Jason Quigley became the first Irish male boxer to make it to a World Final when he beat Russia's Artem Chebotarev on a unanimous decision in the World Championship semifinal in Almaty.
Quigley, who fought from a distance before venturing into more aggressive exchanges in the final round as his opponent tired, will meet Kazakhstan's Zhanibek Alimkhanuly in tomorrow's final.
The Donegal 22-year-old had already joined an elite group of five Irish names who had all won bronze at World Championship level, John Joe Nevin a double winner in 2009 and 2011 the most recent.
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Quigley now moves into new territory on his own, a silver medal gauranteed. “We sat down last night and decided what I would do. Pick him off,” said Quigley.
“I knew he was going to come at me. I knew I had the speed and the skill to beat him. But in the last round they told me to go forward, to go at him, which I did and I got him some lovely heavy shots. His nose wouldn’t stop bleeding.”
The referee stopped the fight no less than three times to clean the blood from the Russian’s face in the third round but by that time Quigley was two rounds ahead despite taking a standing count in the second round.
His tactics worked perfectly moving around the ring and keeping Chebotarev at arms length, picking his shots and beating him to the punch in the short exchanges.
He won the first round on a split decision but came out and scored heavily in round two, staggering his opponent with a left after a couple of scoring right hands.
“I hurt him in that fight I think and I didn’t panic. I think that’s experience,” said Quigley. “That’s learning through the years. If you hurt a man that’s when he is at his most dangerous.
“I just kept my composure. I kept on him. But I kept on him smart and picked him off with better shots.”