Crime in Sports - The Miracle Alcoholic Man Eamonn The Terminator Magee Part 5

Episode Date: January 11, 2026

This week, we finish up this crazy story, with Eamonn being beaten by local rivals, not in the ring, but in the street, with baseball bats. This causes him to nearly retire, as he wasn't even supposed to be able to walk again, but he beat the odds, earning a new nickname. He also continues his alcoholism, while being arrested several more times, for violent outbursts, often against women. A final tragedy leaves him depressed, and broken, but he keeps pushing on. Will he survive this story??   Have a local lottery winner beat your legs into retirement, be married to, and engaged to, several women at the same time, and try your hardest to not drink, for a week, so you can get a life saving operation with Eamonn "The Terminator" Magee - Part 5!!   Check us out, every Tuesday! We will continue to bring you the biggest idiots in sports history!!   Hosted by James Pietragallo & Jimmie Whisman   Donate at... patreon.com/crimeinsports or with paypal.com using our email [e-mail]   Get all the CIS & STM merch at crimeinsports.threadless.com   Go to shutupandgivememurder.com for all things CIS, STM & YSO!!   Contact us on...   instagram.com/smalltownmurder facebook.com/crimeinsports [e-mail]

Hello everybody and welcome back to crime in sports. Yay! Oh, yay indeed, Jimmy. Yay indeed. My name is James Petro Gallo. I'm here with my co-host. I'm Jimmy Wiseman. Thank you so much for joining us today on our final part of Aiman here,

Amon McGee. We're going to clean him up today, finish him all up, and polish him and shove him out there to the world. So there you go. Clean him up. Clean him up. Fucking. wipe the snot off his face and push him on out. So we got that.

We're going to do a one-off next week episode, and then we're going to start a crazy series on a serial killer. So that'll be a lot of fun too. And lots of fun stuff coming up in the future here for us. Before we get to that, though, definitely head over to shut up and give me murder.com. Get all of your merchandise there. I mean, it's a, they have a really big variety of items.

So anything you want, we got it there. So check that out. Also get your tickets for small town murder. live shows in the fall and winter because they are coming up too and a lot of them are selling out so if you want to go get your tickets right now shut up and give me murder.com also patreon is something you want oh yeah patreon.com slash crime in sports is where you get all the bonus material anybody five dollars a month or above you're going to get a shitload of content you're going to have hundreds and hundreds of bonus episodes immediately upon subscription that you'll get

to binge on and then you get new ones every other week one crime in sports one small town murder and you get it all everybody so it's a lot of fun this week you're gonna want to sign up for this week because we're going to talk about the liver king yeah that jackass yeah we'll talk about the documentary and other stuff do not on the documentary and just rarely is someone this big of a douchebag and i i really he is wow he's something special yeah well he's a wrestling character that's all he is and it's very silly we'll talk all about that so that's patreon dot com slash crime in sports and you're going to get a shout out at the end of the show too. Absolutely.

Jimmy will go ahead and fuck your name up for you. So that's no problem there. And quickly, quickly before we start, because this is the first crime in sports we've done on our new network here. We've moved networks. So if you went, oh, it's not on Wondery anymore and I can't get the Wondry Plus and the whatever.

We're not on Wondry anymore. We moved along. No reason except just, you know, you move along different business opportunities and that's how it works. So we're moving along. So there will be no more early access. all the episodes will come out at the same time. Everybody gets them at the same time.

And honestly, we like it that way because it's, it's just better for people to be able to talk about it. We had people fighting in groups like Facebook groups about, you know, that's a spoiler. Well, who knows? You should get the early release and what the hell is wrong when they would argue about it. It's like, let's just everybody get it at the same time. So it's much nicer that way. And we are working this to build a community. Now we have it and we ruined it.

Yeah, it was split it up with. the early release, we didn't like it at all. So we're happy to be back all at once. And we are working on an ad-free option. So give us some time. We're working on it. And we're going to come up with something to be able to get ad-free content here for the easiest and, you know, most affordable way possible. So we're working on doing that. That said, let us get right into it here with part five of Aman. Wow. Amen McGee. And Jesus, he has been an adventure to this guy. Just a mess. I mean, from the start, from the very beginning, he's born into chaos and his dad's chaotic and his family and the army and the IRA and it's been so much. And then him with his drugs and his fighting and drinking and I've never heard of a boxer like drinking during training and then smoking before a fight.

Even in the 50s, the guys be like, yeah, I'm not going to smoke right before the fight. Not right now. After the fight, I'll have a smoke. Sure. Yeah, beforehand, Jesus Christ. So we'll dive right into here and do this. We'll talk about a guy named Joe Clark with an E. Clark with an E here.

By the way, when we left off, Amon just had a fight against Jimmy Bad Boy, Vincent. And he won in a unanimous decision. That was our last thing that happened. Now, Joe Clark will figure out where he fits into the story here. A little something from the book about Joe Clark here. When Joseph Clark was 19 years old, British paratroopers forcibly removed him

from his parents West Belfast home. It was just before dawn on August 9th, 1971. Operation Demetrius was the name of the deal here. And he was told they had him, you know,

tied up and, you know, everything and handcuffed behind the back and all that kind of shit. And they said, if you try to escape, you'll be shot dead. Okay, that's quite the threat. Yeah.

So he was driven to a barracks in North Belfast where he was beaten and interrogated. Fantastic. Yeah, that's nice. At one point, they put a black heavy hood over his head and shoulders, and they put him in a helicopter. And he said, well, he said he felt it rise before an English voice asked him if he'd ever seen the footage of U.S. Marines pushing Vietnamese prisoners out of choppers flying over to the South China Sea. Oh So then he was shoved in the back and started to fall But

They said seconds later All the soldiers were laughing and they hauled him into the helicopter Basically they hovered like Four feet off the ground and shoved him out Why? To make him to scare him To let him know they were serious That's quite the prank right there

I would say That's pretty fucked up Yeah that's messed up So they flew to an a military base and he was stripped, numbered and dressed in a, you know, like a jumpsuit here

and put it, they put another hood on him and they put him into another room that had a really high-pitched loud noise going on the whole time. What the hell? There they put him in stress positions for hours and beat him when he would fall because you know you can only hold yourself in stress positions

for so long, which is the point of that. It's called torture, really is what that is. You know, it's like, shit the CIA does in Turkmenistan when they fucking pull somebody out. They take them to a black sight and do this type of shit. So at intervals, the hood was removed and he'd be

tied to a chair and interrogated. But you couldn't even see the interrogators. They would be hidden behind blinding lights. Which is really a terrible way to interrogate because every, like people think that you go in there and if you just show them you mean

business and beat them a little, they'll tell you what you want. But every actual interrogator, goes, yeah, they'll tell you shit that isn't true. That's the problem. They'll tell you anything. You know what I mean? Remember in reservoir dogs when Chris Penn walks in? He goes, he'll tell you he started the fucking Chicago fire.

If you beat him enough, what the fuck are you doing? That's the fact. Like the real actual way, and this isn't like some, you know, pussy hippie thing. This is Army interrogators say the best way to get someone to confess is to form a relationship with them. Get them to trust you. get them to look at you as a lifeline and the only way out of the situation and all that. That's how they talk to you. Not scaring the shit out of them.

That's not helpful at all. But I don't know why. People don't like that. In the 2000s when all that torture stuff was happening and politically people were like wanting torture and all the people that actually do the interrogating were like, we don't want to torture them. It doesn't work. So you don't need to do that. And they're like, no, no, no, we're going to waterboard people. Just that's what the public wants.

But they want them to suffer those. again but that's not how you get information from people take it easy ajax yeah what the fuck are you doing so anyway they would um they would uh you know after that they they would deterragate him and then they would give him he wouldn't say shit so they put him the hood back on and put him into what they called the music room and that was the loud high-pitched noise um they did they did this for over a week they gave him dry bread water and one bowl of cold watery stew yeah yeah that sounds fun. He wasn't allowed to sleep unless he'd been beaten unconscious.

Right. Which, I mean, at that point, you know, you're allowed, I guess. Yeah. It's like everything my grandfather used to threaten. Yeah, but they're doing it. You don't fall asleep. I'll come in there and put you to sleep. I'll put you to sleep.

Oh, geez. Don't give me something to cry about, too. Fuck. Whatever you're lacking, they'd offer to fill it in for you. Whatever they feel you're lacking. I'll give you something to cry about. I'll put you to sleep. Yeah, that's what old people used to do.

Just threaten us to what shit that we needed. Complain about your food. Now you're going hungry. Oh, man. So he would hallucinate this guy. And because he was lack of sleep and torture and lack of food and everything. He believed at one point he was the bodyguard. We're talking Clark here.

The guy in captivity was the bodyguard of the British politician James Calligan. and when not hallucinating, he figured he would die soon and everything like that. And, you know, he said, oh, they're definitely going to kill me. This is crazy. Then one morning, he was dragged back to the helicopter, flown to North Belfast, where he was taken to the internment camp there and thrown in with a lot of IRA guys, basically. A bunch of people held without charges that were vaguely associated with the IRA, in their opinion. In the couple of years, he was interned.

there so they put him there for years he that's when i believe he met terence mcgee who is obviously doc amon's father so um but didn't know him or anything like that so uh he met a guy named jerry adams who's a giant guy really big guy and basically he would be his who's the other guy and there's lennie and the other one who's the other one that gary sinise played in the movie I don't know his name You know what I'm saying That's that's yeah That's kind of what he became to this Clark

Clark became to this big guy His his Gary Senise For lack of a better term God damn why can't remember that We all got forced to read that goddamn book Yeah we all know Lenny We all had to ever Yeah

You know Lenny is a term It's a verb you lennyed that thing You know You used your fucking dumb strength On something overblown So anyway, yeah, this is how this is all going. He's stuck in here. And he remained close to all of this and they got released finally. Then he was shot in the side by an official

with the IRA in 1975 and his brother was murdered by loyalist paramilitaries in 1992. So, yeah, this Clark guys had a lot going on here. So, I'll read from the book, they say, Clark and 13 other men who suffered a similar fate at the hands of the British forces in the early 70s have been fighting for justice for 45 long years. Initial government denials and inquiry whitewashes gave way to hushed compensation packages, but financial reparation was never the goal of the 14 hooded men, in quotes. What they wanted was a declaration from the British government that their predecessors had used torture in their interrogation methods in Northern Ireland. and a promise that they would never do it again. So the Irish government took up the case in 1976. The European Commission of Human Rights concluded that the interrogation techniques were used were a modern system of torture, in quotes.

So this ruling was undermined a couple years later when the European Court of Human Rights downgraded the ordeal to human and inhuman and degradating treatment. I mean, that sounds like torture, honestly. if they beat you unconscious and sleep deprivation. Degrading is one thing, but that's just torture. Yeah. That did not necessarily amount to torture, said in the ruling. It was an unfortunate ruling that the Bush administration would later exploit to defend waterboarding. And Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo shit that went on.

That was actually one of their legal to the international community. That was one of their legal precedents was, well, they said that was fine. So why can't we do that? Why can't we do stress positions and all that kind of shit? So they said the 14 hooded men have never given up. Today, boosted by fresh evidence that emerged in 2013 with famed human rights lawyer Amal Clooney. We know who she is. George's wife there agreeing to handle the case.

The 10 survivors have renewed hope that they will live to hear the British government tell the truth. Okay, a little more. 2013 was a special year for Joe Clark for another totally unrelated reason. At the end of 2012, he bought a Euro-1stern. millions lottery ticket in West Belfast at a gas station near his car mechanics garage that he owns and when he returned

to check the numbers the following week he's told he won a share of the jackpot hell yeah he won over 10 million pounds that's a lot right the fuck load of money 10 million dollars is it's a lot of money 10 million pounds yeah 10 million pounds they want a fuck load of money that's us right that's 10 million dollars right 10 million dollars yeah not us but American

money That's what I mean. It's like the same as us with the pound, right? Oh, yeah, almost. Yeah, it was similar. It fluctuates. I was like, who the fuck gave us $10 million? Yeah. Us. I was like, Jimmy, what have you not told me? Are they giving? What's going on here? It's the same as us, right? We go 50-50, I thought. What are we doing here? What's happening?

They told me 10 million. They didn't tell you that. Oh, man. Wow. We got to talk to the agent there. That's fucked up. There's going to be phone calls made. We are going to make some. phone calls over this, man. Well-wishers swiftly clamored to congratulate him on his deserved good fortune.

He was well liked in the community and known for charity work that included adopting several impoverished children from orphanages in Belarus. He's doing what? He's into charity, so he adopts poor kids from orphanages in Belarus,

which is a shithole former Soviet country. But they're probably cheaper kids than whatever's around. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's got to be much cheaper to feed down. It's like growing a turnip. It's just low and slow and you really don't need much.

You know what I mean? They don't even need money like nutrients in the soil. It just come right up basically. Yeah, he's getting, so the guy was like a nice guy, the type of guy who usually doesn't win the lottery. You know what I mean? Sure. They said it could not have happened to a nicer bloke was the general consensus.

There was only one dissenting voice in the crowd, that of an ex-neighbor. Oh, what'd they say. Quote, Joe Clark is nothing but a coward and a scumbag. You know who's screaming that? Who's that? Amen. Amen, of course.

Of course it's our guy. Are you kidding me? Yeah, he doesn't like it. This guy, this poor bastard was tortured. Yeah. Fucking fought for years, got fucked over by international courts. He's a mechanic that does charity work and adopts impoverished kids and finally gets something decent to happen in his life.

And he's like, hey, you're a scumbag, aren't you? fucking, what the fuck. Couldn't be a less deserving person. Wow. Is there, well, I mean, I was always wondering, like, have we found a bigger Irish asshole than Connor McGregor? Is this possible? Not, yeah.

But I like Amon more. I don't think so. Yeah. I don't like, I kind of do. Yeah, he's crazy as fuck. But, like, if you said, oh, man, if you said, who would you rather give 10 million pounds to Aiman or Connor McGregor? It would certainly be Aiman.

You know what I mean? Because he's going to have fun with him. Yeah, Connor would just give it to people in legal battles. Yeah, he just buy weird suits. Yeah. And hire lawyers for sexual assault cases. Yeah. Beat up fucking NBA mascots or something.

So March 2nd, 2004, this is where this all stems from. McGee saying he's a coward and all this type of shit. This is from, yeah, March 2nd, 2004. McGee attacked by gang is the headline in the newspaper. Yeah. World Boxing Union welterweight champion Eman McGee's career is in doubt after having his leg broken in a brutal gang beating. Oh, no. And this is when he's finally making money as a boxer, too.

So this is a lot of shit here. The 32-year-old Ulsterman was taken to the hospital with a compound fractured after being dragged, compound fractures after being dragged from his car and attacked in Belfast. Wow. Promoter Frank Warren had expected to clinch a deal this week for McGee to take up. on former WBA champ Sharma Mitchell. McGee underwent surgery yesterday and is expected to have another operation tomorrow. Wow. Jesus.

His coach, John Breen, said it's a sickening blow for Amon. Now you wonder just what the future will hold. So, this is in Lagmoredale is the neighborhood. It's described here in the book as a small and quiet cul-de-sac. The type of street where parents have no fears about letting their kids play. out front unsupervised. There were several families living there back in 2004 when this happened, all with children around the same age, and they all talked and everybody.

