‘Nervous’ Michael Conlan off to a good start

Olympic bronze medallist Michael Conlan admits adjusting from five rounds to three at the European Elite Championships in Bulgaria was difficult.

The Irish bantam opened his Euro campaign with an unanimous decision over France’s Anthony Brett in Samokov, yesterday.

Wexford light-welter Dean Walsh also advanced to the last-eight, but Kilkenny heavyweight and Irish captain Darren O’Neill bowed out to Russian No. 1 seed Evegeny Tischenko.

Switching from his normal orthodox stance to southpaw for the entire three rounds, Conlanclaimed a 30-27 win across the board. The Belfast fighter, the No. 1 seed in the 56kg class, will now meet Danish southpaw Frederik Jensen, who was stopped by Ireland’s Chris Nevin in 2012, in the quarter- finals. Conlan secured a Rio 2016 place boxing over five rounds in the World Series of Boxing this year, but regular amateur boxing, which is now called AIBA Open Boxing (AOB), is over three rounds.

“I was nervous enough because I knew I wasn’t fighting the best, but that I was fighting a decent opponent and I had to get back into the three, three format, said Conlan.

“It was quite tough to get back into three,three. The WSB is a slower pace and today was my first fight in AOB since the Commonwealth Games. I’ve qualified for the Olympics already. I’m here for the gold, as always.” Walsh booked his ticket to within one fight of at least bronze on a unanimous verdict over Romania’s Florentin Niculescu in the 64kg catgeory, the Irish champion earning a 30-27,30-27,29-28 win. But O’Neill lost to World Elite silver medallist Tischenko, who the Irish London 2012 Olympian beat in the Czech Republic in 2010, on a unanimous (29-28,29-28, 30-27).

O’Neill was shaking his head when the result was announced. The Irish skipper had good reason, as his work, particularly off his jab, was much the cleaner in the battle of the southpaws.

“I thought Darren shaded the first two rounds and did enough. It was a close call and Darren gave it eveything,” said Irish team manager Peter O’Donnell.

Joe Ward and Adam Nolan will be in action today. The 2015 Europeans is acting as a qualifier for October’s World Championships in Qatar which is a qualifier for Rio 2016. The top six boxers (the semi-finalists and quarter-finalist that lose to the eventual finalist) in each of the ten weight classes in Samokov qualify for Qatar.