Updated at 23.20
THERE WAS DISAPPOINTMENT in Rio for Ireland’s David Oliver Joyce tonight as he bowed out of the Olympics.
The clear favourite ahead of the bout, Azerbaijan’s Albert Selimov progressed after beating Joyce by a unanimous decision.
The Mullingar native was behind 10-9 after the first round, and he struggled to improve thereafter, ultimately losing 29-28 on all three of the judges’ score cards, despite being level 19-19 according to one official after round two.
It’s been a bad few days for Irish boxing, after Paddy Barnes was surprisingly beaten yesterday.
Meanwhile, speaking to RTÉ after the fight, Joyce said he gave his all, while paying tribute to his opponent.
Every fight I’m in I give it everything I have. If that’s good enough to bring me through, I’m delighted with it. Tonight, I gave it everything I could, but unfortunately I came out the wrong side. We thought I’d done enough to nick it.
“But I will not take it away from him. He’s a great guy and he’ll go on and get an Olympic gold medal.”
Joyce was reluctant to reveal the next step in his career following tonight’s loss, while he rejected any suggestions that the Michael O’Reilly debacle had any impact on the other Irish boxers’ preparations.
“What happened happened. We didn’t see (O’Reilly)… Our team has kept together even with all this going on. We’re a great team, we’re all buzzing at the minute, and we didn’t pay any attention to that.”
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