This content is protected he fought four world champions!!...within the same year {84/85} that barry mcguigan was fighting pedroza, mannion fought mike mc callum for the world title....both irishmen, both from catholic southern ireland, both fighting for the world title outside of ireland, mcguigan fighting an old, on the way out champion - albiet a former great one, mannion fighting an all time great at his peak...the whole country here was mcguigan crazy, there was flags everywhere, priests at church getting people to pray for wee barry {i kid you not}, all over tv and radio, it was massive.....but my old grandad said "thats all very well, but what about the other irishman fighting for a world title against probably a harder opponent?"...nobody, like nobody, here had a clue who sean mannion was...he was the totally forgotten man of irish boxing, but he went all the way to the top.....of course mcguigan won and mannion lost....but mannion deserved a lot more reconition than he got....he was the first man to beat future world champion in-cheul baek at a time when baek was 26-0 and all his wins were by knockout... mannion always worked on building sites throughout his boxing career, never making any fame or fortune from the sport he got all the way to world class level in... just thought i'd mention him here and see if anyone had anything to say on him... .
I remember seeing Errol Christie beat him over 10 rounds on TV back in 1986. Errol Christie was a great amateur boxer, and was forever being built up in the pro ranks as the next big thing for british boxing. He got more coverage than Herol Graham and Mark Kaylor early on. Christie's problem was he couldn't take a punch. Mannion was definitely Christie's best win. But Mannion was clearly not a big puncher, and his career went downhill from there anyway. I dont know when Mannion left ireland but he was definitely American-based. Like Steve Collins was for most of his career. Like John Duddy is now. beating In-Chul Baek and going 15 rounds with mcCallum shows Mannion had some quality.
I know Sean. he coaches in the same amature circles as I do but I havn't seen him recently. He was some tough hombre and took fearsome punishment from McCallum. Wouldn't like to deride his performance as a stinker-especially to his face!
McCallum won every round, but he struggled to look good against Mannion's steadyness and toughness and it was as much down to him that the fight wasn't too great.Take it easy i doubt it, as that was his chance to establish himself quickly as a notable fighter. the scorecards for that fight were ridiculous incidentally.
why did he stop boxing....never beat was he ? or am i thinking about tommy hearns brother who never got beat and retired ?
Not at all, I respect you far more than that. But Mannion's effort deserves respect too, he gave it all he got, no man can do more.
Mannion was a tough, limited fighter. He could never have won a title. I used to watch him all the time in the 80's because he was on T.V. a lot. Tough white fighters always got lots of coverage in the States bach them. McCalllum beat totally outclassed him on one of McCallum's bad nights. No disrespect to Sean, but he was a C-level fighter at best.
Had he quit at some point I would have perhaps made a disrespectful comment. As its stands now I haven't.
He lost a fight to a fighter he beat ,Mario Maldanado, on a cut if I remember correctly.He was highly rated by the WBA in the Jr Middleweight division and was in the lower top ten by the WBC as well.He had another fight and stopped fighting.
