JOHN JOE NEVIN has backed four of his former Irish team-mates to return home with Olympic medals next month - and has given words of encouragement to those preparing for their first Games.
Nevin, a silver medalist in London four years ago, expects Katie Taylor, Joe Ward and Belfast boys Michael Conlan and Paddy Barnes to be standing on the podium by the end of the Olympics. He will be keeping a particularly close eye on Conlan as he aims to go one better than Nevin by winning bantamweight gold, with the Mullingar man - who has a 7-0 professional record since turning over in 2013 - wary of placing too much pressure on the Clonard star’s shoulders.
“Mick’s tremendous,” he said.
“They don’t hand out gold medals at the World Championships for nothing. He’s a tremendous boxer, I loved sparring him, I’m sure he loved sparring me. I think he’ll do very well again in the Olympics, I think he’ll medal. He’s good enough to win the gold medal, but there’s a lot of pressure on his shoulders as well. But it’s not a guaranteed gold, there’s no such thing.”
Yet, Nevin says he knew as soon as Conlan first came on the scene that the High Performance coaches had something special on their hands: “Zaur Antia and Billy Walsh used to love watching us spar," he added.
“It was all about timing and reflexes and, when he came on the senior team at 18-years-of-age, he was mature beyond his age. There was something special.”
Like Conlan, Barnes is also one of the main Irish medal hopes - with bookies making him the 2/1 favourite to win gold. Nevin travelled to two Olympic Games - 2008 and '12 - with the Holy Family fighter and admits he would love to see him better the two bronze medals he already has in the bag.
But as the Irish boxing team jets off for Rio on Tuesday, the Mullingar man says he won’t miss “angry Paddy” as the Belfast man gets down to the 49kg light-flyweight limit in the weeks ahead: “Paddy’s a little punchaholic, as I call him. I don’t know what kind of engine he has there, but it’s definitely tuned up anyway.
“Paddy’s great but, aw man, I used to hate being on the team when Paddy was making weight - angry Paddy. He would always say to us at the start of a camp ‘now, I might be a little bit angry through this camp but, just remember, I love you all’. After he said those words, that was the end of Paddy - you wouldn’t get another word out of him,” laughed Nevin.
Outside of the experienced trio of Barnes, Conlan and Taylor, the remaining five members of the team will be competing at their first Olympics. Light-heavyweight Ward is an 8/1 second favourite behind the man who beat him in last October’s World Championship final, Cuban Julio Cesar la Cruz.
Belfast flyweight Brendan Irvine, Ballymena welter Steven Donnelly, lightweight David Oliver Joyce and world number three-ranked middleweight Michael O’Reilly will hope to make a mark on the big stage and Nevin has offered some words of wisdom.
He was just 19 when he went to the Beijing Olympics in 2008 and found it an, at times, overwhelming experience. Nevin won his first fight before bowing out to eventual gold medal winner Enkhbatyn Badar-Uugan from Mongolia and he has advised the younger members of the Irish team to make the most of it.
He said: “Beijing was a great experience for me, even though I came away empty-handed. But once you get a taste of it, you want a medal. I had a load of experience going into London and that helped me.
“Everyone’s different. Going there the first time, I just went there to enjoy it. The coaches kept telling me I was four years ahead of my time, so it was just about enjoying myself. Between Beijing and London, I medalled twice at the World Championship, went to the Europeans twice, so all the experience was there leading into London.”
And as is the case with Conlan and Barnes now, the pressure was all on Nevin heading into the 2012 Games: “Everyone was expecting me to win a medal," he said.
“If they let you go out and perform, if you’re good enough, you’re good enough. But if you start putting pressure on people, you don’t get the performance you want and you start chasing things that aren’t there. I’ve never enjoyed boxing as much in my life as I enjoyed boxing in London. I’d a smile on my face every time I went into the ring.”
EVEN though it is now nine months since Billy Walsh left the Irish set-up, John Joe Nevin believes the loss of the former head coach will have a detrimental effect on Irish boxing in future years.
A contract dispute saw Walsh leave under a cloud last October to try and reawaken the sleeping giant of American boxing and, in just a matter of weeks, it is quite possible he will find himself in the opposite corner to some of the men and women he trained for years.
Nevin was very close to former High Performance chief Walsh throughout his amateur days and says his exit will be keenly felt in Rio and beyond: “It’s a shame Billy Walsh isn’t there because he makes the team. He was more or less a father figure to everybody on the team - it’s a big loss," he said.
“I’ve seen boxers say they would win medals with or without Billy. Maybe so, but that’s because he has developed them and taught them everything they know. The reason Ireland is winning these medals is because of the system he and Gary Keegan set up. He’s one of the best coaches in the world.”
Although he is committed to making his professional career work despite a frustrating couple of years, Nevin admits he was tempted throw his name in the hat for a place at next month’s Olympic Games once pro boxers were permitted to qualify.
That would most likely have been at 60kg, the place currently occupied by David Oliver Joyce, meaning Nevin would have faced a possible box-off with Joyce, had he been nominated by the Irish Athletic Boxing Association to travel to the professional qualifier in Venezuela earlier this month.
It never materialised, but the Mullingar man admits there is part of him that wishes he was part of the team heading to Rio: “Yeah, definitely, it crossed my mind once or twice,” he said.
“Davy’s a top class boxer, he’s been there and done it all, but I’m sure if John Joe Nevin was there, my name would be on the list for Rio at 60. I’d love to be going. You miss the banter, it’s great to be a part of the team.
“I’m a little bit disappointed where I am in my professional career, but it’s all getting up and running now and, hopefully by next year, I’ll be in a great position to fight for a world title.”
