Olympics - Boxing. Amateur boxing can be as much about tactics as aggression and a smart performance from John Joe Nevin saw him edge today's battle of wits with Algeria's Abdelhalim Ourradi. The Mullingar bantamweight will now meet Badar-Uugan Enkhbat in next Monday's quarter-final.
Neither boxer laid a glove on their opponent during a sterile first round, a cagey opening leading to a scoreline of 0-0 after two minutes of fighting.
But Nevin, having got the measure of his opponent, was first off the mark in the second. Two quickfire jabs scored with the judges and a number of other shots were unlucky not to register. Perhaps a little to pleased with himself, Nevin then dropped his hands and was duly punished as Ourradi tagged on a couple of points of his own.
Nevin, who fights out of the Cavan Boxing Club, was punished for holding early in the third, the two point penalty giving Ourradi his first lead of the bout. But the fussy referee then deemed Ourradi guilty of leading with the head, the subsequent penalty points restoring Nevin's lead. The only point for an actual blow landed arrived courtesy of a big Nevin right hand as he edged clear.
With a slender two point lead going into the final round, Nevin was reluctant to go toe-to-toe in the decider. Instead, his approach of launching only sporadic attacks actually paid dividends as his lead grew to 9-5. Nevin was celebrating well before the final bell but one suspects he will need to raise his game against the big hitting Mongolian in the next round.