Irish light-heavyweight (81kg) Joseph Ward proved the most popular winner on the second night of semi-final action at the AIBA World Boxing Championships in Doha on Monday with a convincing victory over Uzbekistan’s Elshod Rasulov.
The 21-year-old is the second Irishman to reach a final this week after Michael Conlan got through to the bantamweight (56kg) final.
Roared on by a noisy contingent of Irish fans, Ward dominated the three-round bout against the veteran Rasulov, who is eight years his senior and took silver at the 2009 championships.
Rasulov was cut above his left eye halfway through the first round, which required treatment from a ringside doctor, and was never in the fight after that.
Ward, a southpaw, picked off Rasulov in the second round before just about doing enough in the last round to take a unanimous points decision.
He has also guaranteed himself a spot at the Rio Olympics, as both finalists in the light-heavyweight division are awarded places at the Summer Games.
“It is a massive win after the ups and downs I had in my career, missing out on London,” Ward said.
He thanked the Irish fans and added that going to the Olympics is “a dream.”
The final is to see Ward once again face Cuban Julio la Cruz, who outpointed Russia’s Pavel Silyagin. Ward and the Cuban fought in the semi-final of the 2011 championships, when La Cruz won before going on to claim the world title.
La Cruz, 26, won a unanimous decision in a one-sided fight against Silyagin.
The fight of the night was probably the welterweight (69kg) clash between China’s Wei Liu and Morocco’s Mohammed Rabii.
The pair slugged it out for three rounds before Rabii survived a late onslaught to secure a points victory, much to the delight of the Moroccan fans in the Ali bin Hamad al-Attiyah Arena in the Qatari capital, Doha.
There were also flyweight (52kg) victories for Cuba’s Yosbany Veitia and Azerbaijan’s impressive Elvin Mamishzada. The pair are to meet in the final.
Mamishzada destroyed his opponent, Mohamed Flissi, sending the Algerian crashing to the canvas twice in the first round, winning by a knockout.
Another Cuban, Lazaro Alvarez, won in the lightweight division (60kg), meaning the Caribbean boxing powerhouse nation has six fighters in the finals, which are to take place today and tomorrow.
Super heavyweight (91+kg) Joseph Joyce was outpointed by France’s Tony Yoka to bring the curtain down on Britain’s efforts at the championships.
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