Joe Gallagher: A Journey Through The Years

Joe Gallagher: A Journey Through The Years

By Matt Elliott

The surname Gallagher is synonymous with Manchester. Ask the everyday person on the street to associate it with somebody in the public eye and they will undoubtedly respond with Liam or Noel. Ask somebody with a vested interest in boxing, or sport in general, and there is every chance they will give you the name Joe. That is because Joe Gallagher will be every bit as etched into the history of boxing, as Oasis are in the musical hall of fame, and whilst the most successful band to emerge from Manchester in recent times has long since departed, one of the most successful boxing trainers from the area continues to be at the top of his game. 

Gallagher’s boxing journey, which recently entered its 44th year, began as a young boy in his birthplace of Wythenshawe, a district of the city of Manchester. Initially drawn in by his dad’s love of the sport, Gallagher recalls his first memories around the late 1970s, watching Muhammad Ali and John Conteh, or listening to tales about Floyd Patterson. It was a year or two later that Gallagher made the decision which would ultimately shape his future, stepping foot inside a boxing club for the first time. He recalls how this came about.

“It was around 1979-1980 that I decided I wanted to go to a boxing club. One had just opened up in Wythenshawe, which, at the time, was the second biggest council estate in Europe I think and within it, there are seven or eight wards, of which Benchill was the worst. The gym opened up and I was around ten or eleven and a couple of my mates were on about going, so I told my dad I wanted to go, and it just went from there. Initially, there were about four of five of us, but only a couple of us stuck with it, including me.”

It was at that club, Wythenshawe Forum ABC, that Gallagher first met Jimmy Egan, one of the two men he cites as being hugely instrumental to his career. It is a sign of the lasting impact that Egan had on all that encountered him, that the club remains to this very day, now renamed the Jimmy Egan boxing academy in honour of its founder, and run by his sons, Steve and Shaun. It was under Egan’s guidance, that Gallagher first laced up his gloves for a competitive bout and where his love for the sport intensified. Success followed before he made the tough decision to switch to Moss Side ABC, where he connected with the other major influence on his career, Phil Martin, a man who had built his ‘champs camp’ gym from the ashes of the 1981 riots. Those were times that Gallagher remembers fondly. 

“I had my first fight for Wythenshawe when I was aged eleven and I was the club’s first winner, I was proud of that and that was it really, I was in. I boxed there as a schoolboy, as a junior and as a senior and then, at around seventeen I switched clubs to Moss Side ABC. I felt I needed to go to a club where there were more seniors and Moss Side was flying at the time and that is where I met Phil Martin. Both Phil and Jimmy were hugely instrumental to where I am today. Jimmy took me to the streets of Wythenshawe and up and down the country as a schoolboy, showing real belief in me. I had a good relationship with him when I left, and when I became a professional coach, going to watch John Murray fights with him. It was the same with Phil Martin. Both of them gave me a good schooling and Phil gave me the opportunity to become a coach and my first taste of coaching was at Moss Side ABC.”

One of the traits instilled into Gallagher by both Egan and Martin was respect. This is something that has stayed with him throughout his career, and it is the minimum he now expects from his fighters. 

“Jimmy Egan and Phil Martin were both strict. They had a time when we had to be at the club and when I was at Moss Side, it did not matter who it was, if they were late they were not allowed in. Phil’s view was that if he kept letting people in who had arrived late, they would never learn and that extended to everyone, whether you were an ABA champion or not. I have sort of learnt from that and with my lot, I say if you need to catch a plane or a train you get there on time, so the same applies to the club. If I tell you there is a gym session at a certain time, I expect you to be there, it is just courtesy and respect and it shows me that you want it. Scott Quigg was a kid that, if the gym session was 9 am, he was there at 8:30 am, he was just that type of kid.” 

As an amateur, Gallagher competed in over sixty bouts, but his career as a fighter never saw him move over to the professional ranks. At Moss Side ABC, Gallagher was working alongside Tony Ekubia and Ossie Maddix, who had turned professional in 1986 and 1987 respectively and he admits it was something he had considered, although the economic reality of life as a boxer hit home during a frank conversation with his dad. 

