Walsh and Antia a knockout combo, says Nevin

Olympic silver medallist John Joe Nevin insisted yesterday that Irish boxing cannot afford to lose coaches Billy Walsh or Zaur Antia and that everything possible should be done to keep the high performance team together.

“Listen, you don’t want to get rid of those guys,” he said. “They mean everything to boxing. You’re not going to get anyone in the world as good.

“My club coach, Brian McKeown, took me so far, he believed in me all along. Brian passed me over to high performance then, and Brian is a top-class coach. But saying that, Billy and Zaur are just out of this world.