Darren O’Neill (blue) v France

The Hussars of Poland meet the Caciques of Venezuela in Warsaw on Friday night in the World Series of Boxing (WSB), but no Irish boxers will be in action.

Rio 2016 Olympians Paddy Barnes and Steven Donnelly are signed for the Hussars and Darren O’Neill for the Caciques (a native chief).

WSB boxers making their debut this season need at least two fights, regardless of result, to go through to May’s WSB versus AIBA Pro Boxing (APB) Olympic qualifiers in Sofia, Bulgaria.

O’Neill will make his WSB debut for Venezuela this term.

Dean Gardiner is signed with the Puerto Rico Hurricanes who host the Uzbek Tigers on Saturday. The line ups have yet to be confirmed.

Barnes and Donnelly qualified for Rio 2016 through the WSB last season.

Irish WSB Boxers 2016 season

91kg+ Dean Gardiner (Puerto Rico Hurricanes)
91kg Darren O’Neill (Venezuela Caciques)
75kg Steven Donnelly (Hussars Poland)
49kg Paddy Barnes (Hussars Poland)

Congratulations to the Glen BC in Cork on their 100th anniversary.

Mick O’Brien, President of the Cork County Boxing Board, said that the famed Leeside club will celebrate their 100th anniversary with a number of eagerly anticipated events this year beginning later this month.

“The Glen boxing club, one of the great institutions on the Irish sporting landscape, is about to commence a year of Centenary celebrations,” he said.

Numerous Irish, Munster and Cork champions learned their trade at the Glen BC which founded in February, 1916 in the Blackpool area of Cork city.

See the Thursday, January 28th edition of the Cork Evening Echo for a two-page article and picture special on the Glen BC with details of events to mark the club’s 100th birthday.

See the Cork Evening Echo each Thursday for the Cork boxing page.

Please see below attachment for Rio 2016 qualification guidelines for the remaining qualifiers for the 31st Olympiad.

Rio2016QualificationSystem-Boxing

Ireland will be involved in four AIBA Open Boxing (AOB), World Series of Boxing (WSB) and AIBA Pro Boxing (APB) qualifiers between now and next June, culminating in the final tournament in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Sixty boxers from throughout the world are already over the line for Rio.

Ireland has secured four of the above total, courtesy of Paddy Barnes, Michael Conlan, Steven Donnelly and Joe Ward in the light-fly, bantam, welter and light-heavy weights.

286 boxers compete at each Olympics. Click here for calendar (The AOB European qualifiers in April could be subject to a date and host city change).

Cathal McMonagle, Darren Sutherland, Carl Frampton, Roy Sheahan and Ken Egan show off their medals from the 2007 EU Championships at Dublin’s National Stadium

Former Irish Elite champion Carl Frampton is backing Paddy Barnes to go all the way at the Rio Olympics next August.

The current IBF super-bantamweight title holder, a silver medallist for Ireland at the 2007 IABA hosted EU Championships at the National Stadium in Dublin, told the Belfast Telegraph that he reckons his friend will have a golden opportunity at the 31st Olympiad.

Barnes, a three-time Olympian and the only Irish athlete besides Pat O’Callaghan to claim medals at successive Olympics, qualified for Rio 2016 after winning all seven of his World Series of Boxing fights last season.

Paddy Barnes (blue)

Frampton, a two-time Elite champion, wrote: “For me the (Olympic) light-flyweight gold medal is there to be taken by Paddy — more so than any other boxer on the Irish team going to the Games. I believe he is the one most certain of standing on top of the podium.

“Obviously, as World champion Michael Conlan is favourite for the bantamweight gold and I hope he does it.

“But with Paddy, I’ve looked down the list of contenders and you just say, ‘he’ll beat him, beat him, beat him…. he’s head and shoulders above anyone in the light-flyweights.”

So far, Barnes, Michael Conlan, Steven Donnelly and Joe Ward has qualified for Rio.

The 2016 Gee Bee multi-nations will be held from March 11th to 13th March in Helsinki, Finland.

Irish boxing is looking at the event in the build up toward April’s crucial European Olympic qualifiers in Istanbul, Turkey.

The 35th edition of the tournament will be held in the Urheilutalo Sport Hall.

Irish boxing took home five medals from the 2015 Gee Bee.

London 2012 Olympian Adam Nolan, pictured above with Irish team manager Peter O’Donnell at the 2015 Gee Bee, and Brendan Irvine claimed double gold and Myles Casey and Conor Coyle took home a silver medal each, with Kurt Walker winning bronze.

Nolan also scooped the Best Boxer Award.

Kazakhstan topped the medals table in 2015 after winning three gold medals.

Click here for invitation to 2016 event.