Exclusive Interview with Cumbria’s Local Hero: The Boxing Shipbuilder, Liam Conroy

Barrow-in-Furness is a blue collar town in Cumbria that is famous for building warships. Barrow is said to be the most isolated town in England as it sits on the tip of the Furness peninsula at the end of a long cul de sac, apparently the longest in the UK. Wind blows in from the Irish Sea, making it consistently chilly. Life in this working class town is not easy, only deepened by the sense of isolation. There is a lurching railway that services people across the Morecambe Bay, and to travel anywhere by car takes 40 minutes to get to the nearest motorway.

There have been several sports stars coming from Barrow-in-Furness, but not too many of them are boxers. We have the greats like football legend Emlyn Hughes and the amazing rugby wizard Willie Horn, amongst others. The town is also the birthplace of Hairy Biker, David Myers. Barrow has two established and respected amateur boxing clubs, Barrow Amateur Boxing Club and Furness Catholic Amateur Boxing Club (also known as Pat’s Club named after the great Pat Ryan).

Currently there are two professional boxers coming out of Barrow, Light Heavyweight Liam Conroy and talented featherweight Ross Cooksey. I’ve tried to research the history of the British Boxing title (The Lord Lonsdale Belt). As far as I am aware, if Liam wins the British title, he’ll be the first person from Barrow to achieve this prestigious title. I know Carlisle’s Charlie Shepard owned the British title, but Liam could be Barrow’s first.

I live in Colorado, USA, yet have held onto my strong Barovian roots of this working class, industrial town. I’ve loved boxing ever since the days of John Conteh. I used to train at the Barrow Amateur Boxing club under the expert eyes of the Skyrme family. I was lucky enough to be granted an exclusive interview by the fascinating and steely determined Liam Conroy. I am interested on how Liam juggles working in a full time job in a naval shipyard, being a new father and travelling the long route of the A590 to his training at the MTK gym in Preston, Lancashire.


Hi Liam, can I first begin by saying how proud I am to see a fellow Barrovian (a person hailing from Barrow) boxing for the British title. What does boxing for the British Lonsdale Belt mean to you?  (The Lonsdale Belt is a beautiful belt that is presented to British Boxing Champions.) When and how did you find out you were boxing for the British Lonsdale title?

Hi Mike, thank you. I'm very proud also to be doing this for my town of Barrow and helping put us on the map. Barrow’s a great little fightingtown with plenty of boxing talent,so I hope I'm inspiring some of the younger ones to chasetheir dreams in the sport. Being made mandatory to box for the Lonsdale means so much to me; winning it has been my dream since I was a 9 year old boy. Back then as I was competing as an amateur boxer I was starting to question how realistic a dream it was, at the time it seemed impossible for a boxer from Barrow to make the transition into the pros and chase titles. Then when I got the opportunity to turn professional that was my main goal in mind and I've never stopped chasing it. My career was up and down in the beginning but I've stuck with it. My girlfriend and I recently had our first child and since I met him, I knew I wanted him to grow up and know his dad was a British champion boxer and someone he could be proud of.

Being from Barrow, which is a long way from any professional boxing hubs, how do you juggle working for BAE Systems, being a new father and training? How far away is your training?

With a lot of hard work and long day's haha. I work 37 hours per week and travel 3 hour round trips to the MTK Manchester gym in Preston, so some days I will leave my home at 6am and not return until almost 10pm. It’s a long day and tiring but the results are beginning to speak for themselves. In all honesty, I owe half of it to my Fiancée, Melissa. She is so understanding of the sacrifices I have to make and does as much as she can to take away some of the pressures, whether that be with preparing meals, night feeds for the baby and sorting the tickets for my fights out. She's also a qualified sports masseuse which comes in handy also.

What does an average training and working day look like for you?

Basically my day will start at 6am. I will do my first training session of the day, either running or strength and conditioning. Then I will start my day at work until about 4pm. After work I have my pre-training meal and get my bag ready for the training session, then set off to Preston most of the time through heavy traffic. My session will be pads, bags, sparring, the usual for a boxer. Then I will set off home and arrive sometime around 9:30, where Melissa will have prepared my post training meal. After eating this I will get a bath and prepare my bag for work the next day and the mornings training session. Then right at the end of the day I spend some time with our son and then go to sleep.

