Sarah Ledden | Staff Writer
While many battled to keep their umbrellas upright and trudged through the wind and rain, storms of a different sort were brewing in Trinity. Dublin University Boxing (DUBC) hosted the Junior Intervaristy championship this year with representatives from DUBC, UCD and NUIG all competing. Since the introduction of women’s boxing into the 2012 Olympics, the sport has received more interest and recognition within the field. These continued developments for equality in sport were historically reported on the night as female bouts were attributed to the final tally toward the Gilmore Cup for the first time.
TCD’s Warren Callinan faced NUIG’s Gerrard Mannan in the opening bout. Callinan’s height advantage allowed him to fight from a distance with long jabs, while waiting like a praying mantus for his opponent to close in before letting go quick bursts of counterpunches. Mannan attempted to seek a weakness in his opponent by ducking below his reaching arms, aiming for Callinan’s body, but Callinan quickly resolved this approach throwing lower hooks. After consultation at the break, Mannan came back stronger in the second round moving in and out with more versatility to avoid Callinan’s consistent counter-attacks. Callinan proved quicker than Mannan on the night catching him with vital punches despite Mannan’s changing approaches leading to an opening win for the TCD boxers.
Aisling Anderson faced NUIG’s Caoimhe Maguire in the opening women’s bout. Anderson was quicker on her toes, dancing around the edge of the ring while Maguire held a centre-ring position pursuing Anderson and retreating back to her stronghold. Both boxers were inseparable in the first round with Anderson landing some clean counter-punches in response to the persistent pressure from Maguire. As the bout progressed, Maguire came out on top forcing Anderson into difficult positions and swiftly dodging her punches while successfully landing her own. Maguire took the bout.
Photos: Callum Brown
Gemma McGee beat her opponent Ciara Tracey of UCD to claim her second win from two this year. In an aggressive bout, both fighters dove into action from the first bell. While Tracey appeared to throw more punches, McGee was evidently the more technical fighter with well-timed jabs often meeting their target. A left hook sent Tracey to the ground in the second round, but she persevered, returning with more ferocity in the third round. McGee remained cool headed to earn the unanimous decision in her favour. Concluding the women’s bouts saw UCD’s Deborah Leahy beat Trinity’s Hattie O’Connell in a well-matched fight. It was as though from start to finish Leahy and O’Connell were engaged in ceaseless jabs and body shots with little distraction. It was hard to distinguish a winner until the third round when fatigue descended on both fighters, but Leahy finding a final push that saw her take the judges’ vote.
In the 60kg category, Callum Brown faced Patrick Columb (UCD). Columb showed both speed and strength with a flow of combos leading to a tough right jab that forced the referee to stop the fight in the second round and earning him ‘Boxer of the Tournament’. NUIG saw two more victories over UCD. As the night and weights progress, it can always be said in a boxing tournament that some of the best will be saved until last and Juniors did not disappoint, with Patrick Nicholson and Stephen Ellis ending the first night with wins for TCD.
The 86kg bout was arguably the most intense clash as two powerful boxers contested relentlessly to the end. Nicholson opened the bout demonstrating his ferocious, forward approach. Although not leaving many contests unscathed the audible power of his right jab slowed and shook his opponent’s advances. As the bout progressed Nicholson gained more flexibility, ducking beneath McGreever’s jabs and escaping tight situations. McGreever was not a beautiful boxer, but was definitely a powerful one. Nicholson’s combinations and flexibility to avoid dangerous situations while succeeding with counter-attacks gave him the upper hand, beating McGreever to advance to face Oliver Hubert in the final. Nicholson came out of the blocks fast in his second bout, ducking beneath the long reach of Hubert to deliver some early punishing blows. Hubert succumbed to Nicholson’s constant pressure, tripping in the first round and forced into a standing count on more than one occasion. Hubert reappeared more composed in the second round landing straight jabs, but Nicholson relentlessly responded with head and body combos. Nicholson’s intensity continued into the third round proving too much for his opponent, winning by TKO.
Photos: Callum Brown
Following the re-injection of blood thirst-evoked from Nicholson’s battles emerged super heavyweight Stephen Ellis. Ellis was the superior to UCD opponent, Francesco Bandiami, from the first bell, showing increased stamina, releasing more shots and greeting every advance with strong counter-punching. Ellis was occasionally caught off guard when leaving his chin up and exposed but these set-backs did not falter his performance beating Bandiami to set up a fixture against NUIG’s Alan Donoghue in the final. Ellis seems to have overcome the burden of the super heavyweight boxer by combining substantially more speed with the associated power of the heavier classes. Ellis slowly began to emerge as the stronger boxer exerting more accurate combinations than his opponent and using clever feints and powerful follow ups to combat the evident fatigue that crept into the closing staged of the bout. He was in control from the start and was justly awarded the win.
Kevin Mahon’s bout against Huseyin Guntas (NUIG) was suspended in the second round after Guntas fired a left hook, knocking Mahon to the ground and leading the referee to stop the bout. Eoin Le Masney defeated NUIG opponent Donal Conroy to win the 71kg title. Early stages of the bout saw calculated exchange of jabs and hooks from the centre of the ring, but as the bout progressed Le Masney landed some beautiful left hooks that Conroy had no answer to. Le Masney became more composed and began dishing out big rights which further damaged Conroy’s enthusiasm. In the final round, both fighters still engaging in ferocious encounters in centre of ring, but with Le Masney beginning to dominate with powerful shots bombarding Conroy, his big hits proved too much for Conroy.
One of the most fascinating elements of the Juniors tournament is the accumulation of individual victories and defeats to transform an individual competition into a team sport as Trinity was awarded the title of Junior Intervarsity champions. As a showcase of the fresh talent arriving into DUBC, Juniors demonstrated the potential of the club with an increased number of competing boxers compared to last year and the successful defence of the Gilmore Cup shows that the club continues to go from strength to strength.
