IRELAND VERSUS USA

Grainne Walsh, pictured, has admitted that winning the Jimmy Magee Memorial Cup Best Female Boxer Award at last month’s Liffey Crane Irish Elite Senior Championships is the icing on the cake of her year so far.

The Spartacus BC welter is now targeting  the USA and the European Elite Women’s Championships in Poland.

Walsh, meantime, has been named on an 18-strong squad to meet the USA in the USA this month in three internationals.

Both nations meet in Boston next Monday, Springfield on March 15 and Manchester, New Hampshire on March 21.

Boston’s stop, which is presented by Budweiser, will feature three World Championship medalists, including  2017 Elite World Championship bronze medalist Troy Isley (Alexandra, Va.), who just earned a silver at the 2018 Strandja Tournament in Sofia, Bulgaria last month, as well as 2016 Youth World Champions Delante Johnson (Cleveland, Ohio) and 2016 Youth World Championship bronze medalist Richard Torrez (Tulare, Calif.). Johnson and Torrez both represented Team USA with Isley in Bulgaria, where Johnson earned a bronze medal.

Click here for American teams.

Walsh claimed her first Elite belt in 2017 and followed that up with a bronze medal win at the European Union Elite Championships in Italy last August, the Offaly-native losing out on a 3-2 split decision to Germany’s eventual champion Nadine Apetz in the last-four in Cascia.

She successfully defended her Elite belt after beating former World Junior champion and Olympic Youth finalist Ciara Ginty last month and also scooped the inaugural Jimmy Magee Best Female Boxer Award on a good night for welters at the home of Irish boxing as Kieran Molloy received the corresponding male award in the 69kg class.

“Winning the award in memory of Jimmy Magee was really the icing on the cake. Obviously, to get the win was the priority but to get the award was unbelievable, said Walsh.

“The first priority was to win the Seniors to guarantee my spot on the European team, that’s one thing ticked off the list. After America, it will be a little break and then all my focus will be on the Europeans.

“I’ll be hoping for three fights in American, I can’t wait to get out there and settle in. I’ll have three more fights over there after having two in the Seniors, that’s good experience. I have the Europeans coming up, so I need as many fights as I can get.”

The USA team are currently in training camp in Colorado.

Team Ireland leave for America this morning. Tipperary super-heavy Dean Gardiner will captain the Irish side in the USA.