Sean O'Grady

Sean O'Grady (born February 10, 1959) is a successful Commercial Realtor in Oklahoma City, and a former Champion Boxer who was born in Austin, Texas. The son of boxing trainer Pat O'Grady and boxing promoter Jean O' Grady, Sean moved around a lot when he was a younger kid, but his family settled in Oklahoma City, when he was 11 years old. In addition to being a world champion, O'Grady is also a college graduate, boxing analyst, television personality, actor and former teen idol across the United States Midwest. In the middle of his boxing career, Sean was popular among teen girls around his area, and it wasn't uncommon to see teenaged females from Oklahoma and its adjacent states wearing Sean O'Grady T-shirts or anything else related to him. He regularly chewed bubble gum upon entering the ring prior to fights, and because of this, he earned the nickname "Bubble Gum Bomber."

O' Grady started boxing professionally in 1975. In 1980, he had his first world title try, when the World Boxing Council Lightweight champion Jim Watt gave him an opportunity to fight for the title. O' Grady travelled to Scotland to fight Watt, but sustained a cut over the forehead due to a head butt late in the bout and lost by a technical knockout in round 12. The O' Gradys protested the fight's result 24 hours later while in Ireland, arguing that the cut had been caused by the headbutt, not a punch. Because of the controversy surrounding the fight, the World Boxing Association Lightweight champion, Hilmer Kenty, gave O'Grady another opportunity at the title. They met on April 12 of 1981. O' Grady again suffered a cut early in the bout, but he dropped Kenty in round eight and won a unanimous decision. The fight was one of the ten best fights of 1981 according to Ring Magazine.

In part because of problems with his manager/father, he never defended the WBA title and was eventually stripped of it. Pat O' Grady then formed the little-regarded (and very short lived) World Athletic Association to recognize Sean as a champion. O' Grady promptly lost this "championship" to Andy Ganigan of Hawaii.

O' Grady had a record of 81 wins and 5 losses as a professional boxer, with 70 wins by knockout.

After boxing

After that fight with Ganigan, he retired from boxing and resisted any temptation to make a comeback. However, O' Grady did not leave the public eye. In his most noticeable role, he provided color commentary for "USA's Tuesday Night Fights" until it went off the air in 1998. He then went on to broadcast fights with Fox Sports Network and he lent his voice for the video game, Knockout Kings. In 1999, he appeared as a color commentator on the "Toughman" TV show aired on the F/X channel. He also has an instructional video named "How to Box by Sean O' Grady." In 1992, he was inducted into the World Boxing Hall of Fame (not to be confused with the more wellknown International Boxing Hall of Fame). In 1995, he won the Sam Taub Award for excellence in boxing broadcasting journalism. [ [http://www.ibhof.com/ibhfbwaa.htm Internantional Boxing Hall of Fame / BWAA Awards ] ]

Other information

Father Pat O’Grady created the World Athletic Association (WAA).

References

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