Ahead of Saturday’s WBA middleweight title fight against Cuban Erislandy Lara in New York, Gary ‘Spike’ O’Sullivan sat down with Roddy Collins for a chat about his life and career.
From having just seven cent to his name to buying his first house with cash, from competing as a nine-year-old to the cusp of world title glory, Spike spills the beans in this exclusive interview.
And he has a message too for UFC star Conor McGregor.
RODDY: Where did your interest in boxing come from?
SPIKE: “My father. My dad was in the army and he used to box there. I can never remember not being a boxer. I put on my first gumshield when I was five. My dad would sit on his bed and he would spar me, throw a jab and get me to duck.”
RODDY: Can you remember your first competitive fight?
SPIKE: “Because I started out so young, I was ahead of the rest in the gym. I was only nine and you couldn’t fight until you were 11. So my club was going to Wales, said I was 11, brought me to Swansea and I fought an 11-year-old when I was only nine.
“I remember the exact weight I was - 26.15kg. The singlet was slipping down off my shoulders, I was so skinny, so they had to get a bit of sellotape and stick it together at the back. I beat your man in the first round.”
RODDY: What or who inspires you to win?
SPIKE: “I am always searching for inspiration. My daughter is 10. When she wakes up on Sunday morning I want her to hear that her dad is champion of the world.”
RODDY: What inspired you as an amateur?
SPIKE: “I always wanted to be world champion. I watched your brother [Steve] and Chris Eubank on the television with my dad.
“From the age of nine, when I started to fight, my dad would wake me up in the early hours of the morning and bring me down to watch the fights from America. I used to love watching Holyfield and Tyson. I loved those fights.”
RODDY: Were you attracted by the financial reward? Or was it just to make your mam and dad proud?
SPIKE: “It was nothing to do with money. I didn’t even know they were getting paid. I didn’t have a clue. I just thought, I want to box and win a belt.
“I used to watch wrestling on the telly too and I used to love the belts. We’d buy the belts in Smyths and my brothers would be wrestling for them.
“It was just to please my dad, I suppose. I was good at hurling and other sports - I even beat Steve Davis in snooker - but it was boxing because of my dad.”
RODDY: You beat Steve Davis?
SPIKE: “I did, yeah. It was down in Cork. The best amateur players were playing him and he beat all of them.
“I was used to the big occasions, the big fights, so when I was playing him I wasn’t one bit nervous at all. I was cracking jokes with him. I beat him anyway.”
RODDY: Did you ever think, this is not making money for me? And if so, what spurred you on to continue?
SPIKE: “I thought about it loads of times. I had no money. Nothing. I lived with my mother-in-law for years. I was in the box room with my missus. We had a bed and bunk beds for our kids. I built those bunk beds.
“I remember my lowest point. My in-laws were out for a few pints and my missus urged me to go out. I said, no, my stomach’s not feeling the best.
“But the real reason I didn’t want to go was that I had seven cent. That’s all I had in my pocket. Swear to God.”
RODDY: What was the turning point?
SPIKE: “I asked Paschal [Collins] if I should just pack it in and get a job. He said, ‘No, keep at it, you are going to make it, you are going to be world champion’.”
RODDY: Paschal is a great believer that it takes 10 years to build a champion.
SPIKE: “It’s taken me 15, though!”
RODDY: I was at the press conference for the Anthony Fitzgerald fight [in 2014] and that was very volatile. You dropped him in the gym, sparring in my gym. Remember that? You dropped him with a body shot. It was brought up at the press conference. That fight was a turning point.
SPIKE: “It was, yeah. It was live on Sky and that led to my break in America. It was Knockout of the Year on Sky Sports.
“I had a stool thrown at me that night and when it made the news in America, I remember Rampage Jackson was in the studio. He took the stool out from under him and pretended to throw it across the studio. It was priceless.
“The next thing I knew, Paschal was telling me they wanted me to come to America. I got a call on Sunday to fly out the next day.
“I was running around Boston after the flight trying to lose six-and-a-half kilos. I was hallucinating. I was so dehydrated.
