Updated at 14.23
EVERYTHING IN SPORT is historic these days, to the point that the legitimately historic moments have become diluted.
Transfer fees, pay-per-view purchases, triple-double averages, touchdown passes, comebacks, routs; you can’t scratch your arse of late without creating sporting history of some description. In an odd paradox, we’re even sold ‘historic’ events before they occur.
It used to make for an alluring addition to any sports headline – ‘Such and Such completes historic victory’ – but has been driven out of fashion such is the gratuitous manner in which it’s applied to any noteworthy athletic occurrence which creates a splash in the sea of sport we consume.
On 24 June, Moate light-heavyweight Joe Ward created actual Irish sporting history, becoming the first ever male boxer from this country to win gold medals at three European Championships. It scarcely registered a ripple.
You might have heard about it on the nine o’clock news or on Off The Ball or on Game On 2FM, sure, but you won’t have seen a triumphant Ward adorn many a front page, with any dialogue regarding his achievement having long since dissipated by the following evening.
The reaction, or lack thereof, sparked discourse online as to how a sportsperson of his ilk, whose achievements on an international stage eclipse those of most Irish athletes ever, could remain so obscure to the masses.
His former Irish boxing team-mate, Eric Donovan, himself a former European bronze medalist, was left aghast by the distinct lack of acclaim which greeted Ward’s third consecutive European gold. In a peaceful protest of sorts, Donovan switched his Twitter profile picture to a snap of Ward.
Many, including several high-profile Irish sportswriters equally perturbed by the lack of coverage given to the three-time European champion, followed suit.
Gonna make Joe Ward my profile picture for 1 week. Give him his recognition 3x European champion only 23 years old, phenomenal. #profilejoe
— Eric Donovan (@eric_donovan60) June 27, 2017
“Ah, you’d have a bit of craic with him alright,” Donovan says, “but I suppose the best way to describe Joe Ward is he’s quietly confident, if you know what I mean.
“In a way, a lot of the lads on the team would have been very envious of him. It felt like an extremely difficult chore or challenge for us – training and competition – and for Joe it was just effortless. Even to the point that sometimes it felt like he wasn’t even pushing himself – we felt there was more in him.”
‘Lilywhite Lightning’, now four fights unbeaten as a professional, continues: “But for him to go out and make it look so easy against the world’s best, it’s just… One thing that strikes me about Joe Ward: every time he walks to the ring, or even when he’s in the ring, you just do not know what’s going through his mind.
“You never see any facial expressions, he doesn’t show any kind of weakness. If he’s in trouble or under pressure, he has the same nice, relaxed, calm expression on his face. He’s a composed individual; he could be walking out to a World final or European final and he has almost a little smirk on his face, and that just shows the belief and the confidence that the man has in himself.
Donovan, a five-time National Senior Elite champion in his own right, remains incredulous that even in a week which saw Ward attain another slice of history – this time his record-breaking third World Championships medal (the colour of which is yet to be determined) – he remains a peripheral figure in his homeland, barely newsworthy in spite of his bona fide world class ability.
To put Ward’s three World medals into context, Ireland has won 13 in total since the tournament’s advent in 1974, and nine since the turn of the Millennium – a third of which belong to the 23-year-old Westmeath man.
He’s entered three World Championships, medalling in each: in Russia in 2013, reigning world champion and subsequent all-time great Julio César La Cruz resigned him to bronze in the semis. The Cuban repeated the feat in Bulgaria two years ago, with Ward taking home silver following defeat in the final.
This year, in Germany, Ward has sauntered into the semis once more, in doing so collecting at least bronze. He faces Uzbekistan’s Bektemir Melikuziev – a World and Olympic silver medalist at middleweight – for a place in Sunday’s final, where La Cruz will likely again lay in wait.
“Boxing is one of the most difficult sports you can do, but the World Championships is probably the most difficult competition within boxing,” Donovan explains. “I would go as far as saying the World Championships is more difficult than the Olympic Games, because with the Worlds you’ve got more entries. Before the seedings come in, you just don’t know what you’re going to get. I know you had to qualify for it this time, similar to the Olympics, but it’s definitely boxing’s toughest competition.
