Dave during the Duke McKenzie fight
“I achieved more in life than I ever could have imagined.” – Dave Boy McAuley
Former World champion boxer Dave Boy McAuley is the next ‘Homemade Hero’ to be featured in the new UTV series of the same name.
The Larne native shares his amazing story with producer Ali Fleming. He has long since swapped boxing gloves for oven gloves as he chats from the coastal hotel he runs with his wife, Wendy. We hear about his career milestones, his brutal training regime atthe height of his career, and he brings rarely seen title belts and memorabilia out of the bank vault especially for the programme.
A keen amateur boxer in his teens, he explains he was inspired to turn professional because of the success of fellow local boxer, the late Hugh Russell.
Dave Boy McAuley enjoying the archive footage
While talking of his training for fights, Dave said:
“I trained to extremes – In order to fight hard, you have to train hard - it was a killing match every day of the week with the sparring partners.”
He talks of the agony of missing out not once but twice on a world title, but thankfully in 1989 it was third time lucky when he beat Duke Mackenzie on points to become world champion. He successfully defended the title five times over the next three years but then got controversially beaten by Rudolfo Blanco.
His wife Wendy reveals that on his return from losing that fight he ended up having to work the bar in their newly acquired hotel. She said: “He hadn’t time to feel sorry for himself, he had to get on with it!”
David explains that his dream was retire from boxing undefeated but that didn’t happen for him.
This episode is peppered with some great UTV archive footage, some of which David has never seen.
Ali Fleming has the last word with this episode, saying, “While world titles can be won and lost, David’s legacy can never be disputed.”
‘HOMEMADE HEROES’ is a UTV production, produced and narrated by Alison Fleming, and is sponsored by EZ Living Interiors.
You can watch this episode on UTV on Thursday 7th December at 8.30pm, and after transmission will be available on: