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Never Bet Against Olympian Jude Gallagher!

By Chris McNulty

In the days after the 2012 Olympic Games in London, John Gallagher was feeling somewhat mischievous.

Now, though, the mischief could be deemed prophetic.

It was in the wake of what remains Irish boxing’s greatest return from an Olympic Games.

Katie Taylor won her trailblazing lightweight gold and John Joe Nevin took the bantamweight silver with bronze medals heading to Belfast in the pockets of Paddy Barnes (light-flyweight) and Michael Conlan (flyweight).

“Asked Paddy Power what price would Jude Gallagher from Ireland be to win the Olympics 2023 and they gave me a price of 2/1!,” John Gallagher wrote on Facebook 12 years ago. Jude Gallagher was only ten years old at the time.

The budding puncher might’ve been showing promise, but the Olympic Games were far from a reality.

Last Monday at the E-Work Arena in Busto Arsizio, just north of Milan, John and Jude Gallagher locked in an emotional father-son embrace.

A stunning victory over Shukur Ovezov from Turkmenistan secured Jude’s place as Ireland’s featherweight representative at the Olympic Games later this year.

“It is a dream come true,” Jude Gallagher said at a homecoming function in his native Newtownstewart on Friday night.

“I actually remember him contacting Paddy Power at the time. We were watching Olympic boxing. For a joke, he said he’d ask Paddy Power for a price they’d give . . .It shows that we’ve been thinking about this for a long time. It really is a dream come true.”

The road to Paris hasn’t been without its obstacles for the affable Two Castles BC man.

Before stepping in against Dylan Eagleson – also a Commonwealth Games gold medallist in 2022 – at the National Elites in November, Gallagher lost his previous three fights in 2023.

Defeated at Strandja by Kazakh Orazbek Assylkulov in February, Jahmal Harvey, the 2021 World Champion, then got the better of Gallagher in a quarter-final of the Usti nad Labem Grand Prix in May.

A month later, at the European Games in Poland, Gallagher lost out to eventual champion Javier Ibanez, a Cuban-born Bulgarian who is a former World Youth champion.

Gallagher said: “I had a lot of setbacks and I had to overcome a lot of adversity, but I stuck with it. I had to be mentally strong and I’m reaping the rewards now.

“After the European Games, I had suffered my third defeat in a row, I had a talk with Eric Donovan] and the penny dropped. I had a taste of what it was going to take to qualify. I went into the Elites and knew I needed to win them. I knew what I had to do – and I did it.”

In 2019, Gallagher linked up with Donovan, the former European bronze medallist and five-time Irish Elite champion. The coach-boxer partnership has flourished.

On Friday night, Donovan spoke of how he and Gallagher worked on taking the ‘ambition’ from the opponent.

As he watched on from home on Monday, Donovan knew Ovezov was beaten. The bowed heads of the Turkmenistan cornermen at the end of the second round – with Gallagher well in command by then – told Donovan all he needed to.

In the blue corner of the E-Work Arena, Gallagher wasn’t getting ahead of himself. Zaur Antia reminded him of the need to stay out of trouble for three minutes that must’ve seemed like an eternity.

“It was still nerve-wracking,” Gallagher said. “It was the perfect scenario, two rounds up and going into the last, but I just said: ‘What do I need to do?’

“I was expecting him to come charging like a bull. I had to stay switched on and stay out of trouble. It was the biggest three minutes of my life and I got the job done.”

Gallagher hasn’t taken the easy route to Olympic qualification.

His wins in Italy included the scalp of Mohamed Hussamuddin, India’s 2023 World Championship bronze medallist.

Before that, though, Gallagher navigated a loaded Irish featherweight division in November.

Wins over Eagleson and Adam Hession (who had beaten him previously) in the final, were so impressive that Gallagher was listed as the boxer of the tournament.

He said: “The quality at 57kgs was unreal. I knew that I had to win it. There was a lot at stake. I had to be in my best shape and I really was.

“I was in flying shape for them. It just kicked on from there and I got better and better.”

Gallagher’s appearance in Paris will come 40 years after Tommy Corr boxed at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. In the long and storied history of amateur boxing and the Olympics, Corr is the only Tyrone man to have previously ducked through the ropes at a Games.

The Coalisland light-middle, having won World Championship and Commonwealth bronze medals two years previously, lost to Jeremiah Okorodudu from Nigeria.

Politicians and those from across the sporting world, including former WBO World middleweight challenger Jason Quigley from just across the border in Donegal, packed into St Eugene’s Parish Hall to acclaim Gallagher.

Four evenings after they were glued to the screen to see their man punch his ticket for Paris, the Newtownstewart public turned out in their droves.

Gallagher said: “It’s unreal, coming back here and seeing the reception from people here. The support and the welcome home was unreal when I came back with the Commonwealth medal and they have outdone themselves again.

“It’s hard to describe. When I came back from Italy, I just kept it quiet and didn’t meet too many people for a day or two, but as soon as I started meeting people it was sinking in when they started to congratulate me. It’s a dream come true.”

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