“For Joe Ward to go to the World Juniors and win a gold, to go to the World Youths and win a gold, and then go to three consecutive Elite Worlds and medal at each of them is just extraordinary, really.
People have to sit up and take notice of this absolute phenomenon of a boxer. Joe Ward is a living legend, and he’s still only a child in a way, but he’s conquering everything time and time again. He’s probably one of the most sought-after amateur boxers ever in Ireland, with promoters looking for him to go professional, and he’s agreed to stay loyal to stay loyal to the amateur setup and to Ireland, and to try and get that elusive Olympic medal.
“And I think he deserves it,” adds the Athy featherweight. “If he gets one in 2020, it will complete his shrine of medals, because he has everything on the mantelpiece. Three consecutive European golds, as well, and it should have been four; it would have been four if he didn’t miss the 2013 Championships with injury.
“It’s hard enough to do that. I know how hard it was for me to get a European bronze medal; it took me years, and years, and years, of hard work and setbacks – a lot of ups and downs – but I kept pushing and grinding and grafting, and finally I got it. And I swear, it was the biggest weight off my shoulders. Now, bear in mind that every single time Joe enters the Europeans and Worlds, he stands on the podium – sometimes on the top step. It’s just incredible. It really is incredible.”
More remarkable still is the notion that, having signed on with the IABA to remain in the amateur ranks until the 2020 Olympics, and with another crack at the Europeans and the Worlds preceding Tokyo, Ward will have ample opportunity to bolster his legacy.
Indeed, when he boards his flight home from the Land of the Rising Sun in three summers’ time, he might well do so as the most decorated male athlete this country has ever produced. As to whether he’d then be perceived as Ireland’s own rising son is another matter.
“I think if he can collect an Olympic medal, without even winning another thing, he’ll go down as one of the greatest, if not the greatest male Irish amateur boxer of all time,” Donovan says, “just because of his consistency.”
“I know Michael Conlan has been absolutely superb as well – he’s got a European gold, he was the first to win a World gold, and he’s got the Olympic medal as well as the Commonwealth – so he’s kind of completed the whole bracket, but I think in terms of the consistency, and especially in terms of the World Championships, Joe’s the man to beat. You’d have to lean towards Joe.
“He’s a very proud Irish man, very proud of the opportunity he’s been given, and very proud to represent us on the world stage. If he was in any other sport, he’d certainly be top of the food chain when it came to support, financial backing and endorsements. He really would.”
“I’m still the best, I don’t give a fuck what anybody says,” laughs Michael Conlan, fresh out of sparring two 130-pounders in The Rock Gym, Carson, California, ahead of his fourth professional bout in Arizona next month.
“Joe Ward needs to win a Worlds, or he needs to get an Olympic medal before he can claim he’s the best. Because if you’re not the best in the world, are you really the best fighter in your own country, when some of your fellow countrymen were the best in the world?”
There’s doubtless a competitive edge to Conlan’s staunch defence of his unofficial crown, but the former amateur world champion would make no bones about abdicating were his former team-mate to repeat his World gold feat or return from Tokyo with an Olympic medal in his back pocket.
“Aw, 100%. He needs the Olympic medal to get recognition, I think. He has the European medals – listen, three-time European champion at 23, it’s unbelievable – along with a World silver and a World bronze. If he can get that World title, and win gold, he’ll definitely be the best in the business – never mind his own country.
“Ah, I get on well with Joe. We both came onto the Irish team at the same time, in 2011, and even though he was a couple of years younger, he didn’t really go on like a kid… Well, he did, because he’s an absolute messer, but you still would have thought he’s older than what he was when you’d be speaking to him.
“I went away to my first World Championships with Joe and shared a room with him. I qualified for the Olympics and that was the first time he had lost in a long, long time – I think since the Youth Olympics. But one thing I noticed about him when we were on that trip was that he’s so confident in himself. Like I didn’t know how he could be as confident as what he was.
The guy would look at you in the room, go, ‘Do you think I’m the best in the world?’ And I’d be like, ‘Of course you are, Joe – definitely.’ And he’d say, ‘I think I’m the best in the world.’ Do you know what I mean? Almost talking to himself.
