The 2008 National Senior Championships will begin on Tuesday 8 January and run over four days, concluding on Friday 11 January, at the National Stadium in Dublin.
The change in format for the competition is to facilitate the Irish senior squad’s participation in the two final Olympic qualifiers for European boxers in February and April next year. These qualifiers will take place from 24 February to 2 March in Pescara, Italy, and from 7–14 April in Athens, Greece.
A minimum of four and a maximum of six Olympic qualification places will be up for grabs in all weight categories for Europeans at these tournaments, meaning that a number of Irish boxers will have to reach the finals in their respective divisions to secure their spots at next year’s Olympics.
A semi-final finish may suffice in the weight categories that have six Olympics berths remaining. However, a final-four finish in Pescara and Athens could mean that beaten semi-finalists will have to box-off for a place in Beijing.
While the changes in format for the National Senior Championships are designed to facilitate preparations for Pescara and Athens, at least one Irish boxer – light flyweight Paddy Barnes, who has already qualified for the 2008 Olympics – said that his immediate ambition is to successfully defend his Irish 48kg title at the National Stadium in January.
Twenty-one year old Barnes, from the Holy Family club in Belfast, won his place at the Beijing Olympics by virtue of reaching the quarter-finals at the recent AIBA World Champion-ships and Olympic qualifiers at the University of Illinois in Chicago.
The reigning Irish and Ulster senior champion, who has Gerry Storey in his corner at national level, admitted that it has not fully sunk in yet that he is an Irish Olympian.
He said: “My first priority is to successfully defend my Irish title in January and I think it is a great idea to run the Senior Championships over four days, as that is the way international competitions are run.
“Because I qualified for the Olympics, everyone will be trying to beat me at the nationals, but I will be prepared for that and I am confident that I will do well in Dublin.
“It hasn’t really fully sunk in yet that I will be boxing at the Olympics next year. It is a dream come true, really, and hopefully we can get a few more boxers qualified in Italy and Greece.”
Meanwhile, the nine Olympic qualifying events which will complete the qualifying process for the 2008 Olympic Games have been confirmed.
Following the completion of the AIBA World Boxing Championships in Chicago, which featured as the opening qualifying event for Beijing, athletes from each continent will have two more chances – except for Oceania, where the Continental Championships will double as an Olympic qualifying event.
A total of 284 of the 286 places available for Beijing are distributed through the qualifying events. The AIBA World Championships, which concluded in early November, saw 80 of those places taken, while there will be two dedicated events organised for the Americas, Africa, Asia and Europe.
Within this quota, a maximum of six places will be guaranteed to the host nation. The remaining two places will be allocated to the Tripartite Commission.
In other news, Barry McGuigan’s son Shane has pulled out of the Irish Intermediate Championships after picking up an ear injury in sparring.
The competition, which gloved off at the National Stadium in Dublin last Friday, features up to 140 boxers. However, 19-year-old McGuigan – who boxes out of the Aylesham club in Canterbury, but is also a member of his dad’s club in Clones – is no longer one of them.
His father, a former Irish amateur champion and WBA world featherweight champ, and who was inducted into the World Boxing Hall of Fame two years ago, admitted that they were very disappointed.
He said: “Shane has a blood blister on his right ear and he will have to have an operation on the injury, which will keep him out for a few weeks.
“It is very frustrating as he was looking forward to boxing at the stadium as the Irish Intermediate Championships is a top class tournament which always features very talented boxers.
“He picked up the injury in sparring and it wasn’t getting any better after his last fight, which he won after a second round stoppage, so it is best to have the operation and sort the problem out.”
In pro news, Irish middleweight Andy Lee has rubbished speculation that his coach and manager Emanuel Steward has been dropped by ex-world middleweight champ Jermain Taylor.
Steward, who has trained and managed over 30 world champions, was in Taylor’s corner when he lost his world title to Kelly Pavlik in Atlantic City last September.
Both men are due to meet again in a rematch in Las Vegas on 16 February, but Steward – who trained Taylor for the clash with Pavlik at the Kronk Gym in Detroit – will play no part in the fight.
This has led to outright speculation that Taylor has walked away from the partnership. But Lee, who also boxes out of the Kronk, insists otherwise.
He said: “Emanuel is preparing Wladimir Klitschko for a fight in February and that is why he will not be involved in the Taylor and Pavlik rematch.
“Taylor is not a Kronk boxer, but he was speaking with Emanuel only yesterday and they have always got on very well. There is nothing to be read into Emanuel not being involved in the rematch. It’s just business.”
Meanwhile, Limerick southpaw Lee will be working the corner for his Kronk stablemate Kermit Cintron in Los Angles on Friday night next.
“I’ve worked the corner for Kermit three times already and it is always something I enjoy doing as I can learn a lot being so close to the action.”
Lee is due to headline a Brian Peters promotion at the National Stadium in Dublin on 15 December. and says that one of the reasons he signed up with Peters is because he wants to box in his hometown of Limerick.
He added: “I am really looking forward to fighting at the stadium. The promotion agreement with Brian Peters should also give me the opportunity to box in Limerick in the future and that would be really something to look forward to.”
In further news from the paid ranks, unbeaten light middleweight James Moore racked up the 14th win of his career following a second round stoppage of Tennessee puncher Thomas Davis in New York City in the early hours of last Thursday morning.
The Arklow-born fighter, a former world amateur bronze medallist, served up a fine performance at the Plattduetsche Restaurant to rack up the 10th knock-out of his career. New York-based Moore – whose father Jim is a High Performance coach with the Irish Amateur Boxing Association (IABA) – used to box out of John Duddy’s Irish Ropes Gym in the Big Apple.
Duddy’s former coach Harry Keitt was in Moore’s corner in New York, and he hailed the performance of the 29-year-old, who upped the tempo after receiving a cut over his left eye following a clash of heads in the first round.
He said: “James had to keep his concentration against Davis as he is a very awkward fighter. But James handled the situation well and he looked very impressive in there.”
The vanquished Davis has had a chequered career, but he caused a major upset in 2004 after knocking out the highly rated Kendall Holt in the first round in Chicago.
