Oliver O'Dea (born October 12, 1975) is an Irish-born boxer and former actor, who lives in West Cork Ireland. After two periods of acting in various short films, he will resume his boxing career in the USA in 2016 and is rated #1 by the Canadian professional boxing council internationally at light welterweight.
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Life and career
Oliver O'Dea was born in Cork in 1975 to parents Benny and Kathleen. He took up boxing at an early age and by his late teens was training and sparring in professional gyms in the UK, and sparring with the likes of WBO World Bantamweight Champion Alfred Kotey. He then based himself in Dublin where he was trained by former WBO Middleweight & Super-middleweight champion Steve Collins, before moving to the US and having 7 fights while based in Houston TX, and working with trainers Don Turner and Jesus Rodriguez. In 2000 O'Dea changed his career path after the death of his friend Oliver Reed and a very badly broken hand and decided to become an actor for a while before getting back to boxing. He again entered the ring in Denmark in 2008 after a 9 year absence under trainer and mentor George Grass. In a light-middleweight contest that was later deemed an exhibition fight by the commission due to bloods in the medical, O'Dea walked away with a victory and again away from boxing.