It's like a, like a cul-de-sac where they had like barbecues and shit, you know what I mean? The suburbs. Yeah, that's exactly what it sounds like. Through the kids, the adults became friendly, and soon they all were getting together and hanging out, and I'm sure getting hammered or whatever the fuck they do over there. So one summer's day a barbecue was in full swing. when nine-year-old Amon Jr. showed up in tears. Okay.

He'd been fighting with Joe Clark's son. And Joe Clark came out to break it up and allegedly threatened to hit Aman Jr. Okay. So, Amon Sr., obviously not having this shit. We can fight. I hit my own kid, not you. I drunkenly beat my kids, not you. Yeah.

Yeah, that's how this works. So Aiman went in search of Joe. he found him and threatened him. And I guess he didn't feel like Joe was fully chastened by this threat. So he punched him and knocked him to the ground with a punch. And Joe's like 50 years old at this point. It's not really a, you know, and this guy's a professional fighter. So he said it was always a massive risk to use fists on anyone who had friends in the IRA.

But time passed and nothing more transpired between Eamon and Joe. then 18 months later During the winter Amon still buzzing from a party The night before spoke on the phone to his mother Who had returned to live in Belfast by now Isabel marveled that due to the shade Her house threw over the Holmden Gardens

Her front was icy white While across the street was clear and bathed in sunshine Meanwhile In Lagmore the neighborhood kids were busy making the most Of the cold snap to build snowmen And you know kids shit throwing snowballs and all that kind of crap. A couple of direct hits soon soured the mood and before

long there was only piles of slushy remains where you know they used to have snowmen there started to melt. The Clark kids felt they were the main victims in the snowy war and apportioned the blame to 12 year old. How the hell do you say that? How do we decide that you say

A-I-N-E-E-I-N? Did we pronounce? Did we agree? I don't know. I thought we did. I thought we decided something. A-N-E-E-N? I'm going to call him Ein. Ian McGee. So, Eyn believes that Joe Clark and his wife never liked her.

That's the daughter, by the way, or Anne, Ann, Ann, we'll call her Ann. Because they thought she delighted in antagonizing their children. When Big Joe's daughters told them about their wrecked snowman, he marched to the McGee door to fucking yell at Mary, Eamon's wife, about the kids' behavior. year. He expected and to be punished and seeking to appease Clark and get him off the doorstep, Mary assured him that, yes, I'll punish her. That's not nice. And I'll tell her to be nicer to the kids in the neighborhood. But Amon was informed that his daughter was sent to a room, was informed. And he sent the kid to the room. Gave her a slap, of course. You know, you got to hit your daughter, obviously. You want to hit your daughter because you really want to condition them to that's what to accept from men.

That's what you want. Guys, never hit your daughters. Whatever you do, like this is one of those things that drives me nuts. Hummel your son. Your son, yeah, the most he'll do is kill 12 people. That'll happen maybe. Or he might just, you know, turn it in on himself.

But if you, whatever you do to your daughter, that's what she'll seek out later. She's looking for it. Until she gets a bunch of therapy. That's what's going to happen. Literally, you want to beat her. You want to fucking dittle her. Guess what? You are setting her up for that forever.

Enjoy you fucking. I hate when people do that. They have no thought process of like, this won't have any consequences, I'm sure. I'm sure, you know, fucking stupid. That's me conditioning her to be a strong woman. Yeah, strong woman who can take a smack and fucking go make dinner. Like, that's crazy. What a, wow.

They said the fact that Clark had come accusing only Ann and none of the other kids who were just as guilty pissed Mary off, though. finally she said fuck this and mary decided to walk over to clarks to have it out with him he's going to fight with him mary argued with him but felt like she was shouted down and made to feel small now meanwhile amen had gone up to his daughter's room to check on her and she said it wasn't just me daddy so you know she's pleading with it wasn't just me it was everybody so anyway uh well this is going on mary gets home crying sobbing about being insulted by Clark over there. So now Aman's got a crying wife who's complaining with this guy's being mean to the kids and being mean to her and insulting his wife.

And then he's got a crying daughter saying all this isn't. So you got a guy with a hair trigger anyway. This is not good, obviously. We got some confrontation that's about to happen here. So Aiman here storms over to the Clark House. So from the book, they say more than a decade later, memories of the. next three minutes are hazy. But Francis, who came along with Aymann,

recalls Clark clearly anticipating a reaction after the words with Mary and standing in his doorway. When Joe's hand appeared to move toward Francis, the expected response duly arrived. Before he had a chance to react, Amon delivered a headbutt, which left Joe sitting in the snow with blood running from his mouth,

tonging a loose tooth. He fucking headbutted his mouth and fucking knock the tooth out. Oh. Aiman arrived home, suddenly and terribly sober with a feeling of dread heavy in his stomach. Yeah. He peered out the front window and saw Clark standing in the street on his phone. Mary called a friend also named Joe from a nearby street, and he flew around to collect Aiman. The plan was to drive him over to the relative safety of Isabelle's house, his mom's house, and the Ardoin.

But as they left here, as they're leaving the neighborhood, a car entered. the area to pick up Clark. So Amon said, go for fuck's sake. Let's get out of here. And they left the estate and took a right on Stewardston Road. Then they took the first exit on the Creighton Road and gunned it and hoping to get away here and get on the freeway basically or the highway or whatever the fuck. Motorway over there. So I guess apparently with the Blacks Road motorway junction in sight, the Clark car caught up with them crashed into.

them. Yeah. They're doing car pranks. Oh, boy. Just some car pranks. Some car pranks play with these fellas. They're doing car pranks now. Yeah.

and then the car stopped in front of Aman's car. Now, Clark and the driver emerged out of the fucking vehicle with a pickaxe handle and a baseball bat in their hands. And so McGee is screaming. Fucking put it in reverse. Get the fuck out of here. What are we doing? but the car wouldn't go anywhere because his friend is just sitting there in shock and can't do anything, which is horrible. So basically, they started bashing the car with the bat and the pickax handle

and broke the windows, shattered them. Then they reach inside, got the door open. So Amon, he said he thought he'd be a dead man if he let himself be removed from the car. So he leaned across and held on to the steering wheel. So this is how this goes. So Clark eventually gave up on dragging him out of the car

and instead set to work on kicking legs with the heavy wooden club because Amon's kicking. So he's going to just beat his legs with a club. So basically they were just bashing his legs with a club. From the book it says, each direct hit splattered blood onto the road and admitted a sickening crunch of bursting muscle and fracturing bone. They're blasting his legs.

They're not just invading his legs. No, this isn't, you know, his legs was linguine. Rick James on the couch of shit. This is, this is. They hit him so hard, they explode it. Yeah, if you'd bash somebody's legs as hard as you can with a baseball bat, that's what's going to happen. Yeah. Oh, Jesus.

Heyman convinced he was fighting for his life, didn't feel it. And was only when he looked over. No, adrenaline. He looked back at Clark. He noticed he could see straight through his flesh into his own splintered tibia. Oh, Jesus. Oh, my God. And he said, look what you've done to my leg, you big bastard.

Yeah. It's a mild way to put it. Yeah. He said, Clark must have looked at the gruesome sight. Must have interrupted his blind fury for he immediately ceased the attack and walked back to his car. So at this point, the guy who was driving still just sitting there. and now he says, come on, you fucking bastard.

Close this door and get me to the fucking hospital. My leg is hanging off. So they pull up to the hospital. Amon's mangled leg fucking is hanging limply out the window. Just bones and bloods flying. She's like to be driving behind that.

So they put him into surgery. He had compound fractures of his tibia and fibula and a shattered knee. This whole leg is mangled menstruate. It's so fucked up. We were just talking about a mangled leg. And this is exactly. that's so weird.

Before we went on the air, we were talking about that. That's going on the air like alive. He's about to have a prosthetic. I know a guy. Wow, yeah. There was heavy bruising all over his body, and they also discovered he had a punctured lung. So he must have got his ribs a little, too.

Oh, shit. Yeah, he's just a mess. So the next day, he was transferred to hospitals where specialists took muscle from his calf tissue and from his thigh and grafted it over the gaping hole in the front of his leg. Holy. and the pain he describes it as a searing hot poker

being thrust into his leg only constantly just a cut just put it there in constant over and over yeah they said he hammered the button for more morphine but it wouldn't and nothing could fucking make it stop he said it was so bad so they called in a consultant and they immediately diagnosed it's because he has blood

blood clots now in his leg that's the problem oh shit so now they have to you know, look and do all of this shit and pull blood clots out of them. They were trying to pull them out. It's crazy shit. So the next day, Amon asked the surgeon, what are his chances of ever fighting again? And the doctor said, Amen, I'm sorry, but I guarantee you that you'll never box again. The fight now is for your life.

For your life and possibly to walk, you know. Yeah. He said, Amon's head dropped. And the guy said, and I have to warn you, Amon, you may not even walk again. Yeah. So, you know, fighting is silly. We'll talk about that later. So for the first time in his life, he openly wept publicly.

Amon's a big crier. No. And yeah, he told reporters that, you know, they told me I can't do it anymore and I might not ever walk again. And when Callahan and Breen, his trainers there, visited, they found him agitated and just, you know, not in a good state, basically. and Amon said Joe Clark's going to fucking kill me. He told he whispered to them. He said, by the way, just so you know. And the one guy, one of his trainers, said, no, he's not, Aeman.

I'll speak to Joe Clark. Breen knew Clark personally. And to this day, much to Amon's chagrin, he describes him as a big gentleman. He spoke to Joe and managed to negotiate a truce. If the two men stayed out of each other's way, then that would be the end of it, basically. There won't be any further retribuneration. attribution for whatever the fuck happened. Now, they said John was barely through the door in the hospital the following day when

Aeman asked him if he had spoke to Clark. He said, I have Aeman. It's all taken care of. Don't worry about any of that. But Aiman kept worrying about it. He thought that maybe Clark would creep into the hospital and get him like, you know, fucking Godfather 1 or something. You know what I mean?

So there, or back to gemstones again, just knees and toes there. We got to worry about it. So he, they know. noticed also, Mary said that they, she noticed a strange blister-like lesions appearing on his hands and feet. And they just, they determined that it was symptoms of stress. Stress. What was symptoms of stress? The, like big lesions, blister lesions on his hands and feet.

His body's just presenting marks in stress. Yeah. So much stress. I guess career's over. He's worried this guy's going to kill him. He's also, I'm sure. The other thing, too, if he. I guarantee you if he hasn't drank or done any drugs since he's been in the hospital.

He's got withdrawals for all that shit, too. I mean, he's an alcoholic and everything else. So after surgery, it was caged in a frame with metal pins driven into place above and below the break. Later, from ankle to hip, the leg was cocooned in a plaster cast. The blood clots were a constant concern. He was in the hospital for over three months. Okay. And they told him that the protective casing must stay in place.

for six months before rehabilitation could begin. Okay. So he tells everybody his career is over. He said, I can guarantee you that my career is over, he told BBC Northern Ireland. Two specialists have told me so. I have not gotten over it. I feel disgusted about what's happened to me. This week was to have been the best of my boxing life.

I was about to sign up to fight Sharma Mitchell at the MEN arena. if I had beaten Mitchell, we were definitely lining up Ricky Hatton, and the winner of that would have become a very wealthy man. Yeah. He said, I want to stay in the fight game, maybe training or management. So he said, I broke both bones of the shin in my left leg. The bone is just lying there by itself with no skin or bone on it. Oh, God.

God, damn. He said they were looking to put me under anesthetic for six hours, but could not because I also have a blood clot on my lung. So they're going to take a different part of muscle out of my right. leg, which means I'll only be under anesthetic for an hour, which is safer. It would be a life or death situation if I went under for six hours. So his coach, John Breen, said, I feel so sorry for him and I just can't take it in. It's hard to believe that he was being set up for some big fights, and now they'll never

happen for him. I don't think we ever saw the very best of Aiman McGee, and now we will never see the best of him in the ring. He was a world-class fighter who feared nobody and could give anyone in the world a fight. It's such a sickening way for his career to end. man that is fucked so so we might all know his name had it not been for yeah an axe handle yeah they said at the end they beat him basically with a bat and a baton up to 20 times each they hit him in the leg so just imagine had to hit him more than that right a few good shots is all it would take man

wow that is fucking crazy uh clark denies that because they then they're going to charge him here yeah um they're going to try to charge clark He denies charges of grievous bodily harm, possession of a weapon, and damage to a car, even though he did it in broad daylight in the middle of the street. Yeah. Okay. So Amon didn't want to leave the hospital because he didn't know where to go. He didn't want to go across right in the same neighborhood as the guy he thinks he's trying to kill him. So he didn't know what to do.

And also life for Mary and the kids in the neighborhood hasn't gotten any easier either. So they had to pass Joe Clark most of the. of the days and act as if nothing happened. Equally intimidating was the approach made by other neighbors when they presented a petition signed by all those in the area who wanted Eamon and his family to pack up and get out. They brought a petition. Hi. Do you bring cookies with that?

Like, do you put the petition like on top of a cookie bag? Hi. Get the fuck out. We've all gotten together and decided we don't want to live around you anymore. So, fuck off. Appreciate it if you left. Yeah. Appreciate it if you take your kids and fuck off.

him while you leave. Yeah, this is good energy to pack with. You look your way out. So while Mary looked in the estate agent windows, Amon took himself off to supplement his painkillers and bloodthening tablets with his own brand of illicit medication. This is, this will be good for his recovery. One night he returned home in such a state of paranoia that he concealed kitchen knives

about his person and gathered his family together to spend the night in a huddle on the living room floor. Wow. That's some Coke behavior. Wow. The specter of a follow-up attack from Clark haunted his sleep and soon decided he couldn't live another day in Lagmore. He spent time with Hamel, with friends in West Belfast, and in London. He also spent time with a woman named Maria McGill. Okay.

Talk about her. They first met at a charity boxing event in the Chester Bar in early 2002. At the height of his fame, he was there to hand out prizes and strike up conversations and bullshit with people, basically. So he did strike up a conversation with Maria. He claimed that he was separated from his wife at the time. So he and Maria left the bar together that night. And then Maria realized that Mary was not,

they weren't separated at all and they lived together and had kids and shit. So by then she was in love with him though. So there you go. It didn't matter. So they snuck around for a year or so. Amon spent shitloads of nights at her home because Mary never knew

where the hell he was anyway and he did all of that it was only when Maria fell pregnant that Eamon actually had to sit his family down and tell them the truth about what's going on I've been having a secret life that you don't know about a war in a fair yeah wow

Mary was devastated obviously but she still loved him anyway this is crazy wow that's too much good Lord so he officially moved in with Maria and her young daughter from a previous relationship. And it was in her home that he took his first steps back into his walking, tried to do all that.

Apparently, they didn't realize all the specialists were, they all said maybe 50, 50 that you walk again. And he was doing it well ahead of schedule of any possibility. So they said there are plenty of happy memories from this time. but the drink and drugs and gambling invariably ensured the good old days were outweighed by the bad. He was a good partner when he wanted to be, but he also was violent. And, you know, there was gaps when he wouldn't show his face for days on end. And Maria knew that he would be back with Mary for a while or maybe some other fucking chick he met.

