“Every day I have trained hard” – John Maughan ends long wait for first Irish title

Dubliner John Maughan won his first Irish title at the weekend, taking welterweight honours at the National Under-22 Championships in odd circumstances

The 18 year old saw his fight with recent Senior (Intermediate) 64kg champion Eugene McKeever stopped midway through the second round due to a nasty cut sustained by McKeever over his left eye.

In what had been a cagey fight, Maughan of St Mary’s BC was declared the winner on the completed cards – with the scores being level initially and the judges unanimously picking the Dubliner as victor to break the tie.*

Maughan spoke to Irish-Boxing.com afterwards, and noted that an Irish title was a long time coming. “I’m at it the last ten years,” he said. “Every day I have trained hard, and I would always get to finals and get bad decisions. I finally got the win there and I’m happy enough.”

Describing the fight, Maughan gave credit to his Holy Family Drogheda opponent and said “the first round, I was expecting a tough round. He came out in the first throwing a few shots and caught me with one or two, good ones. In the second round, we traded it up and I hit him with a one-two and I got the better punch.”

Explaining the stoppage, Maughan recalled how “it was a left hand. If it was a clash of heads I would say it, you would feel it.

“If it went the full way I still would’ve won, I was coming into myself and opening up. He was a good young fella and it’s unlucky for him what happened to his eye.”

With his first all-Ireland in the bag, Maughan is already hungry to add to it, and may even be in action again this coming weekend. The cheerful Tallaght puncher said that “I’m going to keep training. I’ll be in the Senior Championships, I’ll give it try sure!”

*There was some confusion surrounding the result, but the IABA would confirm that if a fight is ended by EITHER an accidental clash of heads or a punch, the scorecards at the time will decide the result. This is in contrast to the pros, where when a fight is stopped due to cut caused by a punch, the result is ruled a technical knockout regardless of the scorecards.

Photo Credit: Ricardo Guglielminotti – The Fighting Irish (@ThefIrish)

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