Walsh: John Joe must be wary of ‘hot head’ Kazakh
The Kazakh boxer scored a very convincing 15-7 victory over Syrian bantamweight Wessam Slamana, and is, according to High Performance Coach, Billy Walsh, “the type of fighter we don’t particularly fancy.”
Nevin had the honour of being the first Irish boxer in action and he revelled in it, thrilling the capacity crowd of 10,000 with a third round exhibition of his skills.
“I was flying it in the third round,” he said. “I love being up a bit going into the last round. It gives me a chance to show off my skills.
“It all fell into place — everything I threw — I was hitting him (with) some cracking body shots. It’s not often I’d stand there and trade body shots with someone but I enjoyed it.”
Today’s opponent will be different but the contest again takes Nevin down a familiar route. He had beaten him and sparred him in training camps in the past and he also holds a decision over this afternoon’s opponent.
“The Kazakhstan (fight) will be a rematch,” he said. “I boxed him before and I beat him 15-3 in 2008 but he has won the WSB since then so he’s going to be very tough. He’s strong and I’m not looking forward to feeling his punches again but it has to be done. I have to beat everyone no matter who it is and I’m in here to beat them all.
“I honestly believe that if I perform to my best I can beat anybody in the world — No. 1 no matter what — but then if I don’t perform anyone can beat me.”
Nevin is one of the most feared boxers in the bantamweight division here in London. He made his Olympic debut in Beijing as a 19-year-old to become Ireland’s second qualifier after Paddy Barnes.
Following the Games he went on to win two bronze medals at world championships — becoming the only Irishman ever to medal twice at senior level.
But, since Baku last year, he has had a spell on the sidelines nursing a fractured jaw sustained in the WSB.
“The jaw is perfect since March,” he said. “After the injury is cleared up I got in some really good spars. I have experience now.
Kanal Abutalipov is also a “veteran” of the Beijing Olympics where he suffered a 103 loss to the Cuban, Yankiel Leon.
The following year he lost to bronze medallist, John Joe Nevin, 9-2 in the AIBA President’s Cup in Baku before suffering a second loss to Yankiel Leon, this time 2-0, in the quarter-finals of the world championships in Milan where Nevin won the first of his two bronze medals.
Since then he has won the WSB which automatically qualified him for the Olympic Games.
“John Joe has got a very, very tough task in store for himself and he knows that,” High Performance Coach, Billy Walsh, said.
“Abutalipov has won the World Series of Boxing and he won it in style. He’s the type of fighter we don’t particularly fancy John Joe fighting, very tough and cagey.
“John Joe himself is going to have to be really cagey, especially in the first round. He’s going to have to try and draw Abutalipov to him, try to frustrate him into coming forward and then picking him off.
“That’s exactly the way things went when they met three years ago, but Abutalipov is a different fighter now than he was then, a vastly improved one.
“He does, though, seem to be a bit of a hot head, so the job for John Joe is to jab and move, jab and move, and try to get Abutalipov to lose his cool. This guy will want to fight, but John Joe will have to make sure he won’t be able to.
“It’s like the matador and the bull, and Aburalipov is a southpaw, which makes things extra awkward.
“John Joe knows he’ll have to improve by maybe 30 or 40 per cent on his first fight on Saturday, but he’s looking forward to it because he knows it’s an opportunity to get into the last eight and within one fight of a medal.”
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