Gardiner: I was down but I knew I wasn’t out

Dean Gardiner says he wasn’t worried after being put on the seat of his pant in his opening European Championships bout on Saturday.

‘Breakfast’ admits it was a heavy knock down, but claims once he rose to his feet he knew he could turn things around.

The Senior Champion eventually overcame Italy’s Guido Vianello in the last 16, scoring 29-28 on all three cards despite hitting the deck early and will now face France’s Tony Yoka on Monday for a place in the semi-finals.

Speaking after the bout the Tip man said,

“I was always confident I could pull it back, the score, and when I got him with a standing count in the second round we knew we were back in it.”

“He caught me with a rare shot (in the first round), I didn’t know where I was for three or four seconds. I had a look at the few coaches in the corner and they said, ‘Stay down for a few seconds’.

“It was grand after that. It probably did me a lot of good. I showed I could recover and stay strong.”