With ‘senior’ members including Conlan and Paddy Barnes having departed the High Performance Unit in the past 12 months, Ward – the new elder statesman at just 23 – has been anointed Irish team captain by HPU director Bernard Dunne.
It hardly struck as a curious decision given his accolades relative to the less experienced fighters who train alongside him in Abbotstown, but Ward has always come across as a more withdrawn figure than his now-professional compatriots; a gentle giant of sorts, at least until he laces up the leather.
“Quiet? Nah, he’s not quiet,” Conlan says. “Joe is always loud, no matter what. But I don’t think he liked the responsibility roles, in terms of being a team leader – when we were there at least. He wouldn’t have really been speaking much to the older lads like Darren [O'Neill], or even myself, even though he had more medals than me. But if he was chatting with Darren or Paddy [Barnes], he was way younger so it was like he was out of his depth, if you know what I mean. There was just an age barrier which meant he wasn’t able to kind of control them, if that makes sense.
But if you hear him now doing interviews, he’s very proper, he speaks very, very well. He’s smart and he knows what to say. Even in team meetings and stuff, he’ll come across really well. There’ll be an authority and purpose to what he’s saying, he breaks down everything very well. The young guys coming up like Brendy [Brendan Irvine], Joe’s around the same age as them, but they’ll look up to him because of his experience and what he’s achieved.
Following his acrimonious abandonment of the amateur sport last summer, Conlan was of the belief that a disastrous Rio Olympics had brought down the curtain on the golden era of Irish amateur boxing. He hasn’t quite changed his mind 12 months on, but can at least see progress.
The Falls Road featherweight is also adamant that if anyone is going to lead the charge on the world stage in his absence, it will be the new Irish skipper.
“I hope it’s the start of a new golden age,” he says. “I think Bernard Dunne has done a great job so far; he looks like he has the lads under control, and obeying the Code of Conduct and that sort of stuff. The lads have an awful lot of respect for Bernard. The conditions seem to be a lot better than they were before Rio, and the talent’s there – the talent will always be there. It just needs to be nurtured right.
“It’s the first World Championships since everybody [himself, Barnes, Katie Taylor etc] is gone, so it was always going to be slightly disappointing. I hope the next crop step up to the mark and take the medals, but at the minute it looks like it’s only going to be Joe who’ll be able to compete with the world contenders. Although Sean McComb should be up there in my eyes, it’s just he faced a cracking Cuban this time.”
Of course, it stands to Ward that he’s been thumping the heads off upper echelon international fighters since he was a teenager. In 2009, aged 15, he blitzed the field at the World Junior Championships in Yerevan, Armenia, scoring three stoppages in his four fights, including in the light-middleweight final versus home fighter Hayk Khachatryan.
He won gold again a year later, this time as a middleweight at the World Youths in Baku, Azerbaijan, beating Australian Damien Hooper (currently 14-1 as a professional) in the final.
And so by 2011, a 17-year-old Ward was primed to dominate as a young Senior, both on home soil and on the continent.
“If you look at his age, there, right – 23 years of age – and what he’s achieved to date is nothing short of phenomenal,” says Beijing Olympics silver medalist Kenneth Egan, who after winning 10 consecutive national titles in the noughties, lost three finals in a row to Ward between 2010 and 2012.
“Three European titles in a row, World medals coming out of his ears, and now he’s in another World semi-final,” Egan adds.
Let’s call a spade a spade: boxing is not an attractive sport, it’s not athletics. If the same chap won all these medals in the 800 metres or any track sport, he’d be a household name, all over every Corn Flakes box in the country, and the likes. That’s the fact of it.
“I can’t blame the association [IABA],” he continues, “because they’re doing everything in their power to get him out there. It’s just not a mainstream or attractive sport like athletics.”
But Egan, now a councillor with Fine Gael, believes an underlying prejudice, too, contributes to Ward’s relative anonymity in spite of his success.
“It doesn’t help that he comes from a Traveller background as well, and all the negativity that gets,” he says. “But we’re seeing the barriers being broken there by the likes of John Connors, there, the actor, bursting through, and he’s a household name, doing fantastic work, and he’s a Traveller.
“Let’s stop this discrimination. Joe Ward is a phenomenal athlete. But like I said, if it was any other sport, he’d be a household name.”
