Steven Donnelly’s post-fight interview has filled us with Olympic medal hope

He came into Rio the long way round but Steven Donnelly is right on track for an Olympic medal.

The Ballymena boxer won a split decision over Tuvshinbat Byamba, this afternoon, and is now one win away from a medal. https://twitter.com/SportsJOEdotie/status/763779677290913793 Up next for Donnelly is a last eight bout with the toughest man in the draw - Morocco's world champion Mohammed Rabii - but he is just getting started. In his post-fight interview with RTE, Donnelly spoke about his opening two triumphs in Rio and looked ahead to the biggest fight of his life, so far.

"It was a really tough fight but I knew he would be. We checked his style before this and he comes forward quite a good bit. He's a heavy hitter. I knew it would be messy but I stuck to the plan, what these lads [coaches] said... there were times that I got dragged into a bit of a fight but you have to do that sometimes." "I'm flying now. I'm starting to feel really good."

Donnelly believes 'anything is possible' now that a medal is within sight. He declared:

"The dream is still alive. When I was in Russia and 48 kilos - the same weight as Paddy Barnes - [Paddy] says to me, 'One day you'll be Olympic champion'. "Here I am now at 69 kilos and I'm in the Olympic quarter final... [Rabii] is a classy operator but I believe in myself and I'm going to give it everything. "We're not called the fighting Irish for no reason."

We're happy to get on board this optimism train.