‘It Was Worth the Black Eye’ – Patsy Joyce Reacts to World Championship Medal Win
Patsy Joyce returned home from his first senior Elite tournament with a mixture of pride and bruises, but the 19-year-old insists every moment was worth it.
The 19-year-old had a breakout week in Liverpool as he made his way to the World Championship podium.
The Westmeath teen’s bronze is Ireland’s first male medal at the level since Joe Ward’s Hamburg success in 2017.
The medal was well won but hard earned – and the marked up stylist says it was worth the effort as well as lumps and bruises.
“It was worth the black eye,” Joyce said upon arriving home.
Although he didn’t reach the top of the podium, Joyce’s performance made it clear that he belongs at the senior level and he will now be deemed a genuine Olympic hope.
“It was my first senior major tournament. It was good. I showed them who the boss was,” he said. “I didn’t get the gold but I tried.”
The path to the podium wasn’t easy for Joyce. The Olympic Mulingar’s medal certainly hasn’t roots in a good draw.
His opening win came against Jaeyong Shin of Korea, the second over Cuban-born Bulgarian Olympian and World and European medalist, Javier Ibanez Diaz, and the third over Uzbekistan’s Mirazizbek Mirzakhalilov – an Asian champion and World Boxing Cup medalist. The latter two of more than a decade his senior. The teen lost his semi-final, against Rafael Serrano Lozano, a Paris Olympian, in a hair’s breadth-close bout.
