Joe Gallagher, the esteemed Manchester boxing coach, is back in the gym, and in the corner, after completing a remarkable recovery from cancer.
He had been diagnosed with stage four bowel and liver cancer and underwent chemotherapy and a major operation.
But in September he was well enough to accompany his fighter Mikie Tallon to Las Vegas to box in a mid-week show ahead of Canelo Alvarez vs Terence Crawford.
“It’s been an emotional journey for the 10 months, I’ve gone through the full cycles of chemo, had a stent fitted that had migrated and gone missing at times,” Gallagher told Sky Sports.
“Those little battles along the way that take anything you have about yourself. You think: Wow, has it really come to this?
“Coming through all that and staying positive.”
Gallagher took Lawrence Okolie to a world title.
He put back his final operation until after Lawrence Okolie’s bout on the undercard of the Oleksandr Usyk vs Daniel Dubois undisputed fight at Wembley Stadium in July.
“It was on the Saturday night. Monday morning, I was at the hospital giving blood and on Tuesday morning I was in and under the knife,” Gallagher said.
“I was quite overwhelmed and quite emotional because of the magnitude of the operation at the time.
“Then seven weeks later, to be stood there with Mikie Tallon weighing in in Las Vegas… I was really glad that I got there for Mikie, I pushed myself to get better.
“I got a phonecall, telling me the good news and the next morning we were on the way to Vegas. It was touch and go, they gave me permission to fly. From Wembley to Vegas and what went on in between, I could write a book on it.”
While he doesn’t require further treatment, he will continue to have check-ups and scans.
Gallagher took Lawrence Okolie to a world title.
“Your body’s still repairing and still recovering, you’ve just had massive surgery,” he said. “I’ve got to build up my recovery levels again, although I am here [at the gym] there’s still a lot of repairing going on inside of me.
“People have said to me, once you come through this, you’ll be a different person,” he continued. “At the moment I feel like you can’t waste time, you can’t waste days.
“There’s still goals I want to achieve, there’s still dreams for my fighters that I want them to achieve, their goals.
“I’m ready for a big push now up to Christmas with everyone I’ve got fighting.”
