Punch Drunk - the boxing thread

[Broken Wing]

As soon as the tickets for London 2012 went on sale I applied for boxing tickets. I now have tickets to see Katie Taylor (all going well with fitness and qualification) from the opening round up to the semis and am very excited about that.

The qualification for the women's boxing will take place at the AIBA Women World Amateur Boxing Championsip next May. (The 13 weight categories being limited to 3 for the Olympics is for another day.)

For the men, Olympic qualification is next month when the 2011 AIBA World Championships will be held in Baku, Azerbaijan. (There will be another opportunity to qualify at an as yet undecided European event.) I'm not 100% but believe that the top 8 in each category qualify.

The Irish Amateur Boxing Association has decided that the Irish team for Baku will be the winners of the Open Unseeded Elite Competition which takes place this week. The opening round is Wednesday with finals on Saturday.

Not all entrants have been declared yet but one particularly tasty potential match up is Egan V Ward. Ward, of course, beat Egan this year to claim the National title. The first time in a decade that Egan didn't win it.

[Broken Wing]

In other boxing news TG4 will be showing Henry Coyle (Irl) V Elio Cotena (Ita) fighting for the vacant IBF Light Middleweight title in Castlebar on Friday. Dornálaíocht Beo starts @ 9.30. They will also have, presumably highlights as it's only an hour long show, Finbarr Eade fighting Mickey Coveney for the Irish Super Featherweight title.

[hugonaut]

Not all entrants have been declared yet but one particularly tasty potential match up is Egan V Ward. Ward, of course, beat Egan this year to claim the National title. The first time in a decade that Egan didn't win it.

Read Jonny Watterson's interview with Ward on the back page of the Irish Times Saturday Sports a couple of weeks ago - incredible that a guy of 17 could beat a brilliant, top class boxer of Egan's experience and calibre. The sky is the limit for this guy.

[Broken Wing]

Egan was cribbing about the difference between what's required to win in the World Series of Boxing and in amateur fights being the reason he lost. Well he's got the perfect opportunity to prove it.

The 2011 Womens' European Union boxing championships are being held in Rotterdam in November so we should get a chance to see how other Irish boxers are doing. Lauragh O'Neill and Laoise Traynor picked up bronze medals in the 2011 Womens' European Union boxing championships in Poland in June (Katie, naturally, picked up gold).

[Broken Wing]

Following this morning's weigh in Ken Egan has moved up to Heavyweight for the Open Unseeded Elite competition. This means he avoids the much anticipated rematch with Joe Ward.

The current heavyweight champion, Con Sheehan, has also moved up a division and will face Super-Heavyweight title holder Cathal McMonagle.

Of the other boxers who went to Beijing Paddy Barnes was the only entrant in his division, John Joe Joyce will face 2010 Commonwealth Champion Paddy Gallagher in the opening bout tonight and John Joe Nevin, although he was listed as registered, doesn't appear on the draw card.

70 boxers had registered by 5pm yesterday but only 53 took part in this morning's weigh in.

[Broken Wing]

There's something funny going on. Not only did Nevin not go to the weigh in this morning but neither Ward not Moylette turned up either. Both of those guys are seeded for the World Championships but another boxer going in their place would not be. Has a deal been done?

[Broken Wing]

So Bernard Dunne on Off The Ball last night thinks the box offs taking place this week are just an excuse for people to pick the boxers they want for the team for the World Champhionsips, boxers that didn't win their national championships but are high profile and the powers that be want them on the team. Ray Moylette, for example, is European Champion but not National Champion and Bernard thinks the National Champions should be the ones going to the Worlds, which seems to be a perfectly acceptable situation. Of course in Ray's case, the National Champion, Ross Hickey (who is taking part in the box off), has said he may not be available for the training camps and the Worlds (according to Ray) so there's an extra twist there. In fact, Ross was unavailable for the Europeans which is why Ray went in the first case.

He was also saying that it seems very unfair on Con Sheehan who has had to move up to super heavyweight despite being heavyweight champion to, the suggestion seems to be, facilitiate Ken Egan going at heavyweight.

Moylette missed the weigh in as he has a hand injury and is not allowed box for another week or two.

[EDIT] I see on the IABA website a new statement saying "Formal team ratification will ultimately take place on 20th August, and the Boxing Council will select the team following the outcome of the Open Elite Competition, and assessing other relevant performances and factors." So that clears up exactly nothing.

The bottom line is that Ireland has a chance at a medal in every weight class in the London Olympics as long as the IABA don't mess it up now.

[Peg Leg]

Nice one BW, never followed this stuff in depth but always interested.

