ROCHESTER — Rochester boxing legend Pat O’Connor has died. He was 74.
O’Connor died Friday, May 23, 2025, of natural causes associated with Parkinson’s disease.
A member of the Minnesota Boxing Hall of Fame and inducted in 2014, it was O’Connor’s destiny to be a boxer, a world-famous one for a time. It was also a road he often reluctantly traveled.
O’Connor once told a reporter, “I was sick of it at a young age. After I won the National Golden Gloves (at 16), I was already tired of it and I wanted out.”
But his show, which brought him money and fame, went on anyway.