Michael O’Reilly will only get better, says Eddie Bolger

The best is yet to come from Michael O’Reilly, according to Irish coach Eddie Bolger, as the Portlaoise middleweight aims for the victory that will seal his Olympic qualification in Baku today.

World medallist O’Reilly is up against it as he takes on ‘home’ fighter Kamran Shakhsuvarly of Azerbaijan in the quarter-finals of the last amateur qualifier for Rio 2016, with the winner set to seal their Olympic place as one of the top five middleweights at the tournament.

Shakhsuvarly previously represented Kazakhstan, but he now boxes for Azerbaijan and, significantly, he will have home advantage for the contest against O’Reilly, who is the No 1 seed at 75kg.