Touhey ready to go into battle

EAMONN TOUHEY (Moate ABC), a silver medallist at the European Cadet Championships last year, will be hotly fancied to add another title to his growing list at the National Stadium tonight.

The Ballycumber lad, who crossed the Offaly/Westmeath border to hone his boxing skills, was one of the young sensations to emerge last year. He will put his skills to the test when the finals of the national junior championships will be decided tonight.

He ended the season by winning the national U21 featherweight title, beating Arron Sadlier (Holy Family, Drogheda) by a whopping 26-5 score in the final.

He took his talents to new heights when he took on the seniors in this year’s championships, battling his way through to the finals but he eventually lost out to the defending champion, Stephen Ormond, in the featherweight final.

That performance, from a boxer just out of the juvenile ranks, immediately singled him out for greatness and he can take a another big step up the ladder when he meets Dean Murphy (St Saviours OBA) in what could be the most exciting contest of the junior championships.

Irish boxing is on a roll right now thanks to careful planning. In fact,

Ireland has been dubbed the Cuba of Europe in recent times and the performances at the Four Nations International tournament highlighted the huge strides being made.

Andy Lee from the St Francis Club in Limerick is the current standard- bearer with many already putting him among the medal hopefuls for next year’s Olympic Games in Athens. This is despite the huge qualification problem that faces boxers from outside mainland Europe.

Eamonn Touhey has already proved he can mix it with the best over there. In last year’s Cadet championships he beat Kristian Chobanu (Romania) 25-10 and Eduard Babeyev (Israel) 21-11 before losing on a somewhat unlucky first round stoppage to Alexander Podlubnyy (Ukraine) in the final.

There are several outstanding contests in prospect. Perhaps the most interesting is the clash between the St Michael’s clubmates, Eric Donovan and David Joyce in the bantamweight final.

Both boxers are products of the huge upsurge in the sport in Athy.

Connacht provides the 75kg finalists where Brian Fitzpatrick (Ballina) meets Peter Lee (Oughterard).

The Barrett family from Galway’s Olympic Club continues to blossom under Chic Gillen and they will be represented by Gerard who contests the super heavyweight title with Scot Belshaw from Lisburn.

Today is the 40th anniversary of one of the big feats in Irish boxing when Mick Leahy defeated George Aldridge for the British title at the Ice Rink in Nottingham.

The legendary Corkman, who lives in Coventry, later lost narrowly to the great triple Olympic champion, Laszlo Papp, in his quest for the European title.

He beat Sugar Ray Robinson in Glasgow in 1964 and retired the next year after 72 professional fights.