Who knows? And this is what he did for about 10 years. Really? Yeah, it doesn't care. July 3rd, 2004 here. He's, Jesus Christ, a guy, an interviewer met him in Belfast where he talked about his life and all that kind of thing. That was before all this happened. Two months before he was due to fight Sharma Mitchell, obviously, he's getting getting his legs broken.

He's had a rough go of it, basically. So he said at this point, though, I'm three months ahead of where the doctor thought I would be. the two shin bones are healing. They were broken completely in half. The doctor said my cast would be on my leg for five months, but it was only on for two. The doctor is amazed by my progress. To be honest, I'm amazed as well.

I put my rapid recovery down to being so fit. And that's true. That's whenever there's a professional athlete, you see a football player that'll break their neck. And they give them the prognosis and the, you know, of a normal person. Yeah. You'll never walk again, you'll do that.

But they're not normal people. They're in a different level of fitness and everything else, and their bodies tend to recover very fast, and they do shit that you wouldn't understand. So a professional athlete, I think, is probably, you know, in the top 1% of physicality of people that, for sure, you know. So Barry McGuwen, who is a featherweight champion, said, Aiman was on the fringes of being world class.

McGee is a southpaw. His style is all about slick counter punching. He draws his opponents in and then nails them. He's fast-handed, a sharp but not a devastating puncher, but he's certainly a forceful hitter as he proved against Ricky Hatton. So his trainer said, I would say Eamon McGee is the most gifted Byrish boxer ever. The trouble is Amon never really prepares properly for fights.

The only way you'll ever get him to train properly is to put him in a monastery for eight weeks. Put him with the monks, that'll do it. Yeah, make sure there's... nothing that can change his trajectory in there. Yeah, he said a month before the Hatton fight, I found out he was skipping his road work

and that he was drinking. He's not dedicated. He could have beaten Ricky Hatton, but he just didn't try hard enough. And that's what that other guy, the McGuwen guy says too. He said he's had many good fights in the past, but he just hasn't made it work

in the ones that matter. He didn't go for the kill against Octae Erkel. Remember Cassius he went by? Cassius Erkel, It sounds like a fucking Steve Urkel character. Yeah. He had the one where he played basketball and the one where he was like a ladies man, this is the one where he's a boxer, Cassius Erkel.

Yeah. So he said, I don't think his temperament has done him any favors. He's surly truculent. He's a surly truculent guy. Truculent. But he's a good thinker in the ring. He has a good boxing brain. If he hadn't such a tendency to hold back,

then he might have had more success and important fights. So, yeah, they talk all. about this stuff here. And, yeah, he talks about his, basically his whole history, talking about, you know, getting stabbed near his jugular and all that kind of shit. He says that it's about boxing, quote, it's the only thing that I can make a real living from. And until I got out of here through boxing, I never realized there was a world away from the violence in the street. But let me tell you, boxing is the fucking hardest game in the world and the one with the lowest wages.

It controls your life and the life of your wife and kids, too. They all have to look after you, mood swings and all. When you're trying to make weight before a fight, you're not a happy person. I would say that. Yeah, that's angry. Yeah, you're fucking... Hangary. Hungry, yeah.

Yeah, you're getting punched to the face and you're hungry. That fucking sucks, man. That's interesting. So they talked to Isabel. Isabel said, I've seen the inside... Oh, because they're talking about she attends all of her son's fights. She would always come. She said, I've seen the inside of a lot of toilets at fight venues.

Put it that way. Okay. Because she can't watch him fight. Remember, she goes to the bathroom. But I'm not against boxing. I encourage my boys to box to go to the gym because I wanted to keep them off the streets and out of trouble. Sure. So they run into another guy here as they're talking to McGee.

And he says McGee sees one of his old school friends. Paul Savate, who runs his own barber shop. And inside the shop are photographs of McGee on the wall. And everybody seems to know McGee. And they talk about how he's a local hero and all that kind of shit, basically. And they said, well, one of the guys there said, well, Amy and McGee fight again. It's very sad what happened to him.

The unfortunate thing is on the wrong side of 30 now. Time is not on his side. Yeah. McGee says it would kill me if I didn't come back. now he's thinking about coming back. He needs to. Yeah, he said, I'd fight anyone. I mean anyone just to get back in the ring.

Wow. Whoever wants it. Let's go. Let's go. I'm not going to let what happened to me stop me from boxing again. I love the fight game and I think this is the first time I can ever say that I've missed training in my life. I'm not going to end up in a mental hospital as so many fighters have done. Okay.

He said as I leave him, standing up at the. bar watched by his minder James. He says with a note of defiance, other people couldn't handle it the way I have. They'd just crawl up in a corner and die. I'm not going to. I'm going to get back in the ring, show them what I can do, that I can win again. Wow. Okay.

Then December 22nd, 2004, he apparently gets the all clear to fight again. So it went from you'll never fight again to give a year. Never walk again. Never walk again. To see you in the ring. That is. Crazy. Wow. So yeah, that's what he's going to do. So they said they've issued the final, the British Board of Control, boxing board of control, has issued a final medical clean bill of health for McGee to resume his ring career. Wow. That's crazy. He says as far as Neil Sinclair, who's a guy who wants to fight, is concerned. I met him last week and he tells me he'll be back in the gym very soon. Neil is apparently ticking over with some training in the Monkstown Club gym until he proved. He's

to me he's keen to get back into the ring again. We cannot set up the Commonwealth fight against the new champion from Nigeria. Sure. So 2005 here comes along and he's ready to fight again. Everyone's calling him the Miracle Man now. He went from the Terminator to the Miracle Man. Yeah, right, yeah. Which is pretty fucking amazing.

Not bad. He started pushing for a return. So they gathered several independent medical opinions and knock slap the Miracle Man label on him and said you're going to be fine. fine. So yeah, his trainers urged their fighter to take on a 10-round walk in the park to test the water, but he said, fuck that. I want to get right back into this shit. Sure? Yeah, set up a tomato can first to make sure.

Remember when Tyson got out of prison? He fought McNeely first. He didn't go right to Holyfield. You fight some, you know, some Irish guy. He can knock out quick. He beat up an Irishman who thinks he can rhyme. Oh, God, Jesus Christ. If you watch. His bones are amazing. Oh, they were fun. You should watch that fight, by the way, if you haven't seen it. It's like 40 seconds long. It's not a long fight.

But the guy, he comes out, like, somehow he, like, erased all fear from him. And he said, I'm going to go out there and exchange punches. One of us is getting knocked out. Peter did. Peter did. No. Tyson fought his normal fight, but Peter ran up to him and tried to exchange with him, which is the exact wrong thing to do. I mean, it probably surprised him for.

He tried to run up and sucker him. Like how you'd expect somebody would have to fight Tyson in public. Like just run up and suck him and run away. The chair. He tried to do that but then stand there. And to his credit, it probably surprised Tyson for about a second and a half. And then he was like, awesome. I don't have to chase this guy.

I'll just pummel him since he's in front of me. He's going to come to me. Oh, and he's way less of a good fighter than I am. Oh, and he can't take a bunch. Yeah. Holy shit. I don't I wonder if Peter McNeely is okay today It's been a long time

I wonder if he's healed I don't think he ever was he was always a little And he got to do stuffed crust pizza commercials Remember where it hit him in the face And he'd fall down So Fucking At the

Am was it was it was it I think it was Little Caesars I think it was Caesar pizza pizza I thought it was stuffed crust pizza Yeah but I think it was I think it was little Caesar stuff crust Didn't they? I think it was Pizza Hut

I'm not sure He was. Or was it the Bigfoot pizza? Look it up. Look it on. He spun it. It hit him in the jaw and he went down. He went down. Yeah. It had to be stuffed crust because that's why he spun it was to eat the crust first. Yeah. It hit him in the face. It has to be. Yeah.

So Amon basically, he's still a champ. That's the thing. He still has the belt. But now they tell him he has to defend it by March or lose it. He was planning on surrendering it anyway. But now he's like, fuck that. Let's fight by March. But he needs to fight a ranked opponent to satisfy. what you need to do, what, you know, defending your championship, quote, unquote, is actually here. So they nominated Alan Vester, who is an ex-IBM intercontinental champion and world title challenger here. So he's set for an amazing return. All of the newspapers have all these headlines.

The Miracle Man, he's set for everything. And, oh, my God, McGee said, the doctors told me I wouldn't be boxing again. And at first, I didn't think I'd get off the crutches. I couldn't even, I could not even get out of bed for five. weeks so I got so much support I became determined to prove everybody wrong. Oh man so here he is. He said my doctors

have done an amazing job so much that I no longer even feel pain. Is that right? Wow. Now I just want to fight on for as long as I'm able to because I've been boxing since the age of five and it's the only thing I know. So he's ready to go here and let's see here. March 13th

he makes his final steps in an amazing comeback. This article says. They talk all about this. And March 18th, 2005 versus Alan Vester. He's hit by a truck and dies. Wouldn't that be a terrible ending if he just got hit by a truck out of nowhere and died?

The truck didn't hit him on purpose. It wasn't an old beef or anything. Just some guy wasn't looking and was texting on his phone. And Aiman was looking the other direction and he got it by a truck. No way. This guy's going to be like, you know, blown up by a revolutionary or something. It's the only way for him to go out is if he needs to be exploited. when he goes because nothing else will kill him.

So he fights Alan Vester. He's 25, 5, and 1 coming into this fight here, Alan is. And this is a, he's a contender. Right. A former champion. And this is a 12 round title fight. That's his first fight back. And this is interesting here.

So he said from, this is from the book, from his sock, he pulled out a betting slip on which he had wagered 100 pounds on himself to stop Vestor. in the third rounds, in the third round at odds of 12 to 1. Awesome. Okay. He spied Eubank at ringside, upright and applauding heartily. Amon dived between the ropes as Eubank warned him to take care with his new three-piece tailor-made suit. McGee grabbed the ex-super middleweight king in a bear hug and held on tight until the

Savile Row fabric had absorbed at least a pint of his sweat. Whoa. So this fight, by the way, so Amon bet on himself, a hundred-pand. for a third round knockout. Third round TKO for Amy. Oh, boy. He said, third round's a good time to do this since I bet on it or not.

Boxers are allowed to bet on themselves, too. That's the weird part. It's not like baseball or football. Think of that specific like that? They can bet on themselves all they want. Fuck. Yeah, Floyd Mayweather did it all the time. Betting specifically on himself.

Yeah. I don't know what it is. I guess it's, as long as you don't bet on yourself to lose. Yeah, I guess. But betting on yourself. in specific round is that's crazy that's that's uh that seems a little weird right legal yeah i don't know man that is crazy um so amen was calm and measured as he sat on the ring amp apron and answered questions he dedicated the victory to all the doctors and nurses who had treated his leg yeah which he should

he owes those motherfuckers here and promised that he had much more left in the tank before he's ready to retire for real and he said i just can't walk away from a game i love so much sure But then for the rest of 2005, he doesn't really, doesn't fight anymore. Okay. They talk about, there was fights being talked about with three different guys that never really materialized. And finally, in October, a deal was agreed to to fight, wow, Mirdud Takaloo. How the fuck do you say? M-E-H-R-D-D-U-D-D-R-D-D-U-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-R-D-U-D-T-A.

Meredud Takaloo in London. But a month later, Amon demanded more money and the bout was scrapped. So, okay. It's weird here. He's got a fight, by the way,

here, and we'll talk about this. Outside the ring, McGee continued to live life hard, seemingly content on confirming people's worst expectations of him. Rather than seeing this as like a new, you know, basically he could have died and he could have done.

not been able to walk again and he could have not been able to have a career again. And instead he's so lucky and he's not he's not taking this as I should, you know. There's like a sign of like a sign of I should chill the fuck out. No, no, no, no. During a week long or during a long weekend in Costa del Sol, I think that's Spain, he and his mates were tossed out of four hotels and as many nights. Wow. In a, wow, in one, a departing group of English lads gifted them a bundle of fake 50 pound notes. that soon led to the local police ransacking their rooms and dragging a couple of the party to the station for questioning.

They're using counterfeit money. That's not good. On their 50 euro notes, sorry. On their final night, Amon found time to reacquaint himself with the Spanish taxi drivers, with whom he's always enjoyed a hate-hate relationship with. Remember, we've talked about that. When one mistook McGee for a harmless drunken fool and attempted to overcharge him by about 30 euro, then pulled a telescopic baton from his glove compartment in anticipation of battle.

Amon had his first fight since Vester, and this one certainly didn't go three rounds. The cobblestones were still splattered with dark blood stains when he passed the spot the next day on the way to the airport. He beat the living shit out of a Spanish taxi driver. Yeah, that's not going to help you, a baton against a professional fighter. So 2006, he starts here. Amen's public persona is still what it always was at this point. He's the miracle man, but he's quickly kind of, they're going, oh, he's still a jerk off, though. You know what I mean?

One of those deals here. So they basically, the McGee's story, the telegraph, the newspaper, was moved to create a new honor. And they called Amon on stage to present him with a special achievement award in recognition of the heart and mental fortitude. He displayed to come back from life-threatening injuries. and retain his world title. It is impressive. It is, yeah. Especially if he's not even like, you know,

doing all the things he needs to for his health. Sure. They said, as the great and good of Northern Irish life rose to applaud him, he semi-consciously lifted his trophy and felt as proud as he ever had when a new belt was placed around his waist in the ring, just as proud. So Amon behaved himself that night, but it sparked a month of partying from which he was never sober, basically. just a month of Chris Farley living, like crazy shit.

So his fourth child and his first with Maria arrived during this period, and Amon stumbled into the hospital and attempted to pour a tin of cider over the newborn to wet his head. Uh-huh. He's going to christen him with booze. Yeah, he's going to bless this child with cider. Ah, you're officially a drunk now. There you go. All right.

You're Irish. You're Irish. It's in your head. heritage son, lad. So, oh my God. They said Maria here during this, Maria blocked his path and then didn't see him again for a week. So he came to pour booze on his head.

Maria said no, and then he didn't show up again for a week. Fine. Fuck you. Wow. And then he came home and picked up one of the congratulatory cards on the mantelpiece, looked at it, read it, and looked at her and said, so you called him Ethan then, I see. Yeah. He just found out what his son's name was a week later.

What the fuck? You poured booze on him. You didn't even know what it is? No. He's got to christen him something. She said, yeah, well, you weren't here and I had to put something down for the birth certificate. And he said, I told you I wanted to call him Marvin after Hagler. Oh, wow, really?

Yeah, he's a great fighter. Yeah, he's going to name his kid. That's nice. Marvin's not a great name, but Hagler's an amazing fighter. One of my top three all-time favorite. Name him Hagler. That's a cool name. Yeah, who knows?

People just say it's Irish. People go, oh, okay. They don't know. A little later, Maria did go back and amend the record so that her son's official full name is Ethan, Ethan Peter, Marvin McGill. What the hell? Stuck a Marvin in there. Okay. March 2006, a criminal assault trial born from the whole Clark situation here throughout his own case,

Clark's defense counsel had focused on the fact that Amon had thrown the first physical blow in the confrontation. Their goal was to turn the tables and present Clark as the victim and McGee is the attacker. Well, when you crash into a car to get it to stop to beat someone with weapons, you can't really say that that was a part of an ongoing. Yeah, that's not, that doesn't work. It's kind of assault no matter how you shake it. Yeah, Clark has had already pleaded guilty to inflicting grievous bodily harm, possessing a weapon and criminal damage to his car, and received a suspended three-year sentence for it. Now, Amon had to answer before the court on charges of his own.