What Egan finds most difficult to bear about Ward’s lack of recognition is the fact that the Moate man has postponed potential riches in order to seek medals for his country.
Just three months ago he teased on his personal Facebook page that there was ‘big news’ on the way, sparking rumours that Ward was set to ditch the vest and embark upon a career in boxing’s paid ranks.
Ultimately, however, the allure of major promotional names such as Frank Warren and former Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer were no match for the pull of fighting under the Irish flag, with Bernard Dunne swaying Ward back in the direction of Abbotstown for at least three more years.
“He’s shunned the pro game,” says Ward’s former dance partner, Egan.
I’m sure he got some big offers. But he decided to stay amateur and represent his country until Tokyo 2020. That’s a massive sacrifice, because it’s unknown if he’ll qualify, if he’ll medal. And he’s making that sacrifice to represent his country. People should actually respect that.
“But hopefully now he can go on and get into the World final, and he’ll probably meet the Cuban [Julio César La Cruz] in the final, who’s beaten him twice already. But if anyone can beat this Cuban it’s Joe. He’s the man to beat him. He’s on top form, his weight is good I believe, and he’s fairly disciplined this time around, whereas his discipline has been a bit shaky at times with his weight and stuff. But he’s looking strong, looking fit, and he’s into the semi-final without having gotten out of second gear yet.”
On the face of it, it’s curious that Egan can speak so fervently in favour of the man whose emergence all but ended his own glorious career, but the 10-time Irish champion says he’s taken immense satisfaction from watching Ward springboard towards the pinnacle of his craft since their three Senior Elite finals at the beginning of the decade.
“I’m humble and I’m proud that the man to beat me has gone on to do what he’s done,” he says. “If he beat me and did nothing, that’d look terrible on me! I have no shame losing to Joe Ward. I actually tweeted that the other day.
He came onto the scene when he was 17, and he was strong then even though he wasn’t yet an adult. Technically very, very good – great balance. I was thinking, ‘Jesus, this kid is good.’ Now, the first fight was controversial with the warnings, but the second year he beat me convincingly, and the third year he dominated me. So to hand it over to him was touching for me. I retired on the night [after the third bout] as well. For him to take the mantle and do what he’s doing, it’s no shame to me losing to him.
The Clondalkin native does however echo the sentiments of Conlan and Donovan in suggesting his successor needs an Olympic medal in order to join the pantheon of true amateur boxing greats.
“That Olympic medal is the one he needs to get. That would really polish off his collection. But the beauty is he still has time. The age of him! He’ll be in his prime after Tokyo, and God knows what he’ll be like then. He’s a freak of nature. The depth of knowledge he has on the sport is crazy. He just picked up the sport so young.”
I must admit I feel no shame whatsoever losing to Joe Ward, the boy is a phenomenon #WorldBoxingChampionships #boom
— Kenneth Egan (@kenegan30) August 29, 2017
“He had two uncles,” says Dave Reilly, who was a couple of years ahead of Ward in primary school. “One uncle was in my class, and then he had an older uncle. And the two of them were absolutely fantastic boxers as well, especially the older lad – I think his name was Davey. So Davey Joyce and Joe Joyce, and Joe was in my class.
“They were a boxing family, like, and the uncles were winning trophies left, right and centre. But I think they got bogged down with injuries in the end. In terms of Joe’s boxing when we were that age, he was obviously younger than us, so we didn’t know much of it. But the two lads were fantastic boxers, and that’s how I got to know Joe – through them.
But then the older we got, we’d be saying, ‘Jesus, the lads’ nephew is some fighter.’ I can’t remember the exact years, but he went through a lot of teenage years where he never actually lost a fight. Unbeaten for years. So we all knew how good he was eventually, especially from reading the local papers and tracking his progress. And we were kind of hoping that, like, ‘Jesus, if this lad stays out of bother, he’s going to be something special.’
Unlike many up-and-coming pugilists, however, there was no fear of Ward getting into much bother, such was his salt-of-the-earth nature.
“It’s crazy, like,” Reilly continues. “His values… Any time he comes home, he wouldn’t be separated from his wife and his young kids. That’s what he spends him time at. The man is a pure gent.
