Tough-talking Sutherland ready for fighting return after injury nightmare

DARREN SUTHERLAND insisted yesterday he is well on the road to a complete recovery following a career-threatening eye injury sustained during an international contest against Russia at the National Stadium earlier this year.

“Write me off at your peril,” he said. “I know Darren (O’Neill) is the new middleweight sensation but I don’t intend to relinquish my title that easily and, when the senior championships come around next year, I will be ready to defend my title.”

This time last year the 24-year-old student from Dublin City University was taking Irish boxing by storm. Without winning a national senior title — he had put that on the back-burner when he went to Brendan Ingle’s gym in Sheffield as a 16-year-old — he went to the world senior championships in Mianyang City, China and made the quarter-finals through a succession of second round stoppages before losing out to the world and European champion, Korbov Matvey.

He knows if he can repeat that performance at the world championships this time next year it will guarantee him a place in the Beijing Olympics.

“That’s my plan — to achieve that place or to better it — and then I can relax and prepare for the Olympics,” he said. “But first I have to reclaim the number one spot from Darren O’Neill and that means defending my title at the senior championships. Darren is my friend and a lovely fellow and we get on really well but now he is also my rival.

“I have taken a major step forward in recent weeks by rejoining the high performance squad and, I must say, it is great to be back. It was very difficult to sit out the summer and watch as Darren dropped back from light heavyweight to take my position for the European Championships. I saw the draw and thought it would have suited me.

“I believe everything happens for a reason and I know I will come back from this a stronger and a hungrier boxer. I probably won’t box until the senior championships. Between now and the end of the year I will get the preparatory work done and I will go back to college full time.

“After Christmas it will be all systems go. But I am not taking anything for granted.

“Last season I expected to win the title and everyone expected me to win it. There will be competition next year. I think if people have written me off it will work to my advantage.”

Ireland will have a team of seven at the world junior championships in Morocco, starting next Friday: Light Fly, John Joe Nevin (Cavan); Flyweight, Shane Cox (Gorey); Bantamweight, Ryan Lindberg (Immaculata, Belfast); Lightweight, John Joe Joyce (St Michael’s, Athy); Light Welter, Michael Collins (Darndale); Welterweight, Martin Lynch (Golden Gloves/Illes, Donegal); Light Heavyweight, Ciaran McAuley (Holy Family/Golden Gloves, Belfast).

Ryan Lindberg recently won bronze at the Brandenburg Cup — an U-19 multi-nations tournament — in Frankfurt where John Joe Nevin, Martin Lynch and Ciaran McAuley made it to the quarter-finals.

Katie Taylor is currently defending her title at the European Women’s Championships in Warsaw and, before leaving, added more trophies in an ideal warm-up at the Boszorkany Kupa in Pécs, Hungary, where she won the gold medal at 60 kgs and also got the award for the best foreign boxer.