Boxing in the Spotlight over Bout for Bronze at World Junior Championships

An embargo is only that until the first time it is broken. After that it becomes an aspiration.

Irish Boxing has been in the spotlight again this week with the involvement of Conor McGregor in Saturday’s Katie Taylor fight only days after being wrapped up in controversy about social media and the Dublin riots.

That is the professional game but now the amateur side of the sport is in the spotlight over the case of 15 year old John Donoghue fighting a Russian opponent for a bronze medal at the IBA Junior World Championship in Yerevan, Armenia.

Few Irish sports have had to face the quandary of competing in a tournament against Russians or Belarusian athletes because most sports have maintained the ban on their participation.

The Irish Government was a strong supporter of EU sanctions calling for a ban on their sports participation as part of overall sanctions relating to the invasion of Ukraine.

Boxing is still controlled by the IBA with a stronger Russian influence than any other mainstream sport and on four occasions since the sanction was applied, Irish boxers have withdrawn from competition if drawn against athletes from the two countries. That includes at the current championships where Tegan Farrelly withdrew having being drawn against a Russian opponent in the first round.

Yesterday though, after an exchange between the Oireachtas Committee dealing with Sport and Minister of State Thomas Byrne over the autonomy to make decisions, IABA President Gerry O’Mahony took to the slightly less than calm airwaves of the Joe Duffy Show to call on the Minister to confirm that there would be no sanction on the sport if Donoghue was to fight today.

It is unclear whether that commitment was given or indeed could be given by the Minister of State as to do so would lead to awkward questions at European level, but the IABA President seems clear that he is giving permission.

Of course it is hard to place a 15 year old in such a position within sight of a World Championship medal but that was what four boxers have faced already, coming down on the side of what most would believe is a necessary additional pressure on Russia to end their invasion. How they will feel now is anybody’s guess and whether this was a unanimous decision by the ‘boxing family’ is another question, the answer to which will only emerge in the aftermath of another week that leaves boxing in a difficult position.