Irish boxers will find it much harder to qualify for the Rio Olympic Games than they did for London. With the changing landscape in amateur boxing and the introduction of professional World Series Boxing, which also holds 43 qualification places for Rio bound boxers, the traditional routes to the Olympic Games have been reduced.
The finalists are possibly only the winners at next year’s World Championships will make it to Rio, although there is a third route to the Olympics through the APB, which is a new format governing by the world amateur body the AIBA. That series is due to be launched later this year and will take up 20 more Olympic places .
Head coach Billy Walsh believes Irish boxers are now disadvantaged as there is no Irish based franchise in the current WSB, although a number of Irish boxers are competing with other international teams.
“The problem is we don’t have a franchise for WSB,” said Walsh. “So we are at the mercy of another country. If they are running a WSB program, they will want to get their own lads qualified. We want to get an Irish lad qualified.
“We have some lads doing well in WSB at times but our own franchise would be key. We don’t have one and it would probably take a couple of million to run one and I can’t see anyone coming up with that sort of money to support that.”
To add to Walsh's anxiety, several of the top Irish boxers – including World Championship finalist Jason Quigley – still have not indicated where their futures lie. None of them have signed contracts that would keep them in the Irish High Performance system until Rio but Walsh is hopeful that they will not turn professional.
"We left him to his own devices," said Walsh about the Donegal middleweight Quigley. "We know what is on offer for him to stay. The Olympic Games is a big bait. Himself and his father (Conor) have to make a decision.
“They are back in their clubs training. As far as I know he is training for the Nationals. I haven’t heard otherwise. There’s supposed to be some offers on the table. He has to look at it and weight it up – does he want to go to the Olympic Games?
“Anyone who is really interested in him will wait for two years. His value will increase having been at a Games.”
Ireland has lost Olympic silver medallist John Joe Nevin to the professional ranks along with Belfast heavyweight Tommy McCarthy and talented middleweight Conrad Cummins. Nevin has yet to make his debut in the paid ranks despite making his announcement last October during the amateur World Championships.
