'I'd be nowhere without Billy,' said world champion kickboxer Gary Hamilton. Murray discovered Hamilton when he showed up at the veteran¹s ProKick gym 13 years ago. He has been coaching him since.

'He is the reason I got into kickboxing. I watched him at an event many years ago in the Ulster Hall. My friends and me knew about him through reputation. He was this Belfast man who had travelled to train with the best kickboxers in the world in Thailand. He lived in their spartan camps. He absorbed their culture and their spirit. And he applied it in his own fighting. 

"Afterwards, I didn't want to be Bruce Lee, I wanted to be the best kickboxer and Billy has helped me do that. 'He added: 'He is at the gym every day. He gives the same attention to a novice who has just started as to a champ defending a title. It¹s all about truth, discipline and respect with Billy. And his incredible force of personality that has pulled kickboxing by the boot-straps from rooms above smokey pubs 30 years ago to events in the Odyssey arena. 

'Murray launched his ProKick Gym Group at the end of 1991. Aside from the HQ in east Belfast, there are a dozen more across Northern Ireland, all carrying the ProKick name guaranteeing safety and quality of coaching.

In his time, Murray has been host to world leaders and boxing legends in his gym. Proudly for the Belfast hero, he was guest of honour at the UN recently when he launched his new initiative to use kickboxing to help disenfranchised kids across Europe.

While Murray may not stop today to celebrate his 50th, there is nothing stopping the rest of the sporting community around Ireland and beyond from raising a glass to a true sporting legend.