Lee impresses on return

ANDY LEE made a triumphant return to the National Stadium when he launched another defence of the national senior middleweight title he won two years ago with a very impressive 19-8 victory over Hugh Joyce (St. Michael's, Athy).

It was Lee's third contest since the Athens Olympics and his first over four rounds and he never put a punch or a foot wrong. He took an early 5-1 lead at the end of the first round with some perfectly placed counter punches but it was when he began to put the three and five punch combinations together that he really impressed.

Joyce possesses a lot of experience and he was game to the end. Scoring with some good single punches but he could never get the combinations together quick enough as Lee countered with speed and accuracy.

He got through with a big right towards the end of the contest but Lee was in total control by then and replied with a text-book southpaw combination of right and left hands to the head and body.

Henry Coyle (Geesala), the sensation of the championships last time around when he stripped James Moore of his welterweight title, was sensationally beaten by another newcomer Karl Brabazon (St. Saviours OBA), who won the first of the welterweight semi-finals 24-18 after a contest that saw the Mayo man chasing the fight from early on.

Brabazon put some good combinations together, covered up and made it difficult for Coyle to respond. The champion laboured throughout the third although it always appeared as if Coyle might stage a recovery but Brabazon grew in confidence.

Eric Donovan (St. Michael's Athy) emerged in 2003 as one of the brightest bantamweights to grace the scene and last night he did nothing to indicate that he has lost any of his sparkle when he moved up to featherweight with a very solid 16-7 victory over newcomer, Dermot Lawlor (St. Fiaccs, Carlow). Donovan, whose career has been more along the same lines as that of Bernard Dunne, was desperately unlucky to go out in the first round of the European championships last year so Lawlor was up against it last night.

The Carlow man gave a game performance but it was never going to be good enough against a boxer like Donovan. By the end of the bout, Donovan had hit him with practically every punch in the book.

Dean Murphy (St. Saviours Olympic Boxing Academy) was one of a number of young guns making their senior debuts at the championships and, unless something equally exciting happens in tonight's session, he will go into next Friday night's finals as favourite to lift the lightweight title.

The 19 year old Dubliner, a newly crowned national intermediate champion, already has two junior titles, two youth titles and three juvenile titles stashed away.

Last night he carried his record with pride against Paul Hendricks (Baldoyle), who had no answers to Murphy's talents. Early on he got caught with everything as Murphy put some text book combinations together.

He caught Hendricks with a couple of big left hands at the start of the second and went on to put the combinations together again. A big right at the end of the round stopped Hendricks in his tracks but he weathered the storm well.

But the points were mounting up and when Murphy continued to press forward, scoring freely with both hands, the points rule was invoked and the referee stopped the contest.

Jimmy Moore (St Francis, Limerick) finally made it through to his first senior final with an impressive 19-12 victory over Patrick Barnes (Holy Family/Golden Gloves) in the first of the light flyweight semi-finals.

David Oliver Joyce (St. Michael's, Athy) is another of the young guns to graduate to senior level and he could well prove to be the best on last night's performance which saw him stop John Cooley (St. Joseph's, Derry) in their bantamweight semi-final.

It always appeared as if the contest would end early as Joyce, who has won six juvenile titles as well as junior, under-21 and intermediate titles, landed some big punches.

Boxing with an experience beyond his years, he scored with direct, clean punches and when he connected with a big uppercut early in the second, Cooley did well to recover after the standing count. The recovery was short lived and when Joyce landed some big combinations, the referee had no choice and stopped the fight.