![\"Ospreys](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/H2GCVRMBUFCA5N4KJKSRRC6VXA.JPG\")
<\/a>![\"‘And](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/2PONXW6IHZHDLN7J3O3K6IQ3QQ.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThat Star double act has now become a trio, with the New Lodge club also pinning hopes on the talented Louis Rooney \u2013 the fact he is Hale\u2019s cousin strengthening the connection even further.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember before Birmingham, I was only 16, and Liam brought me up for the last three weeks of the sparring camp,\u201d recalls Rooney.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s when I was starting to love boxing – I was like, \u2018one day, this is us, this is me going\u2019. And then, for years, once I turned senior, me and JP were talking about going to the Commonwealths together, and now it\u2019s happening. It\u2019s real.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith Liam there too, it\u2019s just class.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s amazing for the club,\u201d adds Corr, \u201cit just shows the club\u2019s doing good things. JP and Louis come back into the club on a Monday or a Friday, and all the kids look up to them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although there is five years and four weight classes between them, Rooney and Hale have shared the ring from time to time through the years \u2013 though the 20-year-old knows to steer clear of his big cousin\u2019s bombs.<\/p>\n
\u201cA bit of touch sparring just,\u201d smiles Rooney, \u201cyou wouldn\u2019t want him going too hard – he\u2019d put me back up to Ardoyne if he hit me\u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cJust from being in the gym for the last 10 years, though, boxing definitely brought us closer.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"JP](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/EKDYAQO4RBP2HOWQW43A75RSBM.jpg\")
JP Hale feels he has unfinished business after a broken hand affected his preparations for the last Commonwealth Games. PICTURE: PA <\/p>\n
And, unlike in Birmingham, Hale will go to Glasgow firing on all cylinders.<\/p>\n
The five-time Ulster elite champion suffered a broken hand months before the 2022 Commonwealths, and was a shadow of his usual self when bowing out to Uganda\u2019s rough, tough Joshua Tukamuhebwa.<\/p>\n
This time around, though, Corr hopes the viewing public will see the real JP Hale.<\/p>\n
\u201cJP was out for 10 weeks coming into those Commonwealths – 10 weeks with absolutely no contact on his right hand because of the break at the Europeans. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe had a good first round, but was it always going to go like that? Maybe. He was just catching up, there was a lot of ring rust. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut he made that decision himself that he wanted to try and qualify for the next Commonwealths, and show the full representation of himself out there.<\/p>\n
\u201cFingers crossed he\u2019s a medal hope.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rooney, however, has a different sort of challenge to overcome.<\/p>\n
The 20-year-old has had plenty of international exposure since arriving on the elite scene in recent years, including boxing at the last September\u2019s World Championships in Liverpool, the prestigious Strandja memorial tournament and World Box Cup in Brazil.<\/p>\n
But, with World Boxing removing the 50kg weight class, Rooney finds himself having to jump up to 55kg in a relatively short space of time.<\/p>\n
\u201cLike, last January [2025] I was 48. I made the change to go 50. I won an elite title at 48, an elite title at 50, and an elite title again at 55 – all in the same year. Seven kilos is a jump, but I\u2019m getting a bit bigger now, building into 55.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not healthy jumping between 50 one minute, 55 the next. But next year is when the Olympic qualifying starts, so I\u2019m going to start building into 55 anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n
And Corr insists Rooney is capable of stepping up in Glasgow.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a massive jump, but he just has to play with the cards he\u2019s dealt. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe could\u2019ve just said \u2018no I\u2019ll miss out on the Commonwealths, stay at 50\u2019, but he was up for the challenge and he had a great fight in here with Clepson [dos Santos].<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will be a challenge, and it\u2019s a challenge he\u2019s willing to take it on, then he\u2019s going back down for the Europeans after. It\u2019s something he\u2019s fully capable of doing; if I didn\u2019t think that, he wouldn\u2019t be going.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s moreso that World Boxing need to take a look at themselves, because all the small men are being cut out – they\u2019re making boxers make these decisions, and make these jumps, instead of fighting at their natural weight.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"TEAM](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/MUEFMFOLBJGEFIMBTAINEDHSDY.jpg\")
Team NI coaches Liam Corr and JP Delaney are looking ahead to the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. PICTURE: BRIAN LINCOLN <\/p>\n
Although it is a long time since he too was lacing up gloves, Corr\u2019s education within the sport is also continuing as preparation steps up a gear for his second Commonwealths.<\/p>\n
He and JP Delaney were new to the elite set up four years ago, but the experience of Birmingham has stood to both of them ahead of the next journey.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re a bit more confident. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe were coming in as the two junior coaches who had worked with the youth and juniors, and then stepping up to the elites, and there were some Olympians, world champions\u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was daunting, but it set us up for where we are now. You weren\u2019t thrown in the deep end where you couldn\u2019t deal with anything, but you were put in positions that made you learn, made you a better coach.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a brilliant experience, the environment, everything about it was class, and that\u2019s hopefully set us up for this time around. And getting to do it with the two boys makes it all the more special.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cAnd Rihanna called New Lodge a hopeless place\u201d JOHN Paul Hale wasn\u2019t even in the country when the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":598369,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,204321,679,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-598368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-commonwealth-games-2022","tag-glasgow","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598368","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=598368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598368\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/598369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=598368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=598368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=598368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}