The Athy fighter will finally get to live out his Olympic dream and you can see what that means to him.
David Oliver Joyce became the sixth Irish boxer to qualify for this summer's Olympic Games with a superb triumph in a box-off against Turkey's Volkan Gokcek at the European Championships.
Joyce, who failed in his efforts to fight in the 2008 and 2012 Games, was up against it, facing the younger fighter in front of his home crowd, but came out the aggressor and won an action-packed first round on two of the three judges' cards.
But the Turk battled back in round two, keeping out of range of Joyce's combinations and picking off some clean shots of his own to earn a clean sweep from the judges and take control of the fight.
Both boxers were showing the scars of earlier contests and Joyce ended the fight with a cut over his right eye reopened, but he was again the busier of the two in the final stanza and was rewarded on all three cards, thus taking the fight via a split decision.
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Joyce joins Michael Conlan, Paddy Barnes, Joe Ward, Steven Donnelly and Brendan Irvine on Ireland's Olympic boxing team, while the likes of Michael O'Reilly, Darren O'Neill and Katie Taylor still have the chance to qualify for Rio at next month's world championships in Kazakhstan.
Last week it was announced that Katie Taylor would be spearheading the first Croke Park boxing card since 1972, with the Olympic gold medallist set to face Flora Pili on September 5th. The news was confirmed during a Matchroom press conference in Croker last Friday, following longstanding negotiations between organisers and the GAA. One of […]
Kind words The day we thought would never come finally arrived, with Katie Taylor’s Croke Park homecoming bout confirmed for September 5th. French fighter Flora Pili will be her opponent on the day, which is set to be one of Ireland’s greatest ever sporting occasions. In response to the news, social media star/boxer, Jake Paul […]
This will be huge! Katie Taylor will fight Flora Pili at Croke Park on the 5th of September in one of the biggest events in Irish sporting history. The bout will mark the final fight of Taylor’s illustrious career and also the first boxing match in Croke Park since Muhammad Ali fought Alvin “Blue” Lewis […]