CLONMEL SUPER-HEAVYWEIGHT Dean Gardiner had only finished dissecting his last-16 defeat at last month’s European Championships when he nonchalantly dropped a bomb which could potentially alter his career.
Eventual European champion Viktor Vykhryst stopped Gardiner in the second round of their contest in Kharkiv, therefore preventing Gardiner from qualifying for next month’s World Championships in Hamburg. It was a bout which had started promisingly for Gardiner, who had boxed beautifully before being clipped by the home fighter.
“It didn’t go my way,” Gardiner told The42. “I was boxing well, I was up on the scorecards, but I got caught with a shot. These things happen in heavyweight boxing. The first rule you learn in boxing is ‘keep your hands up’, and I didn’t do that. I came up with my hands down, I walked into a left hook and I got caught lovely. My boxing out there was on point, what I needed to do was work on my defence.
“But I’m going to the World Championships, and in seven weeks I’ll be ready to bring home a medal, please God.”
It was a declaration which caught this writer off guard, but sure enough, the Tipp man is off to Germany in August due to an injury to Britain’s Fraser Clarke, having finished ninth in the tournament by way of defeat to the eventual winner.
“I qualified in the end because I boxed the champion and someone else got injured, so I was next in line. Here I am. People are only being told today, although I heard last week!” said an excited Gardiner, whose inclusion at the tournament brings the Irish contingent up to five, alongside Kurt Walker, Brendan Irvine, Seán McComb and Joe Ward.
“In seven weeks I’ll be more than ready to go out there and compete with the best. Hopefully I’ll bring home a medal.”
It’s probably given me ego a bit of a lift, I suppose! Ah, it’s great news, I was delighted to get the call but it wasn’t a huge shock, because in boxing you always have to be ready. But do you know what? That was never in my mind. This was the first time ever that I kept myself ready. I wasn’t even thinking about going to the Worlds, I was just keeping myself ready, having a good lifestyle.
“I think you make your own luck, and that’s what happened here.”
Gardiner was speaking at the Sport Ireland Institute, Abbotstown, where Ireland’s High Performance boxers gathered ahead of the World Championships and the women’s EU Boxing Championships in August. The 2016 Irish Senior Elite champion, who only qualified for the Europeans via a box-off with 2017 champ Martin Keenan, lauded the new facilities, but in typically droll fashion maintained it was the standard of training, and not number of rings, which has made him a better fighter in recent months.
“I was in South Circular Road for three years, so it’s good to have a change of scenery. We have a better Strength and Conditioning gym, and a better gym all-round.
“You wouldn’t get stronger particularly because of the gym, but because of the training, you know? You can get strong out in your shed, like.”
