BOXING:A REST DAY in Trabzon today and time for Adam Nolan to contemplate the import of his bout tomorrow. A career-defining nine minutes.
Three rounds with Romanian Ionut Gheorghe, the Bray garda is one fight from joining Paddy Barnes for a glorious summer in London.
Nolan moves forward with Barnes and heavyweight Tommy McCarthy as Ireland turned out three wins from four fights yesterday, David Oliver Joyce falling out of the draw.
McCarthy, who now meets Moldovan Vladmir Cheles in the semi-final, has the most onerous task and must win the gold medal for his place in the London Olympics.
Yesterday Nolan presented himself as an awkward southpaw to Tamerian Abdullayev. Tall for a welterweight (69kg), Nolan, who trains with Peter Taylor, set himself up well in the opening minutes to take the first round 6-3.
Again his right jab was constantly stirring in his opponent’s face and the left cocked to throw the hurting punches. Abdullayev was compact and direct but Nolan was hard to hit and smartly stayed clear of a punching war.
While the opening was encouraging for the Oulart-the-Ballagh hurler, he sagged in the middle and lost some focus. From a comfortable lead, he found himself ahead by just one point, 12-11, after the second round and teetering on a calamity.
“I knew I won the first round, then he came back at me,” said Nolan. “Billy (Walsh) told me I was three up. I took my foot off the gas, kind of went into my shell a bit in the second round, stopped throwing my best shots.
“I knew coming back after the second I hadn’t got a good round. Billy told me I was only one up. Then I had to kick on. It was either do or die at that stage. I had to recompose myself.
“The first half minute or minute I caught him with a couple of good shots, I knew then I got my three or four points advantage back up again.”
Nolan, who broke his hand just before the European Championships last year, stepped up and within a minute had recovered his lost ground, an uppercut even teasing Walsh from his ringside seat. Confidence up again he sailed through and is now just one fight from London 2012.
“I knew it was going to be tough coming out here having to make the final,” he said.
“It’s a reasonable draw and if I box I should have a reasonable chance. If you’d told me before I came out here I’d be one fight away from qualification . . . I’m feeling confident.
“I don’t know anything about my opponent. I’m not thinking about the fight but if I just get in and do what I’m good at I have a good chance.”
McCarthy used his jab to huge effect against the rugged Hungarian Jozse Darmos. It has always been the Belfast 21-year-old’s sharpest weapon and yesterday he used it to great affect to take a 3-1 lead in the opening round.
Darmos was hitting wildly but his slapping shots weren’t registering with the judges, although what McCarthy described as “a haymaker” caught him behind the ear in the second round, prompting the referee to give him a standing count.
More active and busy around the ring than in his previous fight McCarthy kept his composure and scored eight points in the second round to take him well clear of any third round trouble.
He finished the bout at a canter, the score 16-7.
“He was a very strong opponent. I think he’s a couple of medals in the Europeans and stuff but I had got my game and I ended up winning comfortably,” said McCarthy.
“It was a tough fight but I ended winning by a good margin. He caught me with a big, dirty haymaker, hit me behind the ear, a big left swing. I wasn’t shook or anything but the referee gave me a count.
“I didn’t mind. That was a breather for me.”
David Oliver Joyce was unable to take the biggest step of his lightweight career when a robust Evaldas Petrauskas from Lithuania outmuscled him in yesterday’s quarter-final. The heaviest looking lightweight in Trabzon, Joyce lacked the power to match his opponent as the two went toe to toe for nine minutes.
It was a bout where many punches were exchanged over the three rounds, with the Lithuanian’s power breaking the Joyce defence and ultimately his heart.
It was the third time Joyce has fallen short at the final stage of Olympic qualifying, Athens and Baku the other two cities where his Olympic dreams perished.
Petrauskas led from beginning to end in a relentless high-tempo punching contest.
Joyce is more effective in close but he couldn’t match the artillery of Petrauskas.
While Joyce was prepared for the style as the two had sparred together just before arriving in Turkey, he trailed 6-3 after the first round and fell further back after the second at 13-6 before losing 19-10.