Are you being given any time off from working in the naval shipyard or do you still work both jobs?

The shipyard have always been flexible with me through career and allowed me to take time as and when I need it, so I can pursue both careers.

Do you still spend time training at your old amateur boxing club?

Yeah, the trainer Jeff Moses at my old amateur gym has said the doors are always open for me to use, which comes in handy in between camps when I'm ticking over. It also comes in handy when the traffic on the A590 is at a standstill! The Barrow Amateur Boxing Club will always mean a lot to me, as well as some of the old faces training there, many of them still come and support me when they can.

Barrow is more famous for rugby league and football than it is for professional boxing. How and when did you become involved in the noble art?

Well I played a lot of sports when I was younger, I played rugby until I was about 14 and still enjoy watching it now and again. My mum actually encouraged me to try a lot of different sports and my dad trained in the boxing gym for many years. My earliest memories of boxing are my dad showing me old fights and the blood scaring me. My dad used to have a punch bag up in the house and he would show me some little basics and I would always have a go for as long as I can remember.  I started properly when I was 9 and just started enjoying it more and more. I stopped playing rugby one season, because I broke my arm in a rugby game against Ulverston which kept me out of the gym for a while. That’s when I chose boxing as my sole sport and started taking boxing more seriously. I'll always remember my mum and dad being so supportive, my dad hasn’t missed a single fight amateur or pro, and he even came to Denmark to support me in the amateurs. Two things that stand out to me from when I was younger are; my dad once telling me I wouldn’t ever be a world champion unless I trained every single day, and my mum telling me to treat training as seriously as I treat school and to never miss a day because I felt like it.

Did you have any boxing heroes growing up?

My main boxing hero as a kid was Ricky Hatton. I remember having a lump in my throat when Mayweather beat him!

Your opponent Joshua Buatsi is considered one of boxing’s world top prospects. He won a bronze at the Rio Olympic Games in 2016. Some at Sky television have liked Buatsi to a young Evander Holyfield. What is your opinion of this young man?

I think he's a talented prospect and probably has the attributes in and outside of the ring to go a long way. He's tall with good awareness of his range and seemingly good power. He has a good team around him guiding him. However, I feel they have missed a trick and are underestimating me, because I have the experience, style and power to beat him.

Your opponent is physically similar to you, you are both 6ft 1 inch and 25-26 years old, yet Joshua has only been a pro for a year and a half and managed 9 fights. Do you believe this lack of professional experience will hinder him in any way? Do you believe his amateur experience counters his lack of time in a professional ring?

I think this is where I have a huge advantage; he will have done a lot of learning in the amateur game where as I've been a professional since I was 19 years old. Boxing and sparring tough old pros is where I have developed my style and the professional code is almost a different sport to the amateurs.  There isn’t much I haven’t seen in the ring as a pro; good camps, bad camps, I've had early stoppages, late stoppages, been down on the cards, cuts, knocked downs, tall opponents, small opponents, orthodox/ southpaws, I've been on the home side and the away side, small crowds, big crowds. Most importantly I've never lost a title fight and I don’t intend on losing one any time soon. I will take him to places he never dreamed imaginable.

Buatsi’s last 3 fights have ended in the first round, which has not given him much time in the ring. Do you believe you have the physical strength and resolve to handle the bombs that are surely going to be coming early from Joshua?

I definitely do and I will be answering him back with my own bombs as well, we haven’t seen how he handles getting clipped himself. More importantly his opponents have all made one common mistake with him which I won't be.

When does the serious task of getting fight ready begin or have you already begun the long task of training?

I'm preparing now, we structure my training so I am working on certain things at certain points of camp. I was already training when I found out I was mandatory, because I was aiming to be boxing in March on the MTK show anyways. So we have already begun the first stage of camp now while we wait for the confirmed date.

You have to keep the foundations there year round the best you can, so I'm training now waiting for a confirmation of this fight already focusing on him. Obviously the intensity goes up at around the 8 week mark and we start bring specific sparring in of a good level.

