Thursday nights are filled with sparring from gyms of all over at the Crumlin Boxing Club (Dublin, Ireland). Headed up by 2x Irish Olympian Phil Sutcliffe Sr., the gym has had a who’s who of pro boxers come through this gym. His son, Philip Sutcliffe Jr (14-2) has also had a successful pro career.
Walking in the gym, I see professional boxer Lynn Harvey, wrapping a young kid’s hands, and am welcomed by Phil Sutcliffe and Bra Brady, who I see photographed in pictures of him sparring in the 1960s. Olympian Katie Taylor once trained at this gym, before winning a Gold Medal in the Olympics and turning pro, as did Conor McGregor, who apparently still owes the club some money 😂 (there’s a poster of an interview with Bra Brady mentioning it up on the walls). Daniel Day-Lewis even trained there while preparing for his role in the 1997 film “The Boxer”. A look around the posters of the walls hanging along the gym shows many more that have walked through these doors.
As we watch sparring, Coach Phil points out a number of other clubs present, and Crumlin’s current champions and pros who are lined up for sparring, which goes on all night. Some times they’ll have two rings going. Other times they’ll have three boxers in the ring at the same time, one standing in a corner while the other two spar until the rest period, where one person stays in and gets the fresh boxers through the break and the other fighter gets worked on. Even though it’s sparring, they have a referee inside the ring. Sparring goes for hours smoothly, without any break in the action. Coach Phil is helped by other coaches in the gym, and Phil is constantly running around the gym doing all the matchmaking and managing everything. Boxing is alive and well out here. 🥊🥊👊🏽👊🏽 #boxinglife