Barry McGuigan

250,000 people turned up in Dublin to cheer me on an open-topped bus along O'Connell St after my world title winning fight in 1985. I'll never forget the sea of smiling faces that greeted me that day.

Barney was interested in bringing professional boxing back to Northern Ireland in a big way.

The trouble with boxing is that too often it ends in sadness.

I'd had 35 professional fights and mentally I was tired of it. I'd sort ot fallen out of love with the sport.

What I would say about Barney Eastwood is that when our relationship worked, it worked extremely well. He had a lot of strengths as a promoter and a manager.

I've spent my life navigating through sensitive issues. Not wanting to upset people.

I don't want to sound obnoxious, but I like to think I brought it another step. I was able to bring people who were casually interested in boxing together.

Boxing traditionally was received very well and accepted on both sides.

Boxing is changing and training methods are slowly being dragged into the 21st century.

While my father sang, Pedroza stared at me. By that time my eye pupils were staring at him, too, like a terrier that's got hold of a fox.

I get people to this day - I won my title 25 years ago - saying how wonderful a time they had during that dark period in our history when they came to watch me fight.