BOXING/IRISH SENIOR CHAMPIONSHIPS:WITH 24 boxers involved in tonight's elite showcase (RTÉ2, 9pm), there was some bemusement over the media fuss being made over Kenny Egan and Joe Ward meeting each other in the light-heavyweight final.

The pair have drawn focus on to that weight category because the bout involves a European champion facing an Olympic silver medallist for an Irish title.

As this is Olympic year the chance to stake a claim on a qualification opportunity for this year’s London Games further heightens the tension between the two champions.

The Olympic qualification tournament will take place in Trabzon, Turkey, on April 13th-22nd, which means Ireland head coach Billy Walsh should waste little time in assembling the individuals who will take part as he has only six weeks to put some shape on his final team.

What further pressurises the coach is that Darren O’Neill, John Joe Nevin and Michael Conlan are the only three Irish boxers who have secured a place in London.

The Turkey tournament represents the last chance to earn more places. Walsh is also acutely aware that the host nation has no boxers qualified for the Games. The feeling is that against a Turkish fighter in a tight bout, the decision will fall only one way.

Ward seeks to hold on to the light-heavyweight crown he wrested from Egan last year as the Neilstown fighter was seeking his 11th title in succession. Denied that historic mark, 30-year-old Egan faces the 18-year-old again hoping to become the first in the 101-year history of the Irish Amateur Boxing Association to claim 11 elite titles.

The bookies have the younger fighter in as slight favourite, 8 to 11, and Egan at evens.

Publicly Ward has played the role of the iconoclast and has been chiding “old man” Egan, who has returned from a brief spell at heavyweight. But Egan had a decent run in an Olympic test event in London just before Christmas and is said to be in great shape. The meeting of the two southpaws is the highlight of the evening and could dramatically shape the year for both fighters as London is the obvious goal for everyone.

Another Olympic success, and a boxer not heard of for quite a while, Paddy Barnes, is just three rounds away from winning six titles in a row. The feisty Belfast light-flyweight, a gold medal winner at the 2010 European Championships in Moscow and an Olympic bronze medallist from Beijing, meets Hugh Myres.

Last weekend Myres secured an impressive semi-final victory over Evan Metcalfe, whom Barnes beat in the 2011 final.

Conlan, from west Belfast, goes in against Chris Phelan in the flyweight division safe in the knowledge he qualified for London at last year’s World Championships where he won a bronze medal.

A precocious talent, the man from the Falls Road is the heavy favourite.

John Joe Nevin, another World Championship medallist who won last week’s bout by just a point, is in against Michael Nevin in the bantamweight final, while middleweight O’Neill trades with Derry’s Conor Coyle.

In the heavier weight divisions Belfast’s Tommy McCarthy, who lost to Egan in the 2010 light-heavyweight final, is chasing his first title against heavyweight Christy Joyce with Con Sheehan moving up to super-heavyweight and facing Seán Turner.

Sheehan, along with St Michael’s Athy team-mates David Oliver Joyce, John Joe Joyce and John Joe Nevin, go into the deciders one win away from winning their fifth Irish elite belt.

Katie Taylor has been in Georgia at an elite training camp and returns to Ireland this week. Technically she did not enter the women’s 60kg division in the championships but the multiple world and European champion will travel to the World Championships in China later this year, which doubles as an Olympic qualifier.

RUNNING ORDER (7.30pm National Stadium) 48kg: (Light-flyweight) Lynne McEnery (St Paul’s) v Oliwia Samsanov (Cavan); 49kg: (Light-flyweight) Paddy Barnes (Holy Family) v Hugh Myres (Ryston); 56kg: (Bantamweight) John Joe Nevin (Cavan) v Michael Nevin (Portlaoise); 57kg: (Featherweight) Michaela Walsh (Holy Family) v Dervla Duffy (Ryston); 52kg: (Flyweight) Michael Conlan (St John Bosco) v Chris Phelan (Ryston); 81kg: (Light-heavyweight) Joe Ward (Moate) v Ken Egan (Neilstown); 60kg: (Lightweight) Michael McDonagh (St Mary’s) v David Oliver Joyce (St Michael’s Athy); 75kg: (Middleweight) Darren O’Neill (Paulstown) v Conor Coyle (St Joseph’s); 69kg: (Welterweight) Adam Nolan (Bray) v John Joe Joyce (St Michael’s Athy); 64kg: (Light-welterweight) Ross Hickey (Grangecon) v Stephen Coughlan (Bray); 91kg: (Heavyweight) Tommy McCarthy (Oliver Plunkett) v Christy Joyce (St Michael’s Athy); 91+kg: (Super-heavyweight) Con Sheehan (Clonmel) v Seán Turner (Drimnagh).