By Paul O’Donovan
Moate boxer Joe Ward secured his fifth national boxing title when disposing of the challenge of Anthony Browne of St Michael’s Dublin in the 81kg national final at the National Stadium last Friday night, however, there was disappointment for two other Westmeath boxers – Wayne Kelly of Ballynacargy and Kenneth Okungbowa from Athlone. Kelly was defeated by Sean McComb of the Holy Trinity Club in the 64kg final, while Okungbowa was ex-tremely disappointed with the judges decision after he was beaten by the experienced Darren O’Neill in the 91kg final.
For Ward, however, it was not all about winning his first national title in three years – he hadn’t competed in the national competition since winning back in 2014. But this year Ward has a lot on the horizon. The European Championships are coming up, followed by the World Championships and Ward has set his sights on winning gold in both. The Moate boxer, who was disappointed with his performance in the Olympics in Rio in 2016 is determined to put things right, get back to serious training, and build back the respect of the Irish Boxing team across the world. Like many of his amateur boxing colleagues though, Ward could be persuaded to turn professional, but not just yet, he feels he is not yet ready and the timing isn’t right.
WARD ALWAYS
IN CONTROL
Speaking to Topic after his solid victory over Anthony Browne last Friday night Ward said, “It was good to get the win, I was always in control, I was never in any danger. I won the fight nice and easy. Tony had his moments in the fight but they were few and far between. He is a young lad and he has lots of ambitions and he wanted to do himself proud and he did that, but the result was never in doubt. I had the big advantage on physicality and strength in there. I’m not 100% but I’m about 70%. I knew I was good enough to win it and I could always up my game if I had to.”
Ward sustained a cut above his left eye during the fight, following a suspected clash of heads, but that didn’t bother the Moate man who looked forward by saying, “Next up for me is the European Championships and hopefully I can claim another European title and a bit of history and after that it is the World Championships. I have a World Junior gold and World Youth gold and a World Senior bronze medal but I don’t have that World Senior gold medal so I will be after that.
I will be stepping up my training and their will be a few training camps and a few multi nations competitions so I will be pushing on. That is just my third fight in 18 months so it was nice to go in there win and hopefully I build on it.”
HOPING TO PUT
IRELAND BACK ON TOP
While a number of Irish boxers have turned professional lately, Ward is not considering that lifestyle just at the moment.
Ward said, “I have always thought of turning professional but I feel that now is not the time to go professional. I feel like it is time to stay around and lead the Irish Boxing team back to where it was at the very top. We had a very poor Olympic Games but I have been in successful Irish teams and unsuccessful Irish teams, so now it would be nice to go and lead these new lads back to success,” said Ward.
DISAPPOINTMENT
FOR KELLY
Meanwhile, there was heartbreak for Ballynacargy’s Wayne Kelly. The former European Junior Bronze medalist felt he wasn’t in the best of shape entering his 64kg final against the experienced Sean McComb due to a recent injury.
Kelly just couldn’t land enough clinical punches to put his opponent under pressure and admitted so after the fight saying, “I just didn’t perform. To be honest my preparation wasn’t what I wanted it to be. I didn’t have enough fights under my belt. My second fight last week was just my second fight since September. I had surgery on my knee in December, and that had me out for over four weeks, so I really only had four full weeks to train. I did put it in then but it just wasn’t enough. You could see he (McComb) fights regularly and he was a lot sharper than me. I caught him with some good shots early on but I just wasn’t following them up. He boxed well in fairness to him,” said Kelly.
The Ballynacargy boxer thanked his great travelling support on the night before saying, “I’m only 20 so he was a lot more experienced than me and I just wasn’t on my game tonight. I will be back with the High Performance Team again for the rest of the year and get some top coaching there with the likes of Eddie Bolger, so I’m looking forward to that. I will have plenty of fights coming up, hopefully with the Irish international team and hopefully I will stay injury free.
OKUNGBOWA ANNOYED AT DECISION
However, Athlone boxer Kenneth Okungbowa was bitterly disappointed to have lost his 91kg final to the very experienced Darren O’Neill. In a very close, tight fight, that could have gone either way, a clearly frustrated and annoyed Okungbowa said, “You watched the fight, it speaks for itself. I don’t know. I get in the ring and fight but they can’t deliver a fair verdict so what can I say to anyone who had a bad decision in the ring tonight. What is going on with Irish Boxing? Why should anyone have the motivation to get into the ring and be told – hey you did well, you did well in the ring, but you didn’t win. My corner knows they are telling me the truth 24/7 whether it hurts or not. They are telling me listen, you won that fight but to get told otherwise by a couple of judges, with their ulterior motive…it is a load of…a load of…Who ha!
My corner don’t cod me, they won’t lie to me and they told me I won that fight. My corner told me I had won and I had nicked that fight and others have told me that too, but the judges they see it differently,” said a clearly frustrated Okungbowa.
However, it was Joe Ward who was the happiest Westmeath man on Friday night leaving the National Stadium with another title and plenty of European and World Championships to look forward to in 2017.