The uncertainty provoked sleepless nights in which Amon was tormented by visions of jail time and the end of his career. So it was a huge relief when he was cleared of all the charges against him and declared free to continue the rebuilding process. The next day, he signed a contract to fight Takaloo in May. Okay. Okay, here we go. This is kind of how it starts to slide away here now. They said from the book, it was a decent run of positives by McGee standards,

and Breen, his trainer or manager or whatever he is, hoped Amon would enter the gym in a frame of mind to conducive to working to squeeze every last drop of potential out of him since he's getting older now. He needs to train harder. The Iranian-born Tackaloo was a decent operator. He'd beaten Jim Rock, dropped a decision to Daniel Santos for the WBO Super Welterweight Crown crown and twice won the WBU title.

But he lost that WBU crown when Wayne Alexander knocked him out inside of five minutes, and McGee had subsequently sparred enough rounds of Alexander and Breen's gym to slip into a false sense of security that he could whoop this guy's ass because he beats up the guy who beat him up. That doomed mindset was compounded by the fact that Amon's heart just wasn't in it, really. he'd say it was but he just knew that you know he just didn't care anymore about boxing um he was pushing 35 he's fought three rounds in two and a half years right that's all he's done and uh yep he said so that you know he's running on fumes basically so uh they said fitness sharpness conditioning weight everything suffered as a consequence after an open training session he was asked to pose in the

ring for a photographer with sweat dripping off him he stared into the long lens and waited for the flash. The next thing he remembers was rolling out under the bottom rope and wavering dizzily across the gym floor. The photographer said, Amon, are you okay? He said,

yeah, of course I am. What do you mean? They said, you just collapsed. Yeah. You just fell down when I took the photo. And he said that he has no memory of that.

He doesn't know what you're talking about. Uh-oh. Yeah. He said, No, he said, I've never felt better. That's what he said.

What the hell is that about? Yeah, he is very fucking, very strange. So, real weird. He said it basically translates to, okay, yeah, get out of here. As he said, I've never felt better. They're saying basically that means, ah, fuck off. Yeah. So anyway, he said he knew he wasn't right though, and he knew the photographer wasn't making up the stories,

but he had to keep going and just whatever. So May 20th, 2006, he fights Takaloo, the Margade Rock, is his nickname. name. Sure. Wow. His birth name is Meredud Tackalo B-H-G-G-G-G-H-H-H-I. Don't know. Yikes.

Holy shit. He's 24 and 5 coming into this fight anyway. And here he is. He looks very happy for a boxer. Look at him. Very smiley. Yeah. He's sweaty and everything.

Yeah. Very wet and happy. happy. No shit. So anyway, during this fight, by the halfway point, McGee is already behind and breathing hard and not doing well. He argued with his trainer in his corner. He told him, I'm up four rounds. I'm good. The trainer said, no, you look like shit. And you need to fucking do something here. You know what I mean? You're losing. Yeah. He said the other guy is doing more, basically. That's the way it is. So only in the championship rounds did any action worthy of a championship fight break out.

But for McGee, at least, it was too little too late. So they said the ignominious display demanded the derision it received when all involved were put out of their misery. The first judge, or the first ringside judge scored at a draw. The second had Takaloo the winner by two points. And the third here gave the fight to Takaloo. by four points. So split decision. Right.

And Eamon loses. Loses, yeah. So now he's 26 and 5. Oh, boy. So, yeah. He, in the press, he said that I was the champ and I thought I did enough to keep my title on a decision. Right.

He said that the challenger didn't do enough to take it away for me, but he's obviously embarrassed. Sure. He just lost and talked all sorts of shit and everything else. They said, as he spoke, the reporters could smell the drink on his breath and see the remnants of the previous night's cocaine in his bloodshot eyes. Oh, boy. And yet the old

routine predictably and depressingly worked. Within months of the within months, the BBBOC, of C, that's the boxing commission of Britain there, had installed him as the mandatory challenger to the British welterweight champion, Kevin Anderson. While he waited

for the contracts to be signed for that one, he fought on a meaningless six rounder here in a hotel in letter, Kenny. Okay. Canada? Yeah, this is Ireland.

Oh, no, that's in Ireland, yeah. Yeah, yeah, I think they named. That one's named after that one. Yeah, right. Probably so. He fights Yanos Petrovich, Petrovix, who's nine and four coming into this fight. He will finish up his career 25, 94, and 2.

Whoa. Yeah. He's going to, after this fight, he'll lose 90 fights from before this fight. Why do you do this, man? Holy shit, man. I would love to know that. Just what makes you keep going. Not a lot of people show up to see this.

It's at some shitty hotel. The book says, Few were there to see it, and even fewer cheered when he left the ring a points victor over Yannos. It's a six-round fight. He wins on points. Shit.

As an indication of the standard of tests the Hungarian provided, Petrovix would go on to lose 85 times, which is not, he came back in Las 9. 21 by knockout in his journeyman career. Even so, that was apparently enough preparation to propel Aeman into a class with Anderson, a fresh champion who's 12 years younger than him. 27 and 5 he is now.

May 11, 2007, Kevin Anderson, who's 18 and 1 coming into this fight. He'll finish at 20 and 3. Okay. When he's 18 and 1, I doubt he thinks he's only going to fight 23 fights. You know what I mean? Something's wrong, yeah. Yeah. This fight here

It said it was Anderson's peak of his career basically and Amon is on the downside of it Obviously, so for sure yeah, yeah, so this fight is going to go all 12 rounds and this is a unanimous decision loss for Amen. Okay, and it's not even close the judges have it 117, 111, 111, 111, 111, 111, 111, 111. That's bad. Yeah, they mostly won three rounds. So a beating. They said the fight was what it was, a decent domestic scrap.

That doesn't sound good. Nope. No. That's interesting here. So as the young champs early vigor wane, the wise and challengers' greater ring prowess began to reap some reward. An argument could be made for aim and winning any or all of the round seven through 10, with the ninth in particular standing out as one final shining beacon of the extreme. Avvagant gifts God had seen fit to bless him with.

Problem is he's getting old. So as he sees the upper, yeah, as he sees the upper hand, there was a distinct lack of conviction in both his demeanor and gait. McGee was always a relaxed warrior, but as he sat slumped in his stool between rounds, there was an indifference in his expression that betrayed the futility he now saw in the savage show, which he was playing a leading role. He bickered with John when he was told to get on his front foot and win it. Amon said back Sure he hasn't laid a fucking glove on me for about five rounds She's like I'm winning what are you talking about? They're like no you need to go do shit

It's the same thing every time So he said fuck it He thought and went recklessly toe to toe in the 11th And yeah he It didn't quite work out now No no no it was just it was a decision in the end But yeah So you know

They said that with 45 seconds left in the final round. He set himself to throw a heavy right hook but was thumped mid-execution by that same punch coming in the opposite direction. In his 200th professional round, something other than the souls of Amen McGee's boots touched the canvas for the very first time. So he finally got knocked down once. Embarrassed, he sat there for a moment, a moment, then applauded and smiled.

He was genuinely, it was genuinely a sad smile in which he forced a degree of mirth through ridded teeth. he looked over to John Fuck me he muttered to himself Yeah that was his career over But he still had three minutes and 45 seconds to go And yeah he did that So he tried to fight through it but he lost

And he's 27 and six And that's his last fight he's done Uh oh He is fucking done done done done And he's got no money No that's the problem He was at the cusp of making all this money And never quite got there

Dang it. So the book talks about his retirement and how, you know, a lot of athletes struggle with retirement. Your whole life since you were five is different now. That's weird. Most of the time you go to school and then you figure out what you do and your life's broken up into parts. For a pro athlete, there is no parts.

It's all sport from time you can remember to now you're 36 and you don't know what the fuck to do with your life. Yeah, it's weird. So they said having devoted the vast majority of their lives to such an all-consuming vocation, it's very tough to walk away at what tends to be such a relatively young age. In the weeks and months and years after their final appearance, they miss desperately the discipline and structure of training,

the adrenaline and thrill of performing, and the adulation and confirmation of self-worth derived from winning. Some feel they can't do anything else, and they have nothing more to offer the world. They feel unprepared for life, unqualified to survive beyond the confines of a passion that's been their oxygen supply. Yeah. He accepted his fate, though, they said before even the fight was over.

Basically, when he was sitting on his ass, he's like, that's it I'm done when he got knocked down. That's it. So, yeah, he's been fighting for over 30 years, and that's about done. So back in the Erdoin there, where he's from, his dad, Doc, has had cancer, as we know. And apparently they had to bring a hospital bed. in the living room for him and all this type of shit. It's not good here. Then on July 31st, 2007, his dad died.

Amon was diagnosed as having depression around that time, which obviously. But he knows that he said he had depression his whole life. It was the same feeling. He just finally went and got checked out for it. He said, it isn't the type of thing that just appears from one day to the next. It's something that creeps up on you gradually. You don't need a doctor to tell you, you sense it yourself. And anyone that's had the life I've had is going to struggle with things like that.

I would say, they said he tried a variety of prescription drugs to keep it under control, but he admits that he never followed the doctor's orders when it came to medication. Really? Yeah, well, he's going to drink, too. That's the problem. That's going to ruin it all. So at times, he'll give a course of antidepressants a chance, adhering to intake guidelines until the drug can take effect. but the first sight of an adverse side effect,

the prescription goes out the window, and he's not doing it anymore. So one pill was dismissed when it caused a loss of balance, another when he woke in the exact same position in which he had fallen asleep, suggesting that he was almost comatose. That sounds great. That sounds wonderful.

I love that. What is that? Put that shit in here. Tell me what it is. I'll get some. He likes to have a supply of diazepam close on hand, but he only takes it when he's feeling himself getting overly anxious.

are agitated. So yeah, not good here. John Breen is buddy here. We'll talk a little about that. They said it's impossible to articulate the bond that 20 years of ups and downs have forged between Amon and John Breen, but from discussing it with both men, it soon becomes clear that what they share goes beyond the reach of traditional attachment of a long-term fighter-trainer relationship. They said occasionally never in each other's presence, their masks slip. And in those moments, the depths of feeling between the pair is unmistakable. Amon would lie down in traffic if it would somehow protect John and vice versa. In fact, Amon has effectively done so on more than one occasion.

For years, John ran a security business providing bouncers for bars and clubs, the length and breadth of Northern Ireland, which is good. He knows a lot of tough guys. He's a boxing trainer. So he'd often offer his up-and-coming fighters a few extra bucks to work. a door somewhere on a Friday or Saturday, which, yeah. So they said it's perfect symbiotic relationship there. So in Northern Ireland, they said, you know, you're going to come into contact with a criminal underbelly, paramilitaries, drug dealers, things like that. They said with the

latter, the approach was simple and unequivocal. Drug dealers caught on brain shift were promptly handed over to the police. This led to decades of threats on his life from various sources, threats serious enough some of them that the police installed panic alarm in his house and issued bulletproof attire for him and his bouncers. Good Christ, really. Wow. Even when he was earning enough in the ring to not need the cash or hassle, McGee would regularly strap on a vest and stand alongside his trainer. Breen's beat covered the now-closed Arena Night Club, the biggest such venue in Northern Ireland. One night, as the thousands in attendance began their chaotic drunken 3 a.m. exit,

a massive brawl erupted, and the security staff are soon sucked into it. The fight spilled into the car park where a couple of the main protagonist suffered a decisive beating from several of the bouncers. John broke it up as soon as he suspected his guys were a little overzealous in their handling of the situation, but the damage was done. A few days later, he received word that the two that were beaten were connected and they'd be back for revenge to follow him Saturday, this time with paramilitary reinforcements. So John immediately paid off the door staff involved and told them they'd never work for him again. Thanks a lot for beating up Irish paramilitaries. He then started calling around trying to get in touch with a senior provo

who would have the authority to end this before it got out of hand. It's like a mob situation. Like, who do I know? Do I know anybody who can talk to anybody and squash this? But the weekend arrived and he still hadn't been able to get through. So finishing up at the gym that Saturday, Amon no longer working downstairs doors now. that he was operating at a world-class level as a boxer.

Amon said, here, John, are you working at the arena tonight? He said, I am, yeah, why do you ask? Amon said, I have to meet a girl down there. I met her a few weeks ago, and I'm taking her out to dinner tonight. Can you give me a lift? He said, sure. So he said a few hours later, they were both stood outside the front doors of the arena. Brin was a little more surprised to see McGee sporting smart black trousers and white shirt ensemble.

and even more shocked that he wasn't drinking. Eamon explained that he was taking this woman to a fancy restaurant and didn't want to smell of booze when she arrived. And that was plausible, they said, so they just stood there together and waited. They said, where's this date of yours then, McGee? He said, I don't know where she's got to. I don't know what's going on.

They said, well, give her a ring for fuck's sake. He said, I left her number at the house. Finally, around 10.30, he said, she must have stood me up this bitch. I may as well, that's what he said. I may as well just hang around and get a lift back up the road when you're going home. So then John said he looked over and figured it out. He said he was never on a date.

He was coming with him to protect him. He didn't want to, he knew if he said, hey, I'll come stand by you and protect you. This guy would say, no, no, no, don't do that. So he said, this was the way he could do it and not make him feel like a pussy like he was trying to, you know, protect the pussy. So John said, if McGee is with you, he'll die for you. That's nice. so he started training is what he's going to do here really yeah breen welcomes him and as a trainer

just by his reputation and resume everybody boxers are respect the fuck out of him they know he's a great fighter so they want to see him do it so there he goes he's going to start training and um yeah it's i can't imagine this guy training though how's he going to tell you like had a condition and things like that yeah they said mcgee is eager to assist young fighters with the business side of boxing as well, an area of the game that can prove tricky as anything that goes on inside the ring,

which, yeah, young fighters, I'm sure, need to understand how the business works. It's probably way different. They said he also assumed the role of Cutman in the corner. Despite the potential importance of this responsibility, there's no formal training before you begin forcing adrenaline-soaked cotton buds into burst blood vessels and clamping a split flesh together

between your thumb and forefinger. Those are adrenaline-fueled? They have adrenaline in them? I don't know. I never knew that. I didn't know that. McGee had very rarely bled himself in the ring but he had inflicted enough wounds upon others

inside and outside to, you know, he knew how this shit works basically. So one of the first boxers he worked with was an east fell fast. bandam weight named Colin Moffitt. And so he's working with Moffat here. Moffat stepped into the ring in the national stadium in Dublin to face Eugene Higney for the vacant Irish bantamweight ground.

So they went toe to toe in the flurry. Amon did his duty and Colin went above and beyond the call of his own. And three rounds later, they gave him the victory. So Amon was very excited that he got his first fighter, one, so he's good at that too. They say that in 2009, he was in relatively good form as big roguy stopped Skeleton in the 11th. And, oh, these are his fighters. Okay. So he's doing well.

He's doing well. He's good at this part. He's fucking good at this part here. Yeah. So that's the problem is, though, his other guy died here. Who is it the, not Breen? It is, the Callahan. Yeah.