“But my mates and I, we’d be more into soccer than any other sport, and we used always be trying to rope him in – and anyone we could, really – to come down and play football with us.
“And sure the odd time if he was at a loose end – and he never would have played football, he just had fitness from his boxing – but he’d come down, and sure he was a phenomenal footballer as well! I suppose he was on a different wavelength to us lads fitness-wise, and that obviously told, but he actually had good technique and good skill too.”
St Marys Maudlintown
— Irish-Boxing.com (@Irishboxingcom) August 29, 2017
God bless the poor full back who is presented with this lad running on with 15 minutes to go pic.twitter.com/ilH9FijgxU
“I wouldn’t know too much about his Gaelic football career now,” Reilly continues, “but having played soccer with him I can tell you that I definitely wouldn’t like to mark him on a Sunday morning after a heavy Saturday night – that’s for sure!”
Now working to combat educational disadvantage, Reilly is as scandalised as anyone within Irish boxing circles that Ward isn’t heralded by the wider public. Like Kenneth Egan, he attributes some of their indifference to Ward’s Traveller heritage – a nonsense hang-up, as he rightly perceives it.
“He might still not get that recognition because of the background he comes from, but that’s shitty enough, like. He’s not appreciated as much as he should be. Hopefully more people can actually become aware of how talented the youngfella is.
I think a lot of his wider family might be misunderstood because of the Traveller feuds and that sort of stuff, but when you strip all that kind of shit away, there’s an awful lot of decency there. His mother worked with Foróige – the Gateway Youth Project in Athlone. Joe and his family are obviously from Moate, but he went to school in Athlone. I’m from Athlone myself, like, and his mother would be in Athlone all the time, organising all sorts of events and things for the young people in the area.
“But you could always just see that Joe was different to a lot of the people he’d be around, as well,” adds Reilly. “You could always tell – always – that he was going places, and that whatever he threw himself into, he was going to go somewhere with it. And he was so focused on the boxing, it was a case of us thinking, ‘Well, I hope this fella gets the recognition he deserves, and I hope he has the career that he deserves to have as well.’”
A couple of months ago, as an IABA media day in Abbotstown began to wind down, Bernard Dunne asked me, ‘Have you spoken with Joe?’
I told him I hadn’t, and that I was looking for Ireland’s newly-appointed captain. Dunne pointed in the direction of the exit, and said, ‘You’d better run.’
Sure enough, there was the European champion, meandering between his Irish team-mates and scuttling for the door. Allergic.
He came back for a chat, in fairness to him. Indeed, realising he’d been ratted out by his new High Performance Director as he tried to slip away from the media duties he so loathes, he trotted towards the voice recorder sporting a look of pure divilment.
“I hate Bernard Dunne, he should be sacked!” Ward shouted, sheepishly glancing through a mass of bodies toward Dunne, who doubled over with laughter while mid-natter. The former bantamweight champion issued a thoroughly informal finger-wagging to his most prodigious talent, though we couldn’t hear him through the din.
“Aw, sorry, he’s there,” Ward jibed once more, his face still inches from the recorder. He was in convulsions.
“He thinks he knows everything, but…”
Ward steers well clear of Twitter, but was aware of the outrage discharged on his behalf back in June, and in particular his old pal Eric Donovan’s picture protest.
“Ah sure, look, we all have a few snitches around who keep an eye on these things,” he said, laughing off his own inexplicable lack of newsworthiness. And then, as if by the flick of a switch, he got serious.
“For me, the media is out of my control. I just worry about being the best I can for myself, for my family and for my country, and try to win as many medals as I can, and putting Irish boxing back to where it was.
“Where we were was in the top three or four nations in the world, and I can’t see now, with the new guys coming in with so much natural talent, why we can’t become the number one nation in the world.
“As a young person, to lead this great nation towards Tokyo, it’s something special.”
It’s profoundly saddening to think that an athlete so proud to fly the Irish flag wouldn’t have that pride reciprocated by its people, particularly given his success on the international stage.
Joe Ward will doubtless win more medals for this ‘great nation’, as he sees it, in the coming years. He’s already made Irish sporting history at the age of 23, but perhaps only after Tokyo 2020 will we see him embellish our cereal boxes.
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