KENNETH EGAN HAS reiterated his desire to continue on boxing, despite a recent loss to Joe Ward, which killed off any hope of him going to next September’s Olympics in London.

In an interview with RTÉ’s The Daily Show, Egan was full of praise for Ward, describing him as “a freak of nature” and saying he “can’t believe he’s only 18″.

“He had a great plan,” said Ward. “He’s very strong and his distance is very good as well. And he reads the sport very well.”

Egan went on to wish his opponent all the best in the Olympics (should he qualify), and said “if anything happens to Joe, I’ll be happy to step in”.

As regards his future in boxing, Egan said: “I’m not going to retire yet,” before adding:

“I’ll be 34 when the next Olympics come around – I’ll still be eligible.”

And despite his hugely disappointing defeat, Egan said that he was “in a good place,” explaining:

“The easy thing would be to go out on the tear [after the fight], but I went home and had a good think.”

And on the matter of his recently published autobiography, Egan said he had no regrets about the degree of his honesty in it:

“I wanted to get it all off my chest. Some people said I was a bit too honest in the book, but it’s my own life.”

Joe Ward retained his national light-heavyweight title on Friday, comforably defeating Egan on points.

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