The Lost Soul of Eamonn Magee

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The crafty southpaw has left it cautiously ajar so he can get a peek at me before making any definitive decision. I am heading home in a couple of weeks to watch the boxing bill McCullough is on anyway, so we choose the pre-fight weigh-in in the Waterfront Hall for our first physical encounter. Since the fatal stabbing in the early hours of Saturday May 30, 2015, Koca consistently denied involvement. However, after pleading guilty to the murder, Koca last month told a Probation Officer that after arriving at his estranged wife's home at Summerhill Drive, he claimed he saw a light on upstairs. Ten years after winning the world title, Eamonn — in addition to continued drug and alcohol abuse which intensified the mental health issues with which he has been struggling for decades — had another major issue. Basically, he was broke.

In June 2010, Magee was jailed for 12 months for an assault on his ex-partner. He was given the maximum sentence for the offence, but was released on bail pending an appeal. [8]The southpaw boxed for Ireland as an amateur and, like his brother Noel, won a number of Irish national titles and won a silver medal at the World Junior Championships at San Juan, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico in 1989. In 1991, Magee won the Irish National Senior light welterweight title. Magee grew up in the nationalist Ardoyne area of Belfast and was in and out of trouble as a youth. Magee came from a boxing obsessed family, at the age of twelve, Magee's mother enrolled a him in the local boxing club. Magee stated that for his mother "boxing was as important as school". Magee's three older brothers were also boxers with two of them, Terry Magee and Noel Magee, having careers as professional boxers. His brother Noel was also a Commonwealth title champion. Because of his Irish title win, Magee should have automatically been nominated as the Irish entrant for the qualification tournament for the boxing event at the 1992 Olympics; however, a number of members from the Ulster Boxing Council abstained from voting for his nomination and this led to the Irish (IABA) selection team requesting that Magee fight a preliminary fight against Corkman Billy Walsh, a boxer whom he had already beaten to win the Irish title. In protest, Magee then turned down the chance to box off for the place, as he felt he was the automatic choice. [14] He, like those who did the same previously, will have to bite the bullet and stare in the face the court calendar," Lord Justice McCloskey said. Koca, 39, pleaded guilty to carrying out the murder of 22-year-old Mr Magee, his estranged wife's new boyfriend, in May 2015.

My son was a great fighter. I just thought it was appropriate to get him a headstone that was a boxing glove," he said.The ex-fighter, known as The Terminator during a professional career where he held the Commonwealth welterweight title, vehemently denies the charges. Koca had been motivated by jealousy when he armed himself and went to his former family home with an intent to kill the engineering student and personal trainer, previous courts heard. His ex-partner had started a new relationship with Mr Magee after they met at a gym where he worked.

Because of his Irish title win, Magee should have automatically been nominated as the Irish entrant for the qualification tournament for the 1992 Barcelona Olympics however, a number of members from the Ulster Boxing Council abstained from voting for his nomination and this led to the Irish (IABA) selection team requesting that Magee fight a preliminary fight against Corkman Billy Walsh, a boxer whom he had already beaten to win the Irish title. In protest, Magee then turned down the chance to box off for the place at the Barcelona Olympics as he felt he was the automatic choice. The barman was said to have been possessive of his ex-partner, becoming aggressive if she attracted attention from other men. I tried rehab,” he eventually says, pausing again with comic timing before breaking into the Amy Winehouse song. “And I said, ‘No, no, no!’”While reading between the lines of an old Irish Independent piece on Magee, I thought I discovered the key to exploring this flawed and complicated man when the article touched very briefly on Eamonn’s formative years and ‘the scourge of internment’. This, I believed, was where his story must begin. In February 2010, he was sentenced to six months imprisonment for assault after head-butting a man in north Belfast. [6] [7] A barman's legal bid to overturn his conviction for murdering boxer Eamonn Magee Jr will be heard later this month, judges have confirmed. IABA. "World Junior Championships". IABA. Archived from the original on 5 September 2006 . Retrieved 13 October 2006. I don’t want to talk about all this on the phone,’ Magee decides after a couple of minutes listening to my rambling pitch. ‘Come over here and we’ll sit down face to face and see what happens.’ This is as good as I could have expected. He hasn’t swung the door wide open, but neither has he slammed it shut in my face.

A biography of Magee was published in 2018 titled The Lost Soul of Eamonn Magee and won the William Hill Sports Book of the Year. [10] Amateur record [ edit ] Alex McGreey. "Magee's trainer: Hatton's fought no one". IrishBoxing.com. Archived from the original on 4 May 2007 . Retrieved 13 May 2007.

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A man jailed for stabbing a rising boxer star to death is mounting a legal bid to overturn his conviction. Eamon always encouraged others to use their God–given gifts and talents to fulfil their own potential. Eamon’s dedication and discipline inspired many people and by his fundraising for charity, he certainly was a good role model. During this month he had been planning to run a half marathon and raise funds for the charity, Tiny Life. However, Lord Justice McCloskey held that his assertions were "bare, unsubstantiated (and) manifestly self-serving".