Darren O’Neill bows out at European Championships

Team captain Darren O’Neill has been eliminated from the 41st European Amateur Boxing Championships in Samokov, Bulgaria.

The Kilkenny heavyweight was up against Russian number one seed Evgeny Tishchenko – the 2013 World Championships silver medalist – and lost valiantly and some what controversailly to his illustrious foe

O’Neill, who beat Tischenko in 2010, was left shaking his head after today’s decision was announced. The Irish skipper more than held his own in the first two frames in particular this afternoon. His work, particularly off his jab, was much the cleaner in the all southpaw duel.

“I thought that Darren shaded the first two rounds and did enough. It was a close call and Darren gave it everything,” said Irish team manager Peter O’Donnell.

“Dean showed tremendous courage and it was a top performance. Michael is a class act. He’s as comfortable at southpaw as he is at orthodox. It will take some man to beat him.”