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Jack Marley’s Bizare and Extremely Unfortunate Defeat Sums up Unfortunate Day for Ireland in European Championships

An unfortunate day for Irish boxers ended in the most unfortunate of defeats for medal hope Jack Marley.

The heavyweight saw his senior International debut stopped on a cut just 10 seconds into the second round of his last 16 clash.

The Monkstown fighter had won the first round against solid Greek operator Vagkan Nanitzanian by a score of 3-2 and looked in progression pole.

However, Nanitzanian came out firing in the second, obviously looking to turn things around, and it lead to a clash of heads that opened a cut over the Irish fighter’s eye.

The fight was immediately stopped and went to the cards. Considering he was 3-2 after the first round it looked as if Marley may be confirmed the winner, although there would have been serious doubts as to whether he would have been able to fight again.

However, the first 10 seconds of the second were also scored and taken into account. Again considering the reigning European U22 champion was most likely unlikely to be allowed fight in the next round it was assumed all five judges would score in the Greek’s favour.

That wasn’t the case, the final scorecards read 20-18, 18-20, 19-19, 19-19, 19-19 making it a draw. The judges who scored it a draw then revised their decision upon request and leant toward the Greek giving him the win.

Things were not as complicated when it came to the exits of Luke Maguire and Eugene McKeever.

Esker’s Maguire fought well against Georgia’s Eskerkhan Madiev, pushing the #3 all the way but ultimately failed to have his hand raised for the second time in the tournament, suffering a 3-2 split decision reverse after a keenly contested contest.

Eugene McKeever also exited at the gloves of a seeded fighter, losing to # 2 seed, Serbia’s Vakhid Abbasov earlier in the day.

Team Ireland:

48kg Ricky Nesbitt, Holy Family, Drogheda

51kg Sean Mari, Monkstown BC, Dublin

54kg Dylan Eagleson, St. Paul’s, Belfast

57kg Adam Hession, Monivea BC, Galway

60kg JP Hale, Star ABC, Belfast.

63.5kg Brandon McCarthy, St. Michael’s, Athy.

67kg Eugene McKeever, Holy Family, Drogheda

71kg Luke Maguire, Esker BC, Dublin

75kg Gabriel Dossen, Olympic, Galway.

92kg Jack Marley, Monkstown BC, Dublin

Coaches:
Zauri Antia

Dmitri Dmitruk

Damian Kennedy

Jonny Stapleton

Irish-boxing.com contributor for 15 years and editor for the past decade. Have been covering boxing for over 16 years and writing about sports for a living for over 20 years. Former Assistant Sports editor for the Gazette News Paper Group and former Tallaght Voice Sports Editor. Have had work published in publications around the world when working as a freelance journalist. Also co-founder of Junior Sports Media and Leinster Rugby PRO of the Year winner. email: editoririshboxing@gmail.com

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