Billy Walsh joined Off The Ball as part of our 'Future of Sport' series, and spoke of his experiences in America and his home country.

He touched upon a 'ridiculous' situation where boxers cannot 'earn a living' in Ireland, and also the differences between the approaches to the sport in both countries.

Billy Walsh on Ireland and America

"I grew up in a pretty tough background, a tough street. It was an escape for me to go there, and it taught me discipline," said Walsh.

"It kept me on the straight and narrow, away from the other lads I knocked around with on the street who ended up getting in trouble. Boxing kept me focused.

"I knew that if I misbehaved outside of the club then I wasn't going to be allowed back into it. I loved it so much that I wanted that more than anything else.

"That is what boxing clubs do for the community. A lot of the parents would get involved with the club because mostly the coach is there on his own."

Under-privileged

Walsh notes that  money is in short supply because kids are usually coming in from under-privileged backgrounds.

It means that a lot of clubs are barely surviving, and many have already gone under - to the detriment of those communities.

The contrast could barely more stark with the United States, where Walsh is currently head coach of USA Boxing.

"Over here, it is a business. You have a gym and it is your livelihood. You collect your money from the people who train - that is how they survive over here. It is their business.

"In Ireland, it is more of a volunteer situation where people go to work during the day and then leave in time to go to a sport that they love and train all of these kids to become champions.

"I was at the lucky end of it, that I was a coach in the club first and then got the head coach role with the Irish boxing team. I was able to take those guys in and then bring them on to the next level for international boxing.

"The club system in Ireland is fantastic; the amount of talent that we produce year-in, year-out - it is phenomenal. These guys are volunteers.

"It is a difficult job because boxing is such an intense sport with the conditioning - you really have to be at a real level to do it full-time.

"It consumes your life, and it is a credit to the IABA and the volunteers that they have within it that it have made the sport so successful and our most successful Olympic sport."

Earning in Ireland

Billy Walsh believes that Irish boxing needs to sort out the situation where fighters need to leave the country to earn a crust.

"Our best athletes in the professional game are getting work outside of the country. It is very unfortunate what is going on, I don't have much comment to make on it.

"There is the ordinary, run-of-the-mill professional who needs to be working and to have fights to feed his family.

"They are being denied a decent wage and a salary that they can survive on and they need to be fighting regularly.

"That is something that needs to be sorted pretty soon, because the people involved can have shows all around the world but they can't have them in Ireland, it is a bit ridiculous.

"I think something needs to be done, once and for all, to put an end to it. There are a lot of people who need fights, shows and promotions; the sport needs it to get kids interested.

"This is our best Olympic sport, we have the most medals by a long shot."

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