Medal now in sights as Nevin turns on the style
Nevin drew down all the experience of the Beijing Olympics, the two world championships where he won back-to-back bronze medals, and the World Series of Boxing where he enjoyed an impressive run.
When they touched gloves some years ago, Nevin came away with a 13-3 victory but since then Abutalipov, too, had paraded his talents in the WSB, winning the tournament outright.
Billy Walsh predicted the contest would be a cagey affair. It was for just a minute and a half while Nevin took stock and found his range and from there on, it was all about the 23-year-old Mullingar man.
He upped the pace, got through with some clean shots, a big combination to the body and head and finished out the round with a big right cross that rocked his opponent and gave him a 5-2 lead.
Now his punches were all sharp and direct and he stopped Abutalipov in his tracks with a straight right as he proceeded to win the second round 5-3.
The third was all about a Kazakh fightback as Abutalipov chased the fight. He landed some good shots but the 5-5 score which drew the round was generous in his favour.
“There’s still more in the tank and it can get better as it goes along,” Nevin insisted.
“Hopefully in the next fight I can be better again, I know there’s a lot more in me. I’m just hoping to get it out of me in the next fight again.
“I can go all the way — I honestly believe that. I wouldn’t be in the competition if I didn’t think I could go all the way. On a good performance I’ll go all the way but on a bad performance anyone can beat me.
“I was nearly beaten in the senior championship semi-finals because of a bad performance and I got beat twice out in France. I was talking to Billy (Walsh), thinking about whether or not I’d go to the Olympics.
“Now I’m one fight away from being in the semi-final. It shows you what I can change if I think about what I’m doing and go in there and perform.”
Again he got one of the biggest cheers of the afternoon when he emerged from the tunnel.
“It was amazing out there,” he said. “When you come through them curtains or when you’re out on your feet and you’ve no breath left, that crowd gets behind you and it gives you an incredible boost.”
Billy Walsh made no secret of his joy and predicted more to come.
“It was a marked improvement on what he was doing on Saturday,” he said. “He was back fighting the style that he is very, very good at — bringing people down to his pace and picking the shots very, very cleanly.
“When there is nothing much happening his feinting stops his opponent from working and then he throws in these shots and gets scores easily. It saves himself hardship — that’s why he doesn’t have a crooked nose like me.”
There was a surprise result in the following contest when the other bronze medallist at last year’s world championships, Anvar Yunusov (Tajikistan), was beaten 13-7 by Oscar Valdez (Mexico).
“We’re not really concerned about the Mexican right now,” Walsh said.
“Tomorrow we’ll worry about him. We’re going to enjoy this — John Joe’s in the top eight at the Olympic Games, 23 years of age, it’s a fantastic achievement and we’re going to enjoy it tonight, sit down tomorrow, then we’ll discuss who we’re going to fight next and then we’ll put the plans around it.”
Technical coach, Zaur Antia, however stayed back to watch the contest and his initial reaction to Irish team manager, Des Donnelly, was: “We can beat that boy.”
And the team manager revealed the role the Georgian coach had played in yesterday’s success.
“Zaur worked on him since the first contest,” Donnelly said.
“Zaur and Billy looked at the videos — we are blessed to have Zaur here because he’s one of the best technical coaches in Europe and highly respected — and Zaur can read a fight and work out how to beat that boxer.
“Billy and Zaur sit down and look at all the videos and analyse the opponent — feint bang, feint back hand, feint front hand, move around and then they tell our boxer exactly what to do.
“Zaur waslooking at the Mexican and came down and said to me ‘we can beat that boy’ so he’s that kind of individual. He has a pure boxing brain.”
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