Sean O'Grady: King Without a Crown (1981 SI Article)

O'Grady was a s****per, and could fight, too bad his old man was an angry bitter old Redneck who had no business as a boxing manager..

I remember not to long after that article came out O'Grady was smoked by the late Andy Ganigan in just 2 rounds..

 

Sean was a fine fighter....he gets underrated here too much.

 

Lots of wins over random OKC nobodies. But the win over Kenty was certainly impressive and easily the best performance of his career. He'd have beaten Claude Noel with no problem and maybe gotten a few more successful defenses too if his idiot father hadn't screwed things up. I can understand Pat O'Grady not wanted to deal with those WBA crooks, but losing the title for not fighting Claude Noel is ridiculous.

 

Sean did indeed have an idiot father...what a shame this guy was so mismanaged.

 

He works in commercial real estate in OKC.

 

Good post. O'Grady was a very good lightweight. He just simply burned out at an early age. He was something like 15 years old when he turned pro.

For those who bad mouth O'Grady's list of opponents, who the hell you going to have him fight when he is 15, 16, 17, 28, 29 years old?

For all the 20/20 hindsight miss steps that Pat O'Grady took, the one thing he did do was invest Sean's money wisely.

 

, O'grady would have beaten Noel up, but as far as his POP is concerned too many Chiefs , not enough Indians:-(

 

Basically, his father was idiotic in the way he dealt with the WBA once Sean won the title. The WBA was known for a pretty weak top 10, filled with mediocre fighters with good latin American connections. Handled right, he could have kept that title for awhile, like Ray Mancini did when he won it later.

First off, I will say his dad did a good job of getting him a world title. Actually, he got him two shots. He lost to Watt on kind of a bogus head butt thing. Then his dad secured the Kenty fight and he won it. So far, so good. Then, his dad really screwed up. Pat doesn't want to take orders from the WBA regarding who Sean has to fight in his first defense. Pat had a point, usually a champ. gets a voluntary first defense, then faces a mandatory later. The WBA wanted him to fight the mandatory for his first defense. Kind of lame, but hey, they are corrupt. They hold the cards. Swallow your pride and fight the mandatory. But, no. Pat refuses. The WBA strips Sean. His dad creates the bogus WAA and installs Sean as champ. Then, Sean gets creamed by Andy Ganigan in front of a few hundred people in Arkansas.

I remember all this because KO had a big writeup about the whole situation at the time.

His dad should have had him fight the mandatory against Claude Noel, who he probably would have beaten, then he could have probably secured had a big money fight with Ray Mancini, televised on CBS in front of a packed house, preferably in his native Oklahoma. I have a feeling Dave Wolf would have rather gone after him, then the tougher Arguello, who Mancini ended up fighting. O'Grady would have had a reasonable shot of beating Mancini. Even if he lost, he would have made great money for the fight.

Basically, Sean had a bad manager and Mancini had a really good one.

 

Yea his POP didn't realize that even thou his boy won the title there are still rules and guidelines you have to follow for the integrity of the sport:deal

I agree Mancini had good management because the kid had his sh!t together and was organized...

I would have picked Ray to beat Ogrady but WOULDN'T have put any serious money on it:-(

 

Mancini would have thrashed O'Grady.

 

Great point, Saad, though, like Xplosive stated, I think Mancini would've thrashed O'Grady. And I give Howard Davis Jr. a great shot at beating him also.

 

What's fascinating is that, while Pat didn't manage his son's career very smartly, he did a masterful job of taking Tony Gardner from an unknown journeyman to a title contender with incredible Ring Magazine publicity and a great local following.

FWIW, Tony said he advised against taking the Ganigan fight with the small ring as a real disadvantage. (I believe Ganigan was a late replacement?) He said Pat O'Grady dismissed him as he believed the small ring would actually help Sean as it would hasten the inevitable KO. He said that father didn't see Sean's ability with any sort of objectivity.