Gold for Galway's Gabriel Dossen in European Championships

30 May 2022; Gabriel Dossen of Ireland celebrates with his gold medal and belt after his victory over Lewis Richardson of England in their Middleweight Final bout during the EUBC Elite Men’s European Boxing Championships at Karen Demirchyan Sports and Concerts Complex in Yerevan, Armenia. Photo by Hrach Khachatryan/Sportsfile
There was delight in Armenia for Ireland's Gabriel Dossen as he secured a gold medal in the 75kg division at the European Championships.
Dossen secured a unanimous decision over England's Lewis Richardson in the middleweight final.
It was a scrappy affair with the referee intervening regularly to separate the two boxers.
Dossen's class told in the end as he secured the decision on all five judge's scorecards.
The Irish fighter troubled Richardson from the off with his right jab.
The Galway fighter finished the first round strongly and took the round on all five judges’ scorecards.
Richardson was much improved in the second round. He was having more joy with his jab than in the first.
It wasn’t enough to convince all the judges who were split on the scoring, 3-2 in favour of Richardson.
The third round was a nervy affair with the championship in the balance.
Both fighters started the third round trading blows in the centre. It was Dossen who came off the better of those exchanges.
Dossen was letting fly with powerful combinations and throwing some heavy shots.
Richardson's mouthguard flew out leading to a brief break and at this stage Dossen was well in control.
Richardson finished strongly in search of the knockout that he needed but Dossen steered clear of trouble.
The Galway boxer was already guaranteed at least a silver medal having beaten Italy's Salvatore Cavallaro in a tightly contested middleweight semi-final on a 4-1 split decision yesterday.
The Olympic BC in Galway boxer becomes the 15th Irish boxer to win a gold medal at the European Championships.
He joins such luminaries as Michael Conlan, John Joe Nevin, Jason Quigley, Paddy Barnes, Joe Ward and Ray Moylette on the list of Irish European Championships gold medal winners.
There was disappointment earlier in the day for Ireland's Dylan Eagleson in the European Championship 54kg final as he lost out by unanimous decision to Bilal Bennema of France.
Bennema’s left jab did most of the scoring and his excellent movement in the ring had him 4-1 ahead after the first round
A second round knockdown proved crucial as Eagleson was caught by an overhand left and took a standing count.
The French boxer's greater experience showed as he knew Eagleson now needed a knockdown which never looked like coming.
The 19-year-old bantamweight from Bangor in Co Down will still be delighted with his performances in these championships having secured a silver medal courtesy of his unanimous decision win over Bulgaria's Daniel Panev Asenov in the semi-final yesterday.
The St Paul’s BC Belfast boxer has already claimed a bronze medal at the Under 22 Europeans.
On a day when Olympic champion Kellie Harrington slammed the culture Irish Athletic Boxing Association (IABA) which led to the resignation of High-Performance Unit director Bernard Dunne, saying it’s “basically the same s**t, different day”, it was a much needed boost for the much-maligned association.
Indeed, it caps a superb month, inside the ring at least, for Irish amateur boxing as these two medals come hot on the heels of Lisa O'Rourke and Amy Broadhurst winning gold medals at the World Championships in Istanbul.