RING LEADERS
Walsh shocks Broadhurst Winning start for Irish duo Ponce gets his chance
THE females of the species stole the show at last weekend’s finals of the Elite National Championships at the National Stadium.
Tullamore welterweight Grainne Walsh dominated the night’s reports with her sensational win over World Championships, European Championships and Commonwealth Games gold medallist Amy Broadhurst, but two other female winners entered the all-time records list.
Lightweight Kellie Harrington and featherweight Michaela Walsh both won their tenth titles.
Dubliner Harrington (33), who won her first title in 2010, has triumphed at lightweight, light-welterweight and welterweight.
Belfast fighter Walsh, who won her first title in 2011 at the age of just 17, won all hers at featherweight, with the exception of the 2016 campaign, when she succeeded at flyweight.
Level
The pair have drawn level with the standard bearers among the men, Jim O’Sullivan and Kenny Egan.
O’Sullivan, from Enniscorthy, won his ten at light-middleweight, light-heavyweight and heavyweight between 1980 and 1990.
Egan, who won his first title at 19, uniquely won his ten in succession from 2001 to 2010, the first two at middleweight and then eight lightheavyweight on the trot.
Wexford native Dean Walsh, who won four successive titles at lightwelterweight and welterweight between 2014 and 2017, returned after two and a half years out of the ring to capture a fifth crown by beating in the lightmiddleweight decider.
Amy Broadhurst entered the nationals at welterweight rather than lightweight because, her father explained, even if she won, she still wouldn’t qualify for the Olympic qualifying spot as her World and European Championships gold medals were won at light-welterweight, a non-Olympic division.
Having reiterated its commitment to including the sport in the next Olympics in Paris early last December, the IOC issued a statement just three weeks later warning that “the cancellation of boxing for the Olympic Games in Paris in 2024 will now be considered”.
The sudden reversal comes on the heels of the International Boxing Association’s decision to renew its multi-million dollar sponsorship deal with Gazprom, the Russian stateowned energy corporation, as well as a vow by Umar Kremlev, the Russianborn head of the IBA, that they wouldn’t give permission for their fighters and officials to take part in events they weren’t involved in.
“This anconthat nouncement firms (below) the IBA will continue to depend on a company which is largely controlled by the Russian government,” the IOC responded.
“The IOC will have to take all this into consideration when it takes further decisions, which may — after these latest developments — have to include the cancellation of boxing for the Olympic Games Paris 2024.
“The recent IBA Congress has shown once more that the IBA has no real interest in the sport of boxing and the boxers, but is only interested in its own power.”
There is, however, hope that a solution to the matter can be found.
Avenue
The first promising avenue is the Common Cause Alliance, an alliance of over two dozen national boxing associations aimed at curbing the excesses of Kremlev and the IBA.
The second cause for optimism is to do with boxing’s tradition and status within the Olympic movement. Secondly, Juan Antonio Samaranch became president of the IOC in 1980 and served until 2001. He spent virtually his entire administrative career trying to get boxing kicked out of the Games.
Samaranch, however, failed every time, because the vast sums they paid for broadcasting rights made American TV the piper who called the tune, and they were really only interested in four sports: athletics, swimming, women’s soccer ... and boxing.
Scored
Fight referee Darren Maxwell, from nearby Bellshill, scored the bout 59-56 in favour of the 28-yearold Donegan, whose record now moves to seven wins, one draw and four losses.
The following night, rookie Cork lightheavyweight Hyde made it two wins out of two by halting Jiri Kroupa from the
Czech Republic in the sixth and final session at the Freeport Hall in the Boston suburb of Dorchester.
The 23-year-old Hyde, along with unbeaten Galway prospect Thomas O’Toole, is booked to fight again at the same venue on St Patrick’s Night.
He is currently training in Los Angeles and could well have a fight there next month.
THE vacant IBF
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light-welterweight title will be decided between Jeremias Ponce and Subriel Matias at The Armory in Minneapolis on February 25.
Ponce, a 26-year-old from Buenos Aires, has a 30-0 record while Matias, four years older and from Puerto Rico,is 18-1 with every win coming inside the distance.
AUSTRALIAN star ■
Tim Tszyu will clash with former WBC title holder Tony Harrison for the WBO interim light-middleweight title at a yet-to-be-finalised Australian venue on March 12.
Tszyu was originally scheduled to challenge Jermell Charlo for all four major belts in Las Vegas, Nevada, tomorrow but Charlo suffered an injury in training.