ONE of the most respected figures in Ulster boxing, Eugene Duffy, has thrown his hat into the ring for the role of vice-president at the upcoming Irish Athletic Boxing Association (IABA) AGM.
Elections will take place at the National Stadium on Sunday, November 24, with key positions on the association’s central council up for grabs.
Involved in boxing for over 60 years, Duffy is the longest serving official in Ulster, and was previously a central council member in the mid-1990s.
During a stellar career as a referee and judge, he represented Ireland on more than 60 occasions at international and multi-nation events including major European championships, Commonwealth Games, the World Golden Gloves tournament in Minnesota in 2007 and the 2003 World Elite Championships in Thailand.
The Derry man – whose son Kevin is the current Ulster Council president - has also been a referee/judge at Olympic qualifiers in Europe, America and Trinidad and Tobago, and was appointed referee/judge with the Irish team on three separate tours of the USA and Canada before retiring as an AIBA world official in 2008.
Back in 2018 he was given a lifetime achievement award at the IABA awards in Dublin, and remains an active part of the sport – serving as president of St Joseph’s Boxing Club in his home city, chairman of the County Derry boxing board, an Ulster Council member and registrar of the Ulster referee and judges’ committee.
And Duffy has called upon clubs in the north to back his bid to give Ulster “a voice”.
“It’s important that Ulster has that representation on the officer board.
“We only had one representative on the current central council, Peter O’Donnell, who’s not running this time. There are others running and hopefully Ulster will have a voice.
“I believe I could help steady the ship on the officer board, to try and pull things together, because the last number of years it has really been a pantomime, and very difficult to get answers a lot of the time. It’s very frustrating.
“We have a problem in Antrim and Ulster when it comes to people coming out to vote – there was only 15 clubs from Ulster at the recent EGM to vote on whether or not to remove references to the IBA from the IABA constitution.
“The Ulster Council, and the County Antrim Board, feel it is time for a member to get onto the officer board.”
Duffy’s nomination has been endorsed by Ulster Boxing Council too, who heaped praise on “a real advocate for grassroots boxing”.
“Anyone who knows anything about boxing in Ireland will know the time, effort and dedication this man has given not only to Ulster Boxing but Irish and world boxing.
“From his early years an Ulster youth champion before an eye injury forced him to quit, then moving on to a local, national and international world-rated and respected R&J… there’s not much about boxing in Ireland that this man doesn’t know.
“A real advocate for grassroots boxing, boxers and upskilling officials all over the country, Eugene would be not only a great vote for vice-president but a great addition in a time when Irish boxing needs change, structure, stability and boosting.
“We’re asking all our clubs in Ulster firstly to complete your nomination forms and include Eugene for vice-president, and secondly to use your vote and get him across the line and into a crucial role for Irish boxing.”
In a recent interview with The Irish News, Niall O’Carroll – chair of the IABA’s board of directors – discussed his hope to improve the running of the association, at all levels, in the years ahead.
“One of the things I want is to achieve is far greater transparency; start releasing the minutes from board meetings to the membership and stuff like that.
“Even creating understanding – there’s confusion between central council, the officer board and the board of directors as to who’s responsible for what, and it ends up being a thing where nobody takes responsibility for anything and everybody blames everybody else.
“We’ve done a review of the board of directors, and of central council, both of those reports are with me now so we’ve got some work to do to implement those.
“We’ll be doing a review of the staff of the organisation and understanding how we structure that going forward - there’s loads of stuff to be done.”
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BELFAST’S Jamie Graham gave himself the best birthday present possible when he secured a quarter-final place at the World Youth Championships in Montenegro.
The Clonard bantamweight - who turned 18 on Sunday - picked up his second win on the trot with a unanimous decision victory over Korea’s Hyok Ri on Monday, following on from Saturday’s defeat of Mexican Hector Mendoza Carbajal.
Graham moves into the last eight, where he faces talented Uzbek Samandar Olimov for a spot in the medal stages on Wednesday.
Earlier on Monday, welterweight Kyla Doyle also moved through to the quarter-finals in impressive style after forcing a first round stoppage of Mexico’s Valencia Hernandez. Doyle is also eyeing a podium place when she takes on Uzbekistan’s Rayhona Kurbonboeva.
However, it wasn’t to be for light-welter Ryan Jenkins as he bowed out in Budva on Sunday, receiving a count en route to a 4-1 defeat at the hands of Israel’s Abdullah Rafal.
Siofra Lawless is in quarter-final action against Odinakhon Ismoilova on Tuesday, while exciting super-heavyweight prospect Adam Olaniyan faces Hungarian Brendon Nemeth on Wednesday.
