{"id":385949,"date":"2026-01-02T02:45:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T02:45:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/385949\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T02:45:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T02:45:12","slug":"tributes-pour-in-following-death-of-boxer-paul-mccullagh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/385949\/","title":{"rendered":"Tributes pour in following death of boxer Paul McCullagh"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>TRIBUTES have poured in following the death of West Belfast boxer Paul McCullagh Jr who passed away after a short illness.<br \/>\u00a0<br \/>A member of St John Bosco Belfast and the family\u2019s McCullagh ABC, the 25 year-old won his first title in 2012. He would later turn pro in 2019.<br \/>\u00a0<br \/>In a social media post St Paul\u2019s ABC said: \u201cOn behalf of everyone at St Paul\u2019s Boxing Club, we extend our deepest condolences to Paul\u2019s family, friends, and all at St John Bosco Belfast and McCullagh\u2019s ABC. Paul\u2019s achievements and his proud boxing heritage made him a credit to Irish boxing. Our thoughts are with all who knew and loved him at this very difficult time. Rest in peace, Paul.\u201d<br \/>\u00a0<br \/>Clonard ABC posted: \u201cSad news this morning on the passing of Paul McCullagh Jr. A top class boxer and a real gentleman. Condolences to the entire McCullagh family. May he rest in peace, from all at Clonard Boxing Club.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.waterfront.co.uk\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/waterfront.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1124\" height=\"360\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Paul McCullagh with former trainer John O'Brien following his debut win\" height=\"427\" class=\"img-responsive center-block lazyload\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/resized_F1v2-3.jpg\" data-mfp-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/resized_F1v2-3.jpg\"\/>2<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/belfastmedia.com\/assets\/photo-camera-0ab63d5b98cfc023dd278cfae228c6cfafc9197855177865df5d8229c44c995a.svg\" style=\"margin-left: 5px; margin-top: -3px;\" class=\"article-gallery-icon\" alt=\"Gallery\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"article-body-caption\">Paul McCullagh with former trainer John O&#8217;Brien following his debut win<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Breaking the news, the Irish Athletic Boxing Association posted: \u201cIABA is saddened by the passing of boxer, 25-year-old Paul McCullagh Junior.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA member of clubs including St John Bosco Belfast and his family\u2019s McCullagh\u2019s ABC, Paul won his first title in 2012, and an Ulster Elite heavyweight title in 2019.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;\u201cIn the same year Paul represented Ulster High Performance against New York and represented Ireland in a dual nations international against the Netherlands.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPaul turned pro after his 2019 success, and recorded a number of wins.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPaul\u2019s grandfather and father were both champion amateur boxers, the latter boxing out of Immaculata BC. Paul\u2019s grandfather was a highly regarded pro and amateur coach and his father is a pro referee.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIABA extends deepest condolences to Paul\u2019s family, club and loved ones.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>  Do you have something to say on this issue? If so, submit a letter for publication to Conor McParland at <a href=\"https:\/\/belfastmedia.com\/mailto:c.mcparland@belfastmedia.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">c.mcparland@belfastmedia.com<\/a> or write to Editor Anthony Neeson at Belfast Media Group 43-47 Falls Road, Belfast BT12 4PD<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TRIBUTES have poured in following the death of West Belfast boxer Paul McCullagh Jr who passed away after&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":385950,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[19848,19851,64,63,19852,802,7781,44,19846,19849,19847,5492,19850,588,85],"class_list":["post-385949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-andersonstown-news","tag-andytown-news","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-belfast-media-group","tag-boxing","tag-comment","tag-news","tag-news-belfast","tag-north-belfast-news","tag-north-of-ireland","tag-northern-ireland","tag-south-belfast-news","tag-sport","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=385949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385949\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/385950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=385949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=385949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=385949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}