A long and tiring day for the Irish boxers down at Baku's Crystal Hall has ended on the perfect winning note for both Dean Gardiner and Adam Nolan – who are now just one more victory away from a guaranteed medal of some colour at these first European Games.
Gardiner found himself in a roaring contest against the Italian Guido Vianello at super heavyweight, and the big man from Clonmel man actually found himself on the canvas too, taking the knock-down, with 30 seconds remaining in the first round, after taking a devastating right hand from “the Italian Thunder”.
So Gardiner lost that round (30-27), yet recovered brilliantly in the second, forcing the Italian to take a standing count late on and winning the round in the process (30-27).
With that it all came the last three minutes, where the strength of the Irish fighter began to show, as he won that round too, and in the end was given a unanimous decision by the judges, 3-0. So up next for Gardiner is the Frenchman Tony Yoka, that quarter-final set for Monday evening.
Just before that, Nolan took out another fiery Italian, Dario Morello, in the last 16 of their welterweight division. So Nolan too progresses to the quarter-finals. He’ll certainly go into that bout oozing in confidence, having scored a unanimous 3-0 win over the Italian, winning all three rounds (30-27, 30-27, 30-27).
The stylish southpaw looked extremely relaxed and always in control against the orthodox Italian, who also hurt his eye late in the first round. The 28-year-old Nolan will definitely fancy his chances of going further, and he will await the winner of tomorrow’s remaining bout between Britain’s Josh Kelly and Mahamed Nurudzinan from Belarus.
There was similar joy earlier on for Sean McComb in his lightweight bout against Donato Cosenza from Italy, the big Belfast man winning all three rounds (30-27, 30-27, 30-27) for the unanimous win. McComb now goes into the quarter-final bout on Tuesday where a victory will also guarantee him at least a bronze medal, his opponent there being Yasin Yilmaz from Turkey. Yilmaz, only 20, had a much closer passage in his last 16 bout, and McComb looks well capable of coming away with the win.
Earlier in the day, Limerick’s Myles Casey faced off against local European Games gold medal hope Elvin Mamishzada from Azerbaijan at flyweight, and the partisan crowd very quickly threw their weight behind their man.
Casey, just 21, certainly mixed it with Mamishzada in the opening two rounds, although the judges gave both to the Azerbaijani. Casey fought back with considerable ferocity to win the third, only it wasn’t enough, Mamishzada prevailing on a unanimous decision to make the quarter-finals.
That sparked more than a few remarks of a “home decision” amongst more neutral observers, although Casey wasn’t about to make much of a fuss about it. “Look there are five judges outside the ring and they choose the winner,” mused Casey. “If they think the other lad won, then the other lad won.”
“This is the first time I have fought at this level. My opponent (Mamishzada) is a top lad, but I now know I can compete at this level. I said to those who had not seen me box before, ‘I’m going to show you something you have never seen before’. But of course they are going to back their lad. It would be the same if I was fighting in front of my home crowd. I enjoyed every bit of it.”
Belfast's Michaela Walsh went into her first fight in Baku, against the Russian Elena Saveleva at bantamweight, with high hopes. Having just turned 22, Walsh earned the silver medal at last summer's Commonwealth Games, where she narrowly lost out on gold to British star Nicola Adams.
This time, however, she was simply out-fought from the start, the Russian proving that bit stronger in almost every sense, putting all her experience to good use. The 31-year-old, almost 10 years older than Walsh, took all four rounds to claim the unanimous verdict.
