'For years when I was younger, I never got away on a trip. I was thinking, 'why am I doing this?''
Brendan Irvine had his funding halved after a disastrous Rio 2016 for Irish boxing. A year later, he’s eyeing his second major international medal of the summer.
IRISH OLYMPIAN BRENDAN Irvine turned 21 just two months ago, but stands ringside at the Sport Ireland Institute, Abbotstown, as one of the senior figures in Irish boxing’s new class.
The ‘Wee Rooster’ got a peak at Irish boxing’s new setup earlier than most; when the ribbon was cut back in January, the St Paul’s ABC fighter posed awkwardly alongside a conglomerate of fancily clad men, a number of whom played a role in seeing Irvine’s personal funding slashed in half following his exit to eventual flyweight gold medalist Shakhobidin Zoirov at Rio 2016.
Even before boxing becomes ‘business’, it’s cut-throat.
“It’s hard,” admits the softly-spoken Belfast man. “It can be hard coming up and down to Dublin, but I just have to be appreciative that I’m on funding because there’s people that aren’t on funding. I have to be smart, and make sure that I stay on funding, keep bringing medals home. That means putting an effort in in the gym so that I can go away and bring medals home and stay on funding. It’s hard, because your funding only lasts a year so you have to keep winning, that’s all you have to do, keep winning. It’s hard to say ‘keep winning’ but that’s what you’ve got to do.”
In 2016 Irvine received a ‘Podium’ grant of €40,000 from Sport Ireland. A fruitless Olympics for he and his Irish peers, along with the departures of Katie Taylor, Paddy Barnes, Michael Conlan and David Oliver Joyce from the High Performance Unit, saw IABA funding cut by €200,000 – with Irvine himself being relegated to ‘World Class’ funding of 20,000 ahead of this year’s Europeans and Worlds.
The stylish flyweight’s European bronze medal last month acted as a timely reminder as to his prodigious talent in the squared circle. Irvine was hardly best pleased to have his funding slashed, but remains adamant that, at 21, he’s only getting started, and will return to Podium in more ways than one in the coming years.
“People said [the funding cut] was harsh, but you just have to see that Rio for me was like warm-up for Tokyo. I just have to keep grinding it out and the door will open. Obviously I’ll go to the World Championships and try and prove my funding right, be back on top.
You keep knocking on the door, you keep knocking on the door, eventually it will open. For years when I was younger, I never got away on a trip. From Boy 1 until Youth, I never got away on a trip. It was always ‘you’re too light, you’re too light.’ There were many times, and my coach Ralph [McKay] will tell you that he was telling me to ‘keep going, just keep going,’ and many times I was thinking ‘why am I doing this?’
“Seeing boys getting away to the Europeans and the World Championships when they were younger, it frustrated me and put me back, put me in bad moods. But it made me who I am today. I just have to appreciate that.”
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But while European bronze did more than answer any doubters, Irvine – not unlike many of his teammates old and new – holds himself to a higher standard than to settle for a semi-final finish.
“People always say, ‘Aw, you’ve done amazing, you’ve done amazing’ – and it is an amazing achievement; going away you’re always like, ‘I’d love to bring a medal home.’ Walking through the airport bringing a medal home, there’s no better feeling.
“But obviously I wanted it to be a different colour – obviously I wanted it to be a gold.
“You just have to appreciate everything and be thankful that you’ve had the opportunity to go there and bring success back to Ireland. Every medal’s a medal, no matter what colour it is, but obviously you want the gold one.”
Ryan Byrne / INPHO
Ryan Byrne / INPHO / INPHO
After impressive victories over Turkey’s Bathuhan Citfci and Gabriel Escobar of Spain, it was a relatively unheralded Brit, Niall Farrell, who shocked Irvine in the last four. The 20-year-old from Birmingham once trained out of St Anne’s BC in Westport, Mayo as per Irish-boxing.com, but despite becoming English Elite champion back in April, was a surprise package in Kharkiv.
