Four Irish advance to finals

THERE were four Irish victories at the multi-nations boxing tournament at the Rochestown Park Hotel in Cork last night, as James Moore, Conor Ahern, Andrew Murray and Marvin Lee claimed their places in tomorrow night’s finals.

Moore was having his first contest in nine months when he went in against Frenchman Karim Bettabai, and it appeared for much of the early exchanges that the visitor, who lost to Michael Kelly in a light welterweight contest in Toulon last month, might be about to cause an upset as he took the fight to Moore, winning the first round 5-4.

Moore began to pull out the stops in the second round, scoring with some good shots to the body, as the Frenchman directed his artillery to the head. Moore won this round 6-4 to go a point clear.