Ranking the 10 Best Irish Boxers in the World Today

Boxing is an international sport, and great fighters have come from all over the globe. But certain countries seem to specialize in producing fighting stock, and the tiny island of Ireland is one such nation.

There are no current world champions from Ireland, but with a combined population of less than seven million, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland are represented by a very respectable number of high-quality contenders.

And I believe there is a future world champion or two among the fighters profiled on this list.

10. Jamie Kavanagh, Lightweight, 15-0-1 with 6 KOs

At 23, Jamie Kavanagh is a promising lightweight prospect with a stellar amateur background. He has spent his entire professional career based in the U.S. and fighting out of the Wild Card Gym in Los Angeles.

Kavanagh has so far built his career up at an appropriate pace for a young fighter. He’s battled a mix of trial horses with an occasional fellow prospect thrown in.

On Friday he fought his first scheduled 10-round fight, although it took him less than a minute to stop journeyman Antonio Meza.

9. Henry Coyle, Junior Middleweight, 18-2 with 12 KOs

Henry Coyle is the World Boxing Foundation light middleweight champion. That’s not exactly a major title, but the 32-year-old has not lost a fight in more than four years and is due for a step up in competition.

Coyle has not fought in almost a year. In August 2012, he beat well-traveled journeyman Marcelo Alejandro Rodriguez (60-19) back in his native Ireland.

Coyle returns to action next week, against 12-7 Skyler Thompson at the U.S. Cellular Field in Chicago. It’s an eight-round fight and not the type of opponent that will propel Coyle forward.

But it is the sort of fight that should help him get ready for a bigger opportunity.

8. Andy Murray, Lightweight, 25-1 with 13 KOs

Andy Murray nearly qualified for the 2004 Olympics in Athens and turned professional in 2005. Over the past eight years, he has developed into a solid lightweight contender on the European scene.

It has to be noted that Murray’s impressive record was built largely upon inferior talent. Only nine of his 25 victories have come against fighters with a winning record.

Still, he has beaten a handful of credible journeymen, and in his big step up in competition in June 2011, he managed to win rounds and turn in a respectable performance against former world champion Gavin Rees in a unanimous-decision loss.

Murray fought just once in 2012, stopping 25-11-2 Sergio Priotti in five in August. He’s about to reach a year without a fight, and at 30, he needs to be more active to advance his career.

7. Patrick Hyland, Featherweight, 27-1 with 12 KOs

Patrick Hyland put on a respectable performance in a losing effort against Javier Fortuna on the Juan Manuel Marquez-Manny Pacquiao pay-per-view last December.

Hyland had trouble with Fortuna’s superior speed and athleticism, but he used very solid boxing skills to hold his own for most of the fight. I thought Dave Moretti’s 115-113 scorecard was closer to the mark than Gary Merritt’s 118-110.

At 5’8”, Hyland has very good length for a featherweight. He lives full time in New York State now, where he is trained by Tracy Patterson.

I expect him to come back from his setback against Fortuna and continue to develop into a world-title contender.

6. Brian Magee, Super Midleweight, 36-5-1 with 25 KOs

Brian Magee has held the IBO and WBA interim super middleweight titles, so that makes him a former world champion of sorts. But he has always stumbled against true, world championship-level fighters.

Last December, Mikkel Kessler beat him by Round 3 TKO, and Lucian Bute stopped him in 10 in March 2011. He was also knocked out by Carl Froch in May 2006.

But Magee is a very solid, rugged professional fighter and has been since 1999. At 38, his future in the sport is uncertain, and he has almost surely seen his best days.

He tested positive for the banned substance oxilofrine following his loss to Kessler and spent the first half of this year serving a six-month suspension.

5. Paul McCloskey, Light Welterweight, 24-2 with 12 KOs

Southpaw Paul McCloskey has been a professional since 2005 and has held European and British Commonwealth titles at light welterweight. Among the opponents he’s beaten are tough Italian journeyman Giuseppe Lauri and hard-punching contender Breidis Prescott.

