McComb expects tough battle

Defending champion Sean McComb believes whoever wins the lightweight title at the Irish Elite Championships at Dublin’s National Stadium will be a worthy champion.

The Championships resume with semi-finals tonight (7pm) with London 2012 bronze medallists Paddy Barnes and Michael Conlan both between the ropes.

Belfast-born McComb meets Kilkenny’s Keith Flavin in the lightweight semi-final tonight a week after coming from behind to edge ex-Elite champion Declan Geraghty in a three-round war of attrition. Former EU champion David Oliver Joyce, a four-time Elite champion, is in against George Bates in the corresponding semi-final this evening.