Ireland’s John Joe Nevin won a bronze medal in the World Boxing Championships, after suffering a semi-final count-back defeat to England’s Luke Campbell.
Nevin and Campbell were tied at 12-12 after three rounds in Baku, Azerbaijan.
The Irishman started the fight strongly bu Campbell was content to sit behind his long right jab, picking off Nevin on the break with some smart counter-punching that helped him take the opening round 4-3.
Nevin’s body shots were catching his opponent and helped him to level things up at 9-9 after he took the second round 5-6. The third and final round was as tight as the rest of the fight had been.
Nevin showed more caution that he had previously displayed and unfortunately lost on countback.
The team have 3 boxers qualified for next years London 2012 Games and Head coaches Billy Walsh and Zaur Antia can be proud of the overall team performance.
Non qualifiers have a further opportunity to qualify in Turkey next April.
