Former European medallist Regan Buckley has announced his retirement from boxing at the age of 22.
The Bray light-flyweight has made the decision after not being selected for the Irish team for next month's Olympic qualifiers.
Buckley, who landed bronze at the European Games last year, had been hoping to represent Ireland at flyweight in the qualifiers.
Despite that continental success, he didn't secure High-Performance Funding for 2020.
"I’m after deciding to pack in boxing," the youngster confirmed to Irish-Boxing-com's Johnny Stapleton.
"It was way too hard for me to keep on going training full time and not have an income. I was expected to be in the High Performance training Tuesday to Friday each week and then weeks abroad at competitions and training camps.
"All of this without any funding what so ever. My only source of income was €44 euro a week from the social welfare ad for a 22 year old man it was impossible to even attempt to live off that.
"It was something always on my mind worrying how I’m going to pay for anything at home, insurance, phone bills, rent. Had it not been for the help of my sponsors I wouldn’t have had a penny to my name when travelling abroad or wouldn’t have been able to get essential sparring gear."
"I did enquire many times about getting on funding with the High Performance but I was told it wasn’t possible each time. Even after winning a bronze medal in the European Games. I am ranked number 3 in Europe and number 7 in the world at but still nothing to show for it.
"I put many years of hard work into this sport but the last year had been very tough for me to try and carry on and it finally got to a stage where it didn’t feel worth it anymore. So much worry and stress that nobody sees just in the small chance that I get selected for a team. So I’m finished up now got myself a full time job."
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