IRELAND ARE STILL to get off the mark at the AIBA World Elite Men’s Boxing Championships after Antrim’s JP Hale was eliminated by Serbian Semiz Alicic in Belgrade this evening.
The 20-year-old Irish Elite champion at 60kg, who fights out of North Belfast’s Star ABC, is one of a number of fresh faces who comprise this Irish team which has entered the competition shorn of its Tokyo Olympians as well as several other Irish champions.
Hale started brightly and his unanimous-decision defeat doesn’t necessarily give a fair account of his contest with home southpaw Alicic, but there could be no complaints about the winner at the final bell.
Eugene McKeever (67kg), Sean Mari (51kg) and Brandon McCarthy (63kg) have already exited the competition, while Adam Hession faces a tall order in a bid to get this young Irish team off the mark when he faces Russia’s Eduard Savvin tomorrow at 57kg.
Ricky Nesbitt (48kg) fights Nodrjon Mirakhmador of Uzbekistan the following day while, also on Friday, Keyln Cassidy squares off with Mexico’s Arriaga Olvera (80kg).
