Sean O' Grady Discussion

I have a dvd set of their best knockouts. Good stuff. You can probably buy it on ebay

 

Unfortunately it seems that theres no footage of that fight.

 

I'd say he was probably at least as good as someone like Czyz.

He was very tall and lanky for his weight, but generally more of a slugger than a boxer. He was tough, relentless, and could bang with both hands. He was there to be hit though, and as his career progressed he developed into a bad bleeder.

He was managed by his father. He had a shitload of fights very early in his career at a very young age (late teens and early 20s), often fighting once or twice a week in old school style, mostly against clubfighters. Eventually he took his first real step up against future FW champ Danny Lopez. Lopez blasted him out in about 5 rounds. After that, he returned to the clubfight circuit for another round of padding his record, and eventually re-emerged with a record of something like 50-1 or 60-1, while still at a very young age. He got his first title shot against Jim Watt in Scotland, and appeared to be winning the fight most of the way until head clashes opened a horrific gash on his face. Eventually the fight was stopped and O'Grady lost it on a TKO. Later, he got another title shot against Hilmer Kenty, who was thought to be a pretty good fighter at the time, and he battled his way to an exciting decision win. Not long after that, he was stripped of his title (I forget why), but his father then invented a sanctioning body called the "WAA", which gave O'Grady a title. No one really gave the WAA any credence, but they still recognized O'Grady as one of the top guys in the division and the rightful holder of the title he had been stripped of. Any claim he had to the title was lost when he was shockingly blasted out in 2 rounds by Andy Ganigan, in a fight whose outcome and circumstances somewhat mirrored Wlad Klitschko's loss to Corrie Sanders. O'Grady basically faded away after that and retired not too long afterward. Ganigan's win earned him a big money fight with Arguello (much as Sanders got a shot at Vitali off of his win over Wlad) and he was KO'd in a war. After that, the "WAA" title mysteriously vanished.

 

Here's a picture of O'Grady's face against Jim Watt:

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http://www.boxrec.com/media/index.php/Image:F35337.jpeg

Watt was bleeding pretty bad himself though. This fight was just a total bloodbath all-around.

 

Here's O'Grady's defining win against Kenty:

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Here's O'Grady against Shig Fukuyama, a dangerous fringe contender of the '70s:

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Here's his loss to Ganigan:

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Here's another clip of him in action:

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O'Grady was a very good Lightweight in an era of some great lightweights.

O'Grady was moving up from bantamweight to fight Featherweight Danny Lopez.
Lopez had had much more solid pro fights, was coming into his prime, and had fought
guys like Ruben Olivares, Chucho Castillo, and Bobby Chacon.

Plus it was fought in LA, Lopez's back yard.

Lopez wins the Featherweight title 2 fights later.

O'Grady's corner stopped the fight after 4 rounds because a young Sean was in over his head and they didn't want to ruin him as a fighter.

Sean was just 17 years old when he fought Little Red who was 23 years old.

Also, I don't think Sean had many amateur fights.....his Dad Pat "snuck" him into the pro ranks at a very young age.

 

Sugar Ray Robinson apparently thought highly of O'Grady. He was quoted as saying that Sean "fought like a black"..and was impressed by Sean when he saw him fight. Another tv commentator, likened him to a "small Carlos Monzon" in the way he beat Shig Fukuyama, when being badly cut himself, stayed calm and cool before dispatching the Japanese.

 

O'Grady wasn't a bad fighter at all, but was screwed up and disadvantaged by being managed by his fruitcake father.

 

O'Grady learned his trade beating up stiffs on the Oklahoma clubfight circuit. Grossly overmatched against Lopez at a tender age, he learned enough and was ready for Watt. Against Watt, he fought passively through about 7 rounds with Watt well ahead. About the 8th or 9th Sean turned Tiger and began grilling Watt, opening 3 cuts in the process and having the Scot in real distress. Believe me, this bout was going to end very soon. However, in the 10th Watt lunged in and put the nastiest vertical slice on O'Grady's forehead, which just cascaded in his eyes. He just moved around in the 11th and 12th, unhurt but unable to see and the ref simply stopped it apologetically. Against Kenty he beat him brutally and won the title. His #1 challenger that the WBA said he had to fight was Claude Noel, whom O'Grady would have taken out in about 6 rounds. But old Pat didn't want to be told what to do, formed his WAA, opted for the much tougher Andy Ganigan and Sean was never any good after that fight. Not unlike Cuevas after the Hearns KO or Tate after the Weaver KO, cerebrally, it just wasn't there anymore. O'Grady even penned an article for one of the mags at the time called, "Suddenly, I couldn't take a punch anymore". Prior to that, Sean O'Grady would have fit right in with the guns at the time. He had alot of fights but wasn't used up since his early career opposition was a bit soft. I would have loved to seen an O'Grady-Arguello or Mancini fight.

Scartissue

 

O'Grady was a good fighter, he got the early build up but his father was controlling and hurt shaun more then helped him later on....O'Grady also had a problem with Cuts, other than that he could box well and had a nice punch also showed a lot of heart.

 

True:deal

 

Sean was a good fighter, and a great commentator.Probably could have given Arguello as good of a fight as Mancini did.

 

That´s a nice bump Thinblack.