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Battling Bill makes last eight
08.09.09
McLaughlin comes back
from 5-1 down to reach world quarter-final
by Simon McGeady, Inishowen
Independent
WILLIAM McLaughlin is into the last eight of the
AIBA World Championships after a stunning, come from
behind, 7-5 win over Georgian Kakhaber Jvania in
Milan yesterday afternoon.
Trailing 5-1 in the second round after getting
knocked to the canvas by his experienced opponent,
the Illies Golden Gloves welterweight managed to
compose himself and pulled level at 5-5 at late in
that round when Jvania was given a two point penalty
after receiving a public warning for pushing.
In a nervy final round the Irish Senior Champion
landed the only two clean shots to seal a remarkable
reversal.
If William wins his quarter-final bout on Wednesday
he will be guaranteed a bronze medal. That contest
will be against either Imre Balazs Bacskai of
Hungary or the Russian Andrey Zamkovoy.
Speaking after the fight William revealed that his
corner told him he was a couple of points down going
into final round, even though actually he was level. |
“I tried to keep a
tight guard. It was all about concentration, I
couldn’t afford to lose it for a second,” he said.
Reacting to the result, Illies Golden Gloves coach
Eamon Duffy, who is with the Irish squad in Milan,
said after disposing of the Georgian there was no
reason now why William couldn’t go on to win a
medal.
“William is into the last eight in the world at 69kg
level. That is some achievement for a boxer from a
small club in the country.
“Jvania was a tough opponent. |
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He has stopped Roy
Sheehan in is time, so we knew it would be a hard
fight, but William is a very relaxed guy and I knew
that even when though he was 5-1 down he would keep
his composure,” Duffy remarked.
Last night’s bout against Jvania, ranked 27th in the
world, was by far the stiffest test for William at
these championships so far.
The 23 year old stopped Burundi’s Ndayishmiye Come
in his opening contest on Thursday. McLaughlin was
6-0 up when the ref halted the contest in the first
round after Ndyishmiye took his second standing
count.
On Sunday William produced a controlled display of
boxing to beat Vedic Velibor of Bosnia & Herzegovina
14-3.
Vedic had narrowly defeated the Inishowen fighter in
a qualifier for the Beijing Olympics last year and
the result in Milan illustrates just how far
McLaughlin has come in a relatively short space of
time. |
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