IRISH BOXER CATHY McAleer set out her two-year pathway to a world title bout today, supported by her new manager Kellie Maloney at a press conference in Belfast.
McAleer is one of just five professional female boxers on the island of Ireland, and holds an Irish boxing licence. Maloney’s support marks a dramatic turnaround from her previous stance on women’s boxing.
“I will bring Cathy back here for a title fight,” Maloney said. “I will look at a Commonwealth title first, then a European title and a couple of defences. Then a world title, I believe she can win that. I guarantee she will be world champion within two years.”
The manager, who holds an Irish passport and spent summers in Tipperary as a child, said they will also look at fighting in Ireland.
Four fights are lined up in the bantamweight division; starting on the 22 February at Aston Villa’s Holte Suite in Birmingham. Maloney said they have been in contact with an opponent but she is not willing to reveal the name yet.
It’s Maloney’s first serious effort to regain her place in the boxing world since she made a brief foray in 2015 soon after her gender reassignment surgery. Previously known as Frank Maloney, she managed the likes of Lennox Lewis and Rendall Munroe to great success.
“This is an excitement for me, the adrenaline is flowing again,” she said.
Speaking after the conference, she said she’s made some strong comments about women’s boxing but believes her new outlook is slowly being reflected in the boxing community.
In 1998 when Jane Crouch was granted the first female UK boxing licence, the then-Frank Maloney told the Independent newspaper: “I think that it’s absolutely disgusting that women are being allowed to fight.”
She said today however: “I don’t deny the comments that I made, they’re not as bad as it is claimed, there’s a context. We are going back to the ’80s and ’90s when it was so different, women’s football wasn’t even accepted in those days.
“TV did not want women boxers. Yes, I made those comments but I was a promoter and I had to keep my name in the press.
“I’m a person who develops boxers, I’m not a TV promoter like the current crop of promoters out there. I haven’t got TV now, but I’ve got passion and desire. My record shows that I build fighters, and that’s what I think Cathy and I can do.”
Maloney has also brought in sports scientist Joe Dunbar who previously worked with Irish boxer Darren Sutherland. At 41, McAleer is older than most new fighters but holds world titles already in karate and kickboxing.
“I’ll have Joe’s expertise on stress, he can look at cortisol levels, dehydration and tell me if I’m training too hard. He can tell from saliva tests, blood tests if I’m losing anything or should be doing things differently,” she said.
“It’s brilliant to have a plan and have a journey, before I didn’t know where this was going.”
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