Have you begun dieting for the fight? What does your diet look like? Do you have a dietitian employed?

Yes, I was already paying close attention to my nutrition for my potential March date. I used to work with a nutritionist, but now I have the experience to look after things myself and adjust things where I need to, depending on the training I have that day, the next day and my weight, etc. My diet is mostly lean meats and a wide variety of vegetables, as well as lots of fruits and good carbs when I need them. I also have a sponsor at ‘DS Fitness’ in Barrow that looks after all my shakes and nutritional supplements that keep me strong and healthy.

When in full training what’s the biggest vice you have to give up? Chocolates? Beer?

I do miss eating chocolate in training camp.

You won the English title from the tough Joel McIntyre via knockout and defended twice, both wins also coming via stoppage. However, what happened to your English title, I noticed in the rankings you do not own the belt anymore and one of your victims, Miles Shinkwin now holds the English title.

Yes I was well established as the English champion, defending twice in quick succession, a voluntary and a mandatory. Both of these were stoppages and my team and I felt the time was right to step up to British title level.

Who comes up with the fight plan? Do you sit down with your trainer to look at videos of Buatsi or do you leave it all to your training team?

I will have a little look, but my trainer, Johnney Roye, will study him and pick up on certain things we can use to our advantage.

Fellow professional boxer, Ross Cooksey is also from the Barrow Amateur Boxing Club, do you follow his career and if so do you train together, offer advice? What is your relationship like with Ross?

Yeah, Ross has been one of my best friends since senior school and we went right through the amateurs together. I speak to him most days and we help each other how we can. We always make each other's fights and he live streamed my English title fight from the York hall to Facebook, doing his own version of entertaining commentary. I have no doubt I'll be cheering him on for his own titles in the next few years.

Being from such an isolated place like Barrow-in-Furness, what have been the biggest challenges in your career so far?

In regards to the challenges due to being from Barrow, it's just travelling to train and spar. On the other side though, the Barrow community gets right behind their boxers, and Ross and I always have a huge supporting crowd!

How much of a disadvantage is it being a professional boxer coming from Cumbria, compared to other areas of the UK such as Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle, Belfast, London, Glasgow etc?

Travelling can be a disadvantage but nothing major. If you want something enough you will find a way to achieve it.

I have to admire your resolve for rebounding from the 1st round loss to the hard punching Cello Renda in the Matchroom promoted Prizefighter competition. I know your career was still in its’ infancy stage at the time of the loss, yet how did you manage to pick yourself up and go on to win the English light heavyweight title? There must have been a process of soul searching?

Yeah I almost retired, I thought I had nowhere to go. I had 2 more fights in 2015, but I didn't love the sport at that time and it was showing in my performances. At the end of the year I called my trainer Johnney Roye to tell him I was finished. He convinced me to have one more fight at light heavyweight and give it 110% for the camp and see how I felt. During this camp I was feeling good again and realised I had plenty more to give and things have just been rolling on since.

Who are your sparring partners? Have you sparred with Buatsi in the past or will this be your first time in the ring with him?


Due to being with MTK I have a wide pool to choose my sparring from, this ranges from the other lads in our gym up to the likes of Rocky Fielding and Martin Murray. So I am often getting a wide range of quality sparring. Having this large pool of choice also means we can choose sparring partners who closely resemble our opponents in their styles. I actually sparred with Buatsi at the GB camp in 2014 and got to feel how he is in there. This was early in my professional career when he had first signed with GB. I was a middleweight at the time and the spar ended up being a bit of a war. I don’t take anything from it, because I know I have come on leaps and bounds since then and I'm sure he will have too. What I can say is if it’s anything like that spar when we box, it will be entertaining while it lasts.



Do you have a fight prediction? Points or a knockout or do you just believe you will win?
I am going to win and that’s all.

When you win the British title, what’s the ruling, how many successful title defences do you need to have before you are allowed to keep the beautiful Lord Lonsdale Belt?

If I defend it twice its mine for keeps as that’s 3 victories for the Lonsdale, I believe.

When you are not training for a fight, do you monitor your weight or do you balloon up like Ricky Hatton used to in between fights?

