World Championships Day 7 Preview

Today at the World Championships in Doha, Ireland are aiming to win an unprecedented second semi final and guarantee at least two silver medals.

Light heavyweight Joe Ward is the man in action and he will look to join Michael Conlan who yesterday became only the second Irish boxer ever, after Jason Quigley, to reach the gold medal bout at the World Championships.

The big Westmeath man is faced with Uzbek veteran Elshod Rasulov this evening at 6:30pm Irish time. The Central Asian is now a three time medalist at these championships (bronze – 2011, 2015* and silver – 2009) and has previously won golds at the Asian Championships (2007) and Asian Games (2006, 2010).

Ward is a 4/9 favourite going into the clash (Rasulov – 13/8) and these odds seem fair considering the Irishman won comprehensively when the pair met at the 2012 Chemistry Cup.

If Ward is to win today it sis possible that he will face a rematch of his 2013 World Championships semi-finals defeat to Julio Cesar de la Cruz. The Cuban is big favourite (2/7) today in his semi final against Russia’s Pavel Silyagin (9/4).

Bets can be placed HERE