JONO Carroll walked through the old neighbourhood this week, down the streets he used to roam.
Carroll, as ‘Dublin’ as the Liffey, is based in Dubai these days and he’s back to fight Belfast’s Colm Murphy for the vacant IBO super-featherweight at the 3Arena on Saturday night.
On his walk he ran into a old boxing friend. When they were young amateurs the other guy was better, more talented than Carroll but he lost his way and drink and drugs have taken their toll now.
Carroll admits he could easily have fallen into the same lifestyle.
“The guy I met was one of my good friends,” he says.
“A very good fighter, as an amateur better than me, I would say. We sparred many times and he was an unbelievable fighter.
“I had the exact same kind of upbringing as him, the same sticky situation with my father as he had with his father.
“I lost my mother at 15 and, I don’t know, I was doing stupid things with my life when I was a teenager.
“I moved out of my home at 15 and moved in with my grandmother. At 17 or 18 I got my own apartment. I was doing my own thing. I always knew how to make money, but sometimes I wasn’t making money in the correct ways.
“It was only selling weed, I wasn’t doing bad shit, but at the same time I was doing stupid things.
“I was doing very immature things and it was simply just because that’s what everyone was doing in my neighbourhood. Everyone was doing it, all my friend groups were doing it, so I could easily have fell into that trap.”
Jono Carroll says he could have “fallen victim to the streets”. Picture: Queensberry/Leigh Dawney (Queensberry/Leigh Dawney)
He pulled himself out before the jaws of the trap slammed shut around him. Like many others, boxing was the way out for him but only after he’d come through his fair share of scrapes.
“Someone would owe you f**king money, you know, 50-60 quid,” he explains.
“But because they’ve been cheating you and they’re not paying you, you’d end up punching the head off them.
“Before I went to Australia, I had three assault charges hit me.
“Now, they weren’t that bad, but still, at the same time, if that had happened, I may not have gone to Australia. I may not have turned professional. I was just falling victim to the streets.
“It was never me, it was always my friends that was getting into trouble and then I’d get dragged into it, obviously being friends and associating yourself with those people.
“So it was just a mad life growing up but I’m very grateful for all them lessons of life because it makes me appreciate where I’m at today.”
Dubai is where he’s at these days. He loves it over there and he has no intention of swapping the relative luxury of life in the Middle East to come back to Dublin, ever.
“The whole thing, not paying taxes, the kids are safe, the safety aspect was the most important thing when I first moved out,” he says
“Investment-wise, the amount of people you’re meeting over there, it can just open up crazy doors for you because everyone wants a better life.
“Anyone that’s living there, they just want a better life for themselves, because they’re going there hoping to improve their life, hoping to just become better versions of themselves, so we meet a lot of like-minded people there, it’s a very good environment to be in.
“Walking through town yesterday, the amount of people I bumped into, and I knew so many people were on drugs, so many people were drinking on the streets…
“It was just very sad, you know? Because people always ask me: ‘When you finish your boxing, are you going to come home here?’ And I’m like: ‘No, not a chance’.
“A lot of people that I met in town around 2 o’clock, drinking alcohol, just out of prison last week… It was a bit sad to see.
“It just all depends on your decisions in life. Thankfully, I made the correct decisions at the correct times, and I’m living a very good life now.”