Irvine readily admits that he was caught on the hop by his new adversary, in spite of a strong opening round on the Belfast boy’s behalf.
“We’re around the same age. I’d never really heard of him until then – it was a different fella on the team beforehand, Muhammad Ali [2016 Olympian], I was familiar with him. This fella [Farrell] just came on the scene and there was no real notice of him. It was different, being against him.
I won the first round hands down, I was comfortable and relaxed. I don’t know what happened in the next two rounds but I sort of just switched off. I should have been switched on and not given him the chance. I’m going to have to stay tuned on in the future because it was a wake-up call for myself – I could have rightly been European champion.
“The fella that went on to win gold [Bulgaria's Daniel Asenov] – I beat him when I qualified for the Olympics. That’s not to say that I would have beat him [again], but I’ve beaten him before and surely I could have done it again if I had got to the final.”
It’s not a bad lesson to have learned ahead of next month’s World Championships in Hamburg, where Irvine will be vying for a medal once more. In truth it’s been a year full of them.
It might be harsh to suggest that the Irish 52kg champion suffered from stage fright in Rio, given the calibre of his first and only opponent, but for all the negatives last summer, the experience provided him with a yardstick to which he can compare other tournaments. He’s since won an Irish title and continental bronze, and maintains that having experienced his first Olympic Games, the pressure of both has paled in comparison.
“I’m definitely a lot more experienced. Having the experience from the Olympics, the World’s biggest stage, it [fighting in other tournaments] is liking fighting in your home club show. There were so many eyes watching you, it’s the biggest sporting event in the world. There’s not as much pressure on you walking out into the ring [in other tournaments], you enjoy it a bit more, you can relax that bit more.”
And so it’s on to Germany, where Irvine will seek to establish himself as a standard-bearer for Irish amateur boxing’s new crop. But even with star names such as Taylor, Barnes, Conlan having moved onto pastures anew, Irvine is content to continue earning his stripes before becoming a poster boy for his sport in Ireland.
“I’d never class myself as a ‘big dog,’” he says. “I’d always say I’m just a boxer like the other lads. But obviously I’ve been getting more established throughout the years. With the Olympics, the Europeans, my name’s popping up, and I’m getting myself more recognised: qualifying for the Olympics, qualifying for the Worlds, picking up medals here and there. People are recognising me more.”
Incidentally, 2017 is the Year of the Rooster, and one particularly wee one from Belfast will be on the radars of many a big dog in Germany next month.
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'For years when I was younger, I never got away on a trip. I was thinking, 'why am I doing this?''
IRISH OLYMPIAN BRENDAN Irvine turned 21 just two months ago, but stands ringside at the Sport Ireland Institute, Abbotstown, as one of the senior figures in Irish boxing’s new class.
The ‘Wee Rooster’ got a peak at Irish boxing’s new setup earlier than most; when the ribbon was cut back in January, the St Paul’s ABC fighter posed awkwardly alongside a conglomerate of fancily clad men, a number of whom played a role in seeing Irvine’s personal funding slashed in half following his exit to eventual flyweight gold medalist Shakhobidin Zoirov at Rio 2016.
Even before boxing becomes ‘business’, it’s cut-throat.
“It’s hard,” admits the softly-spoken Belfast man. “It can be hard coming up and down to Dublin, but I just have to be appreciative that I’m on funding because there’s people that aren’t on funding. I have to be smart, and make sure that I stay on funding, keep bringing medals home. That means putting an effort in in the gym so that I can go away and bring medals home and stay on funding. It’s hard, because your funding only lasts a year so you have to keep winning, that’s all you have to do, keep winning. It’s hard to say ‘keep winning’ but that’s what you’ve got to do.”
In 2016 Irvine received a ‘Podium’ grant of €40,000 from Sport Ireland. A fruitless Olympics for he and his Irish peers, along with the departures of Katie Taylor, Paddy Barnes, Michael Conlan and David Oliver Joyce from the High Performance Unit, saw IABA funding cut by €200,000 – with Irvine himself being relegated to ‘World Class’ funding of 20,000 ahead of this year’s Europeans and Worlds.
