Joyce joust to set Barrett up for senior tilt

DAVID BARRETT will take his preparations for next month’s national senior boxing championships to a new level when he boxes former champion, David Joyce, on a 15-bout bill promoted by Rylane boxing club at the Riverside Park Hotel in Macroom tomorrow night.

Barrett, a 19-year-old from Millstreet, was following in the footsteps of his brothers when he won a national intermediate title last year but Dan Lane, the Rylane BC coach kept him away from this year’s senior championships.

“He is ready to take his place next month,” Lane insisted yesterday. “He has been training exceptionally well this season and he has got a lot stronger in the past year.

“He will be stepping up in class to box David Joyce who was a national senior welterweight champion two years ago. He lost his title to his clubmate Roy Sheahan last year and was beaten again by him in this year’s championships.

“Now he is moving up a division for the upcoming championships so David (Barrett) will be giving him a bit of weight on Saturday night. Like, I said, he is much stronger this year and I don’t think it will be a problem because he is approaching peak fitness.”

He will need to be close to his best to perform against David Joyce who is quite a skilful exponent. He lost two thrilling finals to his clubmate Roy Sheahan who boxed in the recent world championships and, while

Sheahan lost a golden opportunity for Olympic qualification in Chicago he is still fancied to get a place in Beijing at one of the two qualification tournaments in the New Year.

There will be three members of the battling Joyce clan from the St Michael’s Club in Athy on the Rylane bill. Hughie, a talented 14-year-old and two-time national champion, will take on Rylane’s Owen Dennehy at 50kgs while Christy, another two-time Irish champion, will box 16-year-old Dungarvan boy, Peter Keenan, at 60kgs.

The show will feature three

members of the Garda Boxing Club; Tom Murray from the promoting club, who lost to the eventual champion, Martin Collins, in the recent national intermediate championships will box Eamonn McDonnell, a Garda from Mayo, who also lost out in the semi-finals of the intermediate championships.

David Conlon, one of twins who once boxed out of the Lough Lynn Boxing Club in Roscommon, won a gold medal at the world police and firemen’s championships two years ago and he returns to Macroom to box Patrick O’Shea at 75kgs. On his last visit he lost to Pa Walsh from the St Colman’s Club in what was the Shanagarry man’s last contest as an amateur before his winning pro debut at Cork City Hall.

The third Garda in action will be Joe Fahy from Roscommon but stationed in Dublin who will box John Murray from Rylane while Donal Óg O’Leary, brother of the Cork inter-county footballer Noel, who also boxes with the Rylane club, meets Owen Hurley from Macroom in another middleweight contest.

Early next year Rylane Boxing Club and the Garda Boxing Club will join forces to travel to the USA to box the NYPD in New York and Rylane expect to contribute in the region of six boxers to that team.