Joyce feeling the Mersey beat

JOHN JOE JOYCE (St Michael’s, Athy) stamped his name on the list for next month’s European championships with an emphatic 20-4 victory over the plucky Ballymena light welterweight, Stephen Donnelly (All Saints), in the finals of the open tournament held to help select the team for Liverpool.

The tournament may have been staged for that specific purpose but it provided as many questions as answers. Two of the stars of the show did not box on the bill. David Oliver Joyce (St Michael’s, Athy) had to cry off with the ‘flu, giving Carl Frampton (Midlands) a walk over and Darren O’Neill (Paulstown), who will replace Kenneth Egan at light heavyweight for the time being, also got a walk over in the absence of Ross Skelton (St Matthews).

The talented Belfast teenager, Declan Geraghty (Docklands), a youths champion, was already guaranteed a walkover at light fly while David Joyce (Moate) did not have an opponent at super heavyweight.

Stephen Donnelly was never expected to get a win over John Joe Joyce but he battled stubbornly before going down.

“I am probably the only boxer from Beijing to be back in the ring this soon,” Joyce said. “But it was my own decision.

“I had Liverpool at the back of my mind all the time and now, on Tuesday, I will be back in High Performance preparing for the European championships. The Olympic Games are over now, that’s all behind me and while I was very disappointed, I am over it.”

All the statistics at the High Performance Unit adjacent to the National Stadium in South Circular Road indicate that, pound for pound, flyweight Conor Ahern is the biggest hitter in Irish boxing. In the weights room he squats 135kgs — more than Olympic silver medallist Kenneth Egan.

And last night the 24-year-old Baldoyle man clinched his place in the European championships with a second-round victory over former light flyweight champion, Jimmy Moore (St Francis), who was stepping up a division after losing the last two senior finals to Olympic bronze medallist, Paddy Barnes.

This time Moore did well to survive some ferocious onslaughts from Ahern who used some big, clean punches to win the first round 5-1. Moore scored with a good left at the start of the second round but then a perfectly placed right hand from Ahern resulted in a standing count for the Limerick man.

It was downhill from here on for Moore as Ahern backed him up and scored with some vicious combinations. Another big right hand resulted in another standing count and when it became obvious that there was no way back for Moore referee Paul McMahon stepped in to stop the contest.

“I always expected to win but I was hoping that I would get four rounds out of it,” Ahern said. “I had not boxed since the qualifiers so I was always going to be a bit rusty.

Ahern has 12 national titles in total. Two of those are at senior light fly and two more at flyweight. He missed the finals this year on account of illness and the title went to Shane Cox from Gorey who moved up to bantamweight for this tournament.

Con Sheehan (Clonmel), the national senior champion, claimed the heavyweight berth for Liverpool with a 15-4 win over Patrick Corcoran (Galway) but it came at a price for the Clonmel teenager needed treatment on an injured left hand after the fight.

“The doctor examined it and it did not look too bad but we will have it X-rayed tomorrow as a precaution,” trainer Martin Fennessy said. “It happened in the second round and it did not affect his performance. He did what he had to do tonight — what we expected. He was sick the last night.”

Scoring with some clean shots he won the first round 4-2, the second 3-1 and was 13-4 up at the end of the third.

Results — Light Flyweight: D. Geraghty (Docklands) W.O.

Flyweight: C. Ahern (Baldoyle) beat J. Moore (St. Francis, Limerick) RSC Rd 2 Bantamweight: R. Lindberg (Immaculata) beat S. Cox (Gorey) RSC Rd3.

Featherweight: C. Frampton (Midland) W.O.

Lightweight: R. Hickey (Grangecon) beat E. Donovan (St. Michael’s, Athy) 23-5.

Light Welter: J. J. Joyce (St. Michael’s, Athy) beat S. Donnelly (All Saintsw) 20-4.

Welterweight: W. McLoughlin (Illies Golden Gloves) beat F. Redmond (Arklow) RSC Rd 4.

Middleweight: E. O’Kane (Immaculata) beat S. O’Reilly (Twintowns) 8-2.

Light Heavyweight: D. O’Neill (Paulstown) W.O.

Heavyweight: C. Sheehan (Clonmel) beat P. Corcoran (Galway) 15-4.

Super Heavy: D. Joyce (Moate) W.O.