Brendan Irvine to fight for gold after winning light-flyweight semi-final

After becoming the first Irish boxer to secure a medal of any colour, Brendan Irvine will now fight for the first Irish gold medal of these European Games in Baku.

The 19 year-old from Belfast turned on the style once again in his light flyweight semi-final bout against the Ukrainian Dmytro Zamatayev. Indeed he needed too: Zamatayev took the first round, throwing everything at Irvine early on.

That forced Irvine to raise his tempo, and he did exactly – nailing the next two rounds with a devastating display of energy and punches that earned him a unanimous decision. The 20 year-old Ukrainian had no answer to Irvive’s ferocity, so that sets up a first gold medal bout for the Irish boxers in Baku.

Irvine was clearly elated with the win, dancing around the ring, and with that growing in confidence with every bout.

So, not long then until he could write the second little piece of history with the chance to become the first Irish gold medal winner at these Games.

Irvine is back in the ring tomorrow evening, when he will face the Russian Bator Sagaluez, who scored a unanimous win over Muhammed Unlu from Turkey. The gold medal bout is scheduled for 2.30 Irish time.