Derry boxer Paul McCloskey recently took a major step towards fulfilling his dream of becoming a world champion when he claimed the vacant European light-welterweight title. Before making his name in the ring, Paul played both Gaelic football and hurling, winning county and Ulster club championship medals with Dungiven in 1997. These are exciting times for Irish boxing with World and European titles, not to mention three Olympic medals, having come the way of local fighters in the past 18 months. Thanks to their exploits in the ring, the likes of Bernard Dunne, John Duddy, Matthew Macklin, Andy Lee and Kenny Egan are now household names. Derry man Paul McCloskey is another of Irish boxing's leading lights, having recently captured the vacant European light-welterweight title with victory over Spain's Daniel Rasilla in front of the Sky Sports cameras at Magherafelt. It's a little known fact that Paul once played Gaelic football and hurling for St. Canice's, Dungiven and Kevin Lynch's respectively. During his brief senior career with Dungiven, he won Derry and Ulster club football championship honours in 1997, playing alongside Joe Brolly, Brian McGilligan, Kieran McKeever and Geoffrey McGonagle, who were among the biggest names in Derry GAA at the time. "I have some great memories of playing for Dungiven and Kevin Lynch's. I still attend their matches when I can. I have quite a few friends and cousins playing for them," he says. Paul lined out at corner back on the Dungiven team that defeated Castledawson in the 1997 Derry football final. Despite his boxing commitments, he remained on the panel for the subsequent Ulster club campaign which ended with St. Canice's overcoming Peter Canavan's Errigal Ciaran in the provincial decider. "It was a great time to be involved with the club. We had some outstanding players and ended up winning the Ulster club title that year. After beating Errigal Ciaran in the final, we lost the All-Ireland semi-final to the Connacht champions Corofin by two points. They went on to beat Erin's Isle from Dublin in the All-Ireland final at Croke Park, so maybe it was a missed opportunity." Around the same time, Paul was forced to decide between boxing and the GAA. He opted for boxing and has had no reason to regret his decision. "I was 19 when I had to make the tough decision," he recalls. "If I didn't make the decision then, I wouldn't be where I am today. Even though I enjoyed playing GAA, boxing was always my first love. I've boxed all my life, my brother Shay boxed before me and my father Brendan was a corner man in St. Canice's boxing club. I grew up watching boxers like Barry McGuigan and Charlie Nash on television, and always wanted to follow in their footsteps." Fighting out of St. Canice's, McCloskey represented Ireland at amateur level and was a three-time Irish champion and five-time senior Ulster champion in the light-welterweight division. He won a silver medal fighting for Ireland in the 2003 European Union Boxing Championships in Strasbourg. Undeterred by his failure to qualify for the 2004 Olympics in Athens, the southpaw, whose nickname is 'Dudey', turned professional in March 2005 and defeated experienced Englishman 'Dangerous' David Kehoe with a third round knockout in his debut bout at the King's Hall at Belfast. The fight was on the under-card of a bill that included Eamonn Magee and Neil Sinclair. In December 2007, McCloskey won the IBF International light-welterweight title, stopping Tontcho Tontchev in the fourth round. After beating Nigel Wright on points in July 2008, he fought Colin Lynes on December 5 2008 for the vacant British light-welterweight title. McCloskey won, forcing Lynes to retire at the end of the ninth round. He recalls: "I had managed to stay under the radar until I won the British title. That win has put me on a bigger stage. Up until then, I was working hard behind-the-scenes and fought on the undercards of Andy Lee, John Duddy and Bernard Dunne fights." Following his British title victory, McCloskey was named Boxer of the Year at the irishboxing.com National Boxing Awards last January. In March, he retained his British light-welterweight title in emphatic fashion with a fourth-round stoppage of Dean Harrison in Widnes. His biggest win to date came on November 6 last when he was crowned European light-welterweight champion following a ninth round stoppage of Spaniard Daniel Rasilla at Magherfelt. Rasilla was a late replacement for former world champion Souleymane M'baye of France who had withdrawn from the fight due to injury. With the British and European belts now in his possession and a perfect record of 20 wins out of 20 - half of which were by knockout Äì Paul's sights are firmly set on adding the World title. "The ultimate goal for any fighter is to win a World title and I'm no different in that regard. Winning the European title has given me a great boost and hopefully it will be a stepping stone to greater things," he says. The 30-year-old, who is married to Emma and has two young sons, Cian and Oran, is delighted with the high profile Irish boxing is currently enjoying. "It's an exciting time to be involved in boxing in this country," he acknowledges. "I've never seen anything like the interest in boxing at the moment. Fellas like Bernard Dunne and Andy Lee have done wonders for the sport in Ireland. And then you had the three lads (Kenny Egan, Paddy Barnes and the late Darren Sutherland) winning medals at the Beijing Olympics last year. The Irish Amateur Boxing Association's High Performance programme is really bearing fruit." Paul has received great support from his agent and father-in-law Francie McNicholl down the years. Francie is well known in Dungiven as proprietor of the local EuroSpar supermarket. As mentioned earlier, Paul hasn't lost touch with his GAA roots and was proud of the achievements of the Dungiven footballers and the Kevin Lynch's hurlers this year. Dungiven reached the Derry SFC final, only to lose to arch-rivals Loup, while Kevin Lynch's went one better by beating Slaughtneil in the Derry SHC final after a replay. "The GAA has always been strong in Dungiven and they nearly did the county football and hurling double this year. There was a lot of disappointment after the football final, but winning the hurling went some way towards making amends for that," he concludes. Tweet

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