Ward still rueing defeat in Baku

THIS time last year Joe Ward was saying he would beat Ireland’s Olympic silver medallist, Kenny Egan, to add the national senior light heavyweight title to his CV.

The Moate light heavyweight, who had just turned 17 the previous October, was oozing confidence.

London 2012 was somewhere on his mind but he just wanted this massive scalp to add to his collection.

He did it in style a couple of weeks later, so emphatic in fact that Egan moved up to heavyweight. Ward went on to claim a European title and went on to the world championships in Baku but failed to qualify for the Olympic Games.

With just one spot remaining at heavyweight, Egan has dropped back to light heavyweight and will renew rivalry with Ward who has a whole new approach to the championships which get underway today.

“I had an opportunity to qualify for the Olympics and I did not take it,” the Westmeath teenager said.

“I’m still disgusted with my performance in Baku. It was a fight I should have won.

“Basically, I was not 100% in there. It just wasn’t me on that day. I was disgusted with my performance, I regret it and it eats me. I had to come home, get it together again and learn from my mistakes.

“You see when you are winning you don’t think of any mistakes. They don’t bother you because you are winning. On a different day I think I could have gambled everything I had on winning that fight. But, the other guy was hungry and he wanted it. I wanted it but maybe I was not hungry enough. It was hard to accept afterwards but I had to come to terms with it.

“The Olympic Games are not my priority right now. My priority is those championships — take each fight as it comes. You have to perform. You have to turn in your best performance — after all that’s the only thing you have control over when you are in there in the ring.

“I know Kenny [Egan] is back and I know why. It was the best route left to him and if it was me I would have done the same.”