ABOUT ME

I was born into a well-known Coventry-Irish boxing family, from the working-class Tile Hill area. My uncles, Sean, Martin and Jarlath all boxed internationally. Sean beat world title challenger Tony Sibson as an amateur. Martin challenged Sylvester Mittee for the Commonwealth welterweight title as a professional, and Jarlath became the youngest ever IABA light-heavyweight champion in 1978. I'm also related to Irish boxing champion Jamie Kavanagh on my mothers' side.

One side of my family come from Tuam, County Galway, and the other side of my family are from Dublin. I'm the son of Jimmy and Susan McGough. I have one brother and one sister.

Boxing Career

I began boxing at the age of nine. Despite my family's prowess in boxing, I struggled early on, losing 18 of my first 24 fights. However, I turned my record around later on and went on to become national (NABC) champion. I also became a senior England international at welterweight. I felt unwell during my international debut but got through the contest to lose on points. Days later, I was in hospital having a lumbar puncture with suspected meningitis. This, along with constant hand troubles led to the end of my boxing career at just 20 years old. I've also survived tuberculosis and septacemia (incidentally my uncle Martin just pulled through a near-identical battle with septacemia). I hold wins over a number of unbeaten professional boxers including Connor Coyle, Ireland's Commonwealth Games middleweight bronze medallist in 2014. I went on to become a boxing coach at numerous clubs including Golden Gloves ABC in Liverpool and the Standard Triumph ABC in Coventry. I coached Aaron Bowen from 2016-2020, in which time Aaron won the 2017 Commonwealth Youth Games middleweight gold medal in the Bahamas, as well as the 2019 ABA Light-Heavyweight title and the 2019 Tri-Nations gold medal. I've also worked with other champions such as Marcel Braithwaite, Meshech Speare and Bradley Goldsmith.

Coaching and Teaching

After my boxing career, I travelled around the world teaching English. When working in Catalonia, I also coached football teams with my local club A.E La Salle Premia, coaching at venues such as Camp Josep Guardiola and the Dani Jarque complex. While in Vietnam, I coached and played Gaelic Football with the Viet Celts in Hanoi, competing in tournaments around Asia. This is one of the happiest periods of my life and I loved helping long-running Viet Celts president Jim Kiernan and Hogan Cup winning Gaelic footballer Shane Moran to organise the first ever Asian Gaelic Youth Games in Hanoi 2014. I also played for the Laos Elephants Australian Rules football team during the 2017 South East Asian AFL Games. During my time travelling I've been a voice actor, hosted cultural events and edited textbooks. While living in Vietnam, I also opened up and coached in the first Western-run boxing clubs in Hanoi. 

Education

In 2014, I enrolled at Liverpool John Moores University, obtaining a 2:1 degree in Sports Coaching three years later. Since then, I have worked in specialist education, teaching teenagers how to box, coach sports and develop crucial leadership skills.

Writing and Directing

In 2009, I began writing and completed my first short film 'Winners and Losers', which I also directed and produced. After, directing another short film 'The Drinking Class', I didn't write seriously until 2018, when I began writing my first play 'Fighting Irish'. My only involvement with film during the 2010's, was playing a French soldier extra in a film commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Battle of Dien Bien Phu in 2014.

During a long bout of illness I began work on 'Fighting Irish', a play that discusses many themes of Irish identity - especially amongst the diaspora - as well as Irish historical references and McGough family dynamics. In 2019, the play first appeared on stage at a Blindspot Theatre 'scratch night' in Coventry - where I performed an extract of the play alongside my fiancee Joanna Ryan.