“When you are sixteen and you leave school, you try to get a job or a YTS, there was no such thing as GB boxing or funding at that time. My dad was out on the roads flagging and kerbing and I wanted to go to college and sixth form and try and get into Law, for whatever reason, but my dad said I was coming out on the road with him. So that was it, out on the road with him during the day and boxing at night. When I mentioned turning professional at some point, he sat me down with a copy of the boxing news. He turned to the ratings section, and there were like five hundred boxers at that time, and he asked me how many of them were millionaires. So, he said you have either got to be like Frank Bruno or Barry McGuigan to be a success. He told me to save myself a lot of mither.”

For many, that conversation could have signalled the end of their involvement in the sport. The reality is his dad was right. Money could be made but you had to have that special something. It was more than just having raw talent, you had to be able to build a profile away from the ring. Today it is not much different. The money is, of course, stratospheric for those that reach the pinnacle, but for every Tyson Fury or Canelo Alvarez, there are hundreds of boxers plying their trade in small hall shows, juggling their passion with a full-time job, hoping for that breakthrough moment. For Gallagher though, he had no intention of walking away, as he had already had a glimpse of what the future may hold. 

It was at the age of fourteen or fifteen, under the guidance of Egan, that Gallagher first got his taste of coaching. He would work with the ten- and eleven-year-olds, going to shows with them and helping work the corner. This developed during his time with Phil Martin, where Gallagher got a buzz from offering his advice and satisfaction in seeing the fighters take notice of his words. When Martin offered him the chance to coach the amateurs, there was only ever going to be one answer. In the first season under his stewardship, Moss Side won twenty-seven out of thirty-one fights. In the second season, it was forty out of forty-four. Regional and schoolboy national titles were collected along the way; an early sign of the things to come. When Martin sadly passed away in 1994, Gallagher remained at the club for a period and the success continued to build.  

“I had my first national champion in, I think, 1992 or 1993. Then, when Phil passed away in ’94 I continued the club for a few years until I went back to Benchill ABC (formerly the Wythenshawe Forum). I coached there with Jimmy (Egan) for a few years and won national titles with the kids. They were getting to the national finals, despite only having seven fights under their belts, so we were doing very well. I then moved on again and the kids followed and eventually I ended up at Shannons, which is where Steve Foster Jr. won his ABA titles and went to the worlds. The kids that were still left at Shannon’s stayed with me when I ultimately turned professional in 2001.”

The success Gallagher had enjoyed in the amateur game made it inevitable that he would eventually take the next step. At the time, figures such as Brendan Ingle, Jimmy Tibbs, Enzo Calzaghe and Brian Hughes were leaving their mark on the sport and Gallagher wanted to test himself against coaches of that calibre. With Steve Foster Jr. also looking to turn professional, it seemed the perfect time for Gallagher to make the leap with him and in September 2001, both men made their debuts. Titles soon followed. John Murray became Gallaghers first British champion, winning the lightweight title in 2008 and Matthew Macklin soon emulated that at middleweight. Momentum was building and success was being achieved, all this with Gallagher continuing to hold down a full-time job outside of boxing. Eventually, a decision needed to be made and Joe describes how that point came about.

“It was 2008/09 and I was still working full-time. We were having success but I was living on only three hours of sleep, working nights and I just thought to myself, this is killing me. I was dead by the end of the week. I would finish work at 7 am, meet them on the track, go home and sleep from about 8:30 am until around 11:15 am, and then back to the gym, before heading back to work. I got to the point where I thought I want to make a full-time go of this. I had a decent job at the time, with private health cover, holiday discounts and a decent pension but if I could achieve the success I was, with hardly any sleep and shattered at weekends, what could I do with no distractions? I said to the missus that I wanted to try it and that if in five to ten years, I hadn’t succeeded, I would get another job. She wasn’t happy but I didn’t want to be that person on my deathbed thinking, what if.” 

It was a decision that he has never had to look back on with regret. Being able to throw himself into coaching full-time, without distraction, took the gym to another level. New fighters emerged and British and European titles were upgraded to world honours. His reputation as a top-class coach was underlined when he became the first British winner of the Ring magazine’s trainer of the year award in 2015. This rounded off a perfect year which had seen Scott Quigg, Anthony Crolla and Liam Smith all win world titles and whilst it was a proud moment, Gallagher admits because it was such a busy time, he did not really take it on board. This was a common theme throughout the interview. Gallagher is selfless; always stressing that the achievements are down to the boxer and rarely allowing himself the time to reflect on the vital role he plays. He did acknowledge that this was something he was actively trying to change.

