Why is Roy Sheahan called ‘The Joker’?
Picking a ring moniker always seems to weigh heavily on a new pro’s mind.
As soon as the vest is ditched fighters are scrambling to adopt a fight nickname.
It often seems to cause stress as a host of possible names are considered and binned over a period of days that can stretch into weeks.
Alliteration is always the first port of call, followed by some form of an attempt to create a rhyme or a call-back to their hometown, then some flirt with the bizarre before reverting back a childhood nickname or recycling a classic.
However, for Roy Sheehan, the nickname selection process was simple. The former St Michael’s Athy amateur found one that just seems to fit, ‘The Joker’.
The former EU Gold medal’s selection isn’t Batman-related rather a more fitting tribute to his nature – and it will be the name called out when he makes his debut at the York Hall in London on February 10th.
Fight fans who didn’t know Sheehan personally and watched him compete in the National Elite Senior Championship may have seen a focused, driven and serious operator at work.
However, it seems the Kildare favourite, who will take part in the March Last Man Standing on March 3rd, is indeed quite the joker.
Don’t believe us check out what his former amateur team mates had to say about the 33-year-old and his antics during our Low Blows series.
Biggest Messer?
A: Roy Sheahan. We would have a serious meeting with all the boxers and coaches and halfway through it Roy would let out a fart and go into hysterics laughing at himself.
Funniest?
A: Roy Sheahan and Sean McComb without a doubt, two headers. Kurt Walker gets a honorary mention here because I laugh at how stupid he is sometimes.
Q: Funniest?
A: I’d have to give it to Roy Sheahan, never ever a wrong time for Roy to start a giggle. He seems to always find the most serious and important of team meetings to start this nonsense!
Q: Biggest Messer?
A: Roy Sheahan was and still is a serious messer. I think it’s got to do with the amount of sweets and fizzy drinks he consumes. When all his victims were fast asleep in camp, he’d have to laugh himself and his high sugar levels off to sleep.
Q: Biggest Messer?
A: Roy Sheahan is by far the worst messer I ever came across. He jocked me in the middle of McDonalds one day. Another time he took a huge scoop of raw onions and put them onto Hughie Myers’s plate at the buffet and just bursts out laughing. Was one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen, had to be there kind of thing.
Q: Funniest?
A: A lot of guys pop to mind, both boxers and coaches, Kenny Egan, Billy Walsh, Cathal O’Grady, Eric Donovan, but I think Roy Sheehan gets this hands down. Roy was always joking and up for a laugh. And he could take a good slagging too.
Q: Funniest?
A: That would have to be Roy Sheahan and Eric Donovan. Them two together could be a comedy act. Big Con Sheehan as well, always slagging Davy Oliver Joyce, it used to be hilarious.
Q: Biggest Messer?
A: Roy Sheahan, when him and Eric get together, you might as well pack your bags and get away.
Q: Biggest Messer?
A: Roy Sheehan. He is constantly messing. I went to America with him and he didn’t stop the full week. You would see him laughing to himself at something he was thinking of doing. He doesn’t stop!
Q: Funniest?
A: The funniest person I’ve been around is Roy Sheehan. We were on a trip in Canada years ago and it was brilliant. You would just look at Roy and laugh. Just flicking your ears when you’re not expecting it and stuff like that. He’s a legend.
Q: Biggest Messer?
A: A couple spring to mind. Sean McComb is the messer of the team now, it’s hard to stop them Belfast boys talking at times. Roy Sheehan is probably the king of it and all the team would agree. Locally for me, at my boxing club All Saints would be Vinney Esler. He’s mad as a hatter and good craic to be around. Talented as well just never got the break I feel he needed.
Kildare boxing is proudly supported by Liffey Crane Hire.
