The 2008 National Senior Championships recommenced last night with fourteen quarter-finals taking place across a variety of weight categories.
Kildare lightweight Ross Hickey got his quest for an Irish 60Kg title off to an impressive start with victory over the experienced Ciaran Bates.
Hickey did most of his good work in the opening round, connecting with clean combinations to register a convincing victory.
Terry O'Neill bowed out of the Championships after he lost out to William McLoughlin.
However, McLoughlin had to pull out all the stops in the final round as O'Neill came storming back after moving to within one point of his opponent at the end of the third.
Immaculata middleweight Eamon O'Kane didn't register his first score until midway through the second round, and that proved decisive as Edward Healy regained the initiative in the third before claiming victory in the last ten seconds of an absorbing final round which saw O'Kane edge ahead by one point in the final minute.
Healy will now meet Darren O'Neill in the last four. The opposite side of that semi-final draw sees Darren Sutherland clash with Sean Shevlin.
Holy Trinity pugilists Anthony Cacace and David McComb went head-to-head in the last eight, with Cacace moving to within two fights of an Irish title with a convincing win.
John Joe Joyce claimed the Irish senior lightweight title last year, and the St Michael's Athy man moved to within two fights of the light welterweight crown following a third round, 20-point rule stoppage (25-5) of David Barrett from the Rylane club in Cork.
Philip Sutcliffe appeared to be cruising to victory over Jamie Dowling, but Dowling registered five punches in the third and completed a stunning comeback in the fourth to level the contest at 15-15 only to be retired after picking up an eye injury.
Mark Wickham also had to retire injured. But his cousin Jamie Kavanagh was 13-3 up when the bout was halted in the third round.
John Murray advanced from a very tight contest with Tommy Dwyer, while in the final light welterweight quarter-final of the evening John Joe McDonagh cruised to a comprehensive victory over Fergal Redmond.
William Byrne got his campaign for the vacant heavyweight title underway with a 24-10 win over Philip Kearns.
Byrne did most of his good work up from the second round until the final bell in this four-rounder.
John Sweeney was involved in a hard-hitting contest with Con Sheehan.
Sweeney claimed the first two rounds, but Sheehan found a second wind to forge ahead 10-6 at the end of the third.
It was all to play for in the fourth, but the Tipperary man held his nerve as the big punches were flying around his head to tag on another four points and record a well deserved win from a top-class contest.
The third heavyweight quarter-final of the evening was another competitive bout, with the lead changing hands on three occasions before Tommy Sheehan had his hand raised in victory at the expense of Niall Kennedy.
Sheehan will now meet Galway’s Patrick Corcoran after the Connacht man convincingly beat Dubliner Graham Riggs in the last quarter-final clash of the evening session.