“In the past, I never really enjoyed the nights we won or took it on board. I didn’t have the time to and they weren’t my nights, they were the fighters. It would have been good to sit back and think, we did alright there, but the next day I was onto planning for the next fight and it was a spinning wheel. Now I want to enjoy it more because you don’t know how long your career is going to last. Last year I did enjoy the nights and the successes with Natasha Jonas, Paul Butler and Mark Heffron. I made a point of going back to the hotel and spending a bit of time with them. Natasha’s family are brilliant with me, as are Paul and Mark’s and I just enjoyed spending an hour with them and then heading off and leaving them to it. Their families have welcomed me in, and they are always so thankful and that is not lost on me. So yes, I have enjoyed it a lot more in the last year, I really have.” 

The Gallagher gym is now onto its latest iteration of fighters. Both Natasha Jonas and Paul Butler won world titles in 2022, whilst Mark Heffron overcame the odds to secure the British super-middleweight belt. Hosea Burton, who has been with Gallagher since the beginning, also remains at the gym. All of the fighters who pass through the door are subjected to a month’s trial, regardless of status. Gallagher, understandably, needs to have a connection with a fighter and describes this period as crucial, as it enables him to assess whether they have the work ethic and mentality for the environment and, in his words, for the fighter to decide whether he is a dickhead or not. 

The bond Gallagher has with all of his fighters, past and present, is clear to see. He talks about his responsibility as a coach to look after the fighter; that they are somebody’s child and whether they are a young amateur or a seasoned professional, that no matter the age, he looks to get them home safely. This closeness is perhaps why Gallagher displays an element of frustration at what he perceives as a lack of praise for some of his fighter’s achievements. He is not looking for undeserving credit, just fair and consistent coverage and where this is not given, it serves only to fuel his ambition and desire to succeed. 

“Listen, I understand that I can be quite strong and a straight shooter at times and I will say what I think. I am sure I have upset people in the press before but I have always done it for the right reasons. I don’t know how a success story like Natasha Jonas is not talked about more. Paul Butler and Mark Heffron were both written off, yet they went into fights last year as underdogs and won, yet there was hardly a mention. I don’t want to get involved in the politics of it all. I am just talking about fighters and them getting their just rewards and at times people don’t want to give it, so what you’ve got to do is just keep going and choke them with the success.”

That success and the opportunities that Gallagher has worked so tirelessly for throughout his career, drove him to want to give something back to the sport, and in 2018 he set up the Joe Gallagher academy. As one of seven hubs with England boxing, the academy provides sixteen- to eighteen-year-olds with the chance to develop their boxing skills under the tutelage of coaches Tony Challinor and Elliot Dillon, whilst completing a BTEC and gaining qualifications in maths and English. Gallagher confirmed this was something he had always dreamed of doing.

“100%. I always wanted to do it. I have the North West hub and we have kids coming in from Leeds, Stoke, Liverpool, and Carlisle and relocating from Lincolnshire, so it is doing very well. Our attainment for kids is very good, they are all passing their maths and English exams, some have gone on to university, some have been picked for England, some for Team GB and some have gone professional. I am very, very proud of that. As much as I have had big nights in the ring, I am very proud of that academy.”

When it is all said and done, perhaps the greatest legacy any trainer can leave is not the success their fighters have or the number of titles they collect, but the impression they leave and the people they inspire. Gallagher talked about the admiration he has for Sir Alex Ferguson, as someone who was relentless in perfecting his art. Many of those who worked under Ferguson, that still refer to him as ‘the gaffer’, are now carving their own way in football management. The same can be said for Gallagher. The green shoots of his influence are already starting to emerge. Anthony Crolla has built up a stable of professional fighters, Scott Quigg is working in the gym and Paul Butler is heavily involved in coaching at his local amateur club. Whilst the professional boxing journey of Joe Gallagher is far from over, he can already take huge pride in the impact he has had and continues to have, on all those who have worked alongside him.

Photo Credit: Action Images