McGonagle welcomes new chapter as pro boxing hits Finn Valley

By Chris McNulty

Patsy McGonagle has been to the top of the sporting world several times – but the Finn Valley supremo is excited to see professional boxing come to Ballybofey and Stranorlar this weekend.

The Finn Valley Centre hosts Fight Night at the Valley on Saturday evening. It is a show put on by Jason Quigley, whose own skills were honed in the centre – where the former Finn Valley Amateur Boxing Club was based – during his teenage years.

It’s the first pro boxing show to arrive in the Twin Towns and McGonagle, who was the brainchild behind the development of the Finn Valley Centre, is delighted to play host.
“It’s exciting for us at Finn Valley,” McGonagle says. “It’s another activity with a full house and an unbelievable atmosphere.

“It will create challenges, which we haven’t dealt with before, but we want to support Jason in any way we can and support the young boxers too.

“We had enjoyable times in the centre watching Jason’s career develop, but this is special now and we are so delighted to be able to support this and to be associated with it.

“We are obviously delighted to support Jason because he has been a big part of the story here. We used to gather in the bar for all of his fights abroad and we had that memorable morning watching him fight for the world gold in 2013.”

Former world title contender Quigley has turned to management and has vowed that this event won’t simply be a once-off.

McGonagle managed the Irish athletics team at four Olympic Games and nine World Athletics Championships, but home and the Finn Valley Centre has always been where his heart has beat the quickest.

“What Jason is doing here is he’s creating an environment,” McGonagle says. “There are enough boxers to create that environment and it would be a really positive thing to encourage something like that because the young boxers would be feeding off each other and buzzing off each other.

“Jason was driven himself and now he wants to drive this on. We’re always behind him and we’re looking forward to it. We’re grateful that he has brought this here, to Ballybofey and to Donegal. We extol the fact that this is the sporting capital of Donegal and if something is to happen then it happens here: We have Donegal’s home ground in MacCumhaill Park, we have Finn Harps and all the rest of the sports, including boxing.

“We’re big time looking forward to this.”