Boxing begins at 8pm at the National Stadium. The bout will be decided over three, three-minute rounds.
Keenan is the current Irish Elite super-heavyweight champion. Gardiner, who missed this year’s Championships because of injury, claimed two Elite belts in 2015 as the IABA ran the tournament twice that year to facilitate Ireland’s boxers going into the qualifiers for Rio 2016.
Ireland will send a nine-strong squad to the 42nd European Championships.
European Elite Men’s Championships Kharkiv, Ukraine June 14th/25th
Irish squad
52kg – Flyweight – Brendan Irvine (St Pauls)
56kg – Bantamweight – Kurt Walker (Canal)
60kg – Lightweight – Patrick Mongan (Olympic)
64kg – Light-welter – Sean McComb (Holy Trinity)
69kg – Welterweight – Steven Donnelly (All Saints)
75kg – Middleweight – Emmett Brennan (Glasnevin)
81kg – Light-heavy – Joe Ward (Moate)
91kg – Heavyweight – Darren O’Neill (Paulstown)
91+kg – Super-heavy – Dean Gardiner (Clonmel) or Martin Keenan (Rathkeale)
High-Performance Director: Bernard Dunne
Team manager: Gerry O’Mahony
Head Coach: Zaur Antia
Coaches: Dmitry Dimitruc, Jimmy Payne, Eoin Pluck
Physio: Seamus Caffrey
Doctor: Jim Clover
Strength & Conditioning: John Cleary
Performance Analysis: Alan Swanton