MEDAL ALERT – Deadly Gabriel Dossen Secures Euro Bronze at the Very Least
Gabriel Dossen stepped onto the European Championship podium thanks to another impressive display in Armenia today.
The Connaught middle won his third fight in the competition to secure bronze at the very least.
The Olympic BC fighter was too good for a game and competitive Mindaugas Gedminas and progressed to the semis after a 4-1 split decision win.
The victory sees Dossen deliver on his underage promise and he progresses from Irish talent of note to a world level operator early in the Olympic cycle.
The southpaw, who won back-to-back European Youth bronze in 2016 and 2017, won an Irish senior title as far back as 2019 but this tournament was his first-ever major senior international championship in an Irish vest. He certainly delivered at the first time asking having secured a medal and doing it the hard way by winning three fights.
Dossen will now fight for silver on Sunday, something JP Hale, Ricky Nesbitt and Sean Mari all missed out on the chance of doing as they suffered quarterfinal defeat earlier in the day.
🚨Men’s European Championship result
— IABA (@IABABOXING) May 27, 2022
#TeamIreland 75kg Gabriel Dossen is through to the semi finals, with at least a 🥉, following a 4-1 win over Norway pic.twitter.com/A9elBq6v4w
It was a tentative first minute as the two southpaws tried to figure each other out. Dossen was landing jabs and straight backhands to the body and began to get in and out well as the stanza progressed. The Galway middle also had the skill set to punish his opponent any time he tried to rush in and was the better inside fighter of the two, meaning he did more than enough to win the round across the board.
The Norwegian tried to turn the tide in the second and pressed forward but Dossen showed hand speed not seen in an Irish singlet since Katie Taylor and countered well. He was warned for hitting low twice but it didn’t stop him from going back to the body and showing good variety. His foe was more competitive and did land some long backhands impressing two of the judges enough to level the fight up on two of the scorecards.
With a medal on the line, Dossen looked happy enough to box off the back foot in the final round, and more relaxed his best work came to the fore. To his credit Gedminas was full of effort and did have moments but Dossen landed the punch of the fight and forced him to take a standing eight. Buoyed by that success he pressed forward a little more and it lead to an entertaining final minute which Dossen ended with a fitting check right hook.
Bantamweight, Dylan Eagleson, is the only Irish boxer in action in Friday’s evening session. The St Pauls club man boxes his quarterfinal against Spain’s Gabriel Masunano Escobar in bout 4 of Ring A’s evening session.
Team Ireland:
48kg Ricky Nesbitt, Holy Family, Drogheda
51kg Sean Mari, Monkstown BC, Dublin
54kg Dylan Eagleson, St. Paul’s, Belfast
57kg Adam Hession, Monivea BC, Galway
60kg JP Hale, Star ABC, Belfast.
63.5kg Brandon McCarthy, St. Michael’s, Athy.
67kg Eugene McKeever, Holy Family, Drogheda
71kg Luke Maguire, Esker BC, Dublin
75kg Gabriel Dossen, Olympic, Galway.
92kg Jack Marley, Monkstown BC, Dublin
Coaches:
Zauri Antia
Dmitri Dmitruk
Damian Kennedy