Mike Callahan, the man. who had effectively come out of retirement to give McGee his chance as a pro, guided the fighter's career with integrity and honesty until the end, passed away peacefully. Amon was one of his pallbearers and all of that shit. A week later, Martin Rogan lost his Commonwealth title to Sam Sexton, that's one of his fighters,

and McGee starts to unravel a little bit. Uh-oh. He said there are several reasons why Rogan relinquished his belt that night. Ultimately, it was the accidental headbutt which caused his last, left Ida swell shut, provoking the eighth round stoppage. Rogan's naivety, naivete in hesitating when Sexton was there for the kill, Sexton's gamesmanship with his gum shield shenanigans, and referee Dave Paris doing nothing to help the champion's cause throughout also played a major part.

But Rogan, seeking an excuse for his defeat like boxers often do, attempted to make McGee his scapegoat. Uh-huh. Uh, he called Breen and accused McGee of being. drunk in the corner and doing a line of cocaine in the toilets before the fight. What? Wow. He gave John an ultimatum on who would continue in Breen's gym, Rogan or McGee. John didn't blink and Rogan went off to find another trainer and lose more fights than he won for the rest of his career.

Yeah, I don't need you. Fuck off. But the accusations hurt Eamon. He said the drugs charge was pure nonsense. He said he never hit his alcohol consumption. McGee needs beer in his system to function and has done some. he's an alcoholic. He can't, he'd be throwing up and having the fucking DTs if he didn't drink. You need it, yeah. So he cracks open a tin of lager as soon as he opens his eyes in the morning and maintains a steady intake throughout the day. God dang. Holy shit. Twice a week, a man driving a white van knocks on his door and drops off two 20 tin cases of carling beer. John Breen and all the boxers who train in his gym know this. While working there, every day. day, Amon will leave a plastic bag of

supplies outside the door and neck a tin or two every time he steals out on a nominal smoke break. The fighters couldn't give a damn because they know they can rely on McGee. They know he'll be there when they arrive for training and he'll give them 100%. He's just, that's the way he has. Body functions that way.

They actually prefer him with a few beers inside him for the natural shyness dissipates and he finds it easier to open up and share knowledge and experience. The only days of the year on which he curtailed his drinking are when he's working the corner of a fighter. Then he manages to refrain from alcohol until a couple hours before the first bell

when he'll drink two or three points to settle him down. You know, two or three just to get right. It may not be ideal, but it beats having an alcoholic with the shakes dealing with your open wound at the end of every round. True. Okay. But now your blood is so much thinner too, and you're going to be bleeding like crazy. No, no, no.

He means as a cut man. in the ring. Yeah, but I don't, you don't bleed unless you're fighting. Yeah, but I don't think he should be telling people that drinking while being in the world of boxing at all is okay. It seems like the craziest fucking thing in the world, doesn't it? It really does. People are getting beat up.

I don't want booze involved. No, but I guess it's better than a shaky cut man. I don't know. Shaky cut man could fall down too or trip over the fucking spit jug, anything. Yeah, shaky cut man. No, that's not good. Not good. Three pints in him, I think that's when he's at his best.

That's his baseline. Yeah, it's his baseline. So they said the Rogan split began a chaotic summer in which his alcoholism did undeniably impact on him and those sucked into its vicinity. In July, he discovered that Mary had struck up a romantic relationship. Finally, Christ, it's been, I'm surprised it took her this long. Yeah. With a local Erdoin man and Amon knocked him out in a jealous rage. obviously.

He was barred from the, it was at a bar, so he was barred from the premises after that incident, but the following month, he approached the front doors determined to confront Mary over a financial disagreement. He was obviously hammered and grew increasingly agitated as a crowd gathered to physically prevent his entry.

When a club committee member, a cousin of Mary, confronted him, the man ended up on his back with bloodstreaming from his nose. Police are called and Amon is arrested on an assault charge. I wanted to beat my wife, but I had to settle for this guy. In September, his relationship with Maria McGill is at an all-time low when he is accused by her of attacking her at her home.

He is arrested and charged with assault and released on bail to live with his brother in Newcastle. But he doesn't, he doesn't calm down. On a Christmas visit to see Mary and the kids, an argument spot. viral data control. He woke in his own bed in the yard doing the next morning, surrounded by police who entered through an open window. This time he's charged with making threats to kill. And the judge described him as a dangerous threat to the general public and decided to put him in jail for a little bit to calm him down. So it's a lot.

It's a lot. Mary was almost suicidal when she first learned of Maria's existence. And yet less than nine months later, she was bringing presents to the hospital. to welcome Ethan into the world. Holy shit. That's insane. Unbelievable. Can you imagine that?

No. What the fuck? She probably spent more time with the kid in the hospital than he did. For sure. Yeah. Wow. The two women are close now. Really?

What the fuck? United by a shared love for a flawed man and strong, the strong friendships which their children have built and maintained over the years. They're not friendships. They're fucking related. Yeah. That's not a friendship if you're related to some. Those are half-sibals.

Half-brothers, yeah. Both Mary and Maria speak of Aeman in strikingly similar terms. Little is said explicitly, but the specter of domestic violence, both physical and mental, often hangs heavy between the lines of many conversations. There are allusions to children seeing things they should have never seen, admissions of locking doors and hiding fearfully in their own home. They pinpoint drink and drugs as the genesis of Aeman's problems and describe him as a stubborn man who refuses to apologize or take responsibility for his actions that have hurt others.

Or anything else. Or really anything. Yeah. They see a man with a selective memory, quick to create his own truth, and then stick fast to it in the face of all contrary evidence. They believe Amon is bipolar. Oh. And, you know, he's the most lovely, gentle, genuine heartfelt man in the world one day and then a hateful bully the next. That's also alcoholic.

and everything else. So it's hard to diagnose someone with a mental illness while they're drinking that much because you don't know what they're wrong. Yeah. The real mental illness is the substance abuse. But let's get that on control and then we'll figure out the chemical shit. Then you exactly figure out where the chemicals are after you remove a bunch of chemicals. What chemicals are left?

Yeah. So 2010, Amon spends pretty much the whole year in court, court, jail, on bail. he is initially sentenced to six months inside jail for the punching the guy at the clubhouse there that is trying to find his wife. But the conviction was overturned on appeal in early March. So then he had to also figure out the Mary and Maria incidents of beating both of them.

And they continued to deal with this through all this shit. So in April, charges of breaking a non-molestation order against Maria were added. It's a restraining order, but it sounds much worse. Sounds gross. Yeah. He had to be told not to. And he was put back in jail.

After six months in jail, he was released to live in Hull with Vicky, a woman he'd met years before while boxing, and I guess has kept in touch with. He's only permitted to enter Northern Ireland for his own court cases. That's it, just to go to court. He rents a house, rents his house out to some guy who ends up using it as a grow house for weed. Oh, nice.

And the police raid the house and that's a pain of the ass here. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. So he has the assault trial for Maria here. As a prosecution witness, the Hamill person took the stand and was pushed to describe his friend as a dangerous bully, someone he was afraid of. several times Hamill swore in his life that he was not frightened of McGee. But the cross-examiner wouldn't let up on his line of questioning.

Finally, tired of the repetition, Hamill changed his tune and said, Yes, I'm scared of him. He suddenly admitted as Amon shook his head and put his face in his hands. But before the satisfied prosecution lawyer could rest her case, Hamill had a sting in the tail. He said, quote, I'm scared he'll leave the chip pan on when he goes to bed. Oh, he's got brain damage, yeah. But Hamel's character reference fell on deaf ears and the judge handed down a 12-month sentence.

You, sir, may fuck off. Twelve months. Amon immediately appealed the ruling and was released back to East Yorkshire where, but when Vicky threw him out over the summer, he was forced to sneak back into Northern Ireland anyway. Oh, no. The crossing of the Irish Sea violated the conditions of his bail. And after a couple months hiding out, the authorities tracked him down and returned. turned him to jail for the remainder of 2010.

Holy shit. That's a lot. Wow. This jail that he's in, by the way, HMP, Magaberry, Maghaberry, was described by the chief inspector

of prisons in England and Wales as one of the worst he's ever visited and the most dangerous in the UK. An accompanying report by an inspector of prisons in criminal justice. inspection of Northern Ireland was just as scathing, a detailed litany of defects that included high levels of risk of violence, inadequate health, and educational provisions, excessive time spent

in lockdown conditions in a generally unsafe and unstable environment. That could be there or the Phoenix City Jails, either one. Maricopa County jails are just like that too. But Amon's expectations of prison life had been lowered dramatically by his experiences in the early 1990s and he had no complaints about the time he spent there. He said there were familiar faces from around his hometown so he knew a lot of people. Inmates had spoken to prison guards and arranged for Amon to be moved into his own single cell.

He had no trouble from there either from anybody else and everybody left him alone. They said fights in the jail were very rare, he said, and if one did erupt, he would be the peacemaker rather than the instigator. Oh, he's fixing problems. That's it, yeah, because they're all afraid of him. He's going to kick their asses. Unless you identified as being part of a paramilitary group, Protestants and Catholics shared the space

and got on with life together inside with few problems. So he struck off friendships with some of the guards who'd sit in his cell. I'll read the quote from the book. Who'd sit in his cell for a crafty fag or two? Crafty ones. Crafty. I got made, you know, a roly.

Or shoot the breeze about his career at the local boxing scene. Sure. Tobacco was fine, but when the smell of dope wafted into the corridors, the guards were forced to intervene. When Amon heard the footsteps approach, he'd flick the miniature joint out of the barred window with unerring accuracy. Fuck me, you were quick there, Amon, was all the warden would say with a quick scan of the cell, confirm pungent smoke, but no sign of anything, you know, any joint. So, wow.

They said that he was very much a part of the school of prisoner who keeps his head down and attempts to make the most of a bad situation, which is smart. That's all he did. Now, Amon always points to his exceptionally high win rate in court, as if in court, not in the ring, as if that's all that needs to be said about all the allegations of assault and domestic abuse level on him. He's like, it's all bullshit. See, look, I got out of it most of the time. He wonders why he's apparently deserved all the bad. done on to him, yet he's the one suspected of projecting pain and hurt. The victim is a saint

and he remains the devil. As the way it works. He just responds to situations he says. They make me out to be the bad guy. He just stands his ground. He talks of it being a woman's world now, women with power over him, an ability to use and abuse and control him. Two in particular

have had their claws in him for many years now, he said, and there's always more than one truth. If it's all sorts of problems and the only common denominator is you. Yeah, there's not always more than one truth unless you're involved. Sounds like you're the fucking problem, I would say, yeah.

So while he is free from legal shit now, he's got all sorts of other shit going on. He's still doing drugs and booze and everything else you can imagine here. He is also forced to face the fact that he's broke. That's no good. I mean, there's no... He has no money anymore. So that's a problem here.

A lump sum was placed in a bank account under Mary's name, and she had that still, and they would fight over that, basically. He was now living with a woman named Donna in Ballyclare, a small town 25 minutes north of Belfast, where he used to box. It's a Protestant area, and an experience at a funeral a few years earlier,

made him a little wary of his new surroundings. when the father of a local middleweight Willie Thompson passed away Amon decided to go pay his respects Invited back to the pub for the town Post funeral drinks McGee was happy to do it But he's the only Catholic on the premises

He was enjoying his pints and pool When a dispute over a shot Turned physical And he beat up two or three people Before his friend grabbed him and hurried him out the door Before somebody killed him basically So that's the problem Basically, people came to the door with bats and pickax handles to try to get him, but police came and got them away from there.

So, oh, he's a mess. Yeah. So, yeah, he's going to try, aim and agreed with Donna that Fortnight in the Ardoin was a prudent choice for the 12th of July festivals. But his second summer, he felt more at ease and decided to stick around to see how Protestants celebrate the highlight of the orange marching season. I don't know what that is. on the 11th night, he strolled across to the biggest bonfire in town, just as the Catholic effigies and Irish tricolour flags were catching on fire on the peaks of the towering infernos.

Naturally, he was instantly recognized, and within the charged and largely drunken atmosphere that surrounds such occasions, Amon held his breath and waited to see what sort of welcome he would receive. Minutes later, he'd be handed his first free burger and beer, and the generosity of spirit didn't let up all night. He stood drinking by the flames until the glorious 12th had dawned and still recalls the experience with fondness. So that's nice anyway. I expected him to have to, you know, fight eight people here now.

So he goes back to Breen's gym and Amon's focusing on getting Paul McCloskey into shape for a world title shot. So he's doing all of this shit. So, you know, Amon said at one point, Come on, Barry, that's enough. Get out of my fighter's changing room because somebody came to fuck with the guy, basically. Such contrasting characters as McGee and McGuin were always unlikely to be the best of friends, but the Frosty Exchange ensured even cordiality would be a stretch from now on. Okay.

So the defeat was effectively the end of Murray's career, and it wasn't long before another O'Breen's gym boxer was forced to call it a day, albeit in a much more tragic circumstances. the young lightweight Kieran Farrell had sought out John and Amon himself and flew over each week to train in the Belfast gym and sleep in Amon's home. He was rewarded with a run of victories

which led to a bout with future world champion Anthony Crawler for the vacant English title. Farrell gave it all in the fight of the year contender and when Breen hoisted him aloft at the final bell, it was a genuine hope that he would be awarded the decision. But within seconds, winning or losing became a total irrelevance as Amon cushioned Farrell's limp body

as it slumped from John's shoulders onto the ring floor. They screamed for medics and everything else and an acute subdural hematoma was increasing the pressure on his brain. He didn't die, but he would never box again. No shit. And that was rough.

So that's another, nothing's working out for anybody here. No. After his niece's wedding in Newcast, Castle. He arrived back at his rented apartment with Donna, Francis and his mother to find a drunken belligerent traveler shit-faced in the communal hallway. We know about these travelers from this area. Will you keep it down, Eamon asked rhetorically, and don't be swearing like that in front of my mother. Irish travelers are well known for short tempers and propensity to settle differences

with their fists. That's not smart here. So it was no surprise when this one reacted aggressively to the warning. But despite being a mountain of a man, he's no match for an ex-world champion boxer with his backup. Amon didn't stop punching until his rival was slumped on the floor with blood splattered across the walls and ceiling. Holy shit. The McGee party called the police themselves. And when the local cops arrived, their heart sank. Oh, Christ, Amon.

They'll be murder now. He's the bloody gypsy king around here. There'll be murders. Now they're going to kill you. They all love this guy. He just battered to a pulp to a pulp the hardest Irish traveler in town. Uh-oh. And they were like, you should fucking disappear, basically.

Yeah, that's not do that. So the cops hurried aim into his car, sat him behind the wheel, and he was shit-faced. And they're like, don't care, drive that way. Just get out of here. Drive that direction. A couple of weeks later, he and Donna returned to Newcastle for a stroll along the beach where the travelers sell donkey rides to kids and anyone else brave enough to straddle on them.

One of the, out of the corner of his eye, he saw them nudge each other and look in his direction. Fearful and odd at the sight of the man who had annihilated their king inside 30 seconds. It was neither the first or the last time McGee would scrap with a traveler. When his relationship with Donna Sauerd, Mary briefly took him back into the big house

overlooking the city, but Amon's bad days outnumbered as good and the two were often at each other's throat. When he slammed the front door and marched off, he regularly found himself in a nearby watering hole, his anger still simmering below the surface. Wow. A local traveler clan frequented the pub too, and violence became almost inevitable when their path crossed McGee's in this mood. Yeah, that's how it would be. 2014 was the year both McCullough and Conlon cemented their status as two rising stars of Irish boxing. they'll talk a little bit about that.

