Irish amature boxer of 2008

joepenguin

1. Katie Taylor - won gold at the EU Championships in Liverpool. Retained her Witch Cup Title in August and followed up with her win at the World Championships in China. Won boxer of tournament; she is the pound for pound best female boxer of the world and she also scored a couple of goals for the Irish women’s soccer team.

2. Debbie Rogers- club mate of Katie Taylor had her most successful year to date winning bronze medal at the EU Championship.

3. Ken Egan- Gold medallist at the EU Championships before winning a silver medal at the Olympics. Many pundits believe Egan was robbed of a gold medal due to hometown advantage. Recently decided to stay as an amateur and will lead the Irish boxing team as captain at the London 2012 Olympics. Irish Senior National Champion.

4. Paddy Barnes – Former Commonwealth Champion. Irish Senior National Champion. Silver medal at the eu championships. bronze medal at the olympics (was first to qualify)

5. Darren Sutherland – Another who won gold at the EU Championships, this former Brendan Ingle prodigy won bronze at the Olympics after losing to his long time rival James Degale, recently made a successful start to his professional boxing career. National Senior Champion.

6. Jamie Kavanagh – This young member of Crumlin Boxing Club won silver at the World Youth Championships in November, runner up in the Irish Senior Championships. He is Irish National Champion at youth level.

7. Ray Moylett- Became the first Irish gold medallist at the World Youth Championships with an unbelievable performance. Bronze medallist at the Junior Olympics. Irish Youth National Champion.

8. Con Sheehan – Silver medallist at EU championships. Irish Senior National Champion.

9. John Joe Nevin- EU gold medallist. Last 16 at the Olympics. Irish Senior National Champion.

10. John Joe Joyce- Last 16 at the Beijing Olympics. Lost on a call-back. Irish Senior National Champion.

11. David Oliver Joyce- EU gold medallist. Irish Senior National Champion.

12. David Joe Joyce – Bronze medal at the World Youth Championships. Irish Youth National Champion

13. Thomas Mccarthy - Bronze medallist at the World Youth Championships. Irish National Youth Champion

walshb

This one is too easy. It just has to be Taylor. Simply dominant for the past three years. Not just 2008.

Egan was great; but still he has been beaten several times and is not the number 1 in the world.

Katie is the number 1 P4P fighter in womens boxing.

My vote is for her!

BTW, I have watched the Egan bout several times and do not believe a robbery
occurred. It was close; but this talk of a robbery doesn't hold water.
The Chinese fighter was very good and did land a lot on Kenny. Kenny did
very well; but the fact that the Chinese man was 'bigger' and let Kenny
lead, was why Kenny was umcomfortable. Close fight, but no robbery

I bought Kenny's DVD and in it the talk of robbery is brought up several
times and all I have been hearing since the loss is 'robbery.' IMO, it's
crazy, and even when Kenny sat down to watch the fight
with Billy Walsh, he was really believing he won; but the clips they
were showing were clearly showing the China man scoring as well, and even
more so than Egan! I thought they could have at least edited out the China scores
to make the claim of a robbery a little more believable

joepenguin

So many accomplised boxers here, what a year its been for Irish boxing. Every one on this poll deserves the highest accolades for doing the country proud.


Please leave your vote even if you only heard of one or two of the boxers :cool:


Thanks to hangaballouie for coming up with the list

sston

joepenguin wrote: »

So many accomplised boxers here, what a year its been for Irish boxing. Every one on this poll deserves the highest accolades for doing the country proud.

Here here. I went for Taylor, her achievements are incredible. I don't want to downgrade Egan's achievement but for me he got the draw he would have picked for himself and then lost the final on a close and possibly debatable decision but it was certainly no robbery.

Sutherland's performance over Blanco to win Bronze was sensational but his display against Degale left a sour taste in the mouth.

Barnes was great and there was no shame in being beaten by Zhou and I think both Joyce and Nevin deserve great credit as well particularly Joyce who beat Kate and only just lost out to Felix Diaz who won the Gold. Had that result gone the other way then who knows how far he could have gone.

Moylett's achievement was very impressive as well although I'm told that his win in the final wasn't a popular one with most feeling he had been beaten and the Welsh guy he beat earlier in the tournament complained of being robbed as well. Clearly he has a lot of potential but I don't think he's ready for the seniors just yet. It will be interesting to see if he does enter them this year.

Hangballlouie

I am sure that 99.9% of the votes will go to Katie, and rightly so. But I have to say that 2008 was the greatest year for amateur boxing that this country has ever seen. I amprobably stating the obvious. But all the boxers mentioned in the list and some others deserve massive credit.

As for the Kenny Egan robbery thing, I put that in due to the fact that many pundits do believe he was robbed. I personally believe he did enough to win but it was by 1 point, ad it could have been a draw.

Aswell as Katie (hopefully) and the 2008 Olympic team (bar Sutherland) going to London in 2012, there is also a few in that poll that have a great chance of making it, like Kavanagh, Moylett etc.

Jesus, we could have maybe 8-10 going to London, men and women, if managed properly.

Let us hope that politics doesn't get in the way for future success.

walshb

I like Kenny, great lad and great captain; but I have to be honest, I am getting a little tired of hearing the whole 'I was robbed' and 'I am the best'
malarky. He did great and lost a close fight that he could have won; and maybe had the OLD card system been in place, he would have won.

He is not the worlds number 1 and maybe not number 2 either. There are a few LH fighters out there that I wouldn't fancy Kenn to beat. I would place Kenny top 5 in the world.

The Chinese lad beat him fair and square and it's only when one watches the bout impartially that it does become clearer. When I first saw the fight I was so wanting a Kenny win, that all I was watching was Kenny's scores and misses.

The only robbery of the games that I saw was poor Barnes not registering a single score in his semi final. A disgrace!

As for the best boxer on this list, as in the fighter I think has the most fluid style and finesse etc, that is David Oliver Joyce at 57 kgs. Lovely lovely stylist and mix of boxer-slugger-puncher.He has all the shots and moves!

walshb

sston wrote: »

Sutherland's performance over Blanco to win Bronze was sensational but his display against Degale left a sour taste in the mouth.

Of all the wins in Beijing, Darren's to me was the most impressive. It was a real class
performance over a man who had beat Darren at the worlds in 2007. Blanco to me would have beaten DeGale, and Darren's semi fight was a real let down. He had no fight or spirit and I think he was simply happy to settle for the Bronze. His final was against Blanco!:rolleyes:

richie rich08

Sutherland

joepenguin

*bump* get your votes in

Hangballlouie

joepenguin wrote: »

*bump* get your votes in

+1

There doesn't seem to be as much interest as there should be. Maybe the pro game is all the majority of people on here care about.

joepenguin

2008 Irish amature of the year:

European and World champ Katie Taylor