Nevin ‘to put unfortunate part of my life behind me’

Olympic boxing silver medallist John Joe Nevin was released from the Midlands Regional hospital in Mullingar yesterday following an assault at the weekend in which he suffered two broken legs.

The Mullingar boxer said he was “looking forward to putting this unfortunate part of my life behind me and getting better”.

The statement, released on behalf of GreenBlood Boxing of Philadelphia and Berkeley Sports and Media of the UK with whom he signed last October, said Nevin was “assaulted after attempting to intervene as a peacemaker in a dispute near his home in Mullingar”.

It had already been revealed that Mr Nevin’s right leg was broken in two places during the assault.

The statement said the boxer learnt on Tuesday following a scan that his left leg was fractured just above the ankle.

Both organisations said they were confident he would return to the ring with GreenBlood chief executive Tom Moran saying: “We remain confident that John Joe is going to be one of the greatest fighters in Irish history. Our schedule has been pushed back a few months, but hopefully, with great rehab, he’ll be fighting a full schedule in the north east Irish market in the USA in the Fall.”

The boxer only made his professional debut on St Patrick’s Day beating Puerto Rican Alberto Candelaria on a unanimous decision.

Meanwhile, a columnist for a daily newspaper has been criticised for an article in which she said the reason why the boxer’s injuries wasn’t “news” was because he is “a Traveller, his attackers...were Travellers and this has all the hallmarks of a “Traveller feud”.

Elsewhere in the column Brenda Power also described men in the Traveller community as “lazy, violent, drunken misogynistic and domineering...who just don’t fancy working for a living and who don’t give a toss that their wives and children pay the price”.

One of the groups which objected to the article was the Equality Authority.