Steven Donnelly got Ireland’s Olympic boxing campaign off to a winning start as he easily dispatched Algeria’s Zohir Kedache by unanimous decision.
After a week of controversy surrounding the Irish boxing team as a result of Michael O’Reilly’s failed drug test, Donnelly showed that the rest of the team have not been affected by producing a classy performance to get through to the last 16 of the Games.
Donnelly stamped his authority in the opening round as the Algerian’s aggression was immediately nullified by some excellent defensive work from the Ballymena man who fought beautifully off the back foot to land some telling combinations, while using long left jab to perfection.
All three judges were suitably impressed by Donnelly’s work to hand him the round 10:9 on all three scorecards.
And Donnelly stepped up a level in the second round to really punish the now tiring Algerian, landing some heavy shots to Kedache’s porous defence, while also slowing him down with bruising body shots.
Again, the judges were in agreement with the impressive Irishman, with one even scoring it 10:8 to Donnelly.
The final round proved a procession for Donnelly as he eased down through the gears to secure the bout by unanimous decision and progress to the next round where he will face Mongolia’s Byamba Tuvshinbat who eased through his opening round against Argentina’s Alberto Palmetta.
Speaking after the fight to RTE Sport, Donnelly said: “It was great to get the first one out of the way, get three good rounds under the belt and come away with the win. Over the moon with the performance and the sharpness will come in the next fight. Only the start of the journey and it's the best feeling ever."
Steven Donnelly was delighted to come away with the win in his first Olympic fight #rterio2016 https://t.co/z8gOExe41u
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) August 7, 2016
