Deirdre Gogarty

Check out our interview with Ireland's Deirdre Gogarty on TheBoxingBar podcast. Gogarty fell in love with boxing while watching a film with Jack Dempsey. The future boxing trailblazer kept this secret from her family who were in the dental field. She made a homemade punching bag to practice on, and followed the sport reading boxing magazines. This was at a time when women weren't welcomed in gyms due to laws preventing women to compete in boxing in Ireland. Down the line she would become pro and take on women's boxing trailblazer, Christy Martin. Martin won via six-round decision. In 1997, Gogarty won the WIBF Featherweight title defeating Bonnie Canino and becoming Ireland's first boxing world champion. Years later, a twelve year old fan of hers named Katie Taylor from Ireland wrote to her and asked her for advice. Taylor would later win the gold medal in the Olympics for her country, and is a boxing superstar today. In 2015, Gogarty was inducted into the Women's International Boxing Hall of Fame. Check out this interview with Deirdre Gogarty!