Speaking from ringside at the Mediolanum Forum, IABA President Dominic O’Rourke described Nevin’s performance as world class.
He said: ‘John Joe gave it everything he had. I thought he would take the lead in the final round when he leveled it twice,
but unfortunately it wasn’t to be.
‘It was a world class performance from John Joe Nevin and he can be very proud of the way he represented his country
at these championships against some of the best boxers in the world.’
Nevin, who will be taking home a bronze medal from Milan, was the last Irish boxer left at the 2009 AIBA World Senior Championships, the 15th edition of the series since 1974.
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Cavan bantamweight John Joe Nevin came from behind to guarantee Ireland a medal at theWorld Championships in Milan after he out-thought and out-fought China’s Yu Gu.
The 2008 Irish Olympian won today’s extremely tactical 54Kg quarter-final 7-5 and will be taking home at least bronze from Italy.
Gu was 1-0 ahead at the end of the first round at the Mediolanum Forum but dropped two points after receiving a public warning for not boxing in the second.
Nevin took maximum advantage of that penalty to forge 4-2 ahead, two wonderful rights on the retreat doing the business.
The 20-year-old added another two points to his total in the opening two minutes of the third but Gu remained in pursuit, reducing the deficit to a single point as the clock ticked down.
However, Nevin sealed the win with a short-range left in the final 20 seconds.
He will now meet Russia’s Eduard Abzalimov in Fridays 54Kg semi-final.
Meanwhile, Willie McLaughlin has bowed out at the quarter-final stage, losing 16-7 to his Russian counterpart.
