There's been good news out of Doha this afternoon as both Michael Conlan and Michael O'Reilly guaranteed themselves at least bronze medals in the World Boxing Championships.
Unfortunately for Team Ireland, Brendan Irvine couldn't emulate his previous performances and crashed out of the quarter-finals at the hands of Joahnys Argilagos losing 3-0 on a unanimous decision.
“It was a tough fight from the first bell and I knew it was going to be all-action because obviously he’s a Cuban and he was world champion at one stage,” said Irvine.
Irvine takes a thunderous punch from Argilagos. Image Credit:©INPHO/Francis Myers
“I fought him a while ago and he knew I was going to be coming to bring it, but unfortunately I didn’t have the luck today.”
Team captain Conlan becomes the first Irish boxer to win World, Olympic, European and Commonwealth medals.
“It was a good fight today, quite handy and I thought it was going to be a lot tougher,” said Conlan.
"We just had the right tactics today and it was an easy enough fight. I felt in control and I wasn’t worried at all in there."
The Belfast native eased into the semi-final thanks to a 3-0 unanimous points victory over Tayfur Aliyev of Azerbaijan.
O'Reilly, meanwhile, is still chasing Olympic quaification after he edged reigning world middleweight champion Zhanubek Alimhanuly of Kazakhstan via split decision.
The 22-year-old made amends for a shaky start to claim the final two rounds to win 29-28, 29-28, 28-29.
"I’m over the moon and delighted,” said O’Reilly, who who now meets Bektemir Melikuziev of Uzbekistan in the last four tomorrow.
“I knew what had to do – play a game of cat and mouse and make him feint, make him throw first and that’s what he kept doing – I clipped him every time with the left hook when he came in."
Joe Ward is the final of four Irish boxers in action today, he fights Mikhail Baudhaliavets of Belarus later tonight.
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