O’Neill bows out with ‘disappointing’ defeat
O’Neill had been fancied to go close to the medals but his defeat at the hands of the Armenian middleweight, Andranik Hakobyan, means that he will not be fighting for a medal today.
The Paulstown southpaw delivered what Irish head coach, Billy Walsh, described as a disappointing performance, going under 7-3.
“He tied the contest a couple of times but each time the Armenian came back at him,” Walsh said. “Darren just did not throw enough punches – he appeared to freeze – and from that point of view, it was very disappointing because he came out here in the shape of his life.”
Declan Geraghty, the youngest member of the Irish team, saw his great adventure come to an end at the wrong end of a 17-7 decision that went in favour of Tugstsogt Nyambagar from Mongolia.
The 19-year-old Dublin Docklands lightweight won the opening round 3-2 and he stretched the lead to 4-2 early in the second, when he appeared to have the measure of the Mongolian but Nyambagar came storming forward, forcing Geraghty to take a standing count and going on to win the round 7-1, before taking the third round 8-3.
Kenny Egan can become the first Irish boxer to win medals at Olympic, world championship and European level. To do that, however, the Neilstown southpaw must overcome the challenge of Frenchman, Abdeikader Bouhenia, in this afternoon’s quarter-finals.
A victory would ensure Ireland’s Olympic silver medallist of a world bronze medal, at least, and the last Irish boxer to achieve that distinction was James Moore in Belfast in 2001.
“Everyone has come through what has been a tough campaign to get this far,” Egan said. “I started very slowly in my last fight and it took me a while to get a rhythm going and find my range.
“I know I came good in the third round but I cannot allow that to happen again. I will have to start an awful lot faster and I will have to be busy with my attacks.”
Willie McLaughlin has been one of the Irish sensations in this competition. The Donegal welterweight, who boxes out of the Illies club, has been down this road before – twice in fact. He made the quarter-finals as a very young boxer in Belfast in 2001 and, since then, he has made the quarter-finals at the world championships in Thailand.
A teak-tough exponent, his courage was fully demonstrated when he won a silver medal at this year’s EU championships when he boxed the final with badly damaged ribs – an injury that kept him out of action until the training camps leading up to those championships in Milan.
“To be one fight away from a medal is incredible,” he said. “I am looking forward to this fight.”
McLaughlin has been through all the highs and lows here but he has boxed his way magnificently through them all. It took him just a minute and 34 seconds to beat Come Ndyaishimiye in his opening contest when the referee moved in to stop the contest after he caught his opponent with some punishing head shots.
He was impressive again when he touched gloves with Velibor Vidic and he showed character fighting back against Kakhaber Jvania from Georgia.
His opponent for this afternoon’s quarter-finals is a classy Russian, Andrey Zamkovoya, and he will need to pull out something special once again.
Bantamweight John Joe Nevin went to the Olympics as a likely medallist and made it to the last eight where he was beaten by the eventual gold medallist.
He avenged that defeat somewhat when he beat another Mongolian Iderkhuu Enkhjargal, on Monday night, and that win puts him in line for a shot at a medal, facing Yu Gu from China in today’s quarter-finals.
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