Arresting Nolan on his way to London

BOXING:THE NOISE and clamour as Adam Nolan burst through the doors leading from the main boxing arena in Trabzon seemed bigger and better even than after Paddy Barnes' win earlier in the week. Flag around his neck. Six feet of smiling welterweight.

The happiest garda in Ireland.

“His motivation before this fight was ‘I win here I don’t have to work for four or five months’,” shouted Billy Walsh over the cameras.

“You lads then came back and said ‘Well, you don’t work anyway. When you’re in there your just drinking tea’,” quipped Nolan back to his coach.

Bray Garda station may have to wait for Ireland’s freshly minted Olympic qualifier. “I’ll celebrate with my family and friends and team for a couple of days. Next week I’ll get down to the boxing and see what’s going to happen.”

For both Walsh and Nolan the 19-10 win over Ionut Gheorghe to give Ireland the fifth qualified boxer for London 2012 was a pause in a long journey between the two. It will continue in July when the Olympics begin.

When Walsh boxed, one of his biggest supporters was Nolan’s father, John. He has known the Nolan family in Wexford for most of his life and the willowy 69 kg Adam since he was nine years old.

“As a kid, he won his first Irish title at 11 and went away from the sport at 16 to concentrate on his career and become a garda,” said Walsh. “Then he came back to it.

“It’s a phenomenal story. His family, the Devereux and the Nolans, are really staunch people, GAA people actually. We played Dancing at the Crossroads (a Wexford GAA song) for him before the fight. He’s a big GAA man.”

Few had their eyes on Nolan coming into Trabzon. He injured his hand last year and that held him back. But the fierce competition between the Irish welterweights in Ireland ensured he came to take the step up able and equipped.

Standing at over six feet and being left-handed makes him one of the most difficult to fight against and once again Nolan had his right jab pecking away at the Romanian’s face.

Although the opening was about cautious sizing-up, Nolan soon got his left hand flicking out and scoring. His style of keeping distance and rarely slowing appeared to frustrate the big- swinging Gheorghe and although Nolan had to take one or two heavy hits, he didn’t buckle, or panic.

“He was swinging hard,” said Nolan. “He was hitting hard. He caught me with a body shot that took the wind out of me a bit. But he didn’t follow up, maybe because I didn’t show that I was a little bit hurt. But he hit me with a good body shot in the first round and he didn’t put pressure on . . . unbelievable.”

The second round is where the Irishman won the fight. Taking a 7-5 lead from the first round, his left became more busy as the Romanian pushed to score. There was always danger from Gheorghe’s arcing fists but Nolan swirled around, darting in to score and pulling out of the danger zone as soon as he could.

His southpaw and his taller frame was a constant irritant for Gheorghe, who had to find the entire nine minutes with Nolan’s right hand in his face.

Nolan emerged 15-8 ahead and surging down the home straight. Naturally he boxed conservatively in the third and covered up as Gheorghe’s twin hammers gradually ran down on energy.

“I beat a quality opponent,” added Nolan. “He’s boxed in two Olympics but I knew if I could box the way I can I’d have a good chance. Everything went to plan. I can’t believes it.

“Billy told me the scores after the first round. I thought it was close but I was two up and delighted with that. I knew I had a great second round. Couldn’t believe I was seven up. I knew he was going to come strong so I knew I had to stop him in his tracks and I got a couple of scores early on in the third round, I knew, then covered up. Unbelievable, I just can’t believe it.”

It leaves the Irish team strong with five boxers now through to London and Katie Taylor yet to make her tilt at another World Championships in China in May. More importantly, all of the team will travel in the belief they can win a medal, with Belfast’s Barnes looking for his second after bronze in Beijing.

“Yeah, we have five,” said Walsh. “We came here with expectations that Paddy (Barnes) would qualify, that Joe (Ward) would qualify, David Oliver (Joyce), with a little bit of luck, could do the business, Adam if he could cope with the occasion.

“We knew he was good enough to do it and, by God, did he cope with the occasion!”