Michael Conlan is not leaving. After a devastating 2023 in which he lost his second world title shot to Luis Alberto Lopez - followed by defeat against Jordan Gill in Belfast - he seriously considered hanging up the gloves. However he refreshed his mind and body by joining a running club and ran a sub-three hour marathon, he realised he had more to offer the boxing game. Conlan is now between trainers and is trialling some new cornermen as he awaits a bounce-back fight towards the end of the year. He opens up about the pain of defeat, controlling the ego, making tracks as a manager and the det ..read more

From July 27 to August 10, we'll be all about Olympic boxing once again. Ireland will send a 10-strong team to Paris 2024 with every boxer there dreaming of a place on top of the podium to follow in the footsteps of Michael Carruth, Katie Taylor and Kellie Harrington. In this episode I'm sitting down with middleweight Aoife O'Rourke and bantamweight Jenny Lehane. O'Rourke, from Roscommon, is about to arrive at her second Games. The four-time European champion is one of Ireland's most under-the-radar athletes but she wouldn't have it any other way. Meath teacher Lehane has put her career on ho ..read more

From July 27 to August 10, we'll be all about Olympic boxing once again. Ireland will send a 10-strong team to Paris 2024 with every boxer there dreaming of a place on top of the podium to follow in the footsteps of Michael Carruth, Katie Taylor and Kellie Harrington. In this episode, I'm sitting down with featherweight Jude Gallagher and light-welterweight Dean Clancy, who've risen through the ranks together and will be room-mates in the French capital. A natural successor to the Paddy Barnes-Mick Conlan double act? Maybe, maybe not! What we know is these lads are coming in hot and will ..read more

We’re all on a high at the minute after four more boxers booked their ticket to Paris 2024. It means Ireland have qualified a record ten boxers for the Olympic Games this summer. The final qualifier in Bangkok had ups and downs for the Ireland team but ultimately Daina Moorehouse, Grainne Walsh, Jennifer Lehane and Aidan Walsh got over the line. Our guest Lynne O’Shea was there as a member of the Ireland coaching team - and we’re also joined by amateur boxing insider Alan Donnellan for another review of a brilliant tournament for the High Performance squad. We also discuss selection issues - v ..read more

John Joe Nevin is one of Ireland’s greatest ever amateur boxers - and some would say THE greatest. He completed the full set of medals - two World Championships bronze (2009, 2011), European Championships gold (2013) and Olympic Games silver (2012). Along the way he put in some of the finest performances Irish boxing fans have ever seen, with the best undoubtedly his London 2012 semi-final win over Cuban world champ Lazaro Alvarez. Now he’s set up his own club, Mullingar Shuffler Boxing Club, after the nickname former Ireland coach Billy Walsh gave him while marvelling at his exploits during t ..read more

The Rocky Road paid a visit to Moate, Co Westmeath for a conversation we've been waiting a few years to have. Joe Ward is one of the finest boxers ever to come out of Ireland and why wouldn't he be, when he comes from fighting stock? After all, his grandfather is no other than 'Big' Joe Joyce, AKA The Hulk, AKA The King of the Travellers. He made his name as the bareknuckle champion of these islands but nowadays Big Joe is his grandson's biggest supporter and a keen advocate of boxing inside the ropes. In Part Three, Big Joe talks about his family's enormous success in amateur boxing - and ho ..read more

This week The Rocky Road returns to Naas and we’re putting our money where our mouth is. We know Gary Cully and Co train hard but it’s time to see just how far they’ll go in the pursuit of their boxing dreams. So, under the supervision of UNIT 3 head coach Niall Barrett, we’re put through our paces in his conditioning session alongside Cully, Kelsey Leonard, Paul Loonam, Jamie Morrissey and Cian Reddy, among others. Niall then takes time out to explain the session and go through his coaching philosophy. As Cully explained in a recent episode, he’s decided to put his full faith in Barrett going ..read more

This week on The Rocky Road we sat down for a chat with rising stars Paul Loonam and Brandon McCarthy at UNIT 3 in Naas. Friends since their early days in Ireland camps, they’ve gone pro and represent the new batch of Irish talent in the paid ranks. Both had to face up to their disappointment at not making it to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games - with that hitting them in slightly different ways - but there’s a new goal ahead. Loonam will make his debut in Dublin in May on a JB Promotions card, while McCarthy got up and running with a win in San Francisco on St Patrick’s weekend. From Offaly and K ..read more

Gary Cully knows all about The Rocky Road at this stage. With massive momentum at his back, he went into 2023 certain that he was on the fast track to world title glory. And things got even better when he secured a co-headline slot on the Katie Taylor homecoming bill last May. But he watched Taylor’s fight with Chantelle Cameron from the back of an ambulance following a shock stoppage defeat to Mexico’s Jose Felix. Taylor picked herself up for the rematch with Cameron and ‘The Diva’ had to do the same, even more so, when big-time boxing returned to the 3Arena in Dublin in November. He opted to ..read more

The Rocky Road paid a visit to Moate, Co Westmeath for a conversation we've been waiting a few years to have. Joe Ward is one of the finest boxers ever to come out of Ireland and why wouldn't he be, when he comes from fighting stock? After all, his grandfather is no other than 'Big' Joe Joyce, AKA The Hulk, AKA The King of the Travellers, AKA - The Boss of All Men. He made his name as the bareknuckle champion of these islands but nowadays Big Joe is his grandson's biggest supporter and a keen advocate of boxing inside the ropes. In Part Two, we discuss Big Joe's days as a bareknuckle box ..read more