Countback loss tough on Nevin

JOHN JOE NEVIN bowed out of the World Boxing Championships in Baku yesterday after losing his bantamweight semi-final against Luke Campbell on a countback after the judges’ scoring tied the pair at 12 points apiece at end of three thrilling rounds.

When the pair touched gloves in the semi-finals of the EU Championships in Copenhagen two years ago Nevin beat the then European champion 13-2.

Neutral boxing fans would feel the 22-year-old Mullingar man was hard done by as the vagaries of the computer scoring system were highlighted again yesterday.

Nevin, who boxes out of the Cavan club, was caught with an early flurry from Campbell and it would appear that this was sufficient for the 24-year-old Hull southpaw to win the round 4-3, for he did precious little else. Indeed, such was his reluctance to come forward and throw a punch, Russian referee Vladislav Malyskev had to speak to him.

It appeared as if the Irish coaching team had worked out the perfect plan. Nevin, boxing brilliantly, succeeded in stymieing the Englishman’s style which, in the earlier rounds, was to come forward using his longer reach. However, while Nevin’s big body shots clearly hurt his opponent, they failed to grab the attention of the judges.

He hammered the right hand into Campbell’s stomach on numerous occasions but the clean connections were not reflected on the computer tally. Instead, the scores went for single shots to the head and, while Nevin’s trademark left hook, which followed the right to the body, failed to connect, Campbell was getting through with a southpaw jab.

Nevin won the second round 6-5 but the score did not do justice to his almost total dominance. He was equally aggressive in the third round, landing big shots to the body and catching Campbell with some good left hooks to the head but again they did not score. A combination from Campbell going into the last half-minute of the contest tied the round at 3-3 and the contest at 12-12.

“I went into the last round 9-9, smiling,” Nevin said. “I thought I had it won near the end and so did my corner — maybe two shots at the least — but then I lost on the countback, I’m devastated. I was happy myself to get the countback the last day but I feel I won that fight.

“I thought I won the last round and I just don’t know how they came up with 12-12 and then gave him the decision. “I’m devastated now because I’ve beaten this guy before. Okay, he came back and he got the decision, fair play to him. But I’ll be back and I’ll get him again.

“He got the lead, but I still kept my cool and I don’t know how I lost the fight, but that’s the sport.

“Every dog has his day. He had his day and I’ll have mine again.”

Campbell now meets Cuban Lazaro Alvarez in today’s final.

Roy Sheahan’s hopes of making it to the London Olympics from this tournament were finally dashed yesterday when the man who beat him in the last 16, Egidijus Kavaliauskas of Lithuania, was forced to retire with a nose injury sustained in his welterweight semi-final against Serik Sapiyev (Kazakhstan). Sheahan would have earned qualification for London 2012 had Sapiyev reached the final.

Wales’ European champion Andy Selby, who edged out Belfast flyweight Michael Conlan by a point in Thursday’s quarter-final beat Jasurbek Latipov (Uzbekistan) 21-15 in yesterday’s semi-final and meets the talented young Russian Misha Alojan in today’s final. Conlan will join Nevin and Darren O’Neill at the Olympics.