ASIDE FROM FROM the boxers preparing their game faces for the Olympic Games and the IABA, almost everyone seemed to agree that Billy Walsh’s trans-Atlantic move last year was bad news for Ireland and great news for the USA.
Tonight, at least the second part of that theory is ringing true as the Walsh-trained light flyweight Nico Hernandez secured his country’s first boxing medal of the Games.
Hernandez defeated Ecuador’s Carlos Quipo Plataxi by unanimous decision in this evening’s sub 49kg quarter-final to advance to a semi-final and guaranteed medal against Uzbekistan’s Hasanboy Dusmatov.
In the other semi-final will be world champion Joahnys Argilagos of Cuba against Colombian Yuberjen Martinez Rivas – who reached the final four by seeing off the man who ended Paddy Barnes’ Games, Spaniard Samuel Carmona Heredia, on a split decision.
