Results Round-up: O’Connor wins in Comeback for Charity
The last week has seen most of our focus honed in on South America and the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
The Irish team have been less successful than expected, with just two of our eight initial boxers remaing, with Katie Taylor and Mick Conlan boxing to guarantee bronze today and tomorrow respectively.
Light flyweight Paddy Barnes lost in his opening bout on Monday. Suffering badly from weight-making issues, the Belfast man was defeated by Spaniard Samuel Carmona Heredia.
Belfast Flyweight Brendan Irvine also fell at the first hurdle, losing to the very impressive Shakhobiddin Zoirov of Uzbekistan on Saturday afternoon.
World champion Mick Conlan had more success, dominating in his bantamweight opener yesterday against Armenian Aram Avagyan.
David Oliver Joyce, following a win last Sunday against Andrique Allisop of the Seychelles, was defeated himself at the lightweight Last 16 stage by Azeri legend Albert Selimov on Tuesday.
Steven Donnelly raised the spirits of the nation with two brilliant wins over Algerian Zohir Kedache and Mongolian Tuvshinbat Byamba, before narrowly losing on a split decision in his welterweight bronze medal bout on Saturday with Moroccan World champion Mohammed Rabii.
Moate light heavyweight Joe Ward meekly exited after a brawl in his opening bout with rough Ecuadorian Carlos Mina.
Away from the Olympics there were also some Wild Geese in action over the weekend.
At the Village Hotel in Ashton on Friday former World title challenger Jimmy Kelly continued his comeback trail. The Manchester-born light middlweight outpointed Darryl Sharp over ten rounds.
Also on Friday in New York, Irish-American welterweight Larry Gleeson made his debut on a Premier Boxing Champions Card and came away with a dominant four-round unanimous decision win over Simon Sayes.
The following day in Topeka, Kansa, Boston welterweight Danny O’Connor made his return to the ring. Fighting to raise money for his community mentoring programme in his hometown of Framingham, O’Connor travelled across country to take on the previously-undefeated Jerry Thomas. Despite being the away fighter, Danny Bhoy emerged victorious, with a broken nose for his troubles, after a slugfest.
