Yasmin Meredith Wins Battle with Confidence to Win Another Irish title

The ‘one round-at-a-time’ sound byte is often one that prompts boxing journalists to roll their eyes.

It’s the type of cliche usually reserved for football managers and the kind of boring interview not associated with the sweet science.

However, when Yasmin Meredith told Irish-boxing.com she will approach the World Youth Championships by only focusing on the three minutes that immediately lay in front of her, she wasn’t deflecting or working hard to ensure she didn’t say anything controversial.

The Dublin prospect was speaking honestly and managed to create a very interesting narrative from the often frowned upon approach.

After winning her seventh Irish title at the recent National Youth Championships, Meredith reflected on an ‘absolute mess’ of a European Youth Championships in April.

A very honest Corinthians BC fighter admitted falling at the first hurdle affected her confidence to such a degree she doesn’t believe she would have retained her Irish title if she hadn’t got two good wins at a multi nations tournament.

The 18-year-old European Schools gold medal winner says it’s imperative that she doesn’t suffer a similar blow when she travels to Spain to represent Ireland in the Worlds – and to ensure that doesn’t happen the articulate and studious prospect knows she has to take things one round at a time.

“The Europeans was an absolute mess but you have to suck it up,” she tells Irish-boxing.com.

“I can’t put the blame on anyone else, everyone else did as much as for me they could. I think I put a lot of pressure on myself. I think I had very high expectations. I should have gone in there and enjoyed myself and just perform to my best and the result would be what the result was.

“I put a lot of pressure on myself and I was very very tired. I should have been able to pick that girl off she was much smaller than me. It was a tough thing to take but I did get over it and I went to the Golden Girls and picked up two very good wins. That was nerve-wracking to do but I got the win and I think it boosted me up.

“I wouldn’t have got in there if I hadn’t had those fights. I wouldn’t have had the confidence to get in and do three three-minute rounds if I hadn’t had those wins.”

Commenting on what she has to do to avoid a similar scenario when she returns to International action she adds: “Go out with a clear mind, forget about the medals they come as the fights go on. They are just a bonus, they really are.

“I’m not thinking about medals, I’m not thinking about who my next fight is, I’m not thinking about the quarters, the semi the finals. I am thinking about the one round I have first and then I’ll think about the second and third round because of what happened at the Europeans I think a big hit like that would be much worse.”

Meredith was speaking after defeating Robyn Kelly of Ballynacargy on a 3-2 split on Sunday – and the exciting final was another learning experience.

Going back to the cliche theme the Inner City Dub is learning winning a title is hard but maintaining championship status is all the more difficult.

Meredith noted improvements in a familiar foe who she says came prepared to fight.

“I’m not happy with the 3-2 split decision but you take what you are given and you work on what’s wrong,” she said.

“Robyn was a very tough opponent, she’s definitely built up to 60kgs. I boxed her in the quarter-finals at the last Under-18’s and it was a 4-1, so she is building each time. She is definitely doing her research. It was a very good fight and a very tough fight. She was hitting strong for 60, hopefully, I was giving it back to her.

“Compared to the last fight she was much fitter. She was definitely more on the front foot and putting more pressure on me. I feel like this time around she did catch me a lot more and had me a lot more on my toes compared to the last fight. She definitely knew that if she put me on the back foot and put me under pressure she could catch me out. I had to think a lot more and try and get her on the back foot as much as I could.”