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Joe Ward: I cut corners in the past but I’m leaving no stone unturned for Rio 2016

Joe Ward is back, and better than ever. The light heavyweight phenom was scintillating in winning his second European Championships in Samokov, Bulgaria. This gold medal comes in the wake of an unsuccessful tilt at Olympic qualification via AIBA Pro Boxing where he was shocking knocked out in the fourth round of his crucial penultimate bout with France’s Mathieu Bauderlique.

Ward, who is Ireland’s first ever double European gold medalist, gave a candid interview with Midland 103FM and spoke at length about his stint in the APB, his past training patterns, and his Olympic hopes.

Despite being unsuccessful in terms of Olympic qualification, Ward still feels he benefited from his spell in the eight-rounds format. He continued, “I enjoyed it, it didn’t go the way I wanted it to go but I got something from it in the end.”

“I got a lot of conditioning from it, I got a lot of experience being in there for that amount of rounds. It was great.”

“It got my conditioning up and got me relaxed, you learn a bit more stuff when you’re in the ring for so long against one opponent.”

In a refreshingly honest interview, Ward admitted that his conditioning has previously been “one of my weaknesses in most of my career.”

“Not that I didn’t put the effort in, I just always took the shortcuts in certain things.”

Ward continued – “I achieved so much at a young age that I sort of got in a comfort zone and I really didn’t get out of that comfort zone until I got one or two defeats and then you sit back and realise where it all went wrong, why I amn’t 100% going in there.”

Ward mused that this could be why he was stopped against Bauderlique, noting that “maybe I wasn’t training at the intensity I should have been and I got found out in the APB.”

This shocking knockout loss which ended Ward’s chances of qualification for the Olympics via APB, and has led to the Moate man to re-evaluate. The light heavyweight explained that “I looked at my future and said what do I need to put into this to get to an Olympic Games and win a medal.”

“I needed to train at a higher level than what I was training at.”

“What I’m going to do is I’m going to put 100% effort in, put no pressure on myself, keep going in and enjoying what I’m doing, and preparing as good as I can.”

The Westmeath man is now training harder than ever and is fully focused on making an impact in Rio next year as “the Olympics are the only medal I haven’t got at any age group – I’ve medaled at all age groups and all major championships – but the Olympics is always the cream, everybody dreams about the Olympics.”

“It’s the only thing missing off the CV and it would be very disappointing if I didn’t get to the Olympics.”

“It would be sad to say that I didn’t box in the Olympic Games because of the potential I have and the results I have over many of the boxers who have been Olympic medalists.

Ward is confident in his ability to win big in Brazil, arguing that “I know I have the potential to go all the way, it’s just getting right at the right time and doing the right things and getting over that line in qualification.”

First however, Ward needs to qualify and he will need to reach the final in October’s World Championships, and the 21 year admits that qualification is “probably the hardest it’s ever been. Qualifying for the Olympics is probably harder than getting a medal in the Olympics.”

Ward won bronze in the last edition of the championships, however he was not 100% as “I had dislocated my knee in the Europeans and I was only back six or seven weeks before the Worlds but I went along and I didn’t really perform that great but I got the medal.”

This time round Ward is confident, stating that “I know I can go one better and get to the final and maybe even be World Champion.”

“The potential is there, most of the guys in there I know I can beat them on a good day any day of the week.”

Joe O'Neill

Reporting on Irish boxing the past five years. Work has appeared on irish-boxing.com, Boxing News, the42.ie, and local and national media. Provide live ringside updates, occasional interviews, and special features on the future of Irish boxing. email: joneill6@tcd.ie

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