There’s been good news out of Doha this afternoon as both Michael Conlan and Michael O’Reilly guaranteed themselves at least bronze medals in the World Boxing Championships.
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He becomes only the third Irish boxer to win medals at Olympic, European and now World level following in the footsteps of Katie Taylor and John Joe Kevin.
“I’m really looking forward to the final now”, said Conlan. “I knew it was going to be hard because I boxed him in the European Championships and I knew he was a tough guy”.
Conlan, who is already qualified for the Rio Olympics next year, dominated his bout with Asanau to book a decider with Murodjon Akhmadaliev of Uzbekistan on Wednesday.
Joe Ward is one win away from booking his Olympic spot, but the Moate light-heavyweight is not in semi-final action until Monday, taking on Ishod Rasulov of Uzbekistan.
“Now that I have two fights under my belt I feel a lot better”.
And he revealed himself that the fight was on his mother’s birthday.
Portlaoise middleweight O’Reilly attempts to continue his fantastic Worlds campaign after beating the reigning world champion Zhanibek Alimkhanuly of Kazakhstan on Saturday.
“He’s the current world champion and he’s a boxer so he likes to make you miss”, said O’Reilly.
The Belfast bantamweight secured a unanimous decision in Sunday’s semi-final with a scorecard of 30-27, 29-28 and 29-28. I kept my cool and held by patience, I didn’t panic.
He said: “We had the right tactics today, I felt in control and I wasn’t anxious a tall”.
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There was disappointment for light-flyweight Irvine, however, as he lost a 3-0 unanimous decision to Cuban Joahnys Argilagos.
