Barry McGuigan ("The Clones Cyclone" Born 1961) is with out doubt one of the most famous people to come out of clones. He was crowned World Boxing Association (WBA) Champion in June 1985, achieving him world wide fame.

Early Career

Barry started boxing at an early age, and throughout his amateur career was recognised as a potential foce in the world of boxing. After ganing some experience at the Wattlebridge boxing club, Barry, under the tutelage of his trainer Danny McEntee established himself as an exceptional amateur at the Smithboro boxing club.
This tutelage brought him his first major championship when he won the All Ireland Amateur championship in 1976

Under the guidance of his new manager Barney Eastwood 1981 saw Barry turn professional and fight at featherweight. His partner ship with Barney enable Barry to reach the summit of his career. In 1985 he fought Juan Laporte and beat the Puerto Rican on points to become the number one contender for the featherweight title. Although plans were in full swing for the world title fight Barry was forced by the European Boxing Union to defend his European crown against Farid Galouse. He defeated Galouse in the second round with a right upper cut.

Negotiations were still continuing to lure Eusebio Pedroza the WBA featherweight champion to England to defend his title against Barry. Eventually a world title bout was confirmed - the fight would be staged in the "open air" at Loftus Road (Queens Park Rangers football ground) on Saturday, June 8th, 1985.

Fight Fever broke out throughout Ireland and the UK. The attendance for the bout would be in the region of 25k, this coupled with an estimated television audience of approximately 20 million. This popularity enjoyed by Barry cannot be expressed but perhaps former World Heavyweight Champion Floyd Patterson explained it best.

Barry "is not only a champion inside the ring, but a champion outside of the ring also".

Although Barry chose a path where toughness and aggression were essential for success he never lost his sense of fair play. This was emphasised by his comments after his European title defence to Farid Galouse in 1985

"He wasn't at my level, I tried to end it with only two or three punches.... without actually wearing him down. I felt sorry for the lad."

Even though Barry enjoyed a massive success the world over, he didn’t endear himself to many organizations for marrying a Protestant and taking British Citizenship. "Barry the Brit" ran the headline in the Sinn Féin-Provisional IRA newspaper, Republican News. He always insisted that he was fighting for all the communities of Ireland. On the night of his world title fight, neither the tricolour nor the union jack flag was raised, but a neutral one (a blue flag with a white dove of peace). For any other person, the sincerity of this gesture might have been questioned, not so McGuigan.