Nevin ready for Olympic boxing debut

Bantamweight John Joe Nevin will seek to become the fifth Irish boxer to make it to the last sixteen at the Beijing Olympics when he meets Algeria's Abdelhalim Ourradi in a preliminary round bout at the Workers Indoor Gymnasium in the Chinese capital tomorrow.

The 54kg contest is scheduled to glove off at around 2.30pm Irish time tomorrow afternoon and head coach Billy Walsh says that 19-year-old Nevin, from the Cavan boxing club, can't wait to make his Olympic debut.

"We have made a great start to the tournament and John Joe will be looking to maintain that momentum against Ourradi. There was nothing between them when they last met and I anticipate that Tuesday's bout will be equally as tight," predicted Walsh.

Both men met in a test match at the Irish squad's training camp in Bugeat, France, earlier this year.

Ourradi, a 2007 All-Africa gold medallist, beat Nevin, the 2008 European Union gold medallist, in that bout by one point on a count-back after the fight finished level on points at the end of four rounds - but Nevin did cede 2 points after receiving a public warning for holding.

If Nevin sees off the challenge of Ourradi then he could come up against 2007 World Championships silver medallist Enkhat Badar-Uugan of Mongolia in the last 16.

Badar-Uugan faces Oscar Valdez tomorrow and is favourite to advance against the Mexican.

Irish captain Ken Egan and John Joe Joyce will both be involved in last sixteen bouts on Thursday.

Darren Sutherland and Paddy Barnes both received byes into the last sixteen and will be in action on Saturday, August 16.