.png)
12 hours ago
2
John Cooney, the young Irish boxer who has died after a title fight in Belfast, has been described by the former world champion Barry McGuigan as a “lovely sweet kid” whose life was “snapped away”.
As a condolence book was opened at Belfast’s Ulster Hall, his manager Mark Dunlop said the death was “a complete tragedy”.
McGuigan told BBC Ulster it was “terrifying that this could happen to a 28-year-old kid who was looking in the prime of his life”.
“He was just a lovely, sweet kid. Ambitious, determined and driven. To have his life snapped away like that is just tragic.”
Cooney, from Galway, was defending his Celtic super-featherweight championship title against the Welsh boxer Nathan Howells on Saturday 1 February when he suffered an intercranial haemorrhage.
The fight was stopped in the ninth round and, following a medical assessment, he was taken to Belfast’s Royal Victoria Hospital where he died a week later.
His promoters, MHD Promotions, announced his death on Saturday, saying it had caused “complete devastation” that would take “a lifetime to forget”.
Dunlop told the BBC that Cooney had a “great character” and “a big future” ahead of him when tragedy struck. “As much as it is a dangerous sport, the fatalities are rare, but they are there,” Dunlop said.
“Boxing is a dangerous sport. Every fighter knows the dangers but like everything no one thinks it’s going to come to their door,” he added. “It enhances more lives than it destroys or takes.
“One of John’s sayings was ‘tomorrow is not promised’ and he certainly lived for the day, so he deserves this attention.”
Cooney’s death will renew questions about the dangers of boxing and repeated blows to the head taken by fighters.
Colin Doherty, a consultant neurologist and head of the school of medicine at Trinity College, Dublin expressed concern about all sports – including rugby – in which players suffer “head injuries, subconcussive and concussive blows”.
He called for a joint effort to make such sports safer. “Let us get people together, let the government bring people together, including people like myself and the sports people and players and fans, and lets make these things safer, because they aren’t as safe as they could be, and that’s just a simple fact,” he told RTÉ.
Fellow Galway boxer Kieran Molloy described Cooney as “a fantastic boxer, a young man just chasing his dreams”.
“He was on the verge of some very big fights. He has a huge future ahead of him and he was a very proud Galway man,” Molloy told RTÉ.
The former double WBO European champion Conrad Cummings wrote on X: “John Cooney the warrior gave up his fight & passed away this evening. I am deeply saddened, I can’t begin to think of the hurt his poor fiancee & family are going through. I pray they find the strength.”
On Saturday, the Galway Amateur Boxing Association described Cooney’s death as “the worst possible news”.
“John lost the battle for his life today having spent the past week in intensive care following a professional bout in Belfast,” it said in a statement. “There are no words to convey the magnitude of this tragedy or that can lessen the grief of his family.”
