Q&A with Joe Gallagher: Part One

Q&A with Joe Gallagher: Part One

Behind The Gloves contributor Martin Perry recently spoke to British Boxing trainer Joe Gallagher about his vast stable of fighters, which include world champion Scott Quigg and the Smith brothers. We look back at an extremely successful 2013 and look ahead to what he hopes to be an even more successful 2014.

2013 was such a fantastic year for Gallagher’s Gym; How proud of you were you of the lads and your achievements last year?

I was really pleased with all the performances last year. All the lads had a career best performance. Everyone reached new levels last year. Anthony Crolla (vs. Gavin Rees), Hosea Burton doing Jahmaine Smyle in a round, Scott Cardle (vs. Maxi Hughes), Stephen Smith (vs. Gary Buckland), Paul Smith in a real good domestic dust up with [Tony] Dodson, beating him better than he did first time around, then Liam Smith doing as well he did, Callum Smith. I was really pleased with the Smith brothers [Paul, Liam and Stephen] winning three British belts, first time in 104 years, and Callum Smith picking up the English title and the WBC [International title]. And Scott Quigg being World Champion, it doesn’t really get much better than all of that. But we do know that was last year, we can’t look back and got to keep looking forwards.

They are all in big fights coming up this year and I do feel a couple of kids didn’t get the credit they deserve for last year. I think the Smith brothers for what they achieved, I don’t know how on Earth that hasn’t made the main broadsheets and magazines because [if you had] three brothers playing for England football team, rugby team or cricket team, you wouldn’t hear the end of it. I just thought it was a bit disappointing, I just don’t think it was pushed or acknowledged enough in the main papers, but they had a civic reception in Liverpool and I’m very proud of them.

Why do you think they did not get the recognition they deserved? Is it because the sport of Boxing is not as big as it used to be?

No, I don’t, there’s loads [in the papers]; [Anthony] Joshua’s in the papers, [Luke] Campbell’s in the papers, Dereck Chisora, Tyson Fury, Carl Froch, Amir Khan, David Haye. I just feel the niche of three fighters who are brothers, because they have different promoters; If they had the same promoter, they would be easier to push. But I do feel the BBBofC should have absolutely have had a press officer get onto them and celebrate the success [of the brothers]. There was a huge opportunity there to put British boxing into the main spotlight. It was a quite a unique achievement.

Scott Quigg is the WBA world super bantamweight champion, despite that being a fact, many fans question his credibility as champion due to Guillermo Rigondeaux holding the WBA ‘super’ belt. Scott won the title in similar circumstances to fighters such as Gennady Golovkin, do you think it will be the case that a succession of big wins against credible challengers and/or other champions will convince people that he is a legitimate champion?

I think Scott Quigg, where he’s come from in the time that I’ve had him, we’ve been thrown in at the deep end. His first fight with me was with Jason Booth, at the time it was a massive test, then obviously Alex Arthur and then Rendall Munroe. And then we’ve gone on to fight Salinas who’s ranked in the world top 10 in all the governing bodies. I thought Scott Quigg brought a great game plan, got an unlucky deicision, but I felt there was a bit of a kick back from the Ricky Burns-[Raymundo] Beltran decision. The he dismantled a kid quicker than what Fernando Montiel did, a round earlier and Scott Quigg was on fire there. The inactivity at the start of last year didn’t help Scott Quigg, but at the end of the year, that was Scott Quigg back to his best. He was proud in the changing rooms in the [Phones4u Arena, Manchester], and it was a proud moment for me and him.

He was just in the Wildcard Gym in America getting in plenty of rounds of sparring and he’s not fighting until the end of April. But that’s Scott Quigg, he never switches off and I’m always kicking him out of he gym but he’s always wanting to learn and test himself. We’ve got a tough mandatory next [Nehomar Cermeno]. The kid we’re fighting has beaten Cristian Mijares twice, Mijares is obviously fighting Leo Santa Cruz on March 8, and drew with Salinas – he’s no mug. Hopefully we’ll get through that and fight the winner of Martinez vs. Hasegawa in the summer. After that, then, we’ll look to fight Santa Cruz. And we’ve had an offer to move up to 126lbs. So they are the fights we are looking at this year for Scott Quigg and that’s where we want to go.

I think Scott has taken too much unfair criticism for the way that he became champion and the way that [the WBA] rules. Like you say, Golovkin [was upgraded to WBA World Champion], The WBC has made [Omar Figueroa world champion at lightweight], and there’s other fighters [that have been upgraded to World Champion], Nathan Cleverly, Ricky Burns, and have never have received as much criticism as Scott Quigg has. Time will prove that he is a worthy world champion.

The British Boxing Board of Control have rejected Tobias Webb as a voluntary defence for Paul Smith’s British super middleweight title, and have made Rocky Fielding the mandatory challenger. Is the plan now for Paul to relinquish the belt or to fight Fielding?

I don’t know, Paul Smith, he makes no bones about what he wants to do, he wants to fight for the British title. He’s one win away from winning it outright and as soon as he wins it, he’ll vacate it and move on, for possibly his brother [Callum] to fight for it.

