Hickey hammers home the bronze
Hickey, from the Grangecon club in Wicklow, outpointed Famil Suleymanov (Azerbaijan) 6-1 to claim a bronze medal — at least — and a place in tomorrow’s semi-finals.
However, Denis Makarov (Germany) was allowed to walk all over Lindberg before being awarded the winning point from what was a slap rather than a punch with just three seconds remaining in a desperately close contest.
“In the last round Ryan landed a couple of clean, clear shots at crucial times when he was one behind and then when he was level,” a furious Walsh said. “Then with a couple of seconds on the clock, the German gets a point from a shot that was more of a slap than anything else.
“Ryan dominated the fight and took the fight to his man, catching him with a lot of body shots. If it had gone to a countback, Ryan would have won it hands down.
“All the German was doing was pushing, holding, dropping his head and I felt that at any stage he could have got a warning but the referee just let him away with murder.
“Ryan was very gallant, he pressured, he tried everything he had to win the contest and I think he was good enough on the day to win it.”
Earlier in the day, Hickey claimed Ireland’s first medal of the tournament with an ice-cool performance that earned him a 6-1 victory over Famil Suleymanov from Azerbaijan.
The 22-year-old Wicklow southpaw had his first computer point from a big left hook to the body just 20 seconds into the contest and another left hook to the head won him the round, 2-1. Suleymahov’s only point came from a swinging right to the head at the end of the round.
The Azerbaijani came forward in the second round swinging wild punches that would be the main feature of his performance.
“I got tangled up a bit but I just tried to keep it as long as I could — keep boxing him — and I tried to turn him every time,” Hickey recalled.
Hickey was rewarded with a point from another solid left to the body. A left to the head and another to the body won him the round 3-0.
He spent most of the fourth round untangling himself as his opponent tied him up but he managed to get in another big left to the body that almost lifted his opponent off his feet.
“Ross never threw that punch until last March,” Walsh said. “It was never in his artillery. But we started working on it and it is now a massive punch for him. He has great power and great reach in it.
“Today it was ideal for that guy. We studied him on video and we saw an opening there. The first one he threw, he scored. If you are throwing them and you are not getting a score, you may change tack but as it happened it got the scores so we kept using it.
“He had a tight guard so I decided to try and bring it down a bit — a few body shots — and they were scoring well for me,” Hickey said. “It was nice and long and everybody could see it. That was the punch so I just kept working on it.”
With a talent like Eric Donovan ruling the lightweight division, it took Hickey a long time to claim his first national senior title but when he got it, he built on it.
“Winning the Irish title meant so much to me and then the (Olympic) qualifiers brought me on a lot, as well as all the training, because all of that was new to me,” he said.
“I am very happy — very pleased for him — because he is a very dedicated young lad,” Billy Walsh said. “He won his first senior title this year and he had to beat a really good opponent in Eric Donovan to do that. Eric has made the top eight in all the championships — European and world.
“Ross has really blossomed since then. The only thing he was lacking was belief in himself but now he has that. He has been in training with us (High Performance) without any funding and now that win gets him on to the world-class funding ladder.
“This is a really exciting division in Irish boxing because there are a couple of good ones there, including the new world youths champion, Ray Moylett. It is going to be a very interesting Irish senior championships come February.”
Hickey will now meet Vazgen Safaryants (Belarus) in tomorrow’s semi-finals. The Belarussian beat England’s Tom Stalker 6-4 in an untidy quarter-final.
“We will take stock of his opponent tonight, have a look at him tomorrow, and then devise a plan,” Walsh said.
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