Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Pressure on to Ward off promoters..
NEWLY-CROWNED European Elite champion Joe Ward is being targeted by pro promoters. The Westmeath man claimed his third European gold medal in Ukraine on Saturday after beating Russia’s Muslim Gadzhimagomedov on a unanimous decision. However, an offer is on the table for the 23-year-old to switch to the professional ranks and he is mulling it over. Ward currently receives €40,000 a year in funding and while he is not looking for a king’s ransom to remain in the amateur ranks, he does want financial security. It’s understood he is looking for a contract up to Tokyo 2020. The Rio Olympian said: “The way I look at it now is that I have to go home and make the right decision. I’m going to have to do what’s best for myself and best from my family. At the end of the day I need security.” Irish boxers have won 14 European Elite gold medals since 2005, courtesy of Katie Taylor (who claimed six), Paddy Barnes, John Joe Nevin, Jason Quigley, Ray Moylette, Michael Conlan and Ward’s hat-trick. However, Ward is the only European champion to remain in the amateur code and is consistently helping Irish boxing hit their key performance targets. He added: “We have to sit down first and come up with a plan. There are a lot of people putting a lot of pressure on me to turn professional. “I have to sit down with the Irish sports council (Sport Ireland) and Bernard (Dunne, IABA highperformance director) and see where we go.” Ireland finished in fourth sport in the medals table at the weekend, courtesy of Ward’s win and bronzes from Brendan Irvine and Kurt Walker. The trio and Sean Mccomb also qualified for the World Championships. Ukraine was the first major outing for Dunne (inset) in his new role and the EX-WBA World champion was proud of what the team achieved. He said: “I came out here to assess the health of our team and how it compared against international competition. “From that point of view the objective was achieved, but to actually have some success to go along with that was fantastic. “It’s a great start for myself and Zaur (Antia, Irish head coach) and to watch Zaur and his team go to work was fantastic. “It’s a young team. It needs time to settle in and we will hopefully achieve success in the future. “The World Championships will follow quickly after this. The guys will go home and have a break, a well-deserved break. The whole team performed well. We’re very happy.”