Team Ireland are 3-2 at the World Championships following victory for Seán McComb and a controversial points defeat for Adam Nolan in Doha on Wednesday.
McComb followed the winning lead of Belfast light-flyweight Brendan Irvine and Portlaoise middleweight Michael O’Reilly, who claimed wins on Tuesday, but Nolan bows out along with fellow Wexford native Dean Walsh who was defeated on the opening day.
The results were somewhat ironic considering Nolan, a Bray-based Garda, was the victim of what many ringside spectators deemed a robbery, while McComb has been lauded as a local crimefighter by friends and family in his native Belfast recently after halting two attempted muggings on the streets of his home city.
Welterweight Nolan was up against it from the start as a challenging draw pitted him against European champion Eimantas Stanionis of Lithuania.
The 28-year-old Irishman gave a fantastic account of himself, however, boxing at distance and using his jab to paw his opponent away while landing shots from range.
A stocky but strong Stanionis was constantly moving forward but other than landing a nice left hook a minute into the first round, his mostly wild punches failed to find the target.
His aggression seemed to impress the judges, though, with a Danish and Turkish official giving the Lithuanian the nod on the scorecards (27-30, 28-29, with one judge going for Nolan 29-28).
Magnanimous in defeat, Nolan said afterwards: “I really felt going into it that I was going to claim a big scalp. It could have went either way, but it was close.”
Domestic action
With the Worlds also acting as a qualifier for the 2016 Olympic Games, Nolan must now return to domestic action at the Elite National Championships next month and hope he can progress to the final European qualifier for Rio.
Head coach Billy Walsh was livid with the decision, praising Nolan's success in implementing a hit-and-move game-plan.
“He’s done all the work. Your man [Stanionis] threw the odd shot here and there, but they weren’t clean or clear hits,” said Walsh. “Adam was in and out and I’m gobsmacked… I’m lost for words, which is unusual for me.”
The loss for Nolan spoiled what had promised to be a good day for Ireland with McComb defeating Mexican Lindolfo Delgado Garca on a split decision in the afternoon session.
Advantages
The Belfast lightweight – who works part-time at weekends as a city-sightseeing guide when not ‘fighting crime’ – used his height and reach advantages to great effect.
Boxing in his usual southpaw stance, McComb nullified the threat of Garca for the most part, with the Mexican fighting in a more counter-attacking style that the aggressive approach usually associated with his compatriot fighters.
Garca was surprisingly awarded the second round, but McComb landed the better quality punches to see out the win.
“I actually thought I started off slow and then I came into it better in the second round, but it doesn’t matter now,” said the 23-year-old. “The fight’s over and I got the win. It doesn’t matter what goes up on the scoreboard as long as my hand goes up at the end of the day.”
The win sets up a Friday-night rematch with Azerbaijan’s Albert Selimov, who defeated McComb in a hard-fought European Games semi-final last June.
