Billy Walsh at the head of Ireland’s boxing family

Everyone knows Billy Walsh treats the Irish boxers like they're family. Whether they're actually family or not. So he's crushed when they lose and elated when they win, whether that's his nephew Dean Walsh or not.

So went the day Ireland won a second bronze medal at these European Games, at the very least, this one thanks to Sean McComb and his lightweight quarter-final win over Turkey's Yasin Yilmaz.

That could have set the mood for the two Irish boxers that followed, only it didn’t: Dean Walsh lost his light welterweight with Kastriot Sopa from Germany and Adam Nolan lost at welterweight to Britain’s Josh Kelly.

At 28, Nolan hadn’t come to Baku for the experience. He’d come to win a medal, and to lose out, on a split decision, hit where it hurts.

“You’d much rather get beaten hands down then get beaten for a medal, on a split decision,” said Nolan. “It’s sickening. But you’re at the mercy of the judges. I won the last round, but I left a little bit in there, which is always disappointing.

“The door isn’t shut on Rio yet, but I really wanted a major medal to my name. But that’s history now, when you lose a fight like that.”

This mood was in complete contrast to McComb earlier in the day, after the Belfast boxer secured a unanimous victory, oozing confidence in the ring and winning all three rounds. McComb (22) now faces the No 1-ranked Azerbaijani Albert Selimov in the semi-final, set for Friday afternoon.

“It doesn’t matter if he’s seven foot tall, for all I care,” said McComb, looking supremely fit. “And that confidence comes from how much training we do, how much sparring we do, how much dedication we put into it.

"We're one of the best teams here, no doubt about it. For a small island, we're doing some fighting."

Which, of course, is where Billy Walsh comes in. If anything, his enthusiasm for his job as head coach grows with every tournament, and with two bronze medals already in the bag (at least), Baku is proving more than a worthy stop on the road to Rio.

For Walsh, though, that journey began not long after winning four medals at the London Olympics.

Top eight

“We came here with a younger team, and maybe our expectations weren’t as high as before. But, my God, they’ve all performed, taking nine fighters to the top eight,” said Walsh, after watching nephew Dean lose his quarter-final bout to Sopa, the judges awarding the German a unanimous decision.

“Like for Dean, he is pretty new,” Walsh said. “It’s his 21st birthday in two days’ time, so it’s a good learning curve. He didn’t have much competition this year, because of his injury, but that’s no excuse. Especially after having such a good win over the Russian, who would have been one of the favourites. It feels like a lost medal, in some ways.

“But the experience they are getting here will be invaluable in trying to qualify for Rio. And, absolutely, I think these European Games will grow; once more media, and TV get a hold of it, it will be massive. It’s a great opportunity for the younger fighter to come to a competition.

“Often when they go to the Olympics, their jaw hits the ground and they forget the reason why they’re there. Games like this also gives them the hunger.”

Walsh makes no secret of his ambition to qualify an Irish boxers in all 10 weight divisions in Rio (not forgetting Katie Taylor, either): after that, the ambition is to better the four medals won in London. And this, by the way, off a high-performance system that only began in 2003.

Setting records

“Every tournament we go on,” Walsh said, “they want to be better than the team that went before. They strive to be better. They’re creating records every year, with a greater turnover of boxers, too.

“And every day I’m in there, I want to be successful. I don’t want these guys to miss the opportunities that maybe some of us did, down through the years. To get this opportunity to help these guys win will always be enjoyable to me.

"Before we started this programme in 2000, we had one boxer at the Olympics; in 2004, we had one boxer, and that was Andy Lee. And we were just 10 months into the job. Irish boxing was practically extinct at the Olympic Games. And then we win seven medals, in the next two games.

“In the history of the state we’ve only won 28 medals, so a quarter of those have come in the last two Olympics. So there is a lot of remarkable work being done.

“No one sees the effort these guys put in,” he added. “These guys train twice a day, every day. And there’s no money. It’s all about the glory of representing the country. These guys get very little sponsorship. And there is so much dedication in this game. Everything goes on hold. Education, girlfriends, wives, children, job.

“And when you come out the end of it what have you got? A crooked nose, maybe.”