Teenage Irish amateur star to turn pro

Young Irish boxing starlet Regan Buckley is to turn professional.

The St Teresa’s Bray fighter does not leave his teenage years until March, but will begin to punch for pay this year.

A two-time Irish champion, including the 2015 Intermediates, Buckley finished as the light flyweight runner-up in the most recent Senior (Elite) Championships. However, he is ditching the vest ahead of next month’s Seniors and the start of the Tokyo Olympic cycle. As an aside, this could lead to an initial gap at 49kgs, with reigning Elite champion Stevie McKenna moving up in weight and Under-18 champion Jordan Moore also planning a move up.

Buckley’s choice to change codes is due to a disillusionment with the amateur game, and he told Irish-Boxing.com how “my heart isn’t in amateur boxing anymore. It’s gone ridiculous with the politics and the dodgy judging, and its hard to get motivated when you’re going into competition and they already have a winner picked.”

A debut date for 19 year old Buckley has yet to be set, but he intends for his father Mark to hammer out a deal in the near future, describing how “my father is acting for me and I want to keep him as my coach. He has been in talks with a few managers and promoters.”

“Big thing are gonna happen and I can’t wait to get started!”

Photo Credit: Ricardo Guglielminotti – The Fighting Irish (@ThefIrish)

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Joe O’Neill and Gavan Casey look ahead to 2017 in episode 1 of The Irish Boxing Show