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An exploration of the eccentric events and unlikely figures behind Muhammad Ali's 1972 boxing match in Dublin.
On July 19, 1972, the legendary Muhammad Ali stepped into the ring at Croke Park to face Al Blue Lewis in a bout that would go down in history more for its eccentricity than its sporting brilliance.
Ali eventually secured a victory in the eleventh round, but the lead-up to the event was characterized by a staggering lack of preparation. In a surreal turn of events, the organizers had failed to provide boxing gloves, necessitating a frantic, last-minute retrieval of the equipment from London on the very day the fight was scheduled to take place. Despite the global fame of the fighter, the attendance was disappointing, highlighting a disconnect between the spectacle and the local audience.
This event marked a significant moment in Irish sports history, though it stood in stark contrast to the era of Bartley Madden, a former Roscommon footballer who had headlined a fight at Croke Park nearly half a century earlier in 1926. Madden had been a resilient figure in American boxing circles, fighting twenty grueling rounds against Tom Heeney, yet by the time Ali arrived in Dublin, such historical precedents had been largely forgotten.
The catalyst for this unusual sporting venture was Michael Butty Sugrue, a man whose life story reads more like a circus act than a promoter's resume. Originally a circus strongman touring with Duffy's Circus, Sugrue was known for superhuman feats of strength, such as pulling a cart filled with men while holding a rope between his teeth or dragging a London bus up Kilburn High Street with a single hand.
Transitioning from the ring to the hospitality industry, Sugrue became a pub landlord in London, owning establishments like The Wellington in Shepherd's Bush and the Admiral Nelson in Kilburn. His pubs were eccentric hubs, featuring wrestling rings and occasional indoor puck fairs complete with imported Kerry goats. It was through his friendship with Henry Cooper that Sugrue envisioned bringing a world-class fighter to Ireland. To achieve this, he partnered with Harold Conrad, a sophisticated New York boxing promoter and writer.
The pairing was an odd one: a flamboyant strongman and a suave New Yorker. Conrad demanded a guarantee of 300,000 dollars by April 1972 to secure Ali's participation, a sum Sugrue miraculously managed to obtain from Williams and Glyn's Bank. Despite the financial guarantee, the announcement of Ali's visit was met with intense cynicism from the Irish sporting press. Many writers viewed Sugrue as a mere chancer and dismissed the possibility of the fight as a ludicrous fantasy.
Even when Harold Conrad arrived in Dublin to validate the arrangements, local journalists remained skeptical, believing the event was too improbable to be true. At the time, Muhammad Ali was in a complex period of his career. He was far from a fading star, but he was navigating the fallout of having his boxing license stripped due to his refusal to serve in the Vietnam War.
He had also suffered a high-profile loss to Joe Frazier in the Fight of the Century a year prior. During his stay in Ireland, Ali's political stance remained radical, often speaking out against racial injustice and the white establishment. This created a peculiar tension when locals attempted to highlight his Irish ancestry, specifically his paternal great-grandfather, Abe O'Grady from Ennis.
Rather than embracing the connection, Ali played it down, suggesting that such familial ties involved a great deal of sneaking around in the past. The event serves as a window into a transformative era of sport, reflecting the intersection of political upheaval, eccentric promotion, and the enduring magnetism of one of the greatest athletes in history
Muhammad Ali Boxing Croke Park Ireland Butty Sugrue
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