Ken Egan had his hand raised in victory after Darren Cruise was retired at the end of the third round of their light heavyweight final at the IABAs Open Senior Competition at the National Stadium in Dublin tonight. Egan, a silver medal winner at the the Beijing Olympics, was 15-1 up when the fight was stopped. Meanwhile, Irish light welterweight champ Philip Sutcliffe beat 2008 Olympian John Joe Joyce 21-6 in a thrilling 64Kg final. European bronze medalist Ross Hickey reversed the decision from Februarys Irish senior 60Kg final with Eric Donovan after recording a narrow 4-3 win over the St Michael's Athy man. And European Union heavyweight champ Con Sheehan impressed in his 11-4 win Conal Carmichael. The IABA are using the Open Senior Competition as part of their selection process for the AIBA World Championships which begin in Milan on September 1st. Open Senior Competition National Stadium Dublin Finals July 17th (Scores at end of first two rounds in brackets) 48Kgaddy Barnes (Holy Family) W/O 51Kg:Conor Ahern (Baldoyle) beat Ruairi Dalton (Holy Trinity) 12-4 (5-0,7-2) 54Kg:John Joe Nevin (Cavan) W/O 57Kg:Sean Kilroy (Holy Family Drogheda) lost to Tyrone McCullagh (Illies GG) 0-7 (0-1, 0-3) 60Kg:Eric Donovan (St Michael's Athy) lost to Ross Hickey (Grangecon) 3-4 (1-0,2-2) 64Kg:John Joe Joyce (St Michael's Athy) lost to Philip Sutcliffe (Crumlin) (2-5,4-10) 6-21 69Kg:Adam Nolan (Bray/Garda) lost to Roy Sheahan (St Michael's Athy) (2-2,3-3) c/b 6-6, 1-4 75Kgavid Joyce (St Michael's Athy) beat Stephen O'Reilly (Twinstown) 7-4 (2-1,4-3) 81Kgarren Cruise (Crumlin) lost to Ken Egan (Neilstown) (1-6,1-15) RET3 91Kg:Conal Carmichael (Holy Trinity) lost to Con Sheehan (Clonmel) (2-3,3-4) 4-11 91+Kg:Chris Devanney (St Joesphs) lost to Cathal McMonagle (Holy Trinity) (1-5,2-8) 2-12
haha i dont expect to keep you waiting too long! If i was as bad as bam bam i would have told you about it a few months ago when i found out it was a possibility
Fine start to the interview business, Sligo - I must say I enjoyed reading Healy's perspective. You have an excellent turn of phrase and a nice fluid style. I might be mad, but I think he'll surprise the Chunk over four rounds. He mightn't win, but DeGale will know he was in a fight. I can remember Jamie Moore telling me how surprised he was when Healy started wailing on him from first bell when they fought in Dublin last year. Ciaran actually won the first round and half of the second until Jamie put him down with a sickener of a body shot. DeGale doesn't hit as hard as Moore, so we could have a good oul' scrap while it lasts. I think it'll go the distance, and DeGale will win irrespective of how well Ciaran does, given he's the home fighter and the TV star. Chunky might have a mark or two at the end though. Although given my unconscionably **** record at predictions, he'll probably be staring at the ceiling in 80 seconds.
Sutcliffe-joyce was a bit of a dust up, had the crowd on there feet at times.Triple J showed a lot of balls even to get back into the ring with Sutcliffe, and at times looked very weary of Sutcliffes power.Fair play to him, fair play to both men. Sweeney the heavyweight is improving all the time. We have a star in the future here. Egan is slowly returning back to form, but I have seen him box better.
Theres that bit of needle between then after what suttcliffe did at the stadium a while back, i dont blame him for being weary of sutcliffes power
Do you think Sutcliffe can go far? The way it is over here at the moment and the goverment cuts there could well be some of these lads dropped from the grants they get. Which would lead them into the pro ranks sooner than they want to. It will be interesting to see how much the boxers will be effected if they decide to cut the grants they get. The only sport that delevers medals year after year they deserve the money they get. :think
The next olympics is in london so i think thats a big incentive for the younger lads to hang on until then.