Background
Kavanagh grew up in Dublin, Ireland.
Kavanagh grew up in Dublin, Ireland.
He is currently signed with Golden Boy Promotions. He began training at the age of eight, when he joined Crumlin Boxing Club, where he trained with UFC Featherweight Champion Conor McGregor. He remained there until he was eleven years old, when Kavanagh and his family moved to Malaga in Spain.
lieutenant was here where he would meet his longtime trainer, Sedano Ruiz.
As a result of his upbringing, Kavanagh is also fluent in Spanish. Kavanagh had a very successful amateur career, in which he amassed a record of 168 wins and 12 defeats.
They faced fighters from England, Scotland and Wales. In 2005, Kavanagh returned to the "Four Nations" Championships where he took home a silver medal for Ireland.
In the following two years, Kavanagh again competed as part of Ireland"s "Round Robin" Championships team
He took home gold in both 2006 and 2007. Kavanagh"s final amateur medal came at the 2008 World Youth Championships in Guadalajara, Mexico. Kavanagh turned professional in 2009.
He subsequently moved to Los Angeles where he would train under Freddie Roach at the Wild Card Gym, and frequently spar with fighters such as Manny Pacquiao.
Kavanagh was named Irish Boxing"s Prospect of the Year at the National Boxing Awards in February 2011, beating off competition from Belfast flyweight Jamie Conlan in the process. On 14 July 2012, he beat Paul Valarde in a unanimous decision.
On 3 November 2012, he defeated Ramon Valadez (11–3, 6 KOs) in an 8 round slugfest at the Phoenix Club in Anaheim, California, with some boxing pundits stating that round 3 was a "Round of the year" contender. In June 2013, it was confirmed that Kavanagh had left Freddie Roach and the Wild Card Gym.
"Freddie can’t give me all his time.
I need, at this point of my career, to be with someone who can”, Kavanagh said. “Freddie hadn’t been with me for the last six fights. I needed to shake things up.” After voicing his concerns to Golden Boy, they put him in touch with Joel Díaz, who Kavanagh began training with instead.
He won seven Irish national titles in that time, along with eight regional titles. At international level, Kavanagh won his first gold medal aged 13, when he competed with Ireland at the 2003 "Four Nations" Championships. Later that year, he won silver with Ireland in the "Round Robin" Championships, another team competition where they fought boxers from England, France, Germany, Italy, Ukraine and Lithuania. Fighting in the Light Welterweight category, he won silver after losing to Cuban fighter, Frank Isla in the final. Kavanagh won on his professional debut on a card with title contenders Victor Ortiz and Amir Khan on 15 May 2010.
