Larne's boxing hero Dave ‘Boy’ McAuley to feature in UTV's 'Homemade Heroes’ series

Larne’s popular boxing star shares his amazing story with producer Ali Fleming as he chats from the Halfway House Hotel which he runs with his wife, Wendy.

The programme covers his career milestones and how Dave had to keep up a brutal training regime at the height of his career.

He also brings rarely seen title belts and memorabilia out of the bank vault especially for the programme.

A keen amateur boxer in his teens, Dave explains he was inspired to turn professional because of the success of fellow local boxer, the late Hugh Russell.

"I trained to extremes – In order to fight hard, you have to train hard - it was a killing match every day of the week with the sparring partners,” he recalled.

Dave talks of the agony of missing out not once but twice on a world title, but thankfully in 1989 it was third time lucky when he beat Duke Mackenzie on points to become world champion.

He successfully defended the title five times over the next three years but then got controversially beaten by Rudolfo Blanco.

His wife Wendy reveals that on his return from losing that fight he ended up having to work the bar in their newly acquired hotel. She said: “He hadn’t time to feel sorry for himself, he had to get on with it!”

Dave explains that his dream was retire from boxing undefeated but that didn’t happen for him.

The programme includes with some great UTV archive footage, some of which Dave has never seen.

Producer Ali Fleming commented: “While world titles can be won and lost, David’s legacy can never be disputed.”

‘Homemade Heroes’ is a UTV production, produced and narrated by Alison Fleming, and is sponsored by EZ Living Interiors. You can watch this episode on UTV on Thursday, December 7 at 8.30pm, and after transmission will be available on www.itv.com/utvprogrammes