I do gain a little bit of weight, not from necessarily binge eating but I am quite a big lad. My opponents often say I am much bigger than they expected.

When you win the British title, this will place you in the European rankings, what do you believe your future would bring?

I just want to get that British title won. If I can defend it a couple of times and keep one would be a dream come true, I've always promised my dad I would get him one.  Anything after that is a bonus.

Do you ever see yourself boxing for a European or world title?

I don’t know at the moment really, but I don’t put a limit on anything. I wouldn’t have dreamed of boxing for the English a few years ago.

Here’s some of the usual questions:

Who hit you the hardest in your amateur or pro career?

I boxed a Danish kid in Denmark as an amateur and he is the person who stands out as hitting me the hardest. His jabs were buzzing me. His name was Khattab and I boxed him on his local show in Copenhagen.

Who gave you your hardest fight?

I’d have to say Cello Renda, wouldn’t I! couldn’t keep on my feet and off my bum!!

What have been your proudest moment in your amateur/pro career?

Definitely winning the English title at the prestigious York hall.

What other sports are you interested in?

I used to watch football a lot and was a big Liverpool fan and I used to enjoy watching rugby league too and supported Wigan. I don’t get much chance to watch anymore as I’m pretty busy but I enjoy it when I do. I watch MMA whenever there is a big card on, I’ll catch it on the replays.

Tell me something not many people know about you.

I cry at films.

I went to one of your early fights in Bolton, one thing I took away from the evening was how rabid your fans are. You weren’t top of the bill that night, yet your supporters created the biggest noise of the evening. How many fans are you expecting to bring with you?

It's hard to say until I have confirmation of this fight, depending on the location and card, I usually take up to around 200 supporters with me. The Barrow crowd love their boxing. they turn up, drink a lot and make a huge noise, everyone always has a great time and everyone at the show always knows the barrow crowd is present. I'm very proud of the support I get and the fact I take so many away with me and everyone has a great night out centred around coming to watch me box.

When you win the British title, do you ever see yourself defending your title in Cumbria or is there not a venue or fan base for it to happen? There are plenty of good amateur shows in Cumbria, there’s not much professional boxing happening. There are two excellent Amateur clubs in Barrow.

A dream of mine would be to bring a professional boxing show to Barrow-in-Furness. I'm not sure on the venue size, but an outside event would be a dream come true in the summer at Craven Park (Barrow’s Rugby League Ground) or Holker Street (Barrow’s football club)! The board have certain parameters set on the venues that hold professional boxing shows, but I would hope it's something my team and I will certainly look into before I retire. Like I say, I'm so proud to represent my town and to bring a professional show there would be a great feeling and hopefully give the sport an extra little lift in our area!

If someone wants to contact you for either tickets or to sponsor you, what’s the best social media platform to use?

Yeah, a private mail on social media is the best way. I'm @LiamConroy92 on Twitter and Instagram and just Liam Conroy on Facebook.

Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to speak to you. Is there anyone you want to thank for the support they’ve given you?

Thanks very much for the interview. Can I thank the whole of Barrow for how they have supported me getting to this point, as well as the NW evening mail. I thank my trainer, Johnney Roy,e and management team, MTK, for all their work. I also want to thank, my strength and conditioning coach, Matty Green, at Cumbria strength and conditioning, Nuffield Health, and lastly Diane Singleton and Kade Kendal.

http://boxrec.com/en/boxer/614227

Thank you very much for your time Liam. I wish you every success in your lead-up to the event. I hope the training goes well and good luck on the night, I know everyone in Barrow-in-Furness is behind you.

This concludes my interview with Liam Conroy. He is a very likeable and articulate young man. Having to juggle his work life in the naval shipyard, homelife with an newborn child and travelling 3 hours for training, demonstrates immense levels of dedication to success. No matter the result of the British Title Fight, Liam will still come out a winner in life. In reference to dedication for boxing, the former great middleweight champion once said, “It’s hard to get out of bed when you are wearing silk pajamas.” Liam Conroy isn’t wearing silk pajamas yet, the dedication to his craft can never be doubted.

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