HUGH Russell. One of the finest boxers ever to come out of Ireland. No contest.
Mention them all, all the greats throughout the decades and, in my opinion, Hugh Russell sits up there with them in the pantheon of Irish boxing kings.
An Olympic bronze medal in Moscow in 1980 underlines that emphatically but there was so much more to admire throughout his hugely-successful career and beyond.
Fast hands, superb movement, lightning reflexes and a super-fast boxing brain marked Hugh, a copper-curled young southpaw, as a standout in the amateur ring from day one.
Add his courage, tenacity and the heart of a lion into the equation and you begin to see what I mean.
Watching top-class boxers in action is something special. Their defence and attack skills, their timing, power and fitness marks them out on any bill.
Read more:
- Hugh Russell: Small in stature but the heart of a lion
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Whether it be in a Belfast back-street social club or the hallowed Ulster Hall in Bedford Street, boxing stars shine brightly. Hugh was in that special mould, a treat to watch from no age - he just had it all, plain to see. No contest.
Along with older brother Sean, another cracking boxer, Hugh first ducked under the ropes at Gerry Storey and Bobby McAllister's Holy Family boxing club in the New Lodge area of Belfast around the late 1960s/early '70s.
The gym’s history is studded with Ulster and Irish senior/elite champions, the club consistently churning out titleholders and international stars since its formation.
They have been rolling off ‘The Family’ production line for as long as I remember, from their days at Patrickville (up a wee entry off the New Lodge, facing the barrack wall, and go left, ignore the lure of the snooker hall to the right) and then more recently at their ‘Recy’ home close to North Queen Street.
Hugh Russell appears in a 1983 RTÉ video
I watched Hugh at all amateur levels, at club-shows and championships, schoolboy to senior, from the 1970's through to his move to the pro ranks in 1981.
As Holy Trinity ABC and Antrim County Board secretary I had a ringside seat at many events back then. Hugh was outstanding, hit and move his winning mantra.
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Surprisingly, he was actually not a natural southpaw, a ‘leftie’. He was right-handed so when that stiff southpaw right lead of his jabbed into the face of an oncoming opponent it hurt.
It wasn’t all plain sailing though. In boxing it never is. In the amateur game, defeat is always just a punch, an injury or a dodgy decision away.
But Hugh overcame any setback, quickly back to the grind of the gym, bobbing and weaving as he pounded the bags, forever focused, slowly maturing into a great.
This was never more apparent when he lost out in the finals of the Irish seniors in March 1980.
This was Olympic year, defeat on that March 7 night at the National Stadium in Dublin would have ended the dreams of lesser talents.
But not Hugh Russell.
Fast forward four months and the little North Belfast man would step up on the bronze medal victory rostrum in the Olympic Stadium in Moscow, taking his rightful place among the greats of the world.
Only Bulgarian legend Peter Lessov could stop Hugh’s march to the finals - Iraqi, Tanzanian and North Korean opposition falling to the flashing fists of the Irish flyweight.
He received a hero’s homecoming, carried shoulder-high by jubilant fans around his native city. Belfast and Ireland had waited 16 long years for another Olympic medal.
Since that other world-class Belfast southpaw, Jim McCourt, had won his bronze in Tokyo in ’64, no Irish boxer had stepped up on to the Olympic rostrum.
These were the days before Irish boxing’s High-Performance Programme was introduced. Oh, how many more medals the boxers of that generation would have won had it been in place back then.
A bit of high-jinks always helped to relieve the pressure for Ireland’s stars on international duty abroad - and Hugh was always up for a bit of a lark, game for a laugh.
I am reliably informed that one such escapade involved Hugh and three other Irish boxers on a trip to Finland in the 1980s.
On the short walk back from the medal ceremony to the team hotel, Hugh spotted a hedgehog.
It was quickly stuffed into an accomplice’s blazer pocket and brought back to the dormitory room they were sharing.
