The Irish Packey won over the fans with his fighting style but fulfilled his fight against Bombardier Billy Wells
BY EVERY stretch of the imagination, Packey Mahoney from Cork was a fearsome-looking heavyweight. He was boxing in an era when most heavyweights seemed like someone to avoid at all costs. Jim Jeffries is another good example. The Irish have always had a reputation for fighting, and that was largely because many of them had to leave their country during the great famine of the 1840s and ended up in Britain doing all the hard work. Without them, most railways could not have been built, for example.
According to Matt Donnellon, in his book The Irish Heavyweight Book Part 1, Packey’s family emigrated to Wales, where Packey was born in Cardiff, in 1883. Soon after, they returned to Cork, and this is where Packey learned to fight. Matt describes Mahoney as “one of the bravest fighters to ever come out of Ireland and looking back on his career shows that he has been a first-class heavyweight.” He served in the British Army during the Boer War, and I am sure he must have known the noble art when he was a soldier.
In 1910, at the age of 26, he had his first professional competition, beating Sid Barber in a scheduled 15-round bout billed as for the Munster heavyweight championship, with victory in the eighth round. The following year, Packey clinched his native Cork’s heavyweight championship, beating Bombardier Coates in a 20-round contest at the Cork Opera House, a venue where Packey became a heavy favourite. According to BN, “the cheers that greeted the local victory were deafening”. Packey fired his man in the sixth.
He then went on an undefeated streak of 12 contests. He directed an Irish heavyweight title fight in 1912 against Private Delaney of the Leinster Regiment, again at the Opera House, and then won two contests in England, one against the American Young Johnson and another by knockout in Paris. . In October 1912 he met Johnson again, this time at the Cork Opera House. Johnson had been around for a bit, having fought that great American, Joe Jeannette, in Glasgow just five months earlier. In a boring fight, Mahoney prevailed again.
His reward was a 15-round bout against future British heavyweight champion Joe Beckett at the National Sporting Club, and Packey seized this opportunity with both hands. According to BN, “Mahoney was always on top until, seeing that he had his man at his mercy, Packey came in and, not even bothering to feint, landed a right hand to the jaw and Beckett fell like a log to be killed. counted. .”
After defending his Irish heavyweight title twice in 1913, scoring fine victories over Private Dan Voyles and Seaman Brown, he faced British heavyweight leader Bombardier Billy Wells in a British title contest. Inevitably, the fight took place, as it had to, at the National Sporting Club. Wells had lost his last two bouts, both by knockout against world-class opponents in Gunboat Smith and Georges Carpentier, and he couldn’t afford to lose this one. In our preview, BN described Mahoney’s style as “a fighter, pure and simple, whose only idea is to directly attack his opponent, stay close to him and take him down.”
Unfortunately, Packey’s singular lack of boxing ability led to his downfall against Wells. He caught the champion with booming shots several times in the first two rounds, but in the third “he was hit with all kinds of punches. Hooks, jabs, right crosses, uppercuts found his face, his nose and his mouth,” and Mahoney was finally dispatched with a barrage of hooks. This was the first and only loss for him.
Packey never boxed again. He retired to Cork, where he became a much-loved and revered figure. He passed away at the age of 85, in 1968.
