John Joe Nevin is hoping to emulate compatriot Katie Taylor with Olympic gold after seeing off world champion Estrada Alvarez to reach the final of the men’s bantamweight division.

Paddy Barnes is devastated after his countback defeat to China's Zou Shiming in his Men's light flyweight semi-final at the ExCel Arena.

Paddy Barnes has been defeated by reigning champion Zou Shiming on countback in his men's Olympic light flyweight semi-final at London's ExCel arena after the fight finished 15-15.

It is 20 years ago this week since Irish boxer Michael Carruth won his gold medal at the Barcelona Olympics and he says he is happy to share the feeling with Katie Taylor, who made history by winning gold in London yesterday.

Only five medallists from Beijing have survived as the Olympic boxing tournament in London reaches the semi-finals and two of those will face each other today (1.30pm) when the defending light flyweight champion Shiming Zou will face Ireland’s Paddy Barnes for a third time.

Katie Taylor may be the unbackable favourite to complete her march to Olympic boxing gold at ExCeL tomorrow but her right to reign as the undisputed world number one women’s boxer has been challenged by opponent Sofya Ochigava.

Michael Conlan watched Paddy Barnes win the bronze medal at the Olympic Games in Beijing four years ago and, last night, he heaped pressure on his fellow Belfast man by claiming a bronze medal for himself at London 2012, Barnes boxing for his second bronze tonight.

Paddy Barnes hopes to become the first Irish boxer to win two Olympic medals and victory over newcomer, Devendro Singh (India), in tonight’s quarter-final the ExCel (8.45pm) would fulfil that ambition.

Judging by his Twitter activity, boxing medal hopeful Paddy Barnes is determined to make a few famous friends in London.

Youthful, if not brazen, confidence sent Paddy Barnes to the Olympic Games in Beijing ready to take on the best in the world and beat them.

Boxing superstar Katie Taylor insists she is taking nothing for granted as she bids to further her extraordinary career with an Olympic title in London next month.

CUBAN heavyweight Jose Larduet Gomez, issued a warning to Ireland’s Olympic silver medallist, Kenny Egan, when he stopped Lubos Valecky (Czech Republic) two minutes and 20 seconds into the first round of his preliminary bout at the World boxing championships in Baku yesterday.

OLYMPIC silver medallist Kenny Egan has drawn tough opposition for his heavyweight debut at the world championships in Baku.

AS THE official anthem of Kazakhstan began to fade, the unofficial anthem of Ireland began to pound out from a corner of the Workers’ Gymnasium in the minutes before Kenny Egan took the ring for yesterday’s Olympic Light Heavyweight gold medal bout.

TEARS of pride tinged with disappointment streamed down the cheeks of the devoted fans of Irish boxing star Paddy Barnes as the little man in red bowed out of the Olympic light flyweight semi-final.

A bitterly disappointed Paddy Barnes dismissed his achievement of reaching an Olympic boxing semi-final today.

Irish boxer Paddy Barnes has lost out to China’s Zou Shiming in today’s light flyweight Olympic semi-final.

Irish boxer Darren Sutherland declared that he was “happy enough” with his performance, despite being beaten by James Degale in their semi-finals Olympic middleweight bout this morning.