Egan and Sheahan ease through
Egan, Sheahan and Sutherland were dispatched to Chicago on a mission — to secure Olympic qualification — but on what was a sensational day for Irish boxing light fly Paddy Barnes raised eyebrows with a spectacular victory and Eric Donovan was in devastating form to highlight the fact that they will not be far away from qualification.
Sutherland, however, has been the focus of considerable attention here and he has been itching to get going since his opponent for the scheduled opener, Roy Albert Cook from Dominica, failed to make the weight and was sent packing.
“I had mixed feelings about that,” he said. “I really wanted to box and I was up for it so, initially, I was disappointed. But then I cut the inside of my lip when I was sparring with the Olympic champion last week and although it had healed I felt another couple of days would be good for it.”
He had ample time to dissect the performance of today’s opponent, Andranik Hakobyan, who was not terribly impressive when disposing of Naim Terbunja from Sweden in his opener.
“I am confident I can beat him,” Sutherland said last night. “I sparred the Swede a few times in the training camp but the Armenian had a lot of difficulty with him.
“Darren O’Neill had the Armenian down a couple of times when he beat him in the Czech Republic so we know a bit about him.”
When he completes this assignment he will face either Vijender Singh (India), whose erect style would make him an easy target for the Dubliner, or Alfonso Blanco (Venezuela) who outpointed a disappointing James Degale from England 28-13 in his opening bout. That will be on Tuesday after a rest day for everyone on Monday.
Kenneth Egan, Roy Sheahan, Paddy Barnes and Eric Donovan will also be back in action tomorrow.
Egan caused something of a scare on Wednesday night when he woke up with a fever and then spent most of Thursday in bed.
“He came knocking on the door at 2am,” High Performance Director, Gary Keegan, said. “We had to get him some medication and then we took him to the French team doctor but he was still awake at 5am. Happily he was much better this afternoon and he was very good tonight.’’
In fact, he was in devastating against Julius Jackson (Virgin Islands) whose father of the same name was a world-class boxer.
An accurate right jab had him 8-1 up at the end of the first round and, with his very last punch in the second, he stopped his opponent on the 20-point rule.
“I was up all hours with the shakes. I could not train so I had to go to the sauna to make the weight,” he said. “I was not sure if it would affect my strength so I slowed the pace down.
“When I got in he was on the back foot straight away and that suited me. I was picking him off and hurting him with body shots. My right hand worked like a dream and I was not wasting any shots. After what I had been through earlier in the day two rounds was just perfect for me. Now I can rest and get over this bug.”
Roy Sheahan was on the floor for a brief second, took a standing count and still outclassed the Korean, Sang-In Han, 22-7, for an exciting welterweight victory. In fact it appeared as if the Korean was punching at flies as he failed to land a single scoring punch in the final round which the Athy man won by a clear six points.
Sheahan had stopped his man in his tracks with a straight left hand when the Korean southpaw, in desperation, unleashed a looping left which caught him on the chin and he went down on his face.
“He caught me on one foot as I moved to the side after catching him with a good shot, I did not see what he hit me with,” Sheahan admitted. “But I got up too quickly. I should have stayed down for a second or two more. Anyway it worked out all right — recovered quickly and I felt I had a very good last round.
“But the first round was the important one. That’s always the test. I knew if I got a point or two up he would have to come and catch me and I could pick him off.”
Young Ryan Lindberg lost his bantamweight opener on the 20 point rule with his opponent, McJoe Arroyo (Puerto Rico), leading 17-7 with 34 seconds remaining in the third round.
Super Heavyweight Cathal McMonagle, a silver medallist at the EU championships in June, faces the world rated Russian, Islam Timurziev, today.
Irish boxers in action today: Middleweight, Darren Sutherland v Andranik Hakobyan (Armenia); Super Heavyweight, Cathal McMonagle v Islam Timurziev (Russia).
Tomorrow: Light flyweight Paddy Barnes v Sadegh Zade Faraj (Iran); Lightweight, Eric Donovan v Jonathan Batisa (Dominican Republic); Welterweight, Roy Sheahan v Rusian Khairov (Azerbaijan); Light Heavy, Kenneth Egan v Julio Torres Castillo (Ecuador).
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