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How Good Was Dave McAuley?

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  • 28-09-2017 12:10am
    #1
    Joe Musashi
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 470 ✭✭


    He was before my time and I mostly know him from doing the commentary on RTE but looking into watching some of his fights. :o

    Where does he rank among the best Irish boxers and amongst the Flyweights of his time? Recommended fights to watch?


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    #2
    megadodge
    Registered Users Posts: 5,291 ✭✭✭megadodge


    Joe Musashi wrote: »
    He was before my time and I mostly know him from doing the commentary on RTE but looking into watching some of his fights. :o

    Where does he rank among the best Irish boxers and amongst the Flyweights of his time? Recommended fights to watch?

    Dave 'Boy' McAuley is one of the best Irish boxers ever.

    I am not exaggerating to say he was akin to an Irish Arturo Gatti. His first fight with Fidel Bassa was an all-time classic and voted the Flyweight Fight of the 1980's by Ring magazine. It would easily be in my top 20 fights of all time, possibly top 10. I won't tell you the result as it swings back and forth so much it would spoil it for you. Watch it here

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7YlnZ2BY-M

    He had nine world title fights winning six. I saw him on some game show or other donkey's years ago and he said he was put down SEVENTEEN times in his career of twenty three fights (just three losses), but only failed to get up once. He was a harder puncher than his record suggests. He scored lots of knockdowns himself and was a terrific body puncher. He wasn't hard to hit, but he was as rugged as they came and just kept coming back.

    I suspect his vulnerabilities were due to weight-making, as he was around 5'7", which for a flyweight is extraordinarily tall. I often wondered if he fought at bantam would he have been floored as often.

    From a popularity point of view, his style should have made him a superstar in this part of the world, but he came just after the hugely popular Barry McGuigan years and suffered in much the same way as Larry Holmes did after Ali.

    All in all a nice guy and a hugely entertaining fighter.


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    #3
    weemcd
    Registered Users Posts: 6,420 ✭✭✭weemcd


    megadodge wrote: »
    Dave 'Boy' McAuley is one of the best Irish boxers ever.

    I am not exaggerating to say he was akin to an Irish Arturo Gatti. His first fight with Fidel Bassa was an all-time classic and voted the Flyweight Fight of the 1980's by Ring magazine. It would easily be in my top 20 fights of all time, possibly top 10. I won't tell you the result as it swings back and forth so much it would spoil it for you. Watch it here

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7YlnZ2BY-M

    He had nine world title fights winning six. I saw him on some game show or other donkey's years ago and he said he was put down SEVENTEEN times in his career of twenty three fights (just three losses), but only failed to get up once. He was a harder puncher than his record suggests. He scored lots of knockdowns himself and was a terrific body puncher. He wasn't hard to hit, but he was as rugged as they came and just kept coming back.

    I suspect his vulnerabilities were due to weight-making, as he was around 5'7", which for a flyweight is extraordinarily tall. I often wondered if he fought at bantam would he have been floored as often.

    From a popularity point of view, his style should have made him a superstar in this part of the world, but he came just after the hugely popular Barry McGuigan years and suffered in much the same way as Larry Holmes did after Ali.

    All in all a nice guy and a hugely entertaining fighter.

    Thank you for sharing. Very informative post. Looking forward to the video now.


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