WORTH FIGHTING FOR...
Olympic boxing has fallen far enough...the IBA has a duty to nurture the dreams of young talents like Marley and Fay
IRISH boxers keep bringing home medals. Even though the IABA (Irish Amateur Boxing Association) is riven by power struggles and internal rows, the clubs and their tireless volunteers continue to produce fighters who excel on the international stage.
Only a few weeks ago, Olympians Kellie Harrington and Aoife O’Rourke came through Dublin Airport with gold medals from the Stranja tournament in Bulgaria.
And last Thursday, O’Rourke’s younger sister Lisa walked through the same arrivals hall as one of three Irish gold medalists, along with bantamweight Niamh Fay and heavyweight Jack Marley, returning from the European Under-22 championships in Croatia.
In all, Ireland won seven medals – three golds, one silver and three bronzes – a superb achievement considering a record 30 nations won at least one medal at the championship. It was the outstanding Marley’s dominant display in the heavyweight final, when he outclassed Italy’s Roberto Lizzi that closed a successful week in the ring for Irish fighters.
They had a homecoming for Marley,
For years, this club has been a quiet success on the south side of Dublin
who has only turned 19, in Monkstown boxing club on Friday, the place where he first stepped into the ring as a nine-year-old. For years, this club has been a quiet sporting success story on the south side of Dublin.
Formed in the late 1990s to give kids around Fitzgerald Park and Mountwood flats an outlet, they have grown from strength to strength and were named Leinster club of the year a few years ago.
And on Friday, they welcomed one of their own home as a European champion. Two nights earlier, they gathered in the club to watch Marley’s performance in the final, where he overpowered his more experienced Italian opponent, having barely broken a sweat.
Irish boxing has been crying out for a talented heavyweight for years – it was a weight class that was sorely lacking during the years of the High Performance’s medal factory on South Circular Road. Marley has the potential to be something special, but his coach James Doyle is keen to point out that he is still a teenager.
‘This is part of the progression for him, part of the progression that was planned for him,’ Doyle explains. ‘What we are happiest about more than the medals were the performances. He has shown how much he has learnt in the last year, he was listening to what the coaches were telling him during the bouts.
‘He will only be 21 by the time Paris rolls around which is still quite young for a heavyweight, so the plan is more geared towards 2028, when he will be 25. And that will still be the plan, but he has shown that he is progressing nicely.’
Doyle says that Marley is only one of a talented crop of kids who are coming through the ranks. He will be part of the coaching staff who are bringing the Ireland team to the European under-18 championships in Bulgaria next month and he says they are another exceptional group with plenty of medal-winning potential.
The sport had a difficult time during lockdown, when clubs and gyms were locked, but it seems to be coming out of it now, with a new generation spearheaded by the likes of Marley, O’Rourke and Fay. Of course, the issue is the wider problems affecting the sport and the way that it is governed.
The International Boxing Association (IBA) swiftly suspended Russian and Belarussian boxers from competition but it has now emerged that Umar Kremelev, the President who happens to be from Russia, wants the ban on Belarus overturned ahead of the women’s world championships in Istanbul in May. And the IBA have yet to sever their links with Gazprom, the Russian state-owned gas conglomerate – one of their main sponsors. No wonder that the Olympic future of the sport remains in grave danger – the IOC haven’t event included boxing in its initial list for Los Angeles in 2028.
The likes of Marley, O’Rourke and Fay, who starred in Croatia last week, are sustained by the dream of Olympic gold. It is for them, and thousands like them across the world, that the IBA need to get their house in order. And it is also for the Ukrainian fighters, who were the story of the championships in Porec. Despite everything going on in their homeland, Ukraine topped the medals table.
Fittingly, the final bout of the championship saw the classy Yuriy Zaharieviev dance his way to light-middleweight gold. The youngster is being hailed as the Ukraine’s latest brilliant ring technician to. He has already been labelled the new Vasily Lomachenko, the wonderful former lightweight champion who made headlines last week by deciding to stay at home and fight against the Russian invasion, rather than accept a chance to regain his title against Australia’s George Kambosos junior.
The Ukrainian fighters were only able to compete in Porec, because the IBA ponied up all the logistical and financial costs to ensure they could travel to Croatia, while the boxing associations of both Germany and Poland also provided assistance in sparring and training and helped to organise their transportation to the championships. It was an illustration of why boxing can be the best of sports.
‘As agreed at a recent meeting of the Board of directors, the IBA will cover all costs related to Ukrainian athletes’ participations in the international championships,’ said IBA secretary-general Istvan Kovacs,
‘The safety and well-being of our athletes remains our main priority and this is a great example of the boxing community coming together.’
The treatment, and subsequent success, of the Ukrainian fighters is a rare good news story for the IBA at a time when its behaviour is imperilling boxing’s place at the Olympic Games.
Watching the blue and yellow flag of Ukraine being raised so often in Croatia underlines the power of sport – and boxing at its best.
In Monkstown, Castlerea and Ballyboughal this week, where they welcomed back their homegrown European champions, they were reminded of the good that this sport can do.
Marley, O’Rourke and Fay deserve the chance to fight on the Olympic stage. As does Zaharieviev and the other Ukrainian boxers in Croatia.
Let’s hope that the IBA realise that they are playing with the hopes and dreams of young people and change tack before it is too late.
Seeing the Ukranian flag raised so often showed boxing at its very best