Seán McComb and David Oliver Joyce a tasty encounter on intriguing night

Six of tonight’s 10 finals at the National Elite Championships are likely to have an impact on Olympic ambitions ahead of the Rio 2016 Games.

The International Boxing Association (IABA) this week confirmed that Paddy Barnes (49kg) Michael Conlan (56kg), Steven Donnelly (69kg), and Joe Ward (81kg) have received Olympic quota places for Rio, and all four are absent from the domestic competition as a result.

That means that four of tonight’s finals will only have national pride on the line, although London 2012 Olympian Adam Nolan - who meets Drogheda’s Martin Stokes in the 69kg welterweight final - maintains that he wants to be sent to next year’s Olympic qualifiers should he retain his Irish title tonight. While that looks an increasingly implausible scenario, six weight classes – fly (52kg), light (60kg), light-welter (64kg), middle (75kg), heavy (91kg) and super-heavyweight (91+kg) - will have avenues open to the first European Olympic qualifier that takes place in Istanbul next April.