Joe Ward wins despite taking ‘foot off the gas’

His coaches did not go so far as to describe Joe Ward as an ‘enigma’, but they suggested that the mercurial prodigy provided glimpses of his best and worst traits in his first outing at the World Championships in Doha.

The Moate light-heavyweight is now potentially two wins away from Olympic qualification, meaning he must improve on the bronze medal he claimed at the last Wolds in 2013.

After dominating the first two rounds of his bout against Oleksandr Kyyzhniak, knocking the Ukrainian’s gumshield out of his mouth in the second, Ward seemed to ease up in the final stanza and took a number of shots when losing the round, but still won the fight 29-28 on all three cards.