Above: Larry Fryers at work — Photo by Daniel Cork
By Tim McCloskey
Larry Fryers did not take a traditional route to a professional boxing career.
Born in Queens, New York, to Irish parents, he moved back with his family to Clones, County Mongahan in the border region when he was a small child.
He took up boxing at an early age. Coached by his father, Fryers had a promising amateur career, boxing on the Irish National team.
But one day he simply decided to hang up the gloves, get married, and move back to America to become an union carpenter in Yonkers.
After a few years, instead of a tranquil, peaceful domestic life in New York, he quickly found himself overweight and chainsmoking. Something had to give.
He took a daytrip to Mike Tyson’s old fight camp in the Catskills, where he met some members of the boxing community who convinced him to give it another shot. He trained for one last amateur fight, with the hopes of losing 20 pounds and quit smoking.
He trained hard, dropped the weight and quit smoking, but lost the fight. But those in attendance realized that Fryer’s fighting style was more suitable for the pros than the amateur ranks, and convinced him to turn professional.
In 2016, he made his pro debut, and went on a 11-1 tear in the super lighweight division. After a couple of recent setbacks, he hooked up with Irish boxing legend Wayne “Pocket Rocket” McCullough in Las Vegas. McCullough has been training Fryers and will be working Fryer’s corner at the 2300.
His opponent will be Sam Teah (17-4) Originally from Liberia, Teah is a popular and dangerous fighter based in Southwest Philly.
Fryers says he has heard nothing but great things about boxing in Philadelphia and looks forward to putting on an exciting show and winning over the local crowd.
“I like to fight as often as I can, I like to put on good shows for the fans who come out. That’s what I’m here for,” said Fryers.
“I’ll fight every month (in Philly) if they’ll have me. I just want to keep busy, build a following, and we can turn Philly into a proper Irish fight town.”
“I am really looking forward to fighting in Philly as it has a reputation of being a great fighting city,” Fryers said.
In other Irish fight news, Brendan O’Callaghan has proven himself to not be the best prognosticator. The Delco boxer predicted a third round knockout in his pro debut in Atlantic City, but it only took until 2:34 in the first round for O’Callaghan to secure the victory by TKO over Anthony Young. He thanked his family and coach Mike Rafferty after the win. HIs next fight has yet to be scheduled.
Northeast Philly’s Ryan Brady was set to fight Kevin Lee in August on ESPN, but the bout was cancelled due to injury. Brady revealed on his Instagram that the reason for his withdrawal was due to a foot infection.
“Hey guys so last Friday, I got a small cut on my foot training,” he wrote. “I didn’t think anything of it, but it turns out I had an infection in the cut causing cellulitis.”
“I am in the hospital recovering and I am expecting to make a full recovery and recover from this relatively fast.”
Brady is currently ranked #14 in the UFC’s welterweight division, while Kevin Lee is ranked #11, so a victory against Lee could propel Brady into the top 10 if the fight ever happens. It is the second time the matchup had to be cancelled due to injury.
And Philly’s Paul “The Irish Dragon” Felder has announced he is retiring from professional Mixed Martial Arts fighting The Gray’s Ferry/Delco fighter has a degree in Drama from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia and famously portrayed an MMA fighter trying to cut weight on an episode of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” with his friend Donald “Cowboy” Cerone. He has also been a popular fight announcer for the UFC so he is expected to land on his feet careerwise.
Felder did have a few words for Conor McGregor after the “Notorious” had a post-fight outburst at UFC 264 after another big loss for McGregor. Conor had said some disrespectful things to and about his opponent Dustin Poirier, and Felder joined a list of notable people condemning the tirade.
“You’re on the ground with your leg broken in half at the bottom, threatening to kill somebody, to a man who has just dominated you twice in a row now, he could walk up and soccer kick you in the mouth, knock all your teeth out and leave you for dead on that canvas,” Felder said. “You’re the one who is in position to get killed, Conor, in that spot.”
“Show some humility. Listen, this sport is violent. I get that. We’re supposed to beat the crap out of each other, knock each other out. But at the end of the day, it’s not about murder. It’s not about your family. Leave those things out of your mouth, or get the hell out of the octagon, I never want to see you again.”
“It’s not a street fight, it’s not life and death,” Felder explained. “Obviously, in boxing and MMA, there’s injuries that cause people to literally die. So to talk about that stuff, to talk about that kind of stuff is just disgusting and we’ve mentioned that a million times. What he said was wrong.”
Felder’s career record is 17-6 with 6 KO, and was the Cage Fury Fighting Champion before joining the UFC. He had notable bouts against Rafael dos Anjos, Dan Hooker, Edson Barboz and Charles Oliveira.
Tickets are available by emailing pharrell@hostsphilly.com or at the 2300 box office.