In 1985, boxer Barry McGuigan was named BBC Sports Personality of the Year (SPOTY), beating cricketer Ian Botham and Steve Cram into second and third place, respectively, in the public vote. Born Finbar McGuigan in Clones, County Monaghan, Republic of Ireland – hence his nickname ‘The Clones Cyclone’ – the 24-year-old had taken out British citizenship to fight for British titles and hence became the first person born outside the United Kingdom to win the SPOTY Award.
In 1985 as a whole, McGuigan fought four times. In February, he beat Juan Laporte on points at the King’s Hall in Belfast and, in March, successfully defended his European Boxing Union (EBU) European featherweight title with a second-round technical knockout of Farid Gallouze at Wembley Arena. His career-defining fight, though, came on June 8, 1985, when he fought Panamanian Eusebio Pedroza World Boxing Association (WBA) featherweight title at Loftus Road Stadium, Shepherd’s Bush.
Pedroza, 29, had held the WBA title for seven years and successfully defended it 18 times. Indeed, he completely outboxed McGuigan in the early rounds, but the complexion of the fight changed when, in the seventh round, McGuigan landed a textbook overhand right, dropping Pedroza to the canvas. Pedroza received a mandatory eight count, but the flat-out affair went the distance, with McGuigan winning by unanimous decision, 148-138, 149-139, 147-140. Reflecting on his ultimate career performance, McGuigan said later, “I was on such a high, I could have fought 20 rounds. I was just so up for the fight. I was so emotionally fired up for it.”
Prior to collecting the SPOTY Award at BBC Television Centre, McGuigan had also made a successful first defence of his WBA featherweight title against Bernard Taylor at the King’s Hall in Belfast in September. Taylor was retired by his corner after the eighth round and collapsed shortly afterwards, reportedly suffering from heat exhaustion. McGuigan, himself, fought on until 1989, when he retired for the second and final time, with a professional career record of 32 wins, including 28 by knockout, and three losses. At the time of his retirement, he was still only 28.