Amon managed to mix these professional highs with much darker personal lows. And yet another fight with Mary led to more assault charges. He can't stop beating Mary up. During the trial, Amon told the court that this was the 19th such allegation against him, and it would be the 19th time he'd beat it. The judge disagreed and gave him a four-month suspended sentence. Much more serious accusation. were made by a woman following a drink and cocaine field incident in a flat and old park district next to the Ardoin.

Eamon insisted that he had acted in self-defense and merely tried to subdue an unprovoked attacker who was throwing hagglerest combinations at him. Oh, is that right? Oh, yeah, Marvin, you know. Now, he had he says that had he really repeatedly punched this victim, as the prosecution claimed, he would have knocked her out cold with one fist blow. So this is crazy. The judge said, I don't think it's so crazy. Four months in prison. You, sir, may fuck off.

He dicks. He appealed, was released on bail, but now, like all the fighters, some of the fighters don't want to work with him and some of the other trainers don't want him working with fighters. And it's not going well at all here. Now, by the way, we're talking about his kids for a minute. Imagine being his kid. No. Unpredictable.

Yeah. Uh, Francis, the older one, the oldest, believed that he saw the worst of the strict father persona. But next in line, the daughter, Anne or whatever her name is, is adamant that she bore the brunt of all the punishments, meet it out for minor shit. The fact that Ayn is most like her father and attracted trouble quicker and more often than her two brothers combined probably means she's right, basically. Yeah. But she's also a daddy's girl, she says. Sure. she said, I love the bones of my daddy. I'll do anything for him.

That's a weird statement. Bloods, I don't like that at all. She painted a graphic picture of helping her old man with his morning constitutional in the hospital after the snowman attack. You're stinking, daddy. She remembers squealing with laughter as she held his leg. Yeah, because his cast would stink. So, yeah, it's a lot here.

The aforementioned craziness and Aiman often emerged. family holidays abroad. Uh-oh. Although his mood and alcohol intake tended to determine if they were positive or negative experiences for the kids, the America trip with Hamel's antics and constant rowing with Mary was a bad one, for example, but there were plenty. In the Mediterranean sun that are largely fond memories, even if still pockmarked by dad's dangerously erotic behavior, erratic is what I meant to say.

Dangerously erotic is something much different. That's terrible. Dangerously erotic is scary. That's things inside you that are too big. Dangerously too big. Wow. On a jet ski excursion with Francis, Amon decided the rules on where you could go

and for how long did not apply to their craft. The result was a boatload of tourists howling and delight and videoing a shoal of angry Spanish tour operators chasing Amon down and wrestling him off the jet ski. He nearly lost a few. finger in the melee. And the overzealous Spaniard who provoked the injury was lucky he wasn't found when

Aeman went in search of him the next morning. But it was all par for the course as far as the X-Boxer was concerned. Back in Belfast, he'd arrive home after days away with the gift of a quad bike or roused the house at 4 a.m. to present a life-size fiberglass donkey he'd requisitioned from the Slane music festival. Daddy, you're not right in the head, Anne said as she rubbed her eyes and stumbled back to bed. They said, but there aren't any memories,

aren't as many memories, good or bad, from those formative years as a child would like, because quite simply, he wasn't around. Between the boxing and the drinking and the women, he just wasn't there. Now, Amon Jr., though, here, Amon Jr. and Francis both took up boxing, but Amon Jr. was the one who stuck with it.

He's trained and everything else. He carried on. is in the W Basically, he'd been like with his dad a little bit, you know, during the boxing stuff. But now he's getting into it. He was training in the famous amaculata club on Falls Road under Jerry Nugget Nugget Nugent, the gym's head trainer. He went on to become the Irish Under 21 champion in 2011. Lose the 2012 Ulster final by a point and win the Irish intermediaries in 2013.

So he ends up turning professional in 2014, and Amon's excited about it. Really? Yeah, he's jacked. He's like, good. Maybe you can do what I couldn't do. So he's doing really well. Amon brought his son into Breen's gym and began working him real hard and, you know, working him out, worked him over erotically.

No shit. Dangerously. That's funny. They said there were some similarities between father and son in the ring. very much so, as a matter of fact, but, you know, it's, Junior is less of a fuck-up is the difference, though. That's the, you know, they said,

Amen attempted to open his boys' eyes to the reality of the boxing game, a business in which the vast majority experience far more downs than ups. So he's trying to temper him a little bit here for that. So, less than, so anyway, not long after his second fight, Junior went for a drink with his dad and his older brother Francis in the shamrock.

There's still a lot of tension between the two, but at least they were sitting at the table having a fucking pint here. They were basically, they fought each other about everything. That's the way it was. I mean, basically that, you know, the younger McGee is doing like a lot of modern diets and supplements and has a bunch of tattoos and shit like that. And Amon likes to fuck with him and pick on him and shit like that. So it's a lot. They're not getting along together. So anyway, they're out having a pint.

At one point late in the night, a local hood fancied making a name for himself and grabbed Jr. by the throat. Amon intervened and calmed the situation. He made the peace, much as a wise old head who'd seen it all before, might. At closing time, outside on Ardoin Avenue, a bottle flew in the direction of the three McGee's. But as Junior's blood rose, just like his dad's had on countless occasions, Amon led his two boys away. It's not worth that he told them.

It never is. Come on home. Wow. Less than two months later, Junior was enjoying a Friday night in a flat in Summer Hill Park on the Twinbrook estate in West Belfast. He was with Courtney Ward, a girl from his gym with whom he'd struck up a romantic relationship with a couple weeks before. They sat together on the sofa listening to music and having a few drinks.

When they looked at the time, they were surprised to see it was already 2 a.m. On a Saturday morning, but neither was tired, so they ordered some pizza. At 2.40 a.m., Junior opened the back door to see what was keeping the delivery driver and was met by Orhan Caca, Koka, K-O-C-A, springing from the darkness to plunge a six-inch kitchen blade into his thigh, buttocks, and then his chest. Oh, my God. Stabbing the fuck at him. Coco then withdrew the knife and in a frenzy stabbed a further three times before running off into the night. Junior tried to rise but merely stumbled forward into the darkness.

His blood was found on a child's slide in the backyard, the gate, a parked car, and finally on the curbside where he was found by passers-by. An ambulance was there in three minutes, but he is dead. What the shit? Stabbed to death. Just the three wounds. wounds but six times he got stabbed five I guess five times in the chest so they said at the time they said it's not clear at this stage whether the murder is opportunistic or you know planned right but they said one thing is clear though there's a motive for violence he was carrying a knife

this is a premeditated act it's he's a jealous guy it's like this chick's ex-boyfriend or whatever who did this. So, wow. Well, yeah, that is obviously. Fuck, they said the family are devastated. We're all completely shattered by this. You have to understand Amon was a great kid who had his life planned out and everything was ahead of him.

We just can't believe this happened. Wow. That's fucking horrible, man. Yeah. What do you do? Jesus Christ. I mean, if you're Amon, senior, I don't know. Yeah.

Amon, senior, was high on. cocaine when he finally answered his phone. Oh boy. But he sobered up quick when he got to the hospital. That'll do it, yeah. And so that was that. And Amon gets there who he formally identifies the body. Hey. That is rough. That's fucked up, man.

Yeah. So they talk about how all these articles about how McGee was his father's right-hand man and all this type of shit. And he had a bright future ahead of him. No shit. It really did. So March 14th, 2017, the guy pleads guilty. Okay. And they said yesterday he was still pushing for manslaughter, but he came in this morning and pleaded guilty to the murder charge. So, yeah, there you go.

And, wow, that's fucking crazy, man. That's fucked up, man. That's fucked up. These people, I mean, Jesus Christ. It's an ex. Imagine what the fuck, man. Who cares? Yeah.

Stop giving a shit about people And jealousy Just do that Stop giving a shit about people Yeah, stop caring about Especially if they will get out of your life Good Why do you give a fuck?

What the hell man? Go away Leave people to fuck alone Why are you worried about them? Guy ends up getting 14 years for this Jesus Well, I guess in Ireland That's why you do it

Because you'll still live outside Prison Walls at some point Yeah They said 14 years for a premeditated murder and cold blood, Amon said he was a hit man. He went tooled up. He knew how to use a knife because he learned in his military service in Turkey. He laid in wait for my son for his prey.

He stabbed his prey in the thigh and buttocks to drop it and then ended his life with two strikes through the lungs. He stabbed him some more. And he said, his friend said, I'm sorry, Amon, 14 years is an insult. And he said, correct, a fucking insult. Something has done, someone has done a deal. But why would anyone help that bastard? He's wasted two years of everyone's time and public money, two years prolonging our agony. Wow.

That's fucked up. It really is. I can't believe anybody could do 14 years after literally stalking and murdering someone in the fucking streets. Especially for that motivation. Yeah. For that reason. That's fucked up, man. Oh, man.

That's really fucked up. So I don't know. He said, I'm sure I know people who've done longer for armed robbery. Yeah. So he said they should all be ashamed. And yeah. So anyway, now here's a, they talk about, this author talks about contacting McGee about about, or I'm sorry for the book here. And he said a book, listen, I've been beaten with baseball bats.

I've had my throat slashed. I've been kidnapped and I've been exiled out of my country. My family's been held kept. in our home as well. I've been shot twice, I've been in prison, my son's just been stabbed to death. Amongst all that, I was the welterweight champion of the world

while drinking the bar dry and doing enough Coke to kill a small horse every night. My life's not a book. It's a fucking movie script. He said, these were the first words that Eamon McGee ever spoke to me, the author said.

I was sitting in a Madrid car park while he stood in John Breen's gym on the outskirts of Belfast. I still recall the pressure I felt, the fear that I'd lose him before I ever had him. The creeping sense of panic that I'd caught him on one of his supposedly many off days.

So he said he went and talked to him and he said, Amon was, you know, he said we'd arranged to meet at a bar. When I arrived, I sat down and joined him and two of his acquaintances sitting outside, seemingly content to suffer the cold air here to have a smoke and a pint.

And he said, suddenly a noise emanated from my pocket and I realized my dictaphone had been left unlocked. and a movement had inadvertently started playing an old recording. My temperature steadily rising, I removed the offending device from my jacket as nonchalantly as I could and switched it off. He said, were you recording all that? They asked with a smile. He said, I'm beginning to wonder about you, choking around. Hey, look at this fucking guy.

He's wearing a wire. So he says, I can't tell this story. I can't tell this story. He says the whole thing. He's like, this is, you know, I can't do it. I can't do it. but he ends up telling him about his dad being taken away and all that kind of shit. And then,

so they end up kind of making a deal to do this. So despite a, you know, a good career and doing everything, Amon has a British passport now, all that kind of thing. He said that he, he teased him, the author, did, calling him a traitor to the cause. Oh? He said, I can't remember, but it was probably just quicker or cheaper to get the Brit one this time. Probably. Yep.

He said, when we settled in the living room, so if I continued the conversation asking what it was all about, the Irish tricolors everywhere when he fought. Listen, he said in an even tone. It's not anyone's fault. Where did their, what the fuck? It's not anyone's fault where their dad puts his cock in is it. Okay. Okay. Well, yeah, that doesn't make so.

Yeah, don't bother. I guess don't hate people for who they are. It's not their fault where their dad puts his cock. Interesting. That's funny. He said, to this day, I can't do anything about how many people want to interpret my actions. You mentioned Wayne there, a Protestant from Shankill, one of my best mates from the first time we met as a kid boxing in small hall shows all over the city. Like I've told you before, I have nothing against Protestants or unionists or whatever you want to call them in Northern Ireland.

But I'm Irish. I was born in Ireland. I'm very proud of where I come from. I'm proud to be Irish. If I was English, I'd probably worn a St. George's Cross. If I was Scottish, whatever their horseshit is, and they're Welsh or dragons or whatever the fuck. Whatever they got going on.

Yeah. He said, anyway, he said, I never wore the Irish colors against Burke in that first fight. I was dressed head to toe in the fucking ivory coast flag. Okay. So, Amon's, you know, his whole thing here, it's got to be a weird, be a weird life for him at this point because he had all of this chaos. And now you're just getting kind of old and you're just kind of.

Sad. Yeah, it's just fucking weird. But also lost his kid. Like that, it's so sad. Yeah, it's what I'm saying, the whole thing, man. So Connolly, the one guy, I think that's the one guy whose army broke on the curb that time when he's a kid. his oldest friend once met the author and told the author that McGee was already a full-blown alcoholic by the age of 16. Amon laughed out loud when the author told him that, but he didn't refute it.

He said, I certainly liked a beer most nights then. Yeah, yeah, true. So they said, you know, the author said I immediately countered that he already liked to drink most nights well before his mid-teens. He nodded. Then when I referred back to the stolen bottle of cider antidote, and another childhood memory sparked back to life in his mind's eye. That bottle of Blackthorn when I was nine, that wasn't actually the first time I got drunk, you know.

There was another time I forgot about. Christmas Eve, I was only a nipper because Terry was still in the house. That's his dad. My dad was drinking Monday's fortified wine and he gave me a few glasses. I remember I slept in my mom and dad's bed that night, and the next day when my Ma and Terry and Noel and Patrick all got up, we went downstairs for Christmas. Me and my dad couldn't even lift our heads off the pillow.

We slept right through Christmas lunch and everything. Oh, my God. That was the first hangover I ever had. Wow, that is fucking wild. One of Doc's friends, dad's friends, told the author about how they gradually drifted apart over the years. He said, it's very sad. The drink just got to him. He stopped working and you just see him walking along the street with his head down and a plastic bag of cans in his hand.

He'd go into one of the houses where the alcohol. Pollocks all hang out, and you mightn't see him again for a few days. A bar? No, a bar. This is where you bring your own booze and just like a crack house. Oh, my God, really? A booze house. Somebody's drunk house you go to, yeah.

Oh, dang. Jesus Christ, man. That's a lot. It's fucked up. That's too bad. That's fucked up, man. So he talks about another story. Amon,

um, uh, Amon talks about that they, Amon has similar houses he goes to on most days, drunk houses. There's Hamels, of course, but dogies, drunk houses,

and especially Ugo's have become more regular haunts. The first time I sat with them in Hugo's house, I was sporting a beard, grown through laziness rather than any fashionable pretensions. We don't get many hipsters in here, Yugo teased me. Not a hipster. He's just lazy.

He said, he went down. He went on to say that he'd woken up and gone to get the paper across the road as he does every morning when the newspaper news agents open at 7 a.m. It was winter and cold and dark and he shuffled out of his cramped cul-de-sac off Ardoin Avenue. The amount of traffic surprised him for the hour, and though he was getting a stranger looks than normal from the people he passed and the girl who served him, it was only when he got home and switched on the television that he realized it was 7 p.m. Not a.m. I had no idea. Yeah, he said, when we emerged from the empty tins and marijuana smoke about an hour later,

Amon told me a graver tale. The previous week, he caught Hugo slurring his words earlier in his drunken cycle than usual. Amon looked at him directly. Hugo, what's wrong with you, mate? Are you feeling all right? He managed a weak lopsided smile in response. Lift that arm for me, mate, Amon continued. Ah, for fuck's sake, Hugo, mate.

