Sutherland and O’Neill to go toe-to-toe in final again

DARREN SUTHERLAND of St Saviours OBA set up another exciting middle-weight meeting with Darren O’Neill (Paulstown) in tonight’s finals when he stopped Sean Shevlin in the second round of their box-off at the National Stadium last night.

In an open draw for the box-offs between the semi-finalists from the national championships which will decide who goes to the final Olympic qualifying tournament in Athens in two weeks, Sutherland — the reigning national senior champion — was pitted against Sean Shevlin (Dealgan) in a repeat of the semi-final pairing while O’Neill got a bye in the absence of Edward Healy (Portlaoise), the man he beat in his semi-final.

For Sutherland it was a repeat of the national championships when he stopped the Dundalk middleweight in the second round, only this time it was even more convincing.

Landing some vicious punches to the head and body he forced a standing count with a perfectly placed big right hand to head at the end of the first round to lead 11-1.

A big left-right combination at the start of the second round forced another standing count but the left hook resulted in a bad swelling under Shevlin’s right eye and on the advice of the doctor, referee Al Morris from Bray, there was no option but to stop the contest with Sutherland leading 15-2.

Tonight’s final will be a repeat of the national championships final when Sutherland came from behind in the last two rounds to win 21-15.

Anthony Cacace (Holy Trinity Belfast) is set to renew his rivalry with Ross Hickey (Grangecon, Co Wicklow) in what will be a repeat of the lightweight final at the national senior championships when Hickey won 6-4.

Last night Cacace ended Eric Donovan’s Olympic dream on the right side of a 12-9 decision.

Cacace claimed his place in tonight’s final against the champion who got a bye last night in the absence of Stephen Ormond.

John Joe Joyce (St Michael’s Athy) kept on course for another shot of Olympic qualification with a 28-9 victory over Philip Sutcliffe (Crumlin) to claim his place in tonight’s final against another Crumlin boxer, Jamie Kavanagh, who got a bye.

Young Con Sheehan (Clonmel) who won the heavyweight title at the senior championships in January and went on to box in the Olympic qualifiers in Pescara also kept on course for another shot at qualification for Beijing when he stopped Willie Byrne (Knocknagoshel) on the 20-point rule in the third round of their semi-final.

Super Heavyweight Tyson Furey did not satisfy the officials at yesterday morning’s weigh-in that he was qualified to box for Ireland and the matter will go before this morning’s meeting of the Central Council.

Flyweight: R. Dalton (St. John’s, Antrim) W.O. J. Conlon (St. John Bosco) withdrew.

Lightweight: A. Cacace (Holy Trinity) beat E. Donovan (St. Michael’s, Athy) 12-9.

Light Welter: J. J. Joyce (St. Michael’s Athy) beat P. Sutcliffe (Crumlin) 28-9.

Welterweight: R. Brennan (Dealgan) beat W. McLoughlin (Illies GG) Knee injury Rd 1.

Middleweight: D. Sutherland (St. Saviours OBA) beat S. Shevlin (Dealgan) RSC Rd 2.

Light Heavyweight: M. Mullaney (Claremorris) beat C. Curtis (Dealgan) 11-10.

Heavyweight: C. Sheehan (Clonmel) beat W. Byrne (Knocknagoshel) RSCO Rd 3.

T. Sheahan (St. Michael’s Athy) beat P. Corcoran (Galway) 6-1.