in Loftus Road, home of football team Queen's Park Rangers.
There were 27,000 people there to watch him take on Panamanian Eusebio Pedroza, 13,000 of whom had travelled from Ireland, north and south.
Back home, in the days before the television viewing audience was fragmented by satellite and streaming options, a staggering 19 million across Ireland and Britain tuned in to watch a bruising 15-round contest. Pedroza had been world featherweight champion for seven years, defending his title a record 19 times, but his opponent, nicknamed the Clones Cyclone, beat him in a unanimous decision by the judges, and gave Ireland one of the great sporting moments in its history. Barry McGuigan. Photo: ITV.
On June 8, the exact 40th anniversary of the bout, Barry McGuigan's triumphant night will be remembered at a special gala lunch in the Hillgrove Hotel in Monaghan, when he will reminisce about not only the fight, but also about his life in the intervening years.
He was back in Monaghan recently to announce details of the commemoration and spoke not only about that defining night in 1985, but also about the challenges he has faced since, notably the premature death of his daughter Danika 'Nika' McGuigan from bowel cancer in 2019, at the tragically young age of just 33.
Last year, when he was a contestant on I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here!, Barry achieved something of note. In openly displaying his still raw grief, he did a valuable service to men everywhere, showing that even for the toughest, there is nothing to be gained by bottling up feelings.
In the Monaghan County Museum on the town's Peace Campus, he explains why that is important.
'Every time I talk about her, I get upset, because of the way her life ended so tragically,' he says. 'I can't not get emotional about it, because, you know, she's gone. All of the years that we nurtured her and brought her along and loved her, and she loved us, it's the saddest thing that's ever happened.
'I lost my dad when he was 52. I lost a brother to suicide when he was 34, after he broke up with a girl and couldn't cope. Many of my friends are gone. It a sad time in life.' Promoter Barry McGuigan celebrates after Carl Frampton retained his IBF Super-Bantamweight World Title in Belfast in 2015. Pic: Ramsey Cardy / SPORTSFILE
It all seems doubly tragic because Nika overcame childhood cancer.
'It's great if people get their three score and ten and have a normal life,' Barry continues, 'but my girl didn't. She had leukaemia as a child, and we thought she was over it.
'Then, suddenly [in 2019] she had pains in her tummy. She had started an acting career and was doing amazingly well. She had finished making the movie Wildfire but she didn't even get to see the premiere. The pains were excruciating, and it was a case of go in [to hospital], and then all hell breaks loose. They said she was terminally ill, there was nothing they could do, and she had five weeks to live.
'Suddenly, all of your hopes for her are gone. Indescribable sadness.'
There was one small consolation, when Nika was posthumously awarded Best Actress in the 2020 Irish Film and Television Academy awards, which underlined the loss for the industry in general.
Barry's mother Kate will be 89 the day before the Monaghan event, though in many ways she is lucky to have reached the milestone. The night he won the fight, she left a candle burning and the house caught fire. Luckily, she and her sister escaped unharmed, though the house was badly damaged. They were the only ones in the family who hadn't travelled to London, because she never saw her son fight.
'She would go out and potter around the shops, or play classic music in case I got hurt – that was her way of getting through it,' Barry says. 'She had own way of processing the whole thing, but Dad was there until 1987, which was the good part of my career.'
Those of a certain age will remember that his father Pat, who spelled the surname McGeegan, represented Ireland at the 1968 Eurovision Song Contest in London with the song Chance Of A Lifetime. So why the spelling change? Barry McGuigan. Pic: The Late Late Show/RTE One
'They couldn't pronounce his name,' Barry laughs. 'He was sick to his back teeth correcting people. It was just his way of simplifying it.
'I'll never forget when he was coming home from Eurovision. I was seven and there was a bonfire in the town, and loads of people there, and I ran out with all of them to meet him coming in the Monaghan road. Then someone said he was coming in the Cavan road, and I raced back that way, and then thought, 'Why am I doing this? I'm going see him in half an hour in the house anyway'. There was so much excitement.'
One of the most memorable aspects of Barry's career was the way he drew together people in both communities at the height of the Troubles, not least because boxing, just like golf, rugby and some other sports, is run by an all-island governing body.
He was raised Roman Catholic, and his wife of 44 years, Sandra, née Mealiff, was Protestant so there were, inevitably, some death threats over the years, and even Garda and RUC protection at times, but never with anything manifest.
