Cogan: a stalwart of Second City boxing
Cogan and Ben Fields with this author at the Midlands boxing awards
FOR Birmingham fans, the career of talented Shaun Cogan will forever be defined by one monumental match-up.
On a March night in 1993, they packed the Tower Ballroom to the rafters to witness the long awaited showdown between by far the city’s best light-welters, Yardley’s Cogan and the bundle of fighting fury that was Malcolm Melvin from Kings Heath.
The vacant Irish title and Midlands belt were on the line, but both played second fiddle to mere Birmingham bragging rights. The fact a simmering resentment bubbled under both boxers’ skin added spice to the proceedings.
Melvin won the epic on points. “I said at the time whoever lost would be haunted by it - and they have,” Melvin said when I interviewed him in 2017.
Cogan, now 55, takes a more diplomatic approach to one of the greatest derby clashes this city has seen. “People still talk about it,” he smiled. “That was a good night.”
Rub the surface, however, and the faint traces of Melvin’s near prophetic words are uncovered.
“I did think I did enough to win, but I was never going to get it, was I?” shrugged Cogan. “I broke my left hand in the sixth, but thought I did enough early on.”
Time has not totally rinsed bad blood from the pair. The competitive spirit is still strong.
“Broke his hand?” chuckled Melvin. “That’s a new one, but I suppose he’s had close to 30 years to come up with it and run out of all the other excuses. Listen, I won the fight.”
Fighters can take a contest to the grave with them.
Cogan, clear eyed and sharp as a razor, is now a prominent Birmingham trainer, an ever present at shows. His Digbeth gym boasts a raft of pros, including tough former Midlands champ Ben Fields.
Cogan battles it out with Paul “Scrap Iron” Ryan
If any of the stable reach the same heights as Cogan, they’ll walk away from the game satisfied. He turned to the pro game after taking the Irish ABA title courtesy of his Emerald roots and represented Ireland as an international.
He faced the division’s iron, yet for years carried the cross of that Melvin defeat. For a man whose six year, 25 fight career saw him pitted against the very best, that’s an injustice.
Thunderous punching Ross Hale stopped him for the Commonwealth title, he handily outpointed Bernard Paul and stopped Birmingham’s teak tough Rocky Lawlor.
“The best man I fought was Soren Sondergaard,” said Cogan. That contest took place in Randers, Copenhagen, in 1992, with the Brummie battler losing on points.
“He won the European and a portion of the world title,” the fighter recalled. “He was good. To be honest, he beat the s*** out of me.
“Ross Hale was a puncher, but the stoppage came from a sliced eye.”
Cogan quit the sport after a routine, 1995 win over Shaun Stokes at the Tower Ballroom. For a man who still had a lot to offer the game, it was a surprise decision.
“My dad died and I’d split-up with my then girlfriend,” he explained. “I walked away and never went back.”
Now he is passing on the knowledge gained from a blood and bruises career spent in very good company to his band of fighters.
The respect he commands in the trade was reflected by the 2019 “Boxer from the Past” award he received from the Boxing Board of Control’s Midlands Council.
Cogan made his mark as a fighter, now he’s more than making his mark as a trainer.