World and back-to-back European lightweight champion Katie Taylor believes that the three -day international training camp, which concluded at Dublin’s National Stadium last Saturday, was ideal preparation for this month’s Witch Cup and the European Championships.
Women’s squads from Ireland, Great Britain, Holland, Finland and Sweden were involved in the camp – the first ever for women to be held in Ireland.
Taylor won gold and the boxer of the tournament award at last year’s Witch Cup and served notice that she won’t be relinquishing her title with a convincing win over Sandra Brugger at the Bray Boxing club on Sunday week last.
The Witch Cup, which takes place in Hungary from 8 August, is one of the most competitive women’s boxing tournaments in the world. And Taylor, Ireland’s most successful competitor in any sport in 2006, reckons that the training camp at the stadium was ideal.
The St Fergal’s Bray ace will also be going for a hat trick of European titles in Denmark in October, and the world’s number one lightweight is feeling confident.
The Irish Amateur Boxing Association has named three Ulster boxers in a five-strong squad to compete in next month’s World Cadet Champ-ionships in Baku, Azerbaijan next month.
The Irish Amateur Boxing Association has named three Ulster boxers in a five-strong squad to compete in next month’s World Cadet Champ-ionships in Baku, Azerbaijan next month.
European Cadet bronze medallists David Joe Joyce and Paddy Harkin, Bernard Roe, Conrad Cummins and Tyrone McCullagh have all been included in the squad. Talented flyweight McCullagh is making a welcome return from an appendix operation and Roe has recovered from a facial injury picked up at last month’s European Cadet Championships after winning his last 16 clash. He was being tipped to claim at least bronze, but was withdrawn from the tournament because of the injury.
Both Joyce and Harkin won bronze at the same tournament, and Joyce also claimed silver at the European Union Cadet Championships this summer.
Elsewhere, Paddy Barnes and Eamon O’Kane did a Belfast double last Saturday night after winning two gold medals at the fourth Comm-onwealth Boxing Champion-ships in Liverpool.
Holy Trinity Belfast flyweight Barnes beat India’s TN Singh in his final by a margin of eight point, being handed a 30–22 decision at the final bell.
Middleweight Eamon O’Kane (Immaculata Belfast) also finished on top of the podium following a thrilling 75kg final with England’s Gerard Groves. O’Kane led 12–10 at the end of the first but Groves took the next two rounds (22–20, 28–27) but O’Kane stormed back in the fourth and final round to take gold by one point (34–33)
But while Barnes and O’Kane were celebrating at St George’s Hall in Liverpool, Oliver Plunkett featherweight Eamon Finnegan was stopped on the 20-point rule (20–1) in his 57kg final with England’s Stephen Smith.
In pro news, Irish light heavyweight champ Jason McKay, Neil Sinclair, unbeaten knockout specialist Patrick Hyland and Declan Timlin will all box on a Gary Hyde show at Cork City Hall next month.
In pro news, Irish light heavyweight champ Jason McKay, Neil Sinclair, unbeaten knockout specialist Patrick Hyland and Declan Timlin will all box on a Gary Hyde show at Cork City Hall next month.
The ‘Battle on Leeside’ will also feature the talents of undefeated middleweight Billy Walsh, who will be having his first eight rounder in his home town on 18 August 18.
Ulster puncher McKay, who has lost one from 18, could also put his Irish crown on the line against unbeaten Andy Lee in Munster this year.
Neil Sinclair’s career appeared to be in trouble after he was knocked through the ropes by Francis Jones and counted out at the Point in Dublin last month. But the Belfast light middleweight is determined to get back on track on Leeside, and promoter Gary Hyde predicts a night to remember, following on from last February’s sell-out at the same venue.
“We have some of the cream of Irish talent fighting on this show,” said Hyde. “You have the stars of the future like young Patrick Hyland on the card, and of course not forgetting the city’s own Billy Walsh.”
Meanwhile, unbeaten middleweight Andy Lee could challenge Jason McKay for his Irish title in Limerick next October.
Lee is due to appear on the Bernard Dunne/Kiko Martinez undercard at the Point on 25 August in what will be his first professional fight in Ireland. And the Limerick southpaw, undefeated after 10 pro fights, says there is a possibility that he could meet Ulster puncher McKay on Shannonside this Autumn. The University of Limerick has been mentioned as a possible venue for the clash with 29-year-old McKay.
Lee, who boxes out of the Kronk Gym in Detroit, is presently in Los Angeles in training camp with manager Emanuel Steward.
The ex-Irish Olympian, 22, says that he will wait until around his 18th fight before he begins his challenge for the “big one”.
“I aim to step up in the next year and go for it,” he said, “as the way I look at it, I will be ready by then, so what’s the point in waiting?”
