Just over a year ago, Jack Marley was one win away from an Olympic medal. He had beaten Poland’s Mateusz Bereznicki in the round of 16 and faced Tajikistan’s Davlat Boltaev in the final eight.
Aged 21, Marley was the first Irish heavyweight to compete in the Olympic Games since Cathal O’Grady in Atlanta 1996.
Young and callow for the division, he lost the bout 4-1. But the experience fuelled him. In Liverpool next week, he has another opportunity for big-stage action when the World Boxing Championships begin.
“It was tough leaving in the medal fight, just being so close to the podium,” says Marley, a brand ambassador for Chadwicks. “But yeah, it was fuel to the fire and it was also just a realisation of where and what I can achieve.
“The immediate reaction was of disappointment. But then, once you sit back and take it all in as a Games as a whole and an Olympic cycle as a whole, I was happy on the outcome of the four years.”
There are a couple of firsts in Liverpool. It is the first time both men’s and women’s events are being staged together.
It is also the first outing for World Boxing, who broke away from the International Boxing Association after years of acrimony.
This year, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) also recognised World Boxing for the first time. In March, it unanimously voted to have the sport back on the roster for the 2028 Games in Los Angeles.
Boxing is back in the bosom of the five rings and for Marley in the heavyweight division, that means change.
“Yeah, there’s a new weight class now,” he says. “So, it’s 90kg instead of 92kg. So, it’s only 2kg [less than before]. But I’ve felt like I’ve suited this weight and I’m looking forward to pushing on.
“I’m also feeling good. We are just back yesterday off a 10-day camp in Sheffield with GB and 10-plus different countries. So, I think I’ve had the best preparation I could and all I have to do now is perform.”
Marley was educated in Cabinteely Community School in south Dublin and boxes in Monkstown Boxing Club. He flirted in his early years with football in a club near to where he lived in Sallynoggin.
It was while playing for St Joseph’s AFC, aka Joeys, that he ended up in Monkstown as an eight-year-old. Boxing grabbed him and it didn’t let go. By the age of 11, he had won his first national title in the National Stadium.
In 2021, the former head of Irish Boxing’s high-performance unit, Bernard Dunne, invited him to join the Irish squad in full-time training. Marley is the first boxer from Monkstown BC to qualify for an Olympics.
Now 22, he is looking forward to what has the feel of an almost home World Championships in the Liverpool Arena, beginning next week.
“The two main positives are the same climate and the same time difference, which is a blessing,” says Marley. “We don’t have to really acclimatise in either time or weather, which is great. It’s just like boxing in Ireland.”
Small improvements are also his goal.
“It’s about getting one per cent better every day,” he says. “I feel like I’m just trying to add one per cent. Not making huge changes; just improving on what I’m good at already.”
The Irish team flies out from Dublin on Monday, September 1st, with the competition draw taking place on Tuesday and the preliminary rounds beginning on Thursday.
