Tommy McCarthy: Boxing protected me from racism says Belfast man as he awaits his big fight chance

"I wanted to be ready for anything that came up. But unfortunately coronavirus threw a spanner in the works."

Belfast cruiserweight Tommy McCarthy is talking ruefully of the big fight - most likely a European belt bout but possibly even a world title shot - which had looked in prospect for the month of May.

But just as has happened on a few occasions in his career, events intervened in the life of the 29-year-old, who was born to a Jamaican mother and Irish father in London.

Back in 2012, McCarthy's London Olympics hopes were dashed after an assault by a bouncer left him with a broken vertebra in his neck and not fully fit when he boxed in the qualifying event in Turkey.

Shortly after turning pro two years later, McCarthy signed what "looked like an incredible deal" with Philadelphia-based promoters Green Bloods only for it all to fall through as Belfast-based manager Pat Magee, who had graciously released him from the contract they had agreed, accepted him back into the fold.

"While I was waiting for the opponent for the European title fight to be announced, my manager Mark Dunlop actually got an offer to WBA world champion Arsen Goulamirian," McCarthy tells BBC Sport NI Online of this year's machinations.

"We obviously agreed to that and all the terms with the fight going to take place in France but then they went quiet on us before Coronavirus hit us."

Up until this week, the 29-year-old spent lockdown "ticking over" with road work and sessions at home but the father of four is now back travelling to Dublin to work with Pete Taylor, the father and former trainer of Irish great Katie.

McCarthy says Taylor's input has been instrumental in rejuvenating a career that looked over as recently as March 2019 when he was knocked out in four rounds by British champion Richard Riakporhe.

'My legs just went'

McCarthy wondered if boxing was all over for him that night in Peterborough after the televised contest.

The Riakporhe bout had been aimed at getting McCarthy back in the cruiserweight division limelight after a two-year period when his earnings had largely been confined to the sparring circuit.

"I just overlooked him big time," recalls McCarthy of his second professional defeat.

"He was breathing heavily in the fourth round and I felt I was going to get him in the next. But he banged me on the top of the head and my legs just went.

"The ref stepped in. If I had been caught again, I could have been seriously hurt so the ref did me a great decision."

McCarthy regrouped with two stoppage wins over journeyman opponents last summer but his career seemed stalled until, out of the blue, a call came to fight highly-rated WBC international champion Fabio Turchi in Italy.

For a couple of years, McCarthy's cruiserweight peers had been avoiding the Belfast fighter - in part because of the reputation he had forged as a regular sparring partner for stars such as Tony Bellew, Carlos Takam and Hughie Fury.

But now seemingly on the way down, judging by his crushing defeat by Riakporhe, Turchi's Matchroom Italy handlers regarded the Irishman as a bout that would look good on his record.

Italy fight was 'last chance' territory

For McCarthy the Trento contest was "last chance" territory and after deciding to give the bout "total application" contacted Taylor asking if he would train him.

"I just decided to drive down to Dublin to train with him because I didn't want to sell myself short for the sake of convenience.

"He's brilliant in terms of the mental side of fighting and then from the technical perspective, he just studies boxing obsessively and knows everything about your opponent."

With Taylor backing him to the hilt, McCarthy went into the Trento contest convinced he had the tools to surprise one of Italian boxing's stars.

While one judge delivered a hometown decision, McCarthy clearly won the fight and suddenly he was back in business with a world ranking of 13th from the WBC which could conceivably be moved upwards to secure a world title fight if matters fell into place.

New Year talk of a bout with European champion Lawrence Okolie was quickly played down by the Englishman's Matchroom promoters who said their fighter was being aimed at a world title and would most likely vacate the EBU belt.

Then came the saga of a possible world title fight with Goulamirian before a contest for the vacant European belt re-emerged as the more likely scenario.

Lockdown, of course, put everything on hold but in recent weeks Matchroom chief executive Frank Smith has said that McCarthy is in the frame to fight on one of the outdoor behind closed doors 'Hearn Garden' bills this summer.

McCarthy's manager Dunlop, whom the fighter says "has taken me from the boxing wilderness" has close ties with Matchroom through another of his boxers James Tennyson which could help the cruiserweight's chances of landing one of the prized outdoor slots.

'I was the only black kid in my school'

If he does get the nod from Matchroom, it will see him heading back to the city where he was born in 1990 and where the majority of his late mother's family still reside.

His mother's death when he was only seven led to Tommy being raised by his grandparents in west Belfast where he says he largely escaped racism despite his "token black" status.

"I was the only black kid in my school and there were only two of us in the whole area.

"When I was young, my friends never really made a big deal of it. It wasn't until I got a bit older than I started to become aware of it."

McCarthy says he rarely encountered overt racism growing up but at the same time, believes his physical presence and increasing status as a boxer in his local community while proudly representing the Oliver Plunkett club, may have played a part in that.

"Once I started boxing, I was good at that and anyone who was a boxer was always respected in the area. Then I became an Irish champion and so on," adds McCarthy, who won a World Youth Championship bronze medal in 2008 before clinching a Commonwealth Games silver in Delhi two years later.

Barnes a 'mentor' to McCarthy

His Irish team-mates included Olympic medallists Michael Conlan and Paddy Barnes, and the latter remains a particular "mentor" to McCarthy and is also godfather to one of his four children.

"But while I was raised by my grandparents on my daddy's side, I've always maintained a tight connection with the black side of the family.

"Before anything at the start of my life, I was black. I was living in the black community in London. I'm well aware of my blackness and not like a lot of mixed race people in Ireland, who maybe don't have a relationship with a lot of their black relatives, so they have a bit of a search for belonging."

While his mother had battled with inflammatory disease Sarcoidosis for some time, her death at the age of 28, when Tommy was only seven, was unexpected.

McCarthy was at his grandparents' Lenadoon home in west Belfast when the phone rang with devastating news.

"I was so young and it didn't affect me as maybe it did later on in life.

"When we got the phone call, my granny brought me out to my friends in the street and told them, 'Tommy's mother had died. Will you look after him?' We were all in bits crying."

As for his view on the story dominating the world's headlines following the killing of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis, McCarthy professes to a sense of "groundhog day" after attending a Black Lives Matter rally in July 2016.

He also admits to being a little cynical about some of the social media postings professing outrage.

A lot of social media outrage 'fake'

"Everyone that's going on right now feels like déjà vu. In July 2016, there was a Black Lives Matter protest outside City Hall in Belfast so four years on, we're back at exactly the same point after more killings in America.

"Growing up as the token black guy in Belfast throughout my life, I always took great pride in my blackness.

"So in 2016 I brought my wife (Amy) and the two children we had at the time to the rally outside City Hall.

"But at the moment, I just feel like (a lot of) what I've seen on social media has been fake.

"I have seen people who I know don't like black people have been putting up social media posts saying that Black Lives Matter just to try and get 'likes'.

"To combat racism, you don't need to go on protests or rallies.

"And if you look around the world, the protests seem to have a white majority.

"If white people are sick of racism, all they have to do is stop being racist. It's that simple.

"They don't need to post on social media about it or post pictures of yourself at the protest. Just let go of your prejudice against people who don't look like you."