{"id":918059,"date":"2026-10-02T16:58:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T16:58:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/918059\/"},"modified":"2026-10-02T16:58:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T16:58:14","slug":"rip-champ-boxing-world-mourns-belfast-fighter-ray-close-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/918059\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018RIP champ\u2019: Boxing world mourns Belfast fighter Ray Close \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Belfast boxer Ray Close will be remembered as a \u201clegend\u201d of the ring following his death.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">News of the former super-middleweight champion\u2019s death at the age of 57 emerged on Friday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Originally from east Belfast, Ray turned professional in the late 1980s, with his first pro fight at the city\u2019s Ulster Hall.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">He was best known among fans of the sport for his two world title bouts against Chris Eubank in 1993 and 1994.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"c-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishnews.com\/news\/northern-ireland\/concerned-protestants-urge-orange-order-to-end-drumcree-dispute-WLO3RFG23RH25A52BG423WKFBM\/\" aria-hidden=\"true\" tabindex=\"-1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"&#x2018;Concerned&#x2019; Protestants urge Orange Order to end Drumcree dispute \" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/LWBIU2LGQZP63M7UDQU5AKZXII.jpg\"  width=\"800\" height=\"450\"\/><\/a><a class=\"c-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishnews.com\/news\/northern-ireland\/emergency-rescue-teams-respond-to-reports-of-people-trapped-in-collapsed-trench-in-co-down-UJ4XDMVZYFHCNBCXCAYPCH72UQ\/\" aria-hidden=\"true\" tabindex=\"-1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"Crossnacreevy: Two dead in Co Down accident\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/7E25ZHDEQNA2NNOPD5EI24OF2Q.JPG\"  width=\"800\" height=\"450\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">An iconic image of Ray feeding his baby daughter ahead of the 1993 bout was taken by fellow boxing legend and Irish News photographer, the late Hugh Russell.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">A planned third fight in 1995 was called off after Ray failed an MRI scan.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">In a statement posted online, a spokesperson for the Bangor Abbey Boxing Academy, where Ray had previously trained, said: \u201cRay will be a huge loss to the boxing fraternity of Ireland and across the world. Ray and his whole family have been a huge part of our club over the years right from the very start and we are truly devastated.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">They added: \u201cRIP champ.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Belfast boxer Ray Close will be remembered as a \u201clegend\u201d of the ring following his death. News of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":918060,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,49,48,82],"class_list":["post-918059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/918059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=918059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/918059\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/918060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=918059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=918059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=918059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}