A plan was hatched by three of the lads, Hugh, Gerry Hawkins and Danny McAllister, and a bit of a distraction created while the hapless hedgehog was placed under the blankets of Damien Fryers’s bed.
Hugh Russell talks about how he got the photograph of the Guildford Four's release
“Right lights out, I’m knackered, early start in the morning,” said Hugh, flicking the lights off quickly.
Seconds later the room erupted as the unsuspecting Fryers rolled over in the bed and onto the quills of the hedgehog.
He jumped up like a shot in the pitch dark and, roaring like a bull, ran for his life down the dormitory corridor.
His three 'friends' doubled up in laughter but wisely stayed clear of the room until the formidable Fryers had calmed down.
After another Irish title win in 1981, Hugh boxed once more as an amateur, against the United States, before a switch to the paid ranks. He’d been there, done that, wore the amateur vest for the last time, now for something else entirely.
Under the watchful eye of Barney Eastwood, ‘Little Red’ Russell was launched into the pro spotlight before the year was out, a winning debut at the Ulster Hall, the scene of four of his amateur title wins.
Just as in the amateurs, nothing would deter Hugh en-route to a very successful 19-fight pro career with just two losses.
Who can forget his epic battles with fellow Belfast man and good friend Davy Larmour, or the 13-round John Feeney disqualification war, throwbacks to the guts and gore of the Gilroy-Caldwell era?
Hugh Russell fights Davy Larmour - 1983
Or Brendan Murphy’s famous picture of a bloodied Hugh leaning through the ropes to kiss his mother Eileen at the end of the first Larmour dust-up?
And, you couldn’t make this up... would you believe that after that bloodbath, Davy drove himself and Hugh up to the Mater to get cuts stitched?
The pair relived the moment in an excellent interview with Neil Loughran for The Irish News back in 2018.
“The funny thing about it was,” recalled Larmour, “I’m lying on a little bed [in the hospital] and there’s screens around me. The doctor comes in and he’s looking at me, sayin' ‘you’ve a couple of good cuts there, who did that on you?’
“I pulled the curtain back and said ‘he did!’”
Hugh retired after his ambition to win a prized Lonsdale Belt was realised in 1985 with three British flyweight title wins, to add to his bantam crown. His boxing days were done, time to enjoy a few rounds of golf, as another successful career beckoned.
As Irish News sports editor, I also had the privilege of working alongside Hugh, who would become photographic editor in our Donegall Street HQ from 2000 to 2021.
The story goes that the Russians had a hand in his new career.
Watch: Hugh Rusell discussing his boxing career
Zenit cameras were considered good quality and cheap enough back then so, before leaving Moscow in 1980, Hugh bought one. The rest is Irish News photographic history.
Under the tutelage of the then picture editor, the one and only Brendan Murphy, the dark room and the secrets of award-winning photography were revealed to an eager young pupil.
Hugh’s images covered everything from Hurling to the High Courts.
He brought Irish News readers the powerful image of a euphoric Gerry Conlon leaving London's Old Bailey a free man in 1989, after his wrongful conviction for the Guildford pub bombings was quashed.
After many a long day’s work, Hugh could be found passing on his knowledge to budding photographers at the Camera Club in north Belfast, an initiative close to his heart, or carrying out his duties as a leading Northern Ireland Area boxing board official at local pro shows, seated proudly at ringside as his son Hugh blossomed into a top-flight referee.
Hugh’s camera captured history in the making across almost 40 years, earning him a host of merits including the accolade of Press Photographer of the Year.
Just as in the boxing ring, Hugh’s work-rate was exceptional, meeting himself coming in the back door at times, rushing out to get that special picture, the one that paints a thousand words for the Irish News readers.
Just as in his boxing career, he inevitably succeeded.
A gentleman, a devoted family man, to his loving wife Kathy and his beloved family, I extend my deepest sympathy on his passing.
He will be sadly missed by all who ever had the pleasure of knowing him.
