FIGHTING FOR MADDISON
By East Leeds Magazine Editorial Staff, February 2010

Boxing is Lee Murtagh's life. The East Leeds born southpaw started off when he was 8 years old 28 years later and a veteran of 40 fights he's still at it. Lee has had his share of championship glory in his 14 year professional career, having won the British Masters and Central Area championships at both light-middleweight and middleweight.

“Just winning a belt has been great. I used to have a picture of Rocky when I was a kid and he had The Ring Boxing Belt on and I used to say to myself ‘That’s what I want, a belt around my waist just to say I’ve been a champion. When you’re a champion things change, your thoughts change and your whole life changes and all I ever wanted to be was a champion."

His family roots are Irish and he fights under an Irish licence. He's actually fighting for the Irish Super Middleweight title on February 13th in Dublin. If you include Lee's amateur career, he's a veteran of nearly a hundred fights and with age and experience, comes clarity. Lee is no punch drunk boxer with nowhere else to go.

There's no squashed nose or slurred speech. Most days Lee can be found at the Star Family Fitness Gym, just off York Road, where he not only trains himself and Sam Smith but the whole of "The Ring Saoirse" Boxing Team, as well as individuals. He also promotes under the banner of Saorise Boxing Promotions. He put on 'Leeds Hardest Doormen' last year and is planning 'Leeds Hardest Rugby Player.'

Last August he staged Leeds first open air boxing exhibition at Garforth Town Football Club, where Leeds took on Luton, and there were a few title fights, the highlight of which was Sam Smiths British Title Defence against the 'The Raging Bull' Burton. At the moment Lee is a personal trainer for ex Leeds United winger Lee Sharpe. "I first trained Sharpey for the Irish reality TV Boxing Show 'Lords of the Ring.' Barry Mc.Guigan presents the show and he was ringing me up a few weeks before asking about him, can he take a punch, have you hit him, that kind of stuff. I guess Lee has a bit of a playboy reputation but there were no airs and graces about him as far as I was concerned. He mucked in with us all, just one of the lads really.

Since retiring from football, Lee Sharpe has kept busy with media work, reality TV and his charity, the Lee Sharpe Foundation, which helps disadvantaged youngsters in South Africa and also raises money for cancer and diabetes. “We do a lot of fund raising, a couple of golf days and dinners, we've climbed Kilimanjaro, this summer we are cycling through South Africa and we are looking into walking to the North Pole. "We'll be doing a1000km cycle which will take about eight or nine days. We'll be aiming to do 70 or 80 miles a day, 100 miles some days. I’m looking forward to donning the gloves again to fight Murtagh, it’s time for some pay back after all the stick he’s given me in the gym!”

Chatting with Sam Smith you wouldn't guess what she did in her spare time. The 29 year old former John Smeaton pupil comes over as unassuming, quietly spoken and showed more concern for Maddison Staveley than for anything she'd achieved, the interview was punctuated by her cuddling her two neices and drawing little pictures for them as she told us how she spends her evenings. She’s starting her own on line supplement business and she's also the European Boxing Federation Northern Area and British Lightweight title holder, undefeated in nine bouts, every one a stoppage.

She's been boxing for three years, but has had a break of a year in that time. Originally, she attended Lee Murtagh's Star Fitness Club just to keep fit but Lee spotted her potential and he started to train her seriously.

"She'd been coming to the gym for a while," Lee explained, "one day I was watching another trainer putting another female boxer through her paces for a fight the following week. I wasn't convinced she was ready to fight and I gave her a bit of a work out myself. She was knackered by the end of it and it definately convinced me she wasn't ready." The next day I gave Sam the same work out and she barely broke sweat, it kind of went from there."

Sam explains " I was brought up in Boggart Hill, Seacroft and I was a bit of a tomboy, I liked to play football when I was younger and just the environment I was living in made me able to look after myself. After training and sparring for what seemed like forever I had my first fight. I was nervous, not nervous about getting in the ring but nervous of letting everyone down. Lee had put a lot of time and energy into me, not only training me but going out and selling 116 tickets for my first fight. It went ok I stopped her in the first round. It gathered momentum from there, the fights became championship fights, the next one is the European Title. I still enjoy it but the longer I remain undefeated, the more the pressure builds and the stakes get higher."

Lee interuptted , "Take no notice, I'd put her in with anyone, the only problem we have is finding people willing to fight her, they take one look at her record and back off. Even for the European title fight, she's up against a fighter from Tenerife, I first made contact with them 2 years ago, it's taken that long to get it sorted but I've lined up another boxer from Holland just in case, until they're in the ring with her there's always a chance they'll back off."

Watching Sam fight you see just why she's been so successfull, she's fast, skillfull and unrelentless, almost like a well oiled machine. Against Sarah Burton, her arms were like pistons, her feet never still, she positively bounced and sprang landing devastatingly effective punches, to what appeared to be an easy win.

Sam was quick to counter, "There's no such thing as an easy win, it's all about diet, nutriton, training and preparation, the more you do this, the more chance you have. I'm training now, it takes 8 weeks to prepare for a fight, no booze and a special diet and fitness regime. I'll be fighting at 9stone 9lbs for this one, a bit lighter than before. But I want to be fit and hungry to give my best for Maddy. I've been affected by her story, a close friend lost her sister to cancer and I lost my Grandad, we’ve all been affected by cancer in some way or another and I really feel for Maddy and her parents."

Sam doesn't have a nick name like Mad dog or Mean Machine, Lee suggested one but it's not printable. Somehow Sam "right nice lass with a heart of gold" Smith doesn't really cut it in the ring but it' couldn't be more fitting for outside it.