Nevin faces Russian in bid for final glory

BOXING AIBA WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: CAVAN BANTAMWEIGHT John Joe Nevin hopes to step into history this afternoon when he faces Russia's Eduard Abzalmov in a silver medal bout at the Milan World Boxing Championships.

The 20-year-old has already secured a bronze medal and another win would put him out on his own as the only Irish fighter to have made it to a senior World Championship final.

Five Irish boxers, Tommy Corr (Munich), Michael Carruth (Moscow), Damaen Kelly (Tampere), Stephen Kirk (Budapest) and James Moore (Belfast) have won bronze medals since the Championships began in 1974 but no one had gotten past that stage.

Nevin, who reached the last 16 in Beijing and is a European Union silver medallist and twice Irish Senior Champion, faces a fighter who is ranked at 61 in the world to his 11.

But that ranking is viewed as highly misleading and no one in the Irish camp is using it to measure the talented Russian, who is the former European junior champion and World Junior Championship silver medallist. The ranking is low because he has not competed in that many of the senior ranking events in the past two years, including the Beijing Olympic Games. A Russian team-mate who competed in the 54kg class in Beijing has now moved up a weight division, clearing the way for Abzalmov, who won his junior titles nine years ago.

So he has been around for a long time, ostensibly as the number two ranked Russian fighter in the bantamweight division.

The Russian team has been by far the most successful nation at the championships and have eight fighters remaining in the draw, which compares favourably with the once mighty Cubans, who have just four boxers still competing.

Nevin is expecting a more lively challenge from Abzalmov than he got from China’s Gu Yu in the previous round. There is little doubt the talented Irish man will face an opponent who will come forward much more aggressively and will want to seek out more action.

The Cavan fighter, who is rarely short on confidence, has traditionally stood off and waited for openings, relying on his lightening reflexes to land blows and then move away.

“Everybody in the last four at a World Championships is top quality,” said coach Billy Walsh.

“We’ve taken the opportunity of this rest day to study videos of his previous fights.

“We will go into the fight tomorrow with a plan. If John Joe can perform to the level he showed in the quarter-finals he is capable of victory.”

Nevin’s bout is scheduled to take place in the afternoon session, which begins at 2.30pm Irish time.