“But I got no money for it. I was in the dressing room after that fight and I thought, I’m done. No money? Not a hope am I ever doing this again.
“I thought I was going to die. I thought I was having a heart-attack with the dehydration. No money?”
RODDY: But they loved your personality and your presence.
SPIKE: “Yeah, they wanted me to come back. Come back? What? Sure you didn’t even pay me. No way. They said they were going to pay me for the next one.”
RODDY: There’s a story that you turned up for a press conference in America with a cowboy suit. Is that true?
SPIKE: “It was a fight in Texas. Myself and Paschal turned up at the airport and I didn’t tell him about it. I had a mad idea to bring a cap gun and start shooting it at the press conference for a bit of craic.
“Next thing, myself and Paschal were in the lounge - Paschal with his fancy lounge passes - and there was an announcement. ‘Gary O’Sullivan flying to Chicago, can you please make your way to security’.
“I got dragged in and there were border guards there. It was a small room. ‘There’s a gun in your bag’.
“I go, ‘It’s a cap gun, I’m a boxer, I’m going over to fight in Texas and it’s part of my outfit for the press conference’.
“My big suitcase was there in front of me. They asked me to open it up. I showed them and they said, ‘Grand, good luck to you’. But we threw away the gun.”
RODDY: Did you realise the importance of the razzmatazz around boxing, that you could sell tickets with your antics?
SPIKE: “I had made a bit of money at that stage. I had already bought my own house with cash.”
RODDY: What was that feeling like?
SPIKE: “Unbelievable. But that was one of the problems when I got knocked out by [David] Lemieux in Vegas [in September 2018].
“I’ll never forget it. I was in the dressing room and I was getting paid loads of money for the fight. I signed a contract that the money would go to Selena if anything happened to me in the ring. I knew then that she was getting the money. Brillant. I just felt so relaxed.
“I was walking into the ring as if I was walking down to the shops. Once I didn’t trip and fall over getting into the ring, I had the money. I was too relaxed and he knocked me out straight away.”
RODDY: When did you realise I could definitely be a world champion?
SPIKE: “I suppose when I won that fight in Quebec in Canada against Antoine Douglas, he was touted to be the next Sugar Ray Leonard or something like that.
“Hunger is a great sauce. I was still living in my mother-in-law’s and I trained so hard for that fight.”
RODDY: When you knock someone flush on the chin and they are counted out, what’s the feeling?
SPIKE: “Relief. The fight is over, you’ve won, you just want them to get back up and be okay.”
RODDY: Was there ever a time you were worried an opponent wasn’t going to get up?
SPIKE: “Yep, there was. One time I hit a guy, Melvin Betancourt, in Boston, left hook, knocked him out really badly. He fell like a log.
“The referee was shocking. It was a disgrace. He wasn’t going to wake up if the referee had counted to 100. But he counted him, while all the time looking at the officials at ringside.
“He had been criticised for stopping another fight prematurely, so he was making a point.
“That guy could have needed medical attention straight away. He was alright, thank God. But yeah, I was worried.
“Some fella sent me a great top recently, it says, ‘Loneliest sport’. It’s very true. When you are not winning and you are getting beaten up, it is lonely and it is hell on earth.”
RODDY: Who is your favourite fighter of all-time?
SPIKE: “It was always Evander Holyfield. He was brilliant. I just thought he was very well conditioned. He was sculpted, agile, fast, he was a great boxer, he had it all. I always loved him.”
RODDY: You come home with the belt, Conor McGregor calls you out, what happens?
SPIKE: “He wouldn’t. Not a hope. He wouldn’t fight me at all. No chance. 100 percent. Not a hope in hell. I would slaughter him. He just wouldn’t be in the same league in a boxing match.”
RODDY: I was in your corner for your boxing debut, this is my debut interview! Thank you.
SPIKE: “It’s gas how life goes around. And do you know what Rod, I have to correct you on something. My debut wasn’t the first time you met me.
“I was a teenager and I went down to a Cobh Ramblers match when you were managing Bohs. I never told you this before, but I missed the last train home. You said, ‘Jump on the bus with us and we’ll drop you off’.”
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