Bereaved Nolan spurred on to fifth Senior title by departed Grandmother

Adam Nolan showed unbelievable mental and emotional strength at the weekend to overcome young star Martin Stokes and claim his fifth National Elite welterweight title.

The Wexford Garda took to the ring just one day after the death of his his biggest fan – his beloved Grandmother, and he told irish-boxing.com that “I knew it wasn’t going to be easy, my Grandmother passed away yesterday so she gave me a bit of incentive to win it.”

It was a close but clear win for 2012 Olympian Nolan, but the classy operator was highly complimentary of his Drogheda opponent and feels that he has a bright future, reasoning that “he was 13/8 in the bookies so he was far from unsighted.”

“He had a very good Intermediate Championships, won it comprehensively, he beat a good guy last week in Caoimhin Hynes.”

“He was coming in as the Intermediate Champion with four good wins under his belt so he was confident.”

The big question now on Nolan’s mind now is whether he can go to the Olympic qualifiers next year to try and claim a quota place and force a box-off with Ireland’s already-qualified Steven Donnelly. There has currently been no confirmation from the IABA whether Nolan, or indeed Stephen McKenna, Kurt Walker, and JP Delaney can go to the qualifiers and force a box-off with Donnelly, Barnes, Conlan, and Ward respectively. However, judging by the 2012 Olympic qualifiers, the chances seem small.

Nevertheless a hopeful Nolan remains optimistic, and noted that “I don’t know now whether I’ll go to the qualifiers or not, I haven’t asked the question because there was no point asking the question if I hadn’t won these.”

“So now I’ve won, retained my title, and it’s five in a row so I think I deserve to go – to a qualifier at least.”