Brian McIntyre doesn’t think the widespread acknowledgement that he was the top trainer of 2023 was based solely on the results he helped produce inside the ring.
The veteran trainer of unified welterweight champion Terence Crawford said in a recent interview that he thinks his short stint in a jail cell may have played a role in helping him nab that distinction.
McIntyre was arrested at Manchester Airport in Manchester, England, in September, one day after he helped his charge, Chris Eubank Jr., exact revenge over Liam Smith, on charges of attempting to board a plane with a gun in his checked luggage. A month later, upon a hearing that featured in-person testimonies from his closest friends, McIntyre was released from prison.
Otherwise, 2023 was a successful year for the 53-year-old coach. Most notably, his ace client, Crawford, defeated Errol Spence Jr. by ninth-round stoppage to become undisputed champion of the 147-pound division. The aforementioned Eubank vs. Smith fight saw Eubank stop Smith in 10 rounds in September, eight months after Smith upset Eubank in their first fight. Eubank hired McIntyre ahead of the rematch.
“I think cuz I went to jail,” McIntyre told FightHype when asked about why he was lauded so much last year. “I think cuz I went to jail, my name just—it was Crawford’s win, then Eubank’s win, then [my going] to jail. If I wouldn’t have went to jail they would’ve been like ‘oh, that’s BoMac’. I really do think so. …That’s just my opinion but we did have a good year.”
“Bomac” McIntyre was selected by numerous media outlets as the trainer of the year for 2023, including this website, beating out nominees such as Shingo Inoue (Naoya Inoue), Bill Haney (Devin Haney), and Ross Enamait (Katie Taylor).
Asked if he thought 2023 was the best year for him, an especially modest McIntyre demurred.
“No, I don’t think so,” McIntyre said. “I just think that maybe the name popped a little bit more. It’s not Bomac, it’s the team, like B&B. All the guys that’s with B&B, they all doing good, everybody’s winning and they just say who’s training them? So I say B&B because it’s a group of trainers…I just think it’s a group effort to get trainer of the year.”
Sean Nam is the author of Murder on Federal Street: Tyrone Everett, the Black Mafia, and the Last Golden Age of Philadelphia Boxing.