Nevin beaten in last 16 bout
John Joe Nevin bowed out of the Olympic Games today after being outpointed by Mongolian bantamweight Badar - Uugan Enkhbat in a last 16 bout at the Workers Indoor Arena in Beijing today.
Nevin was beaten 9-2 over four rounds by the 2007 World Championships silver medallist and Asian Champion.
Enkhbat was 1-0 ahead at the end of the first and stretched his lead to 4-1 and 7-2 at the end of rounds two and three, forcing Nevin into two standing counts in the third.
Nineteen-year-old Nevin, who boxes out of the Cavan BC, did manage to trouble Enkhbat with solid right shots in the second and third frames.
However, the Mongolian showed his experience to keep increasing his lead en route to having his hand raised in victory by a seven-point margin at the expense of the Mullingar teenager.
High Performance director Garry Keegan said: "We're all very disappointed for John Joe. At the end of the day it came down to experience and Enkhbat is a world class boxer and he has that experience."
Meanwhile, middleweight Darren Sutherland will be in action versus Algerian Nabil Kassel at around 8.45am tomorrow morning (Irish time) and light flyweight Paddy Barnes will be in the ring to meet Jose Luis Meza of Ecuador circa 12 noon (Irish time).
Both Irish boxers received byes into the last 16 and will be making their Olympic debuts tomorrow.
Kassel won gold at the 2005 African Championships and gold at last year's All Africa Games. He qualified for Beijing after finishing in third spot at the 1st African qualifier.
Meza claimed silver at the 2008 Copa Independencia and booked his ticket for the 29th Olympiad after beating Eduard Eduardez of Venezuela 10-7 in the final of the first Americas qualifier in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.
Eduardez hammered Cuban light fly Perez Prevot 29-8 in the semi-finals.
Keegan added: "Darren and Paddy are eager to get started and can't wait to get in the ring. They have prepared very well and are looking forward to what will be their first bouts at these Olympics."
If Sutherland emerges victories then he will face either Alfonso Blanco of Venezuela - who beat the Dubliner in the World Championships in Chicago last October - or Nunez Argenis of the Dominican Republic in the quarter-finals.
Victory for Barnes tomorrow will set up a last-eight clash with either Uutoni Jafet of Namibia or Lukasz Maszczyk of Poland in the last eight.
Boxers reaching the semi-finals are guaranteed at least a bronze medal.