'The Troubles were raging, and people were dying every other day,' Barry says.'It was just a shocking time. I remember there were certain sectors of the community that would have wanted me to wear colours that singled me out one way or the other and I was very adamant that I wasn't going to do that.
'I wore the United Nations flag of peace on my shorts and the dove of peace on my collar. I wanted to unite people. I wanted them to come and see me and feel relieved, rather than feel stressed, because there was enough stress all around us.' Barry McGuigan. Pic: James Gourley/REX/Shutterstock
Many sportspeople over the years have converted a similar ability to unify into political careers. Was he ever tempted – or even approached?
'I studiously avoided politics,' Barry says. 'I'm a Catholic married to a Protestant. I broke over the religious divide and I wanted to stay away from all of that.
'There were enough politicians and enough opinions. It was a cantankerous and a nasty time and I didn't want to get involved in that. If anything,
I wanted to try to put a calmness on things. They all loved their boxing and boxing is united maybe more so than any other sport, so I wanted to keep that going.
'Barney Eastwood [McGuigan's promoter] and I fell out at the end of my career, but he was a great man, and he was very good at how to balance the people, because he'd spent a lot more time than I had in that sort of fraught situation.
'We wanted to create harmony, and the one thing they had in common, all these people, was that they wanted to see me get to the top. So that was a very special time.' STRICT EMBARGO – NOT FOR USE BEFORE 22:30 GMT, 18 Nov 2024 – EDITORIAL USE ONLY Mandatory Credit: Photo by ITV/REX/Shutterstock (14919198av) Beangate – Barry McGuigan 'I'm a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!' TV show, Series 24, Australia – 18 Nov 2024
Many years ago, Barry and his family moved to Whistable on the north Kent coast, 100km from London. He has three sons, Shane, Jake and Blain, and seven grandchildren, whose names he proudly rattles off – Tadhg, Orla, Art, Leah ('who's the only one who does't have an Irish name,' he smiles), Caelan, Finlay and Cashel.
'They all love their names because they're among the most exotic Irish names,' Barry says. 'It's important to let them know where we come from.'
So, does anyone ever call Barry by his birth name, Finbar? 'My mum does when she's annoyed with me,' he laughs. 'My wife does when we're out shopping and she doesn't want anyone to recognise us.'
He and Sandra are pillars of support for each other, before and after Nika's death.
'You deal with the circumstances that you exist in, and we don't try to shy away from anything,' Barry says.
He was dealt another blow last month, when his dear friend Eddie Jordan died. Eddie Jordan celebrates receiving an OBE in 2012. Pic: Dave'I rang his wife Marie,' he says. 'I wasn't sure if they were in Monaco or South Africa when he died. Eddie lived ten lives in his 76 years – he was incredibly busy and he loved to have fun, always the life and soul of the party.
'He was a very kind and extremely generous man, and they're a lovely family. We spent loads of time with them, and Sandra and Marie were very, very close as well.'
The couple have a holiday apartment near Port de Pollença in Mallorca, though he admits that getting there can be an issue.
'I spent my life travelling, so if there's anything I regret it's that I didn't have enough time with my kids,' Barry says. 'If I could have magicked something up and got to these places without having to spend time in airports, it would have been great. We might get out there every three or four years, and we rent it out the rest of the time.'
So, what about I'm A Celeb – how was that? Has he put the weight back on? 'I lost 16lbs,' he says, 'but yes, I have.'
He agreed to do the show for a reason you might not have expected from someone so engaging.
'You constantly think, 'am I actually a f***ing bore?'' he candidly states. 'You live such a solipsistic life as a boxer. It's all in a bubble.
'You can't use other team members, and I thought I'd better get on and make sure I can still communicate with people.
'I knew I was going to be under pressure, and be lacking in food – that was the thing I I really underestimated. I don't drink, I don't smoke. I've never touched it, ever, so the thing I love is food. Bearing in mind, as a fighter, you've got to really be disciplined to get your weight down, so my lifelong issue has been with watching food.
'I thought that should be OK, but it was different, because as a fighter, you can still eat and then you train it off. In the jungle, you were left with beans and rice, and it was like, oh my god, please give me something that tastes good!'
That won't be a problem at the lunch in his honour. It's unlikely that any of the courses will consist of just beans and rice.