Gabriel Dossen holding on to Olympic Dream as he builds towards maiden Elites

Gabriel Dossen capped off a fine 2018 on Friday night.

The Galway middleweight added the National Senior [Intermediate] title to his Irish U22, Haringey Box Cup, Monkstown Box Cup, and Eindhoven Box Cup wins.

Posting 13 wins and 2 defeats (one avenged) throughout the year, the young star is continually marking himself as one to watch and is looking to claim the Irish Elite title next February.

At the weekend, Dossen dominated the game Christopher Mulligan to claim the Intermediate crown with an aggressive and entertaining performance

“I felt really good in there,” he told Irish-Boxing.com afterwards.

“It was the final, the last performance, I wanted to leave it all in there.”

The Olympic BC talent almost brought a halt to the bout in the third, bloodying Mulligan’s nose and Dossen believes his momentum will be hard to handle for most.

The increasingly physically strong southpaw explained how “I don’t go in looking for the kill, if it comes, it comes, but usually by the third round my opponent is broken down.”

“It happened in all my other fights, against Paul Ryan and Bob Hall, I stopped them in the third, my third round is always my strongest.”

“I feel a lot stronger now, I’m sitting down into my shots.”

Tipped by Mick Conlan as a Tokyo Olympic hope, the European and Youth bronze medallist will look to dislodge old underage team-mate Michael Nevin as Ireland’s #1 in February before targeting the Games in Japan.

It will be Dossen’s first Elites, having missed this year’s tournament in favour of the European Under-22s.

Outlining his plans, he noted that “it will probably be the Under-22s in January but then definitely the Elites in February.”

“The Olympics are the goal for me, I think they’re the goal for every boxer.”

Of course, the IOC have currently frozen planning for boxing at the Games as they investigate AIBA but Dossen, who only turned 19 last week, is hopeful.

“I saw that, I don’t think though that they’re going to kick boxing out, I think that’s to scare AIBA into bringing in regulations to fix things,” he mused.

The talented teenager has pro dreams down the line and the Olympics play into this.

Dossen noted how, alongside the glory and the honour, that “most Olympic boxers, after they win medals they turn straight pro and get big deals.”

“Without the Olympics you can’t kick into the pro career ahead, you’ve to start from scratch.”

“You go in at a high stage instead of having to work your way up through journeymen. I want to go straight in.”