Egan leads by example

09 August 2008 – by Mark Doyle

Kenneth Egan began his bid for Olympic light-heavyweight gold in impressive fashion, the Irish team captain defeating Julius Jackson 22-2 in Beijing on Saturday morning.

The Dubliner had a somewhat sloppy second round but, for the most part, boxed beautifully and completely outclassed his opponent from the Virgin Islands, just as he had done in their last meeting at the World Championships last November.

Egan walked to the ring with a smile on his face and his confidence was certainly justified.

He was three points up inside the first minute of the bout, the third of those points coming courtesy of a splendidly-timed left hand.

By the close of the opening round, Egan had doubled his advantage and looked in complete command.

He had a slight scare in the second when he ended up on his backside after being caught off-balance whilst avoiding a hopeful right hand from Jackson but still managed to take the round 4-2 to extend his lead to eight points.

Egan regained his composure and control superbly in the second half of the fight, demonstrating impressive movement and fast hands as he coasted to a victory which will have boosted his confidence even further after Fridays favourable draw.

The classy southpaw will now face Turkeys Muzafer Bahram in the last 16.

Light-welterweight John Joe Joyce, meanwhile, will get his campaign underway on Sunday morning (7:30 Irish time) with a bout against Gyula Kate, the Hungarian who defeated him in last years World Championships.

To keep up to date with each fighters Olympic schedule check out our Upcoming Bouts section on the site. Well also have reports and news on all our fighters in our latest news section throughout the Games.