JOHN JOE NEVIN has been beaten in his AIBA World Championships semi-final in Baku by Luke Campbell, the Briton winning the match on a countback.

Nevin was aiming to become the first ever Irish fighter to compete in a World Championships final, but missed out by the skin of his teeth.

It was a cagey encounter with both fighters level going into the final round at 9-9. Campbell had taken the first round 4-3 with some smart counter-punching, but Nevin rallied in the second and took that round 6-5.

In the third, Nevin appeared to land some excellent body shots on Campbell but the Briton managed to steal a few points on the Nevin attack.

The match finished at 12-12 but Campbell was adjudged the winner on a countback.

RTE pundit Mick Dowling was surprised by the result.

“I thought John Joe had the better, cleaner headshots but it was a very close encounter,” he said.

Bernard Dunne, however, was keen to give credit to the winner: “We don’t there to be any sour grapes, Campbell had the better tactics and deserved to go through,” he insisted.

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