End of Worlds wait for Ward

Joe Ward will finally make his bow at the 18th edition of the World Championships in Doha this afternoon, aiming to become the fourth Irishman to book a quarter-final place.

Belfast’s Seán McComb is also out this evening, hoping to increase that number to a famous five, but for Ward it has been a long and tedious wait – the Westmeath light-heavyweight set to compete for the first time at the Ali Bin Hamad Al Attiya Arena, four days after three of his team-mates had their first outing.

The 21-year-old takes on Ukraine’s Oleksandr Kyyzhniak in the last 16 of the 81kg division in the afternoon session, while lightweight McComb is back in action against Azerbaijan’s Albert Selimov, who defeated the Irishman after a tight European Games semi-final during the summer.

The pair will be out to follow the lead of Michael Conlan, Brendan Irvine and Michael O’Reilly, who all recorded wins last night to progress to the last eight.

Irish captain Conlan singled out Ward for special mention following his own win, stating: “Joe’s last out, but he was flying in the camp and touching his peak so he’s coming out perfect. He’s up for it.”

Ring rust is bound to be a concern as the detrimental effect of a long wait for a fight was evident at times in Conlan’s performance.

The 23-year-old European champion managed to defeat Robenilson Vieira de Jesus, despite the fact that the Brazilian was level on points heading into the last round having won the opening stanza.

De Jesus landed few troublesome shots but still managed to win the first.

The Pan-American Games bronze medallist was warned for a low blow in the final round as Conlan recovered to record a majority points win, 28-28, 29-27, 30-26.

“I knew he was going to get warned, so I played on it even more,” said a mischievous Conlan afterwards. “I took my 10 seconds and recovered.

“I think he died a death a bit in the last round, my fitness is very good, and what I seen of him he doesn’t have great fitness and he usually fades in the last round. “I knew it was going to be a high-paced fight and tough, though. He’s a two-time Olympian and a smart fighter. You don’t go to the Olympics for nothing.”

Teenage Irvine was also nearly caught cold as his bout started sooner than expected after a late scheduling change.

The 19-year-old looked sluggish in the first round against Turkey’s Muhammet Unlu - a bronze medallist at the European Games where Irvine claimed silver last June - but he gradually took control of the bout in the second and final rounds to claim a split-decision win. A Finnish judge scored the fight 28-29 against him while Swedish (29-28) and Algerian (30-27) officials went for the Irish man.

“In this situation you have to be adaptable,” said head coach Billy Walsh on Irvine’s surprise start time.

“Maybe it affected his performance but Brendan has a habit of starting slow and he gets stronger as the fight goes on.”

O’Reilly capped off a perfect day three of the Worlds, claiming a dominant 3-0 points win over Australian Daniel Lewis. He will now will meet Zhanibek Alimkhanuly in the last eight, the Kazakh fighter who defeated Jason Quigley in the 2013 final – the only time an Irishman has reached a world decider.