Nevin geared for medal battle

John Joe Nevin will be bidding for Ireland’s first medal at the London Games when he climbs into the ring tomorrow night (8.45pm) to touch gloves with the teak tough Mexican bantamweight Oscar Valdez.

When the 23-year-old Mullingar man rid himself of the cobwebs with a 21-6 win over Dennis Ceylan of Denmark, high-performance coach Billy Walsh asked for a 40% improvement for his next fight and he did that with a 15-7 win over Kanat Abutalipov of Kazakhstan.

Billy wants more again from him tomorrow night, pointing out this will not be a shoo-in but insisting Nevin will win if he performs.

“He’s in great form and he’s probably looking forward to this fight more than any other he has had in his life,” he said. “He knows he has a very, very tough assignment because Valdez is a real hard opponent, rugged and persistent. He’s a bronze medallist from the World Championships in Milan in 2009 and he came from four points down there to beat David Oliver Joyce 16-11.

“He also won the gold medal in the Americas qualifying tournament earlier this year, so he is quality opposition.”

He said that, along with Ireland’s technical and tactical coach Zaur Antia, they had analysed the Mexican’s fights.

“We saw that he is incredibly strong and he’ll keep coming at John Joe the whole time,” he said. “I’ve used the bull and the matador analogy about fights before, but this really is one of those fights.

“Valdez coming forward all the time should suit us in one sense but John Joe’s defence is low and Valdez throws a lot of shots at a very fast pace so he can not go back in straight lines but get out to the side of Valdez after he attacks. If he can keep his composure and do it like that he can win.

“It’s all to play for — look, if you’d have told us coming into this that we’d be fighting a Mexican for a medal, we’d have taken that.”

Valdez, 21, won a World Youth title in Guadalajara in 2008 when Ireland’s Ray Moylette also won a title, Jamie Kavanagh won a silver medal and Tommy McCarthy and Davy Joe Joyce both claimed bronze.

Meanwhile, Beijing bronze medallist Paddy Barnes gets his quest for a second Olympic medal under way this afternoon (2pm) when he climbs in against Thomas Essomba of Cameroon.

Barnes, who won gold medals at the Commonwealth Games and the European Championships since the Beijing Olympics, failed to qualify for London 2012 at he World Championships in Baku but qualified and won a bronze medal in Turkey where he was the victim of daylight robbery against a local fighter in the semi-finals.

Essomba, 24, also failed to qualify in Baku, where he lost his second fight to a Mongolian light flyweight, but came back this year to qualify at the African qualifying tournament in Casablanca where, like Barnes, he won a bronze medal.

While Barnes received a first-round bye, Essomba defeated Abdelali Darra of Morocco 13-10 in his first fight.

“Paddy’s absolutely champing at the bit,” Walsh said. “He just can’t wait to get going.

“While Essomba has one fight under his belt already — and that can be an advantage — but Paddy is ready to take out all the frustration of the past week on him.

“Paddy has been waiting around twiddling his thumbs for a week, and we all know that he is not exactly the most patient guy you could meet.

“He has always been an intense and focused person, but I think he is more so than ever this time

“We’ve watched Essomba’s first fight and Paddy knows that he is capable of beating him.”