Technical draw for Joyce in Uzbekistan

David Oliver Joyce and Brazilian Olympian Robson Conceicao were involved in a technical draw in today’s AIBA Pro Boxing (APB) lightweight bout in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

The fight was stopped 68 seconds into the second round and declared a Technical Draw, who suffered a cut on his head following an accidental clash of heads.

The three-time European Union champion, landing most of the power shots against his South American opponent, took the first round on two of the judges’ cards and was leading 10-9,10-9,9-10 at the time of the stoppage.

Conceicao, who ill-advisedly had his hands down against the marauding Irishman in the latter stages of the opening stanza, raised his hands in defence in the second which was developing nicely until the clash of heads, which occurred when Joyce had his man on the ropes at 1:08 into the second.

Today’s 60kg bout, which was scheduled for eight rounds, was Joyce’s last APB match of the season. Irish head coach Billy Walsh was working Joyce’s corner in Tashkent.

Uzbekistan’s Hurshid Tojibaev, who was adjudged to have beaten Joyce in Tashkent last time out, beat Russia’s Dmitry Polyanskiy on today’s card to qualify for the Rio 2016 Olympics and reach the APB lightweight final.

Joyce and Conceicao were competing for ranking positions.