Why Irish boxing should be thankful to Conor McGregor

Paschal Collins is not a man to aimlessly wander along with the consensus. While many boxers decry a certain forthcoming ‘super-fight’ as “bad for boxing”, the head trainer of the Celtic Warriors Gym takes a different view.

“Professional boxing is entertainment and it’s like a great band — if nobody sees them, nobody knows them! When there’s no television or media coverage, there’s no exposure,” says Collins, brother of the two-weight world champion Steve.

In keeping with that point, it is an unavoidable reality that the much-hyped bout between Floyd Mayweather Jr and Conor McGregor will overshadow most boxing events over the next nine weeks. Tonight is a fitting example, as a professional boxing bill takes place in McGregor’s hometown that will attract tokenistic media coverage compared to that afforded to the August 26 Las Vegas ‘super fight’.