{"id":310264,"date":"2025-12-11T06:32:35","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T06:32:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/310264\/"},"modified":"2025-12-11T06:32:35","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T06:32:35","slug":"northern-ireland-boxing-owen-oneill-reflects-on-sparring-chris-eubank-jr-as-he-eyes-a-big-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/310264\/","title":{"rendered":"Northern Ireland boxing: Owen O&#8217;Neill reflects on sparring Chris Eubank Jr as he eyes a big 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Owen O'Neill is determined to hit back after two losses  Pic Credit: JEFF LOCKHART PHOTO\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/IMG-20251202-WA0002.jpg\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"100%\" data-testid=\"article-image\"  \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"beltel-ebe0ecc6_root beltel-ebe0ecc6_caption1 beltel-300db776_none beltel-91174671_secondary beltel-66f0fec7_regular beltel-1d70522a_marginbottom0 beltel-1d70522a_marginleft0 beltel-1d70522a_marginright0 beltel-1d70522a_margintop3 beltel-b48c4984_left\" style=\"color:var(--color-grey-60)\">Owen O&#8217;Neill is determined to hit back after two losses  Pic Credit: JEFF LOCKHART PHOTO<\/p>\n<p class=\"beltel-ebe0ecc6_root beltel-ebe0ecc6_paragraph beltel-300db776_none beltel-91174671_primary beltel-1d70522a_marginbottom0 beltel-1d70522a_margintop0 beltel-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">Belfast taxi drivers are known to spin a yarn or two that may seem a little far-fetched, especially when it comes to talking about boxing \u2014 it seems like every driver in the city was a world title challenger at one stage.<\/p>\n<p class=\"beltel-ebe0ecc6_root beltel-ebe0ecc6_paragraph beltel-300db776_none beltel-91174671_primary beltel-1d70522a_marginbottom0 beltel-1d70522a_margintop0 beltel-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">However, if you find yourself in the back seat talking to a friendly red-haired taxi man who says that not only did he win a Celtic title but he was also a sparring partner for Chris Eubank Jr, then you can take that as gospel because you\u2019re probably chatting to Owen O\u2019Neill.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Owen O&#8217;Neill is determined to hit back after two losses Pic Credit: JEFF LOCKHART PHOTO Belfast taxi drivers&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":310265,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,32833,48734,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-310264","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-lee-costello","10":"tag-north-belfast-sport","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310264","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=310264"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310264\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/310265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}