I don’t recall the first time I spoke to Joe Gallagher, but I do remember the first time I handed him the award for Boxing News Trainer of the Year in early 2016. The joy. The humility. The unbridled appreciation he clearly felt on that Sunday afternoon in London was instantly reciprocated. In fact, no trainer who subsequently won the award, apart from Joe himself when he claimed it again four years later, seemed to cherish the moment nearly as much.

During my nine years as the editor of Boxing News I would, like my predecessors and colleagues, speak to Joe on a regular basis. Whatever the reason for the conversation in the first place, talk would always turn to his stable of boxers. Not him, I hasten to add, but his boxers. 

Sometimes my phone would ring, I’d see his name appear, and I knew instantly what it was about. I’m not going to sugarcoat the dread I’d feel on those occasions, either. If we published a preview that picked against one of his boxers, he’d call to tell me why they could win. When the annual British ratings were published – and this is something we still joke about – he would go through each of the placements involving his boxers and tell me, in incredible detail, why they should be ranked higher. Even when one of his boxers sat in the number-one position, he would remind me why they deserved to be.

I would frequently talk to other trainers, of course, but not one of them spoke as passionately about their boxers as Joe Gallagher.

Without fail, and this is important to note, he would call to say thank you. He would be delighted to see four-page features on his boxers. He would gush with pride if one of them made the cover. And he would be grateful for anything that was published, whether it involved his boxers or not, that was written with only the betterment of boxing in mind. Nobody – whether boxing fan, trainer, promoter, manager, writer, broadcaster or boxer – expressed thanks in my time at Boxing News as frequently as Joe Gallagher.

During all those years, visits to ringside where Gallagher-trained boxers were in action were plentiful. On some occasions, he’d have several fighters appearing on the same bill. On every occasion, his entire stable would be there, en masse, to support whoever happened to be doing the fighting. The sense of togetherness, of family, was – like Joe Gallagher objecting to something Boxing News had published – impossible to ignore. 

Even though the clientele has changed, Gallagher in 2025 remains every bit as dedicated to his team of fighters – just as they are to him. His boxers are still winning world titles, his Champs Camp gym is thriving, he has developed his initiative to provide boxing training to youngsters in his local community, and he’s been a key player in the development of boxing training in Saudi Arabia. Gallagher’s mission to empower the memory of Phil Martin, his mentor who died at the age of 44 from cancer, has long since been accomplished.

Upon hearing that Joe himself has been diagnosed with stage four cancer – something he has been consciously battling since November, though his doctor said he had likely been in that fight, unbeknownst to him, for 10 years – I immediately reached out to apologize for not retaining the frequency of communication we used to enjoy. Before he spoke of his own condition, however, Joe spoke of his boxers. On and on he went, mentioning each of them by name, the pride in his voice both familiar and estimable. 

Then the cancer that grows inside of him got a mention. 

“I want to do something with Men’s Awareness because there’s no symptoms,” he said. “The odd time I’d have some pain in the chest and the kidneys, but I thought it was because of wearing the body shield and getting hit there.”

The routine medical went well at first. His heart was in good shape for a man of 56, his blood was clear, and his cholesterol levels were low. But as the doctors ventured further, collecting samples, the disease was discovered, first in his bowels and then in his liver. 

“So, they’ve got to smash it with chemo first before I go under the knife in May,” he said. “It's stage four, so… we’ll see how this goes. I’m having the first round of chemo and, listen, the gym is buzzing. We’ve got Natasha [Jonas] fighting, we’ve got Lawrence [Okolie] fighting and…” 

Then, just like that, Joe Gallagher started to explain plans for his boxers and, in a nod to old times, why they should have fared better in the end-of-2024 awards. 

Joe knows boxing like few others have or ever will. His boxers, like his own family, are his priority and it’s through them where he’s always exhibited his tireless, inbuilt desire to succeed. And anything he deems unfair – whether rankings, reports, commentary, or even the actions of promoters – he will fight with all his might to rectify. 

Not quite a “victory at all costs” mentality – his heart is too big for that – but his astonishing tenacity is evidenced by his approach to every battle: studying the form of his boxers’ opponents and their teams; looking for weaknesses; crafting victory plans; rallying the troops; and putting his theories into practice.

Cancer, stage four or otherwise, has no idea what’s coming.