‘I wanted my friends to be scared of me' jokes Irish Muay Thai star as he reveals he ‘didn't expect to be a world champ'

The Irish Sun

30-05-2025

TOM KEOGH has been a Muay Thai fighter for longer than he wasn't - and now has a world title to show for it.
The Dubliner, 25, won the XFC welterweight title at the New Bingley Hall on May 10 with a second round stoppage of Nathan Bendon.
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Tom Keogh, centre, with his dad Paul, left, and brother Tadhg, right
Credit: James Fagan
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Tom Keogh and his coach Cian Cowley
Credit: James Fagan
He shows the scars of
war
in the form of a swollen and bruised calf, and cuts and scrapes on his face.
But the Warriors Gym fighter wouldn't have it any other way.
He told SunSport: "Nathan Bendon is a legit world champion. He held the WBC Muay Thai world title which is one of the most prized accolades in the sport.
"I've always known that I've been able to beat these guys but to be able to beat him the way I beat him was a special thing."
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In spite of his injuries, Keogh was back in the gym coaching kids on Monday.
His newly won
championship
belt is held within a display, offering a goal that
students
can look to and
work
towards.
Keogh added: "I couldn't walk on Sunday, the day after the fight. I couldn't really put much
weight
on my leg but I'm fine now.
"I've been walking around teaching the kids, teaching all the beginners and stuff in the gym.
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"Some of them are a little bit older so they kind of understand the kind of the magnitude of this one in particular.
"They just like seeing the cool shiny belt. They feed off the
energy
and they love it."
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Keogh has been practicing Muay Thai for 14 years, starting when he was just 11.
His dad, Paul, worked with Tom's coach Cian Cowley in a bakery owned by the latter's uncle in Tallaght.
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When Cowley took over the gym, Keogh's dad suggested the idea of introducing kids classes in order to help pay the
bills
.
Tom and his sister, Sadhbh, were the first two kids to sign up, which came as a relief for a young man who had tried - and failed - to get into
boxing
.
He said: "I begged my mother for probably two or three years to put me into boxing.
"When you're out playing
football
out on the green, there'd be lads around the estate that you know they'd be boxers and you wouldn't slide tackle them because there's a little bit of respect there.
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"I was like, 'yeah, I want a bit of that'.
"'I want the lads to be scared of me' is how I was thinking as a kid but my ma was like, 'no way, you are not doing that'.
"
Funny
enough, I've only actually started doing boxing classes in Crumlin Boxing Club with Phil Sutcliffe
"I never got to actually do the boxing but who knows? Maybe I'll jump in and have a couple of boxing fights as well."
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"I didn't get the result I set out for which was everyone thinking 'oh yeah, Tom Keogh is a f***ing animal."
While Sadhbh did not stick with Muay Thai - despite Tom admitting that she was better than him early on - her brother embraced it.
Even so, training and resources were modest, with the gym amounting to a tin-roofed shed.
That was their base of operations up until last year, when they were made to leave after the rent was hiked.
He explained: "It was just a little shed, basically. It had a tin roof so it was freezing cold in the
winter
.
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"It just had jigsaw mats on the floor. We were lucky. We had a lot of members that were proper club men and they loved the club, so they provided the bags and stuff."
SLOW START
Keogh had his first fight when he was 14, but success did not come straight away.
Indeed, he lost his first six amateur bouts before entering the C-Class category - full contact combat over five 1.5-minute rounds, with restrictions on elbows and knees to the head - at 16.
He tasted victory for the first time at this point before graduating through the subsequent B-Class and A-Class categories.
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All the while, he was picking up more and more tools of the trade and, since turning pro, has amassed a 16-3-2
record
, including seven knock-outs.
"I didn't care about becoming a world champion. I was like, 'that'd be
nice
' and then I was going like, 'ah whatever'.
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Tom Keogh celebrates after winning the WMO Irish welterweight title
Credit: Bloody Shamrock
"I was just loving training and loving going down and seeing my pals.
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"You're there every single night of the week and training whenever you can if you're off
school
."
That being said, Keogh was not quite able to obtain the level of reverence among his friends.
He remarked: "I didn't get the result I set out for which was everyone thinking 'oh yeah, Tom Keogh is a f***ing animal.
"They were going 'Tom Keogh f***ing loses all of his fights!'"
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'BEST IN THE WORLD'
2025 has been a landmark year.
Including the win over Bendon, he has fought four times, winning all four.
That included becoming the WMO Irish welterweight champion with a stoppage win over Eric Hehir on
St Patrick's Day
weekend.
A fifth will come against Dano O'Toole on June 14.
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This is the first time that Keogh has ever spoken to a journalist, perhaps alluding to Muay Thai's status as a niche discipline.
And Keogh wants to help put it on the map.
"We don't get funding from the government so everybody else has to work
jobs
just to get by.
"High level Muay Thai is the absolute s**t. It's the best combat sport for everyone in the world."
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Tom Keogh before his fight against Eric Hehir
Credit: Bloody Shamrock
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Tom Keogh, right, fighting against Eric Hehir
Credit: Bloody Shamrock