The stylish flyweight’s European bronze medal last month acted as a timely reminder as to his prodigious talent in the squared circle. Irvine was hardly best pleased to have his funding slashed, but remains adamant that, at 21, he’s only getting started, and will return to Podium in more ways than one in the coming years.
“People said [the funding cut] was harsh, but you just have to see that Rio for me was like warm-up for Tokyo. I just have to keep grinding it out and the door will open. Obviously I’ll go to the World Championships and try and prove my funding right, be back on top.
“Seeing boys getting away to the Europeans and the World Championships when they were younger, it frustrated me and put me back, put me in bad moods. But it made me who I am today. I just have to appreciate that.”
But while European bronze did more than answer any doubters, Irvine – not unlike many of his teammates old and new – holds himself to a higher standard than to settle for a semi-final finish.
“People always say, ‘Aw, you’ve done amazing, you’ve done amazing’ – and it is an amazing achievement; going away you’re always like, ‘I’d love to bring a medal home.’ Walking through the airport bringing a medal home, there’s no better feeling.
“But obviously I wanted it to be a different colour – obviously I wanted it to be a gold.
“You just have to appreciate everything and be thankful that you’ve had the opportunity to go there and bring success back to Ireland. Every medal’s a medal, no matter what colour it is, but obviously you want the gold one.”
After impressive victories over Turkey’s Bathuhan Citfci and Gabriel Escobar of Spain, it was a relatively unheralded Brit, Niall Farrell, who shocked Irvine in the last four. The 20-year-old from Birmingham once trained out of St Anne’s BC in Westport, Mayo as per Irish-boxing.com, but despite becoming English Elite champion back in April, was a surprise package in Kharkiv.
Irvine readily admits that he was caught on the hop by his new adversary, in spite of a strong opening round on the Belfast boy’s behalf.
“We’re around the same age. I’d never really heard of him until then – it was a different fella on the team beforehand, Muhammad Ali [2016 Olympian], I was familiar with him. This fella [Farrell] just came on the scene and there was no real notice of him. It was different, being against him.
“The fella that went on to win gold [Bulgaria's Daniel Asenov] – I beat him when I qualified for the Olympics. That’s not to say that I would have beat him [again], but I’ve beaten him before and surely I could have done it again if I had got to the final.”
It’s not a bad lesson to have learned ahead of next month’s World Championships in Hamburg, where Irvine will be vying for a medal once more. In truth it’s been a year full of them.
It might be harsh to suggest that the Irish 52kg champion suffered from stage fright in Rio, given the calibre of his first and only opponent, but for all the negatives last summer, the experience provided him with a yardstick to which he can compare other tournaments. He’s since won an Irish title and continental bronze, and maintains that having experienced his first Olympic Games, the pressure of both has paled in comparison.
“I’m definitely a lot more experienced. Having the experience from the Olympics, the World’s biggest stage, it [fighting in other tournaments] is liking fighting in your home club show. There were so many eyes watching you, it’s the biggest sporting event in the world. There’s not as much pressure on you walking out into the ring [in other tournaments], you enjoy it a bit more, you can relax that bit more.”
And so it’s on to Germany, where Irvine will seek to establish himself as a standard-bearer for Irish amateur boxing’s new crop. But even with star names such as Taylor, Barnes, Conlan having moved onto pastures anew, Irvine is content to continue earning his stripes before becoming a poster boy for his sport in Ireland.
“I’d never class myself as a ‘big dog,’” he says. “I’d always say I’m just a boxer like the other lads. But obviously I’ve been getting more established throughout the years. With the Olympics, the Europeans, my name’s popping up, and I’m getting myself more recognised: qualifying for the Olympics, qualifying for the Worlds, picking up medals here and there. People are recognising me more.”
Incidentally, 2017 is the Year of the Rooster, and one particularly wee one from Belfast will be on the radars of many a big dog in Germany next month.
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