Six defending champions retained their titles at the 2016 National Elite Championship finals in Dublin on Friday night, with Dean Walsh and Michael O’Reilly recording Irish title hat-tricks.
Kilkenny heavyweight Darren O’Neill, Wexford welterweight Adam Nolan, Lisburn bantamweight Kurt Walker and Clonmel’s super-heavyweight Dean Gardiner were the other reigning champions to come out on top.
Meanwhile, Belfast’s Brendan Irvine was yet another successful title holder although the 19-year-old moved up from light-flyweight (49kg) to take the flyweight (52kg) crown.
Wexford light-welterweight Walsh was involved in what was arguably the most anticipated contest of the night as he met Mayo rival Ray Moylette in a rematch of their 2015 final, which took place last January.
The Irish Amateur Boxing Association (IABA) opted to stage the 2016 national tournament early in preparation for those Olympic qualifiers next year, and Walsh and Moylette served up another cracker with the Wexford native – who is a nephew of former Ireland head coach Billy Walsh – claiming another split-decision win.
The 60kg lightweight final was also decided on a split call as Belfast’s Seán McComb suffered the misfortune of being the only reigning champion to lose his title last night as Athy’s David Oliver Joyce edged a close contest.
In a rematch of their 2014 final, Joyce was bullish and aggressive throughout and while McComb battled, he appeared to tire slightly in the final round after an exhausting year which saw him in action at the European Games and World Championships.
“You couldn’t get any better boxer than Sean McComb. He’s up there with all the best internationally. But this is the start again of my journey to the Rio Olympics,” said Joyce after his win.
“I’ve had hard luck before London and even going back to Rio. This is my time and I’m going to make sure of it.”
Ireland have so far qualified four boxers for Rio 2016 – Michael Conlan (56kg), Paddy Barnes (49kg), Joe Ward (81kg) and Steven Donnelly (69kg) – meaning finalists at those weights were only fighting for national pride, while all four qualifiers did not participated in the tournament having already booked their Olympic places.
World medallist O’Reilly started at a fast pace against first-time finalist Connor Wallace of Newry and the defending champion from Portlaoise kept that up throughout the three rounds.
O’Reilly employed his usual hit-and-move style but Wallace enjoyed some success in the second round as he caught his decorated opponent on a number of occasions, with the champion picking up a cut on his forehead.
O’Reilly was back to his best in the third as he leaped to throw a couple of right hands that appeared to hurt the challenger en route to claiming a 3-0 unanimous win.
In the battle of Belfast, reigning 2015 light-flyweight champion Irvine (St Paul’s, Antrim) claimed a double as he took the flyweight title to maintain his Olympic ambitions with a 3-0 unanimous decision over TJ Waite of Ormeau Road.
Waite showed great courage participating in the tournament, winning his semi-final last weekend just hours after the death of his mother from a terminal illness, but Irvine, a silver medallist at last June’s European Games, was more aggressive to take a 3-0 win.
On his Olympic ambitions, Irvine said: “Throughout the whole competition, I’ve had to stay focused with everything. I turned my phone off and turned off Facebook and everything else. Even today, my Twitter was going mental, but I haven’t looked at it once, so I’ve just been keeping focused and remaining disciplined as well.”
At light-flyweight (49kg), with Barnes absent, Stephen McKenna of Old School recorded a dominant unanimous decision over Regan Buckley of St Teresa’s in a battle of the baby faces.
McKenna, just 18, and one month older than his opponent, looked physically stronger than the slight but determined Buckley and the former, fighting out of a southpaw stance, looked far more comfortable fighting at close quarters than his opponent.
Belfast’s bantamweight champion Walker retained his 56kg title, recording a 3-0 unanimous win over Limerick’s Myles Casey, brother of former European pro champion Willie.
Kilkenny heavyweight and former European middleweight silver medallist O’Neill eased to 3-0 unanimous points win over Bernard O’Reilly, brother of Michael, while Bray-based Wexford welterweight Nolan defeated Martin Stokes of Drogheda to retain his 69kg crown.
At light-heavyweight, John Paul Delaney defeated Navan’s Chris Blaney, and super-heavyweight Gardiner of Clonmel successfully defended his 91+kg title against Thomas Carty of Glasnevin.
