McCormack twins into Euro boxing finals
LUKE AND PAT SET UP DOUBLE BID FOR GOLDEN GLORY AT THE EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS
Wearside’s all-conquering McCormack twins are within touching distance of double gold in the Ukraine.
Luke and Pat are both through to the European Championship finals today after the Washington duo produced brilliant displays in Kharkiv.
Lightweight Luke set the ball rolling with a fantastic display against Lithuania’s No 3 seed, Evaldas Petrauskas, in the U64 kilo semi.
Pat produced another skilful show at welterweight (U69k), ending the hopes of the host nation’s Ievgenii Barabanov, when he took a unanimous points decision.
Luke has been in the form of his boxing life all week and reeled off an incredible fourth win, registering a split points victory.
The Ukrainian judge scored all three rounds to Petrauskas, but, with the Germanand-Moroccanjudges doing like wise for Luke, with Cuba and Turkey marking it 29-28 to McCormack, the Birtley ABC ace was through 4-1.
Luke deserved his passage to the light-welterweight final after producing the better boxing against the Baltic fighter who had lost to Pat at the same stage of the 2015 semis.
McCormack used his superior height and reach advantage nicely, following his jab with a couple of good long rights.
The Lithuanian looked to unload his short left hooks, but, even after he did get through, McCormack jolted him with a right to the head.
Petrauskas creditably cut the space down at the start of round two and applied the early pressure, but, after short bursts, he seemed to tire, allowing Luke to string some quality shots together.
McCormack used both gloves smartly, emphasised by a four-punch volley to Evaldas’s head in the last 10 seconds of the round.
The final round followed a similar pattern, with Petrauskas looking to press but McCormack used his skill cleverly, even making the Lithuanian miss with a wild swing. Luke looked composed and classy and outboxed him to finish the intriguing contest on top.
Both boxers had their hands at the ready to celebrate victory, but McCormack took the win 4-1 to set up a final with Armenia’s Hovhannes Bachkov.
In his semi-final, Pat, the silver medallist at lightwelter at the Euros two years ago, also delivered.
All five judged scored it for him, Belarus and Morocco giving him all three rounds, with Germany delivering a 30-25 scoreline. Italy and Turkey’s officials marked it 29-28.
It was a cautious start from both boxers, McCormack landing some sweet rights against the southpaw, who finished the opener with a good burst of head shots.
Barabanov went down early in the second round though, strangely, the Cuban referee did not rule it as a knockdown.
Pat used his feet superbly, stepping in with long rights before moving back out of range, scoring with a series of left-right combinations.
Barabanov did connect with a couple of head shots, but all the class in the middle session came from Pat.
In the third, the better work came from McCormack, whose right hand proved slick, throwing a good left hook in for good measure.
Pat looked confident at the final bell, and with justification, as he collected a 5-0 result to set up a welterweight final against Germany’s Abass Baraou.