Ward Out to Stop Egan 11th Irish Elite Title

Current AIBA World Youth champion Joe Ward, a gold medal winner at the 2009 AIBA World Junior Championships, is aiming to deny Ken Egan an historic 11th Irish Elite title in a row at Friday's eagerly anticipated Irish Daily Star Sponsored Elite National Finals at the National Stadium in Dublin.

Ten male finals and one female final will be decided on a night in which the IABA, which celebrates its 100th birthday this year, showcases some of the top amateur boxers in the world.

Ward, who at 17 is 11 years Egan's junior, made his Elite debut with an 8-2 semi-final win over Davey Joe Joyce last weekend. He won his two AIBA World titles at light-middleweight and middleweight in Armenia and Azerbaijan in 2009/10 before moving up a notch to light-heavyweight.

In his build up toward the Elite Championships, Ward trained and sparred at the Repton ABC in London, a former club of Irish 2004 Olympian and three-time Elite middleweight champ Andy Lee.

"Kenny Egan has been the No 1 guy for the past 10 years so it will be great to go in there and have a good fight with him and see what happens. I can't say I am going to beat him but I hope he doesn't beat me, said Ward, who claimed his second National Youth title earlier this month.

"We'll just have to wait and see what happens on the night. I have sparred Kenny in High Performance. I believe this will be a good fight - a very exciting fight. I believe there will not be a lot in it and I believe I can come out on the right side."

"I have a lot of power and I hit twice as hard as most of them out there. My shots come with speed as well and that's important. I hope I can do it again next week.
The way I see it, everyone is beatable and hopefully I will come out on the right side of it. You have to give Kenny respect, he's 10 times senior champion."

Elsewhere on what promises to be an historic night for Ireland's most successful Olympic sport, Paddy Barnes will be aiming for a fifth consecutive light-flyweight title.

Barnes, a bronze medal winner at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, finished on top of the podium at two major international tournaments last year.

The Belfast man won gold for Ireland at the European Championships in Moscow - a victory that bridged a 19 year gap since Ireland last won gold at this level courtesy of Dubliner Paul Griffin in 1991 - and also claimed gold for Northern Ireland at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi.

Barnes meets talented Crumlin BC prospect Evan Metcalfe, the current Intermediate and U/21 champion. Both boxers received byes into the 49Kg final.

The flyweight final will be contested between Belfast's Michael Conlon - who eliminated Olympic Youth champion and 2010 AIBA World Youth silver medalist Ryan Burnett in the earlier rounds - and Elite debutant Chris Phelan of the Ryston club in Kildare.

Phelan goes into this three-rounder as the reigning Intermediate and U/21 champion, while Conlon reached the recent Ulster Elite final

John Joe Nevin, who is signed with Paris United in the World Series of Boxing, produced a superb performance in his 9-0 win over Derek Thorpe in the semi-finals - a repeat of the 2010 bantamweight final which Nevin won. He meets Tyrone McCullagh, a bronze medal winner at the 2010 European Championships in Moscow, and the 2010 Elite featherweight champion.

The bantamweight (54Kg) and the featherweight (57Kg) weight categories have been amalgamated at 56Kg.

McCullagh, speaking after last Saturday's semi-final win over former champ Shane Cox, appeared to

"I was happy with the last two rounds tonight. I have a couple of fights under my belt. Now I'm boxing John Joe (Nevin) in the final and he is half favourite but hopefully I'll give him all he wants."

Lightweight David Oliver Joyce flies the flag for the St Michael's Athy BC. The former Elite champ - a gold medal winner at the 2009 European Union Championships - won on his debut for Istanbul in the World Series of Boxing last month.

He'll come up against Michael McDonagh, who beat his team-mate Eric Donovan - who defeated Joyce in the 2010 Elite final - in the semi-finals. Joyce,meantime, beat McDonagh's St Mary's Dublin team-mate Ciaran Bates in the corresponding semi-final - both clubs denying each other an all St Michael's Athy or an all St Mary's final.

Ross Hickey, a bronze medal winner at the 2008 European Championships in Liverpool, faces 2009 Elite champion Philip Sutcliffe. Sutcliffe doesn't appear to be inclined to be hanging around for the final bell at these Championships as he's recorded two inside the distance wins so far to book his ticket into the light-welterweight final.

Either Adam Nolan, a Gardai, or ex champ Karl Brabazon will leave the National Stadium with their waist adorned with the welterweight belt. Nolan is aiming for a Bray BC and Gardai double as his team-mate Laoise Traynor, a Ban-Gardai, beat Limerick's Jessie Lyons in last Saturday's Elite Women's finals.

Patricia Roddy, also of the Bray BC, meets Sinead Kavanagh in the only Elite Women's final of the evening. If Nolan and Roddy win the Bray BC will be taking home four titles from the home of Irish boxing - and the Gardai will be celebrating a double - as World, European and EU champ Katie Taylor has received a walkover.

Meantime, 2010 European Championships silver medalist Darren O'Neill renews acquaintances with 2009 European Youth Champion Jason Quigley in a repeat of the 2010 middleweight final which O'Neill won to retain his title for a second term.

Former Kilkenny U//21 hurler O'Neill, number two in Europe and number one in Ireland, says that he is confident of making it three in a row, but Quigley reckons he's learned his lesson from the 2010 decider with O'Neill, a teacher at the Donaghmeade Holy Trinity National School in Dublin.

"I am stronger and more experienced this year - last year I was an unknown. This year I know what it is all about and I am prepared to do the business. You learn more from a defeat than from a win," said Quigley, who boxes out of the Finn Valley club in Donegal.

Defending heavyweight champion Con Sheehan is seeking to make it four in a row. His opponents have failed to lay a glove on the big Tipperary man at these Championships as the 2009 European Union champ has won his two bouts so far without conceding a point. However, Galway's rising star Patrick Corcoran will be looking to put a dent in that statistic on Friday.

Defending super-heavyweight champ Cathal McMonagle faces one of the surprise packages of the tournament in Kenneth Okungbowa, the current U/21 and Intermediate Irish champion.

Originally from Nigeria, Okungbowa is a student at the Athlone IT and has a reputation as a man with dynamite in his gloves, although the vastly experienced McMonagle is used to trading leather with explosive opponents as he met World and Olympic champion Roberto Cammarelle in the EU final at the National Stadium in 2007, the Italian winning gold on that occasion.

Okungbowa's coach Rory Parkes said: "Kenny has done amazingly well this year and everyone at the club is very proud of him. The seniors will be another step up for him but anything is possible with his punching ability."