Bring up Zaur Antia's name in the world of boxing and you'll be hard pushed to be met with a bad word to be said about the man and his coaching ability.
The Georgian took up the role as Head Coach for Ireland's High Performance Unit(HPU) for our boxing team in 2015 following Billy Walsh' resignation from the position, having worked closely with the Wexfordman since arrival into the set-up back in 2003.
While his first Olympic Games in the role, Rio 2016, was a massive disappointment for the team, Andy Lee today told OTB AM that he believes Antia to be one of the major reasons we had a right to be disappointed in the first place, as his work with the country's amateur boxers brought the nation from also-rans to medal contenders, referencing the changing of styles when Antia joined the HPU.
"We were always known for our heart, we would always go and fight hard and we would push the best nations right to the edge, but would never win. More often than not, we would always come up short".
"When it was computer scoring it was very technical, it was all about feints, outmanoeuvring your opponent, then making him pay. It was all about feinting, feinting, letting them punch, and then countering them. Zaur gave us the techniques and the know-how to do that".
Lee even claimed that Zaur's teaching's have spread as far as not only the other coaches in the country, but in the movements and traits of some of the pro boxers who've held world titles since.
"Billy Walsh very much learned from Zaur. Even if you see Pete Taylor(Katie's dad), Michael Conlon's father(John), and Eddie Bulger, anything they do that's suited to amateur boxing now, not that they don't know their own things, but there's a lot from that you see Zaur do".
"You can see his signature in a lot of good fighters now. When I see Carl Frampton box I see the stuff that he does, I can see Zaur, I can see his fingerprints all over him. I can see that's Zaur's move there that he's doing. I think for a single man, he's had the biggest impact on Irish boxing ever".
Ger and Andy were joined on Skype by former HPU boxer and current 7-0 professional Eric Donovan, who broke down Zaur's technical impact on him in a single anecdote, which showed not only the fruits acquired by the fighters he laboured with, but the benefits to local clubs who put forward their boxers to the HPU since his time working with the team.
"In terms of the technical breakdowns of the training sessions, and I know Zaur's English would have been very poor, but his technical demonstrations would simplify everything for you and it would make so much sense. He could turn southpaw or orthodox and give a demonstration so effectively".
"I was 17-years-old and had never thrown a left hook, because I didn't need to, I won everything on the way up without having to throw a left hook. I didn't even know I could throw a left hook, so it was kind of crazy".
"I kind of felt that that was a dangerous punch to throw, because I would leave myself very vulnerable, but Zaur said 'that can be a gamechanger for you'. He was dead right because that's the punch that won me my first senior title, against another southpaw, and that was the punch to beat another southpaw. That was my first senior title and the club's first title in the 45 years previous".
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