UPPERCUT: John Joe Nevin recovered from this blow to advance to the Olympic quarter-finals (pic:Inpho)
Ireland boxing medal hopeful John Joe Nevin faces Mexican fighter Oscar Valdez Ferrera tonight in the men’s bantamweight quarter-finals. The 23-year old from Westmeath is one win away from guaranteeing a medal but the way he has performed so far he will be aiming for a gold medal. Beijing silver medalist Kenny Egan gave us his thought’s on Nevin’s fight.
He’s flying at the moment. His first fight was a bit of a warm up but against the Kazakh he had the perfect game plan. He’s really looking good. He’s going to have a hard customer this time round in the Mexican. It’ll be a tough fight for him but for me he has to use his legs for nine minutes. John Joe Nevin is going to be worked really hard by this guy Valdez. He’s a war horse who likes to come and trade and fight. I’ve been speaking to Nevin needs o be on his toes for the full nine minutes. Use that ring, move left, move right and stay out of harms way but I really think he can go on and do this.
Should he be favorite?
Yes he should be favorite. He’s twice a medalist at the World championships, 2009 and 2011. so he should be favorite and I’d definitely back him to win this bout.
On the possibility of Nevin facing the Cuban outright favorite Alvarez Estrada in the semi-finals.
John Joe isn’t one for jumping the gun so he’ll want to get this one out of the way first but I’ve seen the Cuban box myself and I believe Nevin has what it takes to beat this guy but he has to get past Valdez first.