Amon called an ambulance, got into the back of it alongside his. his friend and spent the night in the hospital with him. His friend had a stroke. Wow. So, yeah, just it never stops with him. Never, no. Never. It's just tragedy after tragedy all the way surrounding his life.

It's just constant, constant, fucking constant. He said he would try to dry himself out once in a while, but that didn't work. He lasted one day in a rehabilitation clinic in Newry before he, there was no TV, so he couldn't deal with it. Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, he said, can help, but he refuses to attend any in Belfast where he fears everyone will know. They all know him and whisper about him, basically. He's traveled to like cities far and wide to go to meetings,

but it's just, you know, whatever. He said, I'm absolutely fine. I go to the doctor for a full medical every year. The first time I did it, the doc said I'm fit and healthy. I thought the bastard was just telling me what I wanted to hear. I went mad in his surgery. how the fuck can I be healthy? I shouted at him.

I told him about all the drinking and drugs. Did you not fucking check my liver, I asked? He said it's all in perfect shape. And anyway, what am I supposed to do when I come out of the gym? It's always been the same. I don't read books and I only put the TV on in the background to fall asleep at night. So what do you want me to do? There's fuck all to do in this country that doesn't involve drink.

I think that's a problem here. Yeah. It's a lot of fucking drink going on there. he's got to deal with his son's death, which is not fucking easy for him. And, yeah, and everyone is very concerned about his state of mind also. Basically, like, you know, what's, because they're like, Christ, he was on the edge to begin with. Now his son's gotten murdered and nothing else. It's not good.

They said he's still gambling more than he should here. But it's to, now it's just to test his own knowledge rather than chasing winners or an adrenaline rush. The stakes are small these days as well. They have to be when you're surviving on 75 pounds a week in benefits. Oh, boy. Women come and go in generally fraught circumstances, while Maria and especially Mary continue as Constance in his life. He spends each weekend with Ethan and sees Anne and Francis when he can too,

but although they love and idolize their dad, their somewhat stunted relationships, which he should put more effort into and doesn't. So that is, that is, that is not good. So on May 30th, 2016, the first anniversary of Junior's murder, the author said he sent a text to Amon

saying, thinking of you today, mate. An hour later, Amon called. How are we finishing this book? He said, I mean, what's going to be the final scene, so to speak? And he said, I had just ended it with the above quote from Isabel, but it was a fairly early draft. and I wasn't convinced. So the ending is often the hardest point

part of telling the story. This is what Isabel, what he said originally, what he was going to end on. My Amen is so deep. You see songs, he really listens to them and tells me, Ma, listen to these words, Bob Marley's songs, and that old one, who's that knocking?

If he dies before me, I'm getting listened to the lyrics engraved on his headstone. That's what he always says. He's very sensitive. He cries his eyes out. cries his eyes out. But then he has an attitude that he just goes on with his life. No matter what happens, he doesn't hide away. I used to phone him every night and he'd ask me, what do you want, what do you want, Ma? And I'd sing to him. I just called to say, I love you, this Stevie Wonder song.

And then he'd say, Mommy, sing that song or the song I like and like, and I'd be swinging, I'd be singing down the phone to him just to make him happy. She said, because you don't know what goes through his head at night. She says, I wouldn't like to be inside his brain. I always say to him, you're a thorn on my side, but I love you with a passion. I love all my son so much. I feel sorry for Amon and I worry about him because of what he's seen and where he is now, because of the different relationships he's hadn't broken and what he's left behind. I feel sorry for him because I think he's a lost soul. I really think he's a lost soul. Yeah. That's what he was going to end with. So at this point he's like, you know, shit, I don't know. So he says that they, he said, you know, I don't know,

what are you thinking? He said about the ending of the book. And suddenly for the first time ever with me, Amon sounded a little self-conscious. I don't know, he started tentatively. I was just thinking, last night I drove over to Twinbrook with a friend Sam Barkley. I'd asked Sam to make up a plaque for Amon Jr. Another mate, Fra Lavery, painted the fence for me. Me and Sam went over there around two in the morning and we sat in his car. Then at 2.40, the time my son took his last breath, I got out and put the plaque in place. It's a sad thing I know, but it's a nice thing. At least it's a nice thing for me. Maybe it's stupid, but it made me feel good. I think I'd like that to be the end of the book. So the author here, I'm going to summarize Aymann here. He said, I've seen Aiman on good days and bad

days over the past two years. I've sat behind beside him in bars as he attempted to mask the silent terror and paranoia eating him from within, fearful that someone would soon enter, lead him away and shoot him dead. I've waited outside a Belfast courthouse for him while he inside he argued his case in one of his myriad legal disputes that appeared to be omnipresent in his life. I've stood behind him and Mary at their son's grave on what would have been Jr.'s 23rd birthday. Amon somehow awkward and out of place in the family scene. I've watched him from a couple feet away as he worked wonders in the corner to stem the flow of blood from above a fighter's eye in the 60 seconds permissible within the frantic heat

of a title fight. I then sat in the desolation of the same beaten fighter's dressing room as a doctor stitched him in silence, still gloved up, for Amon was already AWOL in the Manchester night with the necessary scissors in his pocket. I met him animated, fresh-faced, and positive. throughout the day, which he held together with little more than a handful of pints for support. I've watched him lose other days in sullen stupor in a thick and a squat thick with marijuana smoke and littered with empty beer cans. I've had him call me only to hang up after less than a

minute of quiet sobbing, unable to even get a mumbled word out. Forgive me were his final words on those nights. I've had him refused to talk to me on the phone, paranoid about who could be listening, listening to the names of those who have suffered for divulging information across the wires. I've listened to his words tell me he regrets nothing while his eyes betray the truth. I've watched him break down in tears many, many times, tears of anger, pain of his sort of sad, happy nostalgia too. I've seen him stubborn, very stubborn man, one accustomed to forcing his will on to others, who makes dangerous assumptions on what is right and what is wrong.

I've seen a bitter man, someone who will create, nurture, and then embrace and how harbor a grudge for an eternity. I've seen a fiercely loyal man as well, one who continues to personally deliver a bouquet of flowers to the door of his long dead manager's wife every Christmas Eve. No, that's nice.

Yeah, he's thoughtful. Yeah, he is thoughtful. When he's not shit-faced and angry, I've seen a sentimental man, sensitive to the point he feels like he needs to hide that side of his character for fear of a perceived weakness.

I've seen a normal man just wanting to chat, asking how my family and I are doing. I've seen a man still struggling with everything that has gone before. Yeah, this is funny here. Doc, his dad is never far from his mind. It's his whole role model and his hero. He took a phone call from an RUC officer known only as Jock one day, back when he was a fighter living in Lagmore.

Jock was a good cunt, Amon assures me now. There were good cunts as well as bad in the RUC, just like every other walk of life. That's what I love that. That was good cunts as well as bad. Holy shit. So, yeah, this is fucking interesting. Amon remembers back when he was a kid,

10 years old in northern France, this first time out of Ireland. He said that it was, I guess it was a community initiative to show working class troubled kids that there was nicer places. Like in the 70s when they'd take city kids to the country. Yeah.

He said, I stayed with a beautiful, family. They had two kids about my age. At the weekend, we went up to see their grandparents on the coast, and we went out fishing for crabs. You just snorkeled down yourself and grabbed as many as you could from the bottom while they nipped your fingers. I've never felt anything like it being out there in the ocean on my own. The water was so clear. I loved every minute when I was there, and they kept inviting me back. I went over on the cork to Roscoff boat three times to stay with them. Then he paused and said a different world from the Ardoin. They're like kind of thinking, what would my life have been?

Yeah. If that was my, you know, if I had that, would I be a different guy? Yeah, my father wasn't an alcoholic who was being. Sincerely. Put in internment camps all the time. So, um, the author says, I still think of my friend Eman at least once every single day and can't help worrying about him. In a recent phone call, he admitted that he wasn't eating and that he was drinking himself into oblivion. He'd been desperately hoping that a damning verdict and lengthy sentence for Orhan Cocoa,

would provide some crumb of comfort and degree of closure. The leniency shown to his son's killer shattered that hope. But had COCA been sentenced to a thousand years, it wouldn't have helped Aeman. Yeah. Destroyed his life, though. That's fucked up. Yeah, absolutely destroyed his life. I can't help worrying about Aman, but even since I placed the final full stop in this book,

several chinks of light have been fracturing the darkness he faces. He's engaged now. A quiet sweet girl named Bronagh Cassidy, the latest to try to tame him. She just makes me happy, he says. She makes me want to wake up each morning. Fuck knows what would have happened if she hadn't been around for the past few years. Fuck knows what would have.

He has a new grandson, Amon the third. Let's just not with that. It's a cursed thing. Amon's had a tough life. His son is dead. He had to talk about junior. Disease. Jesus Christ. That's not good at all. That's cursed as fuck.

His daughter, that's his daughter's kid here, secondborn. He has a new gym also recently opened on Raven Hill Road. Being there with John every day, immersing himself in the blood, sweat, and tears of young fighters who idolize him, keeps the self-destructive thoughts from his mind for a few hours at least. His nephew, Sean, that's his brother Patrick's son, turned pro that year to continue the McGee-Boggie boxing dynasty. They're reopening the Sacred Heart Gym and around the corner. There's a big mural in honor of the North Belfast fighters with Amon and his brothers

at center stage. Right. So now he's becoming like this different, like a legend type. You know what I mean? Like, you know, it's like an actor, like you see like a child actor will work till they're like 19 and then you don't see him for a few years. So they're in their washed up period. Right.

And then they pop up again when they're 35 and everyone's like, oh, fuck, there's that guy. and they love them again. It's the same exact thing. Once you've been shuffled out for a while, now you're like legendary. Now you're like McCauley Culkin. And when you pop up, people are like, holy shit, it's McCauley Culkin. And he hates it. He hates you.

And he hates everybody. And he hates everybody. And he just wants to fucking spend his home alone money and be left alone. He wants to be left home alone. Yeah. The irony there. And you guys are ruining it. Oh, man.

So Isabel is right. Her youngest son is a lost soul. But he's a fighter and a survivor. two. Life and all its travails have driven him to the edge many times before, but when all he needed was a gentle nudge to jump, he received a violent

shunt that riled him and forced him back to fight, or forced him to fight back. That fuck you attitude is why he's still alive today. Someone once joked with me, he'll see us all into the grave yet. I wouldn't be surprised. So that's the end of the book. That was like 2017, I think

that came out. Now, 2011, there's a big headline that says, Race Against Time to Beat Blood Clots. Amen McGee is facing his biggest fight of his career to save his life. They said, we can now reveal the Belfast Man has two blood clots on his brain and is waiting for life-saving surgery after cracking his head in a fall. Oh, no. But McGee, who admits he's an alcoholic who started drinking at the age of nine,

has been told he must beat the booze for a week before they operate. You have to, you can't be drunk while we're operating. You have to not drink for at least a week. That shouldn't be that difficult to do, I would think. But his wife, Mary, describes her husband as still married, by the way, his wife, Mary, he had a fiance a couple years ago, as a walking time bomb who is in a race against time to save himself. McGee also revealed how local heartthrob Jamie Dornan has been penciled in to play him in a new film

and how he continues to smoke cannabis because, quote, it's the only thing that keeps me saying. It is, yeah. I get you, babe. I'm right back at you. You got to be. Look, man, dealing with this world is brutal. And if you're not going to drink, you better smoke.

You better smoke. Yeah. That's, I never got the, they always say, like, people who are really into weed and, like, you know, quote, unquote addicts or whatever of weed or whatever. They always say, like, when they first smoke one of the first couple times, they have like a, a, oh, it's the greatest thing in the world. They have like this epiphany. I never had that with it.

I was always like, that makes me feel pretty sane and calm. That was all it ever was. Like, I never ever was like, oh, this is my favorite thing. I never had that, like, you know, joyous crazy thing that people have. I was always just like, oh, this is the thing I need in my brain to keep it from fucking going way out of whack. Way out of line. I've always had the, I don't want to do this ever again feeling. I did that a lot.

Really? And then I kept doing it. And now it's, now it's, I don't ever want to not do this. That's fucking great. I had that with the one and only time I fucking did Coke. I was like, never again with that. That was the worst fucking thing. And I meant it. That is horrifying. That's the opposite. Yeah. Being fucked up like super fucked up stoned is no fun at all, at all. I don't like that even a little bit. Like being confused? No good. That's fucking funny. So they, he said, this is Aiman, quote, I'm up against it.

I've got two bleeds on the brain and the doctors have told me I'm lucky to be alive. I have to give up the drink to have the operation and I will. Only I can get myself out of the situation. Nobody else can do it except me. It's going to be my biggest fight, but I have so much going on in the future. I'm only 48 years old and I have a lot of business interest to see to. I have a coof. I have a couple of obstacles to get around, but I promise you I will.

The doctors have told me in no uncertain terms that I'm lucky to be alive because of my alcoholism. They say I could easily be dead. Yeah, I would say. He said, the doctors told me this has nothing to do with boxing. A different thing. He said, I was walking home and had just come around the corner of my street when I fell. I hit my head pretty bad and they had to glue it back together. Okay.

I don't know if that's what they did. Mary said she knew something wasn't right when he came home because he, quote, he was talking a lot of shit. He was getting all muddled up and forgetting my name. Interesting. We had a row when he didn't turn up at a protest he was supposed to be at at the graves about Aiman Jr.'s headstone. He just had no memory of the event.

He was home, but there was no lights on. Jesus Christ. So, yeah, Aiman went. to the hospital, got an MRI, and they said I had loads. He said I had loads of MRI scans during my career as a boxer, and they're always clear, otherwise you wouldn't be allowed to fight. When I saw the scan of this one, I shit myself because I knew I was in big trouble. I could see the two big clots even before the doctor gave me the news.

Man, so he spent a full week in the hospital having tests. Mary says he didn't appreciate how much trouble he was in at the time. He said he was fighting for his life, but he didn't know it. It was a terrible week. The kids couldn't believe how bad it was until they came to the hospital, and it was made even more difficult because it was the same hospital that Aman Jr. was when he died. Jesus Christ. Mary says she can't contemplate life without Aman.

I guess that engagement didn't work out. Evidently. He said, wow, she said, we've had more than our share of ups and downs, but this is love unconditional. This is insane codependence is what this is. This is not good. Yeah. No, everyone is on edge because he's a walking time bomb. He needs to get off the drinker.

He's going to die. It's a race against time. Amon's memory is struggling as a result of the fall, and he reveals how he doesn't even remember being in the hospital. He said, I knew I was in hospital, but I don't remember anything about it. Wow. It's a mess. Yeah. So anyway, it's lost soul of Aiman McGee is the name of the book, by the way.

The Lost Soul of Amen McGee Written by Paul Gibson. That's the one we've, you know, a lot of this episode's based on. And yeah, so he did that. Among, they say, quote, who is this? Is this?

