Noel Murphy Q&A: ‘All the boys down in the gym didn’t even understand me when I was talking’
It’s been brilliant. I went straight from camp for my last fight into this one, we didn’t take a break with it because we didn’t have time to. I’ve had some brilliant sparring. [Former WBA welterweight champion] Luis Collazo was helping me out for the last one and he’s helping me for this one too.
So there were no second thoughts about spending Christmas locked in camp?
It was difficult but Christmas over here is not the same as home. People got the Monday off work and that was it. It’s more Bank Holiday than Christmas holiday so I just stayed in that mindset. It was my first Christmas away from home. I got over it easy enough.
There was no rush on me. I was offered the chance [on a club tour to NYC] but I was still doing my Leaving Cert so I knew I had to go home and finish that. I was still keen to stay amateur. I went off to college and moved into the seniors at home. But I fought in the seniors and I thought I got a really bad decision. I fought a really good fight but I lost out. I didn’t think I lost. Immediately after that I emailed Kevin (Crowley, his manager, a fellow Cork transplant to the Big Apple) and asked him if the offer still stood.
It wasn’t. It was never really in my mind until it was offered to me. Kevin watched me fight and thought I could give it a go here. But before that, no, it was only the amateur game that was in my mind. I wanted to go to the Olympics.
With Michael Conlan there in Rio, that was a high profile robbery. But there’s a lot more robberies than that going on. All around the world. In the National Stadium in Dublin, in the quarter-finals of the seniors? Nobody passed much heed of what happened to me. But it was a huge thing to me. And that’s was happening everywhere in amateur boxing. So I’m delighted I’m out of there. I never regret it.
Definitely, it was a blessing in disguise for me. It sent me on my way out here to New York and I had to grow up a lot out here. And that’s helped me as a boxer. It toughens you up a lot more than staying at home. New York is a tough city. You have to grow up and toughen up fast if you want to do well here, boxing or whatever. It took a while for me. All the boys down I the gym didn’t even understand me when I was talking — the Macroom accent. But when it clicked in, it clicked in.
In Cork we have the league in Glen Boxing Club. And whoever wanted to fight, could fight. We were fighting nearly every week. I definitely think that’s where it happened for me. I see guys over here in New York, amateurs especially, and they don’t get fights any more. They’re trying to be like the pros, they’re trying to pick and choose who they fight. I don’t think that works. In Cork, I was told on a Monday or a Tuesday, ‘you’ll be fighting so and so on Thursday’. And that was it. You got in there and fought him It’s one thing hitting the bags all day but it will never equal fighting. You have to get in there and get hurt.
It was a brilliant breakthrough. And I have my manager [fellow Corkonian Kevin Crowley] to thank for that. I’m the only Irish fighter in New York at the moment. If you look at the Carl Frampton fight here [in July], it’s incredible. So many people who went there, they don’t know much about boxing, they just want to be there and wear green and support and feel a bit closer to home.
It’s about getting my name out there. When you’re 5-, 6-, 7-0 people are still overlooking you. By the end of this year, I don’t want anyone to be overlooking me. I don’t want them to be able to. I’ll go in there Saturday night and that’s one undefeated fighter gone. Then go back to Dublin in February, come back out to New York 9-0 and hopefully really stamp my name in there.
The support already from home has been incredible and that’s why really. Most of Macroom is going to be up in the National Stadium, the surrounding areas as well. I think a lot of boxing people from Cork and around Munster are hungry to see one of their guys fighting. It’s about them getting to know me better and me making a better impression on them.
I’ve never thought of it that much. People know Jason Quigley because of the high performance and the medals. He’s an incredible boxer. But that’s what people are familiar with. Casual boxing fans won’t be up watching fights from Quigley or myself at 4 in the morning so that high performance exposure is huge. That’s where pro boxing at home needs to be built up to match that. Look at the profile that Conor McGregor has built up for MMA in no time too. Pro boxing at home can’t do that as easily because it’s scattered rather than one big thing like the UFC but that’s what it needs badly.
That would be quite nice. I’d like to hear his opinions on it alright, I’d love to see his reaction.
It always comes up. It was just pure random. Our gym in New York, we train there every day and out of the blue one day, Floyd Mayweather just walked in off the street. I had gone to the regular gym instead of the boxing gym. So I wasn’t there but one of the other kids was and got lucky. He worked out for Mayweather, Floyd saw him, liked him and signed him on the spot, brought him out to Vegas and now he’s the youngest on The Money Team. That’s boxing. You always have to be prepared.