Paul’s a fighter, he doesn’t duck anyone, whoever that may be. He’s in the gym, he’s training, whoever the opponent will be, will be. Paul has never ducked anyone in his career, he’s fought [James] DeGale and George Groves, and they’re are going on to fight for world titles. I’m sure Paul won’t duck any challenge at this stage of his career.

It would have been nice to have had Tobias Webb, that’s who they were trying to get. He did really well in Prize Fighter, gave everyone plenty of problems, he was just tired by the time he came to fight Rocky [Fielding in the final]. He’s an exceptional talent. He would have made a good fight. I expected to give Paul all types of problems to I don’t think it was soft touch. He’s a hungry kid and got good pedigree.

Paul Smith, whatever happens now down the road, wants to win 7that belt outright. We’ll just have to sit and see what happens. He’s very highly ranked in the WBO and I know he was looking at the winner of Robert Stieglitz vs. Arthur Abraham [for the WBO title on March 1]. So there’s that possibility as well.

Moving on to Liam Smith; Navid Mansoori has been made mandatory for his British light middleweight title. Liam’s been out with a hand injury, when is he expected back?

Liam, as you say, has had a hand injury. He had a good win over Erick Ochieng and then Mark Thompson. They were looking to get him on the Aintree bill [on March 8] but Liam’s had a hand operation. So I think he’ll go straight into [the fight with] Mansoori. It’s a good fight for Liam, Mansoori is a good kid, a strong kid but I think Liam is that little different in class above. I think Liam Smith is one of the most underrated champions in British boxing at the moment.

I think the trouble with all the brothers, the Smith, they all get lost amongst each other. Where if they were called different, individual kids [they'd get more recognition]. I rate Liam Smith, obviously he’s with Frank Warren, he’s one of the three that I think are the stars of that organisation with Billy Joe [Saunders] and Frankie Gavin. I’ve seen what he’s done in the Wildcard over the years in sparring and what he’s done in sparring. I do feel he’s a kid that can go through the gears. If he gets the opportunity to fight in America, whether it be against John Molina, I have no hesitation about putting Liam Smith in with that [level of opposition]. He’s very, very underrated and one of the most improved British fighters. And one of the better British champions there is out there. There aren’t many better than him.

Stephen Smith is taking on Fernando Saucedo for the WBC Silver super featherweight title and an eliminator for the world title on the Mersey Beat show on March 15. How tough is this fight and how far away do you think ‘Swifty’ is from being ready for a world title challenge?

This is a massive test for Stephen Smith. This is one unbelievably dangerous fight. Saucedo has won 51 bouts, He seems to be getting better in his last performances, he’s fought Chris John for a world title, very early on in his career, lost on points. He’s a really dangerous fighter. He’s the WBC ranked number three, this isn’t your typical, what we bring over, Argentinian roadsweeper, this is a very well schooled, disciplined fighter.

I think it’s a huge gamble and we may have bitten off more than we can chew but he’s in a decent run of form, he’s had a good year last year with the win over Gary Buckland and then finishing the year with a great body shot over Silva, and Silva went the distance with Saucedo. This is definitely the top of the bill fight, the March 15 bill. There’s no other fight that’s like this. A genuine, genuine real tough fight. I wouldn’t have Stephen Smith the favourite going into this fight, I’d have Saucedo the favourite. I think Stephen’s got to be a very live underdog and he has to put in the best performance of his career. And whatever he has done in the past, he’s got to improve by 10 or 15% to beat this opponent.

But like all fighters, they want to test themselves, like Matthew Macklin with Golovkin, Amri Khan with Mayweather and David Haye with Klitschko. They want to test themselves with the best in the world to see what level they really do belong at and this fight, Smith has got to answer those questions. I just hope they all get behind him [in Liverpool on the night] because that kid is going to need everyone in that arena to be shouting, encouraging him and roaring him on that night. He’s going to have moments in that fight where the crowd really have to get behind him and push him through.

You mentioned Matthew Macklin there, last year, you briefly began training him again after his split with Buddy McGirt. He’s since gone on to be trained by Jamie Moore. What were the reasons for you parting ways again, was it just a logistical issue?

What it was, Matthew came back, he asked me to train him for his next fight. I said yes, he said he wanted to go to Marbella for the month of November. He did 4 or 5 weeks training with me but then I said I just couldn’t go to Marbella, as I had 4 or 5 kids on the [Froch-Groves November 23] bill. We couldn’t just all uplift to go to Marbella for one person and do all the sparring over there. Logistically, it didn’t work out right. There’s no hard feelings and Matthew has gone on, like you say, he got Jamie Moore to do a bit but I was too busy with the amount of fighters that I had on the Manchester bill and obviously after the Manchester bill I had Liam Smith’s fight as well [on December 7] and then Paul’s fight after that [on December 14]. So that was the reasons for it, nothing more and there’s no ruling out that we won’t work together again in the future, so we’ll see.

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That concludes part one of Martin Petty’s interview with Joe Gallagher, keep an eye out for the second in the coming days where Joe and I extensively discuss his recent trip with his fighters to the Wildcard Gym in Los Angeles and the benefits of spending time; hot young prospect Callum Smith, his hopes for Anthony Crolla’s return and his thoughts on the Froch vs. Groves rematch.

-Martin Perry / @MartinPez
-Contributor for www.BehindTheGloves.com