Echo Sport Replay: Ormond- great European fight nights and the unravelling of his World title dreams

And after working his way back to the brink of earning another crack at global glory the following year, the former three-time National Senior Amateur Boxing champion, again saw it all blown to pieces when he failed to make the weight for his much-anticipated clash with Alejandro Luna in Philadelphia.

Indeed Ormond, who had to contend with eyesight trouble throughout much of his career, was a fighter bursting with potential, clearly evident from his early days when he followed in the footsteps of his father Patsy in landing a National Senior title in 2002.

“Do you know, I lost four national finals in the youths when I was, say 14, 15 and 16” Ormond told The Echo. “Most of those fights were very close. I could have won them.

“But those same boxers who I lost to, when it came to senior level, they couldn’t hack it and that’s when I started winning everything.

Stephen Ormond up against Paul Hyland Jnr in 2017. Photo by Colm Lenaghan Pacemaker Press

“I won three national titles in the one year- juniors, intermediates and then I won a senior title at featherweight, all within 12 months. I was only 17, just turning 18.

“In my first fight in my first senior championship, I beat the defending champion JP Campbell and in the final I beat Gavin Brown of Crumlin.

“He was a couple of years older than me and a very good fighter, but I beat him for my first senior title.

“The following year in 2003 I was at featherweight again and I beat Eamonn Touhey from Moate for that senior title.

Stephen Ormond

“My first two senior titles came at featherweight and my third one was at lightweight in 2005 when I beat Dean Murphy [of St Saviours] in the final.

“My first win was great, but my last one at lightweight was also special because my father, Patsy, had won the same title 23 years before that, so it was great to get my name on that same cup. I think that was more special than winning any world title.

“But I always wanted to go pro and I went over to Frank Warren in England. He was always on to me to go that way. Different people had been asking me to go pro.

“So I went over, but my eyes were bad and I failed the vision in one of them. I got my eyes lasered over there and I went back training then, but I couldn’t see. They weren’t healing quick enough, so I thought that was it, my career was over.

Stephen Ormond

“When I got my eyes lasered they were great, but they weren’t great when I got a smack.

“I’d be in sparring and I’d get a smack here or there, and I started noticing little things like seeing little white flashes now and again.

“To this day my eyes are very bad. I see double vision every day. I’m waiting to get an operation on it and basically I need to get the muscle in the back of my eye cut. I can’t even drive a car because of it.

“So I was retired for two years [after eye laser treatment] and I went crazy. I was out partying, but still I was always in the gym, training.

Stephen Ormond is now running his own enterprise, ‘Stephen Ormond Boxing Fitness’

“Then I started sparring again and I thought there’s nothing wrong with me here. So I thought I’ll go back and give it a shot.

“I went professional, and I went with Phil Sutcliffe first. But in my mind I wasn’t going to sign a contract with anybody in Ireland because I knew I was only going to stay in Ireland a short time and then go to either America or England.

“I joined up with Phil for two fights. My first pro fight was against Juris Ivanovs from Latvia in Killarney in 2008. It was a good fight for my pro debut and then my second one was in City West against Jevgenijs Kirillovs.

“I then just wanted to find out who would suit me, someone who would be more American style. Paschal Collins in Celtic Warriors Gym was mentioned and Greg [Ormond] brought me to have a sit-down with Paschal and we just clicked and I ended up staying with him for all of my career.

“Paschal was also managing me and Frank Warren was promoting me at that stage.

“My first title fight was against Paul Appleby for the vacant Celtic Super Featherweight belt in Glasgow in 2012.

“I lost that, but that was robbery, an out and out robbery. It was a great fight, but really I beat him and everyone could see that on TV. It was just one of those things.

“He did catch me with a lovely body shot in one of the rounds and I felt it. He had good punching power. I didn’t hit the ground or anything and I just dug deep and recovered.

“I out-manned him and beat him up with my work rate really. I just never stopped and everyone was booing when they gave the decision.

