Barnes leads demolition

There was an explosive start to last night’s Elite amateur boxing international between Ireland and France at the Rochestown Park Hotel in Cork, double bronze medallist Paddy Barnes leading out an Olympian one-two-three for the home side with a second-round stoppage of young light-flyweight Dylan Beccu, a stunning right hand right on the bell doing the damage.

Power was the name of the game also for bantamweight John Joe Nevin, silver medalist in London and far too strong here for game teenager Elias Friha, who at least did go the distance, recovering well from a knockdown the third round.

In between those two there was yet another Irish win, the third London medalist, Michael Conlan, proving far too classy for yet another young Frenchman, Samuel Kistohurry.

In front of a fine crowd, those three gave Ireland a tonic start and lightweight Sean McComb and light-welterweight David Oliver Joyce then made it 5-0 for Ireland, an unassailable lead.

“Brilliant to be back in action,” said Paddy, barely out of breath after his win.

“That was my first fight since I got a broken nose (a multi-nation tournament in mid-March) and I’m still suffering from that, on antibiotics, so I was a bit worried my fitness. In the end it didn’t matter, I was just too strong for him. He was game but that’s his style, just like his older brother (Jeremie) at the same weight — exact same style so I knew what to expect, a tough, come-forward fighter. I hit him with some good body-shots and he took them well.” The final punch though, that straight right? “Every time, yeah, the right hand!”

For Conlan, bronze medalist in London, this was a welcome return to winning ways following a rare loss at that same multi-nations tournament to a tough Mongolian, Tugstsogt Nyambayar.

“That’s it, that’s the main thing, happy with the performance too. It was a decent fight, I didn’t really go full tilt but you can’t when you’re meeting him again on Sunday (a repeat of this card in the National Stadium). I couldn’t go as hard as I’d like in case he wouldn’t make that fight, had to take it easy enough.”

Bigger fish to fry for Michael, Minsk at the end of the month, the European Championships. “Yes, building up nicely for those, looking forward to it.”

John Joe too had Minsk on his mind. “I’m missing only one medal from my collection, a European championship medal, and I’d love to have that before I end my amateur career.”

For Michael, who missed the 2013 Irish championships in February because of injury, this was something of a comeback.

“That was me first amateur fight since the Olympic final, I’ve been fighting in the WSB (World Series of Boxing, semi-pro) since then.

“It’s good to get back to doing three three-minute rounds, fighting again with the vest on and the head-gear — it’s very different.

“This is a slower pace than the WSB, took me a while to get into my stride.

“I’m punching harder, getting stronger. I’m boxing at 61kg in the WSB, back down to 56kg now tonight and that makes it a bit tougher.

“I felt though that I was getting stronger as the fight went on, I was really getting on top of him, but he’s a good lad, a good young fighter.”

So he is, definitely one for the future; only 19, Elias was a silver medalist at the Brandenburg Youth Cup in Frankfurt last August, where he beat John Joe’s cousin Chris Blaney in the semi-final. No slouch but not yet up to this class.

In the middleweight division however, Irish champion and another London Olympian Adam Nolan came up against a real challenge, the vastly experienced Alexis Vastine, an bronze medalist from Beejing and three-time World Military Championship gold medalist.

Showing all the class that saw him win boxer-of-the-tournament at the 2013 Elite Championships, however, and despite shipping some good shots, Nolan proved far too good for Vastine, a third-round knockdown helping him to a comfortable points win.