[Broken Wing]

In the finals today Egan won @ 91kg and the National 91kg champion Con Sheehan won in the 91kg+ category after beating the National 91kg+ champion Cathal McMonagle in the semi-final. Ross Hickey won the 64kg category meaning he's National champion and box off winner but Moylette would be seeded in Baku and he wouldn't.

Tyrone McCullogh won the 56kg. He lost the National final to John Joe Nevin who took no part in the box offs. Similarly in the 60kg the runner up in the National championships, David Oliver Joyce won while the National champion, Michael McDonagh took no part. Same story at 75kg where beaten National finalist Jason Quigley won but National champion Darren O'Neill sat the box offs out. If anything the results of the box off show that the Nationals gave an accurate picture of the amateur boxing standings. Should make for an interesting meeting to pick the team.

Katie Taylor was boxing today as well and beat the Netherlands' Vandellen Willeke on a score of 22-4 but Sinead Kavanagh had a seven point loss to Dutch fighter Fontyn Nouchka in the 75kg which is an Olympic category.

[Broken Wing]

Meanwhile in Castlebar Henry Coyle became WBF Light Middleweight Champion after Cotena refused to come out for the fifth round. Also Patrick "the Punisher" Hyland stopped Italian Fabrizio Totta with two incredible bodyshots to extend his record to 23-0 and really put his name in the mix for an EBU Featherweight title shot.

In the Irish Super Featherweight title bout Coveney beat Eade on points.

[Broken Wing]

Nice one BW, never followed this stuff in depth but always interested.

I've always been a casual boxing fan and with the Olympics less than a year away wanted to get up to speed on our medal contenders. With 12 medals it's our most successful Olympic sport.

[Slipper1]

Does Katie Taylor currently box in an Olympic weight division or will she have to change?

[Broken Wing]

Katie boxes at 60kg (lightweight) which is one of the three Olympic divisions so she's sorted as long as she stays fit.

The three women's weights for London 2012 are Fly (51kg), Light (60kg) and Middle (75kg).

[ribs]

Does Katie Taylor currently box in an Olympic weight division or will she have to change?

The interesting thing is: with just 3 weight divisions, taller women (and therefore normally heavier) all over the world are desperately dropping weight to try to get into one of the olympic classes. This is going to make it ultra competitive - even more so since only 24 women (8 in each class) are going to qualify for the olympics and two of those spots automatically go the Britain as hosts. Just getting there is going to be a bigger achievement than most olympic sports.

[Broken Wing]

W agus TF! 4 boxers will arrive in Assisi tomorrow for a training camp for Baku and then on Saturday be told that they're not going.

The Irish Amateur Boxing Association Boxing Council will meet Saturday (August 20) to ratify the Irish squad for the upcoming AIBA World Men's Championships and Olympic qualifiers in Azerbaijan.

Saturday's meeting will begin at 11am at the National Stadium in Dublin.

The AIBA World Championships, which will also act as the first major qualifier for male boxers for the 2012 Olympics, glove off in Baku, Azerbaijan on Monday, September 26.

Meanwhile, a 15-strong Elite Irish squad will leave for an eight-day training camp with hosts Italy, Ukraine and Azerbaijan in Assisi on Friday morning.

World, European and European Union lightweight champion Katie Taylor has also been included in the squad.

Irish squad for training camp Assisi, Italy August 19th/27th

49Kg: Paddy Barnes (Holy Family)
52Kg: Michael Conlon (St John Bosco)
56Kg: John Joe Nevin (Cavan), Tyrone McCullagh (Holy Family)
60Kg: David Oliver Joyce (St Michael's Athy)
64Kg: Ray Moylette (St Anne's), Ross Hickey (Grangecon)
69Kg: Roy Sheehan (St Michael's Athy), Willie McLaughlin (Illies GG)
75Kg: Darren O'Neill (Paulstown), Jason Quigley (Finn Valley)
81Kg: Joe Ward (Moate)
91Kg: Ken Egan (Neilstown)
91+Kg:Con Sheehan (Clonmel)
60Kg: Katie Taylor (Bray)

Looks like the box offs served no purpose bar dropping Cathal McMonagle from contention. What does Ross Hickey have to do to cement his place? He's national champion and he won the box offs but Ray Moylette is still in the running on the basis of winning the European title, a competition he only entered because Ross, who has beaten him, was unavailable.

The Star is quoting JJ Nevin as saying he'll never box for Ireland again if he can't go to Baku.

[Broken Wing]

Does Katie Taylor currently box in an Olympic weight division or will she have to change?