Yeah, that's my life's not a book. It's a fucking movie script. And he also says, when we called his house a Netflix, a Netflix crew were busy making a documentary about his life. Another scheme in the pipeline is a feature film about his life. He said, I've met with Jamie Dornan and the film producers, and it's going to

happen. It's hard to imagine him playing me. They'll have to use a lot of makeup. And Amen says, during the interview, Amon skins up a joint and says he needs the cannabis. Feel free to mention it. It's the only thing that keeps me sane. Put it this way. It's much, I'm much easier to handle when I'm on this stuff. Yes. So, yeah. Amon is quite the quite the mess. He survives the blood clot. Really? You can find him on Twitter

at Terminator McGee. Wow. Yeah. He's not, he's not verified and he only has 674 followers. Nobody gives a shit.

Yeah, that's fucking incredible. That's wild shit, man. Information on his career earnings is kind of hard to find because a lot of it was like Ireland and whatever, but safe to say

he didn't have a fucking a pot to pitch. and 15 years ago, so he definitely doesn't have one now. Can't get enough of Aeman. Well, you can get the Ricky Hatton versus Aeman McGee signed on sign boxing poster, signed by Ricky Hatton, not by Aman. For 125 pounds, you can get the boxing program, Shea Neri versus Aman, Aman McGee, 29 pounds 75. So that's a little cheaper, not autographed by Hatton. and you can get a

Yeah, Caton's doing the heavy lifting of that price. Yeah, for sure. You can get a picture of him. I think it's him and Mary, honestly, or him and some fucking lady just standing there. I don't know who this is, but it's signed by him for $17,000, or 17 pounds 99. And of course, the lost soul of Aiman McGee by Paul Gibson. You can get that on paperback for about 25 pounds.

And at the same time, you can get the Kindle version of that. Oh, sure. So if you're looking for that, you can do that. And shockingly enough, I saved this for the end just because it's so insane. I never thought it would happen. But, I mean, this guy has been through so much, so much between the shootings, the army, his family, the drinking, the boxing, the legal, the everything like that. I mean, you know, I kind of feel sorry for him after a minute.

But not nearly as sorry as I feel for Amon McGee, same spelling and everything, general manager at Westgate cleaning services in Bromley, England. Wow. Oh, and if that's not enough. Amen McGee, Maritime Law and Marine Insurance Consultant at O'Callaghan Legal and Approved Mediator. Wow. None, if that's not enough. Amen McGee, Senior accountant at Post-Pont.

in Ireland. So he's even in fucking Ireland. Hysterical. That is wild shit. Now, there's one of them, by the way, is committing crimes. Oh? Yeah. Eamon McGee, who admitted possession of cocaine with intent to supply,

will be allowed to continue his late-night job as a weekend DJ. Oh, my God. That's one of the A. Where he sells more coke. Where he sells more coke. So that, everybody, is Aymond McGee after. five parts. We got them, I think. There's all of it.

I don't think, how could there be more? One of the craziest fucking just lives. A person could lead. That's insane. I feel so bad for a son. Jesus. Yeah. It's, it's, I mean, you could go over that an hour and a half and fucking, you know, hit his arrests and his boxing record. But it doesn't, you need to know the backstory to find out why somebody's like this,

especially. This is a totally different story here. So that's a lot. Stemic right there. Yeah, that's I would say. Fuck, yeah. If you, and genetic, all mixed up into one, if you enjoy that story and enjoyed the whole series and just enjoy the show in general, get on whatever app you're listening on and give us five stars.

It really, really just helps a ton. It helps drive to show up the charts. It's really a big deal. So thank you for doing that. You may also want to head over to shut up and give me murder.com to check out all the shit there. We got every bit of merchandise you could want from skateboards to shower. curtains. We got it all. And that's for everything. Smalltown

Murder, your stupid opinions and crime and sports, which you should listen to all three shows, obviously. Follow us at Crime and Sports, wherever you follow, shit like that. Do that. Definitely absolutely get Patreon. That's what you need. Patreon.com slash crime

in sports. Right. You get all of the bonus material. And there's a shitload of it. There are hundreds and hundreds of back episodes. And anybody who's $5 a month or above, as soon as you subscribe, you're going to get access to all of those episodes to binge on and new ones every other week, one crime in sports, one small town murder, and you just get it all, whatever we put out.

It's all yours. This week we're going to talk about for crime and sports. I'm dropping shit on myself here. We're going to talk about the liver king, not only the documentary, but some background on this guy and some kind of weird, real-life wrestling character. And the weird part is up until very recently, I thought. thought he was dead. Really? I just assumed he was dead.

Yeah. Yeah. He lives like a fucking idiot. How's he alive? You know, I thought he was just assumed, oh, yeah, that idiot died. He levered himself to death. Yeah, doing a lot of things.

All those steroids, but we'll talk about that and more and everything else. So that's that's Patreon.com slash crime in sports. And you get a shout out. You bet. At the end of the show is just right now. Jimmy hit me with the names of some of the most wonderful

goddamn people we could possibly hope to exist on this earth. be with them right fucking now. This week's executive producers are Margaret Spuchukha. I don't know if that's real, possibly. Claude Cavallo, Rina Sanja, Mange's wife. She's a doctor now. Good for you, Rina. I don't know how to say his name.

I don't know how to say yours. An Indian doctor. Who would have thought? It may be Sanja. I don't know. I don't know. You've never seen an Indian doctor, so that's shocking, obviously. Congratulations.

Congratulations. Rees Probin. Gary Howard, Coach Victor Jr. Jr. Margarita Miller and Israel, thinking about you and your fam. Hang in there, Margarita. Jesus Christ. Thank you so much for everything. Jamie Kodrovich, Ali Deutsch, Allie.

She's terrific. Alpacaly lips. I'm not calling Allie that. That's somebody's name. Gunther Butto. Stephen Harding. Buddy Larosa. Do you know who that is, James?

They have something to do with terrible pizza. It is the founder of the terrible pizza. Oh, perfect. Good, good, good. I think he loves us. He can give us money, but not pizza. We definitely don't want the pizza. I wonder if it's really him.

If it is, he's 71 and he really gives a shit about this show. Yeah, no, I don't think so. More than he gives a shit about that pizza. Yeah, put your efforts into the pizza for the people of Cincinnati. Don't worry about us anymore. Matthew Johnston and other producers. Thank you all so much for you doing that. So much.

You guys are fucking awesome. Thank you. Really, it means a lot. Other producers this week are Peyton Meadows. Happy hour, checking in. John, maybe it's Yan, New Mexico. That's a small town. Jan, New Mexico?

I've never even heard of that. And before that, he was in Conroe, Texas. Didn't even know that. I just found that today. He was in Cindy and Marsha before that. Yeah. Janice Hill also, Michael Herman, Lacey Lou or I. I don't know if that's an I or no.

Toby McClellan Taylor, Kyle, K.C. Hey, what is that? Kach, cock, cock, I don't know. Cuck? Don't be a cuck, Kyle. Don't be a cock, yeah, what's going on? Kate Rodbro. I could go so many different directions.

Depending on the vowel. Megan Schultz, Grace Ann Sullivan, Joanna Kornazuski, Zuska, Lauren Rhodes. Hey, Lauren, just Lisa, Brittany Santos. Santos with no last name. That could be the same person. I'm not sure. Laura Hughes, Jennifer Klopaki, Shana would no last name. name's Sof Brie, Joshua Roderick, Sarah Benning, Cassidy Chance, Jacob Belvery.

Belvery, not Beverly. It's literally... Belvery. He spelled it twice, so that's his last name. Angela Gore, Simon Spindle, or Spindell, Lynn Cavallo, Travis Paulson, Adam Pawmihanovsky. Kelsey Green, Libby, 43, Victory, Victoria, Sweet. Nathan Delmer, Alicia B. Joker, would no last name. Andy Hudson, Trisha Baker, Paul Lockwood, Rachel Howell, Missy Brazovich, Jonah, Jonah, Joanna, Wilk, Jason Rebels, Trisha Oviot, Melinda Lambert, Crystal Dice, Dyce, yeah, Dice, Rebecca with no last name, April Hartley, Squire, Motherfucking Boone,

Dave Garcia, Teresa Savage, Devinna Marshick, Joshua Cabizney, Cubisini, Kyle Swan, Samantha Noffs, Evolution Training Center LLC. I don't know where it is. Keesha Childress. Lloyd Keeler. It exists. Drew B. Cheyenne Duffany.

Jose, Jose, Josie, Jose Azamas, Azamas. Robert Masek. Macek. Cole would no last name. Monica A. John Kavana. Canavan? Cheree Chance. Elizabeth Potts.

Jay Bo. Gina Faby, Catherine Neal, Angela Bowles, Che with no last name, Chloe Blackburn, Hannah Henderson, Tara Lee, Erica Floyd, Julie Godot, G-Dawter, Chelsea Marshall, Gordon W-L-L-L-A-W. Oh, boy, why is this a palindrome, W-O-O-O-I-O-O-W. Jesse Boyer. It doesn't make any sense. Rachel Adam Chick, a damn chick, a damn chick. A damn shit. Samantha K. Decode, Bazden, like Basel 40.

I don't know what, Decode? Is that a real name? Decode? Is that a real name? I might be. Aaron McCall, Odell, Ashley Myers. Abby Kay, Samantha Wynn, Kate Bot, Susan Clark, Whitney Hanson, Danielle, nope, that's Daniel Seismore. Rebecca Combs, Amy Armstrong, Maggie Mays, Maggie Mays, Lindquist, Brie Carr, Yael Cohen. Twice. He has two patrons. Or she.

Wow. Yael? I don't know if that, I don't know what fucking gender of that. But thank you. You're the best. Megan Murstock. Tyler Jackson. Julie Thornton.

Shai. Shell. Shell would no last name. Suzanne with no last name. Bloody Josephine. Brandon, the flight nurse. Sean Peh. Kyra Ben Lulu.

Kathleen would no last name. Benjamin White. Athena would no last name. Clay Barton. Karen would no last name. Graham or Kayla, maybe, Marcy Stitt, Michelle Heiss, Katie, what is that, Kinlaw, Julia Warwick, Julia Warwick, Julia, yeah, it is, that's right. I nailed it. All right, moving on. Adrian Brandt, Casey Hainaberg, Patricia Cunningham, Leanne Wenbon, Price, Grant Gibb, P.J.E. Amber would know the last name. Meat Tractor. That's gross. Cherise Gardner, Nick Rubble. Oh, just rubble. Rubble, maybe Rubble. Katie, Taylor. Katie, Terry, Terry, Terry, Terry, Terry, Dr. Catherine Frye, if she's a doctor, we'll let her know. Caitlin Palmer, Stephanie James, Julia Gulia.

There she is. Christmas would know last name. Sherry Struts. Shannon Sapplich, Sappellich, Michael Thompson, Carissa would know last name, Levi Sanders, Jessica would no last name. Cassie Thompson, Rhonda Crawford, Jack Thomas, Bree would know last name. Patrick Edwards, Jason Pappas, Erica Bosley, Mark Hughes, Morgan Terensky, Frankie Montpetit, S. Salvatado. Annie Mouse, Michelle Thompson, K-S, Nichols would know last name, Sam Hodges, Katie Marlowe, K-O. This letter brought to you by the letter K-N-O.

This show, yeah, this letter brought to you by the shows, K-N-O. Jenna Barger, Rooney, Gleason, Lyle would know last name. Christian Licinger, Elizabeth Spinoosky, Debbie Chovers, Ashley McCowski, Pod Addicted 17. Heather would know last name. Amanda Malloy, age quick, Sam Gosling, Eveleen, oh boy, Pattoe, Hannah would know the last name, Jessica Shelton, Larissa Bourgeois, Sarah would, Sarah Struts, Heather, uh, higher,

Katie Kathy would know the last name. Kathleen Hall, Stephanie Fitzmores, Patrice, Graham Hardin, Bryn Spence, Amber Jackson, Jen would know last name, L, M and L. M. L.

M. Rushing it today on these names, man. This is a fucking torturous. Just paint a... You're doing it, though. Fucking shit. I'd rather be waterboard. I'd rather have each pub ripped out one by one. Mark Murray, Dawn to sell.

Stacey Martinez, Deanne, Deanne, Wadi, Alexander Founce, Matthew L-O-L-L. Marla Carlyle. Jessica, nope, that's Christine. What? Widner. Oh, there's Jessica. Leisure.

She would know last name. Robin Thayotte. Allie Dix. Oh, boy, that's tough. Heather Jameson, Marcy Crow, Kathy Ires, Leah Regiro, Jiao Figuero, Figuero, Joe Swanner, Stephen, Steve Rodriguez, Dacer, 20, no, 66, Jamie White, Chloe Wiggins, Deanna would know the last name, Megan and Dave Jensen, Julia Dracia, Robert Bowden, Morgan Hill, hey Morgan, hello, Shakira Johnson, Jason Davis, Bailey

Gwynnin, Claire Jackson, Juanita Harris, Joshua Asher, Luke Simon. Oh, I hope that's Simon. Dustin Stites, Giorgios, Antonopoulos, Austin Rogers, David Patterson, Michael Reader, Carolyn Sealy, Wicked Joker Wrestling Historian.

Oh, he loves wrestling like you do. Hillary Smith, Jill Quinn, Rachel Vrax. Ranch, Chish. Sierra Baney, Alice Watson, Missy Grubb, Kane, Clark Gerean, God damn it. Nathan Baxter, Michelle would know the last name. Sol Magic, Soul Magic,

Pariah Me, Patrick would know the last name, Brandon Washington, Nancy Coonsman, Ashley Miller, Henry Watson, Miley, Mayle, Sumida, Samida, Ashley McGarry, Chris Kay, Scotty Woodleaf, Jennifer Chamber,

Yes, Jessica, Jessica, Pascenca, Pachana. Jessica. Jessica. Not howie. Jessica. Her brother, not for me. Heather Hodgkin's. Maybeica.

That's a cousin. Maybe aca. Marley Leboe, Amy Bennings, Stephen Harding, Casey Dunn, Viv would know last name. Katie Schmidt, Desi Marie, Jennifer Doroski, Ann Johnson, Elizabeth Murphy, Joe Mitchell, Lexi Evans, Rikin, Reichen, Huntington. Eliza would no last name. Also, Eliza Kruger, probably the same person. We don't have...

Well, thank you. Maybe. That many Elizas? It's possible. Sean Kuhl. Shoshana. Shahana Jod? Good Lord.

Jawed, maybe. Joe Parker, Christina Eldritch, James Williams, Sonia Bayer, Heather Lewis, and every patron that exists. Thank you all so much. You're the best. You are the best. And we just want to say there are some people who donate

in the past week and a half that because of the way we were not doing the early release, the way the schedules went, there was a lot. So if you didn't hear your name, you will hear it next week. We just kind of had to cut the list a little bit, so half of our episodes aren't shoutouts. So it's thank you so much. There's some. So we appreciate that. Thank you.

We want to do it. So give me some time. Thank you so much, everybody. You fucking wonderful bastards. God damn it, we really appreciate. All that you do for us, honestly, it blows us away. So thank you for what you do for us. Thank you for hanging out with us.

Thank you for being here. And we got a lot more crazy stuff coming for you. You want to follow us on social media. Real easy. Head over to shut up and give me murder.com, drop down menus. You go wherever you want. And do that. Come back and keep hanging out with us live from the Crime and Sports Studios.

We will see you next week. Bye. Thank you.