“I then fought Mickey Coveney and I beat him. I fought him twice. He’s a nice guy, a tough little boxer.

“After that I won the WBU Lightweight title. It’s not a major title, but beating Laszlo Robert Balogh from Hungary was a great moment in the Carlton Hotel. All my family and friends were there and it was great craic. That was my first belt.

“I was then supposed to fight [former World champion] Scott Harrison for the WBO European Lightweight title. Frank Warren gave me five weeks notice for the fight and I said ‘alright, I’ll take the fight’. I was always in the gym you see.

“So I took the fight, but then he [Harrison] pulled out and so I fought for the vacant title against Adam Mate from Hungary in London.

“I was really up for it, I really wanted it and I put him down three or four times. It was a great win. That was the big one to really get me up there.

“I defended that title against Adam Dingsdale and Derry Mathews that year [2013] and then against Karim El Ouazghari from Spain in 2014 and I actually won the ‘WBO European Fighter of the Year’  because I defended it so many times.

“I remember in the Derry Matthews fight in the Echo Arena [in Liverpool] they were all booing me before the fight, but I just knew in my soul I’d beat him easily.

“To be honest with you, and no disrespect to him, I ended up winning it quite easy because we got the game plan right. That was just to box him and not get involved with him. He’s not got the fastest feet so I just kept moving around the ring and it worked out.

“I thought I should have snowballed from there. I just felt I should have been getting the big fights after, but it just didn’t work out that way.

“I got a good win against El Ouazghari. He was a big guy, but I stopped him with a right hand around Round Five and I thought then I was going to get a big title shot after that.

“I came up against Terry Flanagan. I was defending my European title, but he was unbeaten and he was more the favourite.

“I became good friends with him after the fight, but in that fight, if you look back, he actually kept holding my left hook. Even Micky Vann [British Boxing Referee] said it.

“If that was in America, Terry Flanagan would have been stopped for holding.

“It was frustrating me and I was annoyed with the referee because he was letting him hold me.

“It was like an amateur fight. Any time I got near him, he’d break it up. He wouldn’t allow me to work inside.

“Now it was my mistake. I should never have given him a loaf, but I just completely lost my head. I was trying to do my work on him and he just kept holding me.

“That really annoyed me. I just got frustrated with him. I just thought ‘I’m not going to win this fight. They’re not going to give it to me.’ I knew if it was close they were not going to give it to me and I just lost my head.

“I felt that I let myself down. I was hurt over it and all. I knew I shouldn’t have done what I did, reacted in that way even though I knew I wasn’t getting a fair shake.

“I really do think it was my lowest moment especially as he [Flanagan] went on to win the [WBO] World title. It would have been made for me. It really was a missed opportunity.

“But I came back and I beat Jacek Wylezol from Poland in the National Stadium. That was an MTK show. I wasn’t with MTK at the time, but they put me on the show.

“Then Ken Casey of Dropkick Murphys [in Boston] were interested in signing a few Irish fighters and I got the contact there through Paschal, so I decided to give it a bash over there.

“It went good and it snowballed from there. I liked the style over there, the inside part of fighting, what you’re supposed to do.

“I fought Michael Clark and beat him and then I beat Orlando Vazquez, another good guy.

“In 2016 I had a shot at the IBF Inter-Continental title against Marcos [Leonardo] Jimenez.

“It was funny, because after that fight the drug tests came back and he had loads in his system, he was full of steroids. He was the biggest lightweight I’d ever seen, big shoulders and he was ripped, but I still beat him.

“It was a great win. I headlined the show in the House of Blues in Boston and there were thousands of people there. It was brilliant.

“I knew that was a big win. It was an IBF title and it was great for my ranking. It was an Inter-Continental title, a big one, so I knew I was in the top five or six in the world and I was going to get a shot then.

“So I got the chance to fight for the Number One [contender] spot for a World title against Alejandro Luna in Philadelphia later that August.