The interesting thing is: with just 3 weight divisions, taller women (and therefore normally heavier) all over the world are desperately dropping weight to try to get into one of the olympic classes. This is going to make it ultra competitive

Ireland's 2011 Women's European Union Bronze Medalists Louise Traynor and Lauragh O'Neill are both caught by this. Louise boxes at 69Kg and Lauragh at 81Kg. With Katie taking the 60Kg spot they'll be forced to compete with each other for the 75Kg spot.

The Womens' European Boxing Championships in Rotterdam in October will be boxed in 10 weight classes, as will, presumably, the World Championships in China next year. Those World Championships are the only qualifier for the Women's Olympics so some categories will be very crowded with people trying to fit in to a new weight class and get a spot in the Olympics.

even more so since only 24 women (8 in each class) are going to qualify for the olympics and two of those spots automatically go the Britain as hosts. Just getting there is going to be a bigger achievement than most olympic sports.

Just to make it even tougher, of those 24 women only 12 can come from Europe, America and Asia get 8 spots each, Africa 5 and Oceania 3.

[Broken Wing]

Just to make things that little bit simpler the IABA have added Adam Nolan to the team going to Assisi. Adam is the current Elite Champion at 69Kg so there are now three boxers in this division heading over to train for 1 spot which will be announced tomorrow.

Speaking of the 69Kg class, Portlaoise boxer Michael O'Reilly, 7 time Irish champion and gold medal winner at the 17 nation Brandenburg Youth Cup in June where he was also awarded Boxer of the Tournament, has asked the High Court to order a box off to allow him to compete for a place on the European Youth Championships team. O'Reilly was dropped from the youth team following a discipline issue but claims the IABA did not follow fair procedures in taking disciplinary action against him. The case continues today and the European Youth Championships take place in Citywest starting on Monday.

[Broken Wing]

Michael O'Reilly has secured a High Court Injunction to stop the IABA from automatically ruling him out of contention. Not sure what that means really. Box off?

[Broken Wing]

The team for the World Championships in Baku has been announced, almost.

49Kg (Light-flyweight): Paddy Barnes (Holy Family GG, Belfast)
52Kg (Flyweight): Michael Conlon (St John Bosco, Belfast)
56Kg (Bantamweight): John Joe Nevin (Cavan)
60Kg (Lightweight): David Oliver Joyce (St Michael's Athy, Kildare)
64Kg (Light-welterweight): To Be Decided
69Kg (Welterweight): Roy Sheehan (St Michael's Athy, Kildare)
75Kg (Middleweight): Darren O'Neill (Paulstown, Kilkenny)
81Kg (Light-heavyweight): Joe Ward (Moate, Westmeath)
91Kg (Heavyweight): Ken Egan (Neilstown, Dublin)
91+Kg (Super-heavyweight): Con Sheehan (Clonmel, Tipperary)

The 64Kg place will be decided after the training camp when National and Elite Open Box Off Champion Ross Hickey will face European Champion Ray Moylette in a box off in the National Stadium on September 2nd.

Speaking about the team and the whole box off V National Champions controversy Dominic O’Rourke, Irish amateur boxing’s high performance director, said "We have always wanted to be like the Russians and the Cubans and have the depth to be able to send two or three in each weight category to the World Championships and qualify for the Olympics. The system as it is now has thrown up a lot of top-class boxers and we’ve developed all the weights so whoever goes is expected to win medals."

None of your underdog nonsense here.

[Broken Wing]

The European Youth championships start today. Following his High Court case Michael O'Reilly was sleelcted for the Irish team.

Irish Squad
49Kg: Evan Metcalfe (Crumlin)
52Kg: Joe Fitzpatrick (Immaculata)
56Kg: George Bates (St Mary's)
60Kg: Michael McDonagh (St Mary's) (cpt)
64Kg: Kieran Forde (Monivea)
69Kg: Michael O'Reilly (Portlaoise)
75Kg: Stephen Broadhurst (Dealgan)
81Kg: Gary Sweeney (All Stars)
91Kg: Jack Morrissey (Sacre Coeur)
91+Kg: Thomas Conroy (Ballyhaunis)

Boxing today:
60Kg: Michael McDonagh (Ireland) v Kristian Stepanov (Russia)
56Kg: Damyan Damyanov (Bulgaria) v George Bates (Ireland)
75Kg: Bruno Knjezevic (Croatia) v Stephen Broadhurst (Ireland)

Boxing tomorrow:
49Kg: Evan Metcalfe (Ireland) v Kamran Malikov (Azerbaijan)
52Kg: Joe Fitzpatrick (Ireland) v Vladyslav Vyetshkin (Ukraine)
64Kg: Kieran Forde (Ireland) v Mitchell Buckland (Wales)
91Kg: Jack Morrissey (Ireland) v Alex Toth (Hungary)
91+Kg: Florian Shulz (Germany) v Thomas Conroy (Ireland)