The charismatic Darren Sutherland was a fighter who broke moulds, writes JOHNNY WATTERSON
IN LATE November of last year professional boxing promoter Frank Maloney was asked why, of all the fighters at the Beijing Olympics, he pinned his dreams on Darren Sutherland. Then looking across the table in DCU’s Helix Theatre to the physical grace, the diamond ear stud and shaved eyebrow of “The Dazzler”, the question fell redundant.
The Olympic bronze medal-winning middleweight hungrily sat forward in his chair, begging that someone would ask him a question so that he could bewitch them with the buzz of his patter. A talent and a ready-made poster boy, the charismatic Sutherland was, 10 months ago, Ireland’s latest gift to the professional ranks.
He was the fighter who broke moulds. In one of his first meetings when he was signing up to be part of Ireland’s High Performance amateur team some years prior to the 2008 Beijing Games, he made his first small impression.
“Darren was a completely different personality to the rest of the boxers,” said an official with the Irish team. “There were lots of aspects to his personality. He talked, talked, talked, talked, came in and one of the first things he said was, ‘I’m going to write a book about the story of my life’. Later on he would say: ‘I’m going to get a degree. I’m going to be world champion.’
“He was very bright. He had a good brain and had broad interests in things like music, technology, hip hop.”
Darren O’Neill, who has just returned from the World Championships in Milan, knew Sutherland as a friend and middleweight rival. He recognises that same personality.
“He was always in good form,” says O’Neill. “There’d be times when we’d all finished up and Darren would still be going. He’d break your heart.”
Sutherland was born in Dublin but moved to London when he was very young. His father, Tony, was from the island of St Vincents in the Caribbean and his mother Linda from Dublin. At one point as his reputation grew, the Caribbean island approached his boxing club, St Saviours in Dublin, and asked if Sutherland would box in the Commonwealth Games for them, offering to fly two coaches with him to Australia. He declined.
The family came back from Britain to settle in Navan and a young Sutherland began to
box in St Brigid’s gym in Blanchardstown before ambition took him to St Saviours OBA in Dorset Street in Dublin’s inner city.
“He came to us at about 15 years old. In recent years the young lads in the club saw him as a star,” said St Saviours secretary Martin Power. “He came back here five or six weeks ago like he was still a member of the club. He was still messing. He’d three or four kids in the ring with him, all on top of him. There was a bit of a Cassius Clay about him, the manners of a gentleman.”
As a teenager Sutherland went over to Brendan Ingle’s professional gym in Wincobank, Sheffield, but returned to Ireland disillusioned with the sport. But by 2002 he was back competing as an amateur in the light middleweight division.
It was about then that he decided to reinvent himself and at 20 years old studied in St Peter’s College, Dunboyne, with kids three years younger than he was. At the age of 22 he passed his Leaving Cert and began a sports scholarship in sports science at DCU, which dovetailed with his full-time training with the Irish amateur team.
He had come through disappointment in 2006 when an eye injury sidelined him for a long time, but his career was on the up. The Olympic medal further enhanced his profile and his appeal. There was no question that he would turn professional; just a matter of who he would sign with.
The Dazzler was a tee-totaller, and also a free spirit. He was infectiously upbeat and never afraid to tell us how he saw the world he lived in.
In his last press conference in Ireland, Sutherland said he was fulfilling a life-long dream pursuing a professional world title. Nobody can comprehend how that optimism of just months ago dissipated to the extent of him taking his own life in an apartment in south London.
“It’s very strange what happened,” says Power. “No, it just doesn’t square off with his personality at all.” Yesterday that was a common sentiment.
“I’m like a sponge and I know that will help me. I’m a fast learner. I soak up information,” said the 27-year-old casting his spell 10 months ago. “By the time the next Olympics comes around, I want to be challenging for the world title. That’s the sort of time frame I’m thinking.” Beside him then Maloney sat grinning. Maloney had spent his early years striving to be a jockey and a professional footballer as well as spending time in a Catholic seminary.
“The four rounds in amateurs were like a sprint to me. I’d spar for an hour. They had to tell me to get out of the ring,” explained Sutherland then. “Now,” he said as he finished the sermon, his eyes widening, “it’s time to show my full repertoire of skills.”