“It wasn’t officially classed as a World title eliminator, but they were saying that’s what it was going to be and I even went over two weeks early, but I just couldn’t get the last few pounds off me. I couldn’t make the weight. It was horrible.

“That was another really low moment for me. I did everything correctly, but I failed to make the weight. I don’t know what happened.

“And that guy [Luna], he was unbeaten, but I really felt I would have beaten him hands down. I thought he was basically made for me.

“I was training with Bernard Hopkins and, on his scales, I had three pounds to go and I had three hours to go, so I did another workout and then when we got to the weigh-in I was four pounds over after having previously been three pounds over and then done a workout.

“I said ‘there’s something wrong here’ and I was drained. They gave me a couple of hours to get the weight off and I was literally weak from that. I just said ‘I can’t make the weight’ and it went belly-up then.

“I had a fight with the [boxing] commissioner there and all. He was chasing me and shouting at me and then I was chasing him back. It was mayhem.

“And I just thought ‘That’s it, America is definitely out for me now. I wasn’t going to get anywhere in America after that’

“I thought it was over then when I went home, but MTK said they’d sign me up and so I went with them.

“But in my first fight with them I lost to Zoltan Szabo in Hungary. It was a real upset.

“I had told them I wanted someone dangerous and they got me someone dangerous. He caught me with a body shot, but I can’t even remember that because I got a right hand to the temple in the first or second round.

“I got back to my feet, but then I took a body shot in the fifth round and he stopped me. I was shocked.

“That was a six-round fight, but I made sure I got an eight-round fight the next time I met him [just two months later].

“I wouldn’t have gone on with my career unless I got a re-match with him. I wanted to prove a point.

“That one went all the way and I just danced around the ring. I just wanted to box the ears off him, but I wasn’t going to try and fight him. He was very strong, but I beat him.

“I got to fight for the WBO European title again against Craig Evans in Belfast the following year. That was a horrible fight.

“He was much tougher than I thought he was. I was hitting him all day and he was taking some wallops off me. I just wanted to blow him out of there, but I just got so tired in the fight, I had no energy. He definitely beat me.

“After that I fought Paul Hyland jnr for the IBF European Lightweight title in Belfast.

“That was another robbery. I boxed so well for 12 rounds and they never gave it to me, but I actually felt good after that fight because everyone who saw it on Sky Sports saw that I won the fight.

“I felt I boxed very well in that one. I actually broke his jaw with a left hook. I bashed him. It was frustrating because I needed something to get me back up there.

“I had a good win against George Ashie in Glasgow after that. He was from MTK as well and he was knocking everyone out. He thought he was going to beat me.

“That was a great win because I had actually got annoyed about that, the way they were looking past me. They had only signed him and they thought he was this and that.

“I fought Craig Evans again for the WBO European title in my last fight.

“Now I thought I won that fight. It was very close, but I really thought I won it, but because it was in Wales I think they gave it to him.

“I had to lose a load of weight for that fight and I was hallucinating and everything. And before the fight I said ‘Win or lose, I’m going to retire after this’ because I was starting to worry about my health by then.

“Even after making the weight, I started hallucinating, my heart was pumping through my chest and I didn’t feel good and that was the day before the fight. But win or lose, I was going to retire.

“Losing it made the decision a lot easier for me. There was nowhere for me to go after that. I was 36 then.”

Bringing the curtain down on a remarkable journey in the sport, Ormond, who today runs his own enterprise ‘Stephen Ormond Boxing Fitness’ based in the Colosseum Gym in Ballyfermot insisted “I had no regrets. I had done everything I could have possibly done.

“I trained harder than most, I never gave up and I gave a lot of dedication, so I had no regrets that way.

“I probably should have given up way before I did, but I was just so stubborn, I kept going. I wasn’t going to give up. I always felt there was more for me.

“One thing I can certainly say for boxing is that it always kept me out of trouble and, if you ever did get in trouble, it would always pull you back out. I’ve a lot to thank boxing for. Whether it was physically or mentally, it did so many good things for me.”

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