In his one world title shot, McCloskey lost by a shutout in a six-round technical decision to Amir Khan in April 2011. Plenty of very good fighters have been out-boxed for six rounds by Amir Khan, so McCloskey shouldn’t be written off based upon that fight alone.

Still, McCloskey is 34 and suffered a major setback in May 2012 when he went down by Round 10 TKO to the always dangerous DeMarcus Corley, one of only two victories for Chop Chop in his last nine fights.

McCloskey is still on the periphery of the action at 140. Junior welterweight is one of the top divisions in the sport, so a stepping-stone fighter there is only ever one big win away from contender status.

4. Carl Frampton, Super Bantamweight, 16-0 with 11 KOs

Undefeated Carl Frampton of Belfast is one of the rising stars in the super bantamweight division. He’s yet to fight a top-rated opponent, but his perfect record is entirely legitimate.

Frampton has not been padding his record with trial horses and tomato cans. Everybody he’s fought in the past two years is a fellow prospect or contender.

He fought four times in 2012, against opponents with a combined record of 83-5-1. So far this year, he has beaten 27-3 Kiko Martinez.

Of all of the fighters on this list, I would tag Frampton as the man most likely to be a world champion someday. He’s already due for a shot at somebody’s title.

3. Tyson Fury, Heavyweight, 21-0 with 15 KOs

Tyson Fury was born in Manchester, England, but into an Irish Traveler family. He comes from a family with deep roots in both professional prizefighting and underground bare-knuckle scrapping.

He was named for Mike Tyson. There’s no doubt Tyson Fury was born to fight.

I have expressed skepticism on many occasions over the viability of Fury as a true heavyweight contender. I’ve already gone on record predicting that David Haye will knock him out when they meet in September.

But Fury deserves some credit, too. He’s a giant of a man and has some solid boxing skills.

To quote Burgess Meredith, portraying Mickey in Rocky, that makes him “a very dangerous person.”

Fury has beaten solid journeyman like Vinny Maddalone and Nicolai Firtha. He’s also beaten former world-title challengers Dereck Chisora and Kevin Johnson.

And right now he is just one win away from a title shot of his own.

2. Andy Lee, Middleweight, 30-2 with 21 KOs

Andy Lee represented Ireland in the 2004 Olympics. As a professional, he has made his home in Detroit at the legendary Kronk Gym, where he was a star pupil of the late, great Emanuel Steward.

Lee is a slick boxer, and I wouldn’t rule him out as a future world champion, although I wouldn’t bet on it either. In June 2012, he was leading Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. on all three cards when he succumbed to a Round 7 TKO.

Lee just didn’t have the power to slow Chavez down. Even as he was winning rounds, it appeared to be only a matter of time before Chavez walked him down.

Lee’s only other loss was by Round 7 TKO against Brian Vera in 2008. He avenged it in October 2011, taking a unanimous decision.

Depending upon how Vera does in his fight with Chavez in September, I wouldn’t mind seeing a rubber match between Vera and Lee.

1. Matthew Macklin, Middleweight, 29-5 with 20 KOs

Matthew Macklin was born in Birmingham, England to Irish parents. He spent much of his childhood in Ireland and has represented Ireland in the ring.

Macklin is coming off of a devastating Round 3 KO loss to Gennady Golovkin, but that fight says more about the destructive abilities of GGG than it does about any particular flaws in Macklin’s game.  

In March 2012, Macklin fought a competitive fight against Sergio Martinez and was still even on Julie Lederman’s card when he went down by Round 11 TKO. At the time, Martinez was universally regarded as a top-five pound-for-pound star.

In June 2011, Macklin lost by split decision to Felix Sturm in Germany, but it was a fight that a high percentage of observers thought he deserved to win. A win would have made him the WBA middleweight champ.

Despite how things turned out against Golovkin, I still rate Macklin comfortably inside of the top 10 at 160. I think he would beat Andy Lee and therefore rate Macklin the top Irish fighter in the world today.