Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Ace Comb an heir to the throne
SEAN MCCOMB is putting his trust in Irish head coach Zaur Antia and team after sensationally beating Russia’s World Elite lightwelter champion Vitaly Dunaystev to qualify for the World Championships in Kharkiv, Ukraine yesterday. Rio Olympian Brendan Irvine also qualified for the Worlds on Monday after earning a unanimous decision over Turkey’s Bathuhan Citfci to set up Tuesday’s flyweight quarterfinal with Spain’s Gabriel Escobar. But Tipperary superheavy Dean Gardiner was TKO’D by Ukrainian superheavy Viktor Vykhryst of the Ukraine in the second round and is out. Mccomb defeated Kazakhstan-born Dunaystev on a split verdict at Dublin’s National Stadium in April amid mumblings of “home town decision”. But the Belfast lightwelter did it again yesterday and it was once again apparent that the No.1 seed was struggling against Mccomb’s tempo and slick counter-punching in the last-16 battle of the southpaws The top eight boxers in each weight in Kharkiv qualify for the World Championships in Hamburg, Germany in August/ September. Mccomb will now meet England’s Pat Mccormack in the last-eight tomorrow with a bronze medal up for grabs. He said: “It was a tough and tricky fight having boxed each other just a few months ago, but I listened to Zaur in the corner. He had a plan and it worked very well. “I haven’t got a chance to watch him [Mccormack] out here much. What I do know is he’s got as far so he must be doing something right, I will leave the plan to Zaur again and the rest of the team because I have trust in that.” Joe Ward, the current European light-heavy champion, Darren O’neill, Emmet Brennan and Kurt Walker are in last 16 action in Kharkiv today.