Of the two words Steven Donnelly has tattooed down the inside of his left arm - redemption, and dedication - at least one felt entirely fitting for the moment.
Because in setting up an Olympic welterweight medal bout against Mohamed Rabii of Morocco, the reigning world champion, Donnelly delivered some timely and much needed redemption to the Irish boxing team, after an openly troubled few days in Rio.
In claiming a split decision victory over Byamba Tuvshinbat of Mongolia he showed plenty of dedication too, particularly in the third and final round: his left eye bloodied and bruised, Donnelly absorbed a series of punches and then landed a series of his own, enough to set up Saturday’s contest against Rabii, the winner of which is guaranteed at least a bronze medal.
Donnelly has been open about his own troubles too, which is the reason he now wears that word redemption down his arm: it is six years now since the Ballymena man was sent home from the Commonwealth Games in Delhi for late night rowdiness and drinking in the team compound, after which he spent two years in the near oblivion, before slowly re-emerging out the other side.
“And now here I am, fighting for a medal in the Olympic welterweight division, and not many can say that after the road I’ve been through,” he said immediately afterwards, beaming despite the bloodied left eye.
“And I’m justifying my tattoos now. But it’s brilliant, and I knew we needed that. In the last few days things haven’t gone our way and the pressure was the coaches on all that, but as I said all along these lads are world class coaches, and they deserve all the praise they get. And I did it for them.”
Rabii will certainly raise the challenge again, although there’s no doubt Donnelly will be up for it: “I’ll just go in full of confidence. He (Rabii) is world champion for a reason, but I believe in myself, and I will go in and give it my all. I’m in a win-win situation from now on and really can’t wait until Saturday.”
The cut above his eye may be a worry - “you have to accept that”, he said - and yet in many ways in the pressure is off: even if he did feel the weight of the Irish entire boxing team in this contest he certainly didn’t show it.
“I felt better in that fight than I did in the first fight, actually, in that there wasn’t as much pressure on me at all. The first fight there was pressure on me, but I was totally chilled in the dressing room before this one, just listened to the plan.”
He won the first round, two judges giving him the nod, although they were level going into third: “In the last round I was making him miss and fall through the ropes, and I knew I had it in the bag then,” he said. “But I knew I needed a big last round, and I just said to myself, ‘just dig in here’ and it worked out in the end lucky enough.”
Whatever about Donnelly’s relaxed approach to the fight, Irish coach Eddie Bolger certainly looked relieved - even if suggested the camp as a whole hadn’t been upset by some of the ill-fate to date.
“Well, today was better than yesterday anyway,” Bolger said with a smile. “There are going to be a lot of twists and turns until they give out the medals. I really think personally these are a very competitive Olympics. It gives us a lift but it’s a team of individuals. Each one of them are trying to win each fight and we’re back on the road again.”
Bolger did admit that Joe Wards defeat on Wednesday night was a “shock”, but that there was no one to blame except for himself: “I’m a little bit disappointed for Joe, and a little bit disappointed with Joe. He’s a young lad, he’s not developed in all the areas yet. You don’t listen to a good referee and it might cost you; you don’t listen to a bad referee and it will cost you. We should have been able to deal with it. But he’s a young lad, 22 years of age, there are a few more areas that we’ve got to develop, that’s the bottom line.
“You can never take anything for granted. As long as we learn a lesson from yesterday and fix that today, whoever is boxing the next day hopefully we’ll have something cornered off that we keep improving our performances. You can’t drop heads, you can’t hold for too long. That’s it basically. It’s great that Steven got a win, a very honest big-hearted lad. I’m looking forward to this next challenge and with Brendan (Irvine) too. We’re in a good place.”
Or certainly a better place than yesterday, with plenty of hope left for further redemption.
