McCombrelishesstepupatUlsterHall
RISING prospect Sean McComb will headline at the Ulster Hall on February 1.
McComb has been developing at quite a rate since turning professional in the summer of 2018, chalking up nine straight victories.
The Belfast light-welterweight will expect to be aiming for a first title in 2020 and a win over Mauro Maximiliano Godoy will keep him moving in that direction.
McComb said: “This is another step up and I’m happy to take it. It’s exciting. I’ve always said the better opponent I face, the better me. The better I’ll box. The better I’ll fight. I watched Godoy fight on the undercard of the Golden Contract. He tries to control a lot of the pace and he puts his punches together very well.
“I’ll be working on catching his punches and coming back with my own. I think it’ll be a more technical fight than my last outing and I think I’ll definitely look better against Godoy than (Emiliano) Dominguez.
“I learned so much from that last fight. I threw a lot of punches that I didn’t need to throw. He was there to be hit but I could’ve gone for a walk rather than stay and slug it out. I should have been smarter.
“This will be the start of another massive year for Belfast and for myself. I’ll hopefully be fighting for titles and there are all those great shows at the Ulster Hall, which is one of the best boxing venues in the world.”
Also on the show will be unbeaten Ballymena prospect Steven Donnelly as well as Belfast men Padraig McCrory and Ruairi Dalton.
RUSSIA has been banned from the 2020 Olympics and the 2022 football World Cup.
The World Anti-Doping Agency yesterday confirmed a fouryear ban from all major global sporting events, after considering recommendations from its independent compliance review committee (CRC) that Russia had manipulated laboratory doping data.
WADA said the decision was unanimous and its president Sir Craig Reedie accused Russia of choosing “deception and denial” rather than getting its house in order.
Russia has 21 days to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, while individual Russian athletes untainted by the scandal will be able to compete independently under a neutral flag.
Reedie said: “The ExCo’s (executive committee) strong decision shows WADA’s determination to act resolutely in the face of the Russian doping crisis, thanks to the agency’s robust investigatory capability, the vision of the CRC, and WADA’s recently acquired ability to recommend meaningful sanctions via the compliance standard which entered into effect in April 2018. Combined, these strengths have enabled the ExCo to make the right decisions at the right time.
“For too long, Russian doping has detracted from clean sport. Russia was afforded every opportunity to get its house in order, but it chose to continue in its stance of deception and denial.”
However, Russia will be able to compete at Euro 2020. European football’s governing body does not fall under the definition of a Major Events Organisation.