{"id":291414,"date":"2025-11-30T13:02:06","date_gmt":"2025-11-30T13:02:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/291414\/"},"modified":"2025-11-30T13:02:06","modified_gmt":"2025-11-30T13:02:06","slug":"barry-mcguigan-says-top-heavyweights-punch-resistance-is-gone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/291414\/","title":{"rendered":"Barry McGuigan Says Top Heavyweight’s Punch Resistance Is ‘Gone’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Barry McGuigan<\/a> has been around boxing long enough to know when a fighter no longer has what it takes to compete at the top.<\/p>\n

McGuigan is one of Ireland\u2019s most celebrated boxers and a unifying sporting figure who rose up during a politically turbulent era. He captured the 1985 WBA featherweight world title with a masterful victory over Eusebio Pedroza that ended the champion\u2019s seven-year reign and only lost the belt in the extreme heat of Las Vegas to Steve Cruz.<\/p>\n

He retired in 1989, and since then has been involved with his own promotional company, working with fighters like Lawrence Okolie and George Groves, so he remains closer to the sport.<\/p>\n

Writing in The Mirror,<\/a> McGuigan has now suggested that ever-popular heavyweight Dillian Whyte could be close to the end because he can no longer take punches like he once could, judging by his last run out in the ring.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said the Whyte fight would end early, and though I gave him half a dozen rounds, I was not that surprised to see him fall in the first. His punch resistance is gone. He was hit with a decent shot and never recovered. That\u2019s boxing.\u201d<\/p>\n

That fight was against rising star Moses Itauma, who has stopped 11 of his 13 opponents, nine of them inside the first two rounds.<\/p>\n

Despite the loss back in August, Whyte vowed to fight on<\/a> and is still being linked with a third fight with Derek Chisora<\/a> next year, despite negotiations already breaking down once earlier this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Barry McGuigan has been around boxing long enough to know when a fighter no longer has what it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":291415,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-291414","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=291414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291414\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/291415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}