Mayo welterweight Henry Coyle is set to turn professional with offers on the table from England, Australia and the USA.

ANDY LEE added another gold medal to his collection with an impressive victory in the finals of the Four Nations championships in Liverpool last night.

ANDY LEE was a comfortable if not impressive winner of his middleweight semi-final at the Four Nations boxing championships in Liverpool last night.

DAVID Oliver Joyce of St Michael’s, Athy proved that this year’s senior boxing championships were not just about one boxer.

ANDY LEE will be the star attraction again when he defends his middleweight title at the finals of the national championships in the National Stadium tonight.

ANDY LEE made a triumphant return to the National Stadium when he launched another defence of the national senior middleweight title he won two years ago with a very impressive 19-8 victory over Hugh Joyce (St. Michael's, Athy).

ANDY LEE launches another defence of his national senior middleweight title at the National Stadium tonight, but said yesterday it is going to be no pushover against experienced Athyman, Hugh Joyce (St Michael’s).

LIGHT heavyweight Kenneth Egan got Ireland’s Olympic qualification bid back on track yesterday when he stopped Spaniard Mairo Duro on the 20 point rule 15 seconds into the third round of his opening contest.

THE slim Olympic qualification hopes of Irish heavyweight champion Alan Reynolds were shattered in Gothenburg when he was stopped on the 20 point rule by local star Andreas Gustafsson in the third round of their semi-final bout.

THE Central Council of the IABA have decided to ignore the old sporting adage: “To the victor go the spoils”, and have chosen James Moore, the Arklow welterweight, instead of National Champion Henry Coyle of Mayo, to compete at the last qualifying series of bouts for the Athens Olympics.

PAUL McCLOSKEY is just two fights away from the Olympics after another resounding win at the qualifying tournament in Warsaw last night where he overwhelmed the highly rated Croatian, Borna Katalinic 40-19 to advance to the quarter-finals.

PAUL McCLOSKEY got his Olympic boxing qualification campaign off to the perfect start when he beat Halas Martin of the Czech Republic 37-13 in Warsaw last night.

WITH Limerick southpaw Andy Lee safely through to the Olympics, the remainder of Ireland’s Athens boxing hopefuls are currently training in Heidelberg in advance of next week’s qualifying tournaments in Plovdiv, Bulgaria and Warsaw.

LIMERICK’S Andy Lee, a former Irish Examiner/TV3 national junior sports star, takes on England’s Commonwealth Games gold medallist Darren Barker in the last 16 of the European Senior Boxing Championships in Pula, Croatia today.

JAMES MOORE (Arklow) will have one eye on the European Championships when he goes into action in tonight’s boxing international against Scotland at the National Stadium.

WINNING an Adidas Belt at the Box Cup Tournament in Hamburg may not have compensated James Moore for the loss of his national senior crown but the performance, coupled with the defeat of his conqueror, Henry Coyle, in Helsinki over the weekend, has re-ignited his hopes of Olympic qualification.

ANDY LEE took his first step towards Olympic qualification with a fourth round victory over up-and-coming Patrick Murray from the St Matthews club in Ballyfermot to retain his middleweight title at the Star National senior boxing championships finals at the Stadium last night.

THERE were four Irish victories at the multi-nations boxing tournament at the Rochestown Park Hotel in Cork last night, as James Moore, Conor Ahern, Andrew Murray and Marvin Lee claimed their places in tomorrow night’s finals.

THE programme may have been curtailed for a variety of circumstances, but last night’s preliminary session of the multi nations boxing tournament at the Rochestown Park Hotel, Cork set up a mouth watering semi-final between the talented young American, Antonio Johnson, and Ireland’s Roy Sheahan.

THE Irish boxers – all with their sights on Olympic qualification - arrived in Cork last evening for the Multi-Nations Tournament at the Rochestown Park Hotel tonight (7.30 pm), hoping for some sort of recognition for their achievements over the past year.

COMMONWEALTH Games gold medallist Jason Douglas heads an entry of five for the heavyweight honours at the multi-nations boxing tournament which gets underway at the Rochestown Park Hotel in Cork tomorrow evening.

IRISH boxers face a busy week ahead with both the senior and junior champions in action abroad and the number twos in action against Wales in the first major international of the year at the National Stadium tonight.