Nolan marches on but McComb makes his exit

London 2012 Olympian Adam Nolan cruised into the last 16 of the European Championships with a unanimous decision (30-27,29-28,29-28) over Polish welter Tomasz Kot in Minsk, Belarus yesterday.

But Belfast lightweight Sean McComb bowed out after dropping a unanimous decision (29-27,29-28,29-29) to Ukrainian 2012 Olympian Pavlo Ischenko.

Nolan dominated all three rounds. The Bray BC southpaw, who is trained by Katie Taylor’s dad Pete and who works as a Garda in Wicklow, will now meet Bogdan Shelestyuk of the Ukraine tomorrow evening.

McComb lost the first frame, but had a good second round against Ischenko. However, the Ukrainian champion closed out the third to earn a deserved win.

The Championships is being scored on the “10 Point Must” scoring system, as opposed to the computer scoring system which has been in place since the 1992 Olympics.

Head coach Billy Walsh said that they were glad to get the first win under their belts.

“It was a steady performance from Adam and I’m very happy with the win.

“He beat that Polish lad before so he was confident going into today’s fight, said Walsh.

“The Ukrainian is up next for Adam. They sparred in Kiev recently and it was a good tough spar between the both of them.”

“Sean kept trying right up to the last bell, kept throwing punches to try and turn it around. He gave it everything and that’s all we can ask for.”

London 2012 bronze medalist Michael Conlan and 2011 European champions Ray Moylette and Joe Ward and Con Sheehan will be in action today.

Conlan opens his campaign against Narek Abgaryan of Armenia and Moylette and Ward are in against Turkey’s Huseyin Karslioglu and Poland’s Mateusz Tryc, while Sheehan faces Georgia’s Mikheil Bakhtidze.