Donnelly remains on course for Olympic dream

Steven Donnelly remains in upbeat mood after moving a step closer to achieving his Olympic Games ambitions last week.
Steven Donnelly in action during his most recent World Series Boxing victory, over Puerto Rico's Nicklaus Flaz.Steven Donnelly in action during his most recent World Series Boxing victory, over Puerto Rico's Nicklaus Flaz.
Steven Donnelly in action during his most recent World Series Boxing victory, over Puerto Rico's Nicklaus Flaz.

The Ballymena boxer notched his third victory from three outings in the World Series Boxing to keep his dreams of qualifying for next year’s Games in Rio very much alive.

Fighting for his Polish Hussars team, the Dunfane man beat Puerto Rico’s Nicklaus Flaz on a unanimous decision to improve his position in the welterweight rankings.

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The top two ranked welterweights at the end of the WSB regular season in April will qualify automatically for Rio 2016.

“I should be up around the top of the rankings now and that’s with one fight less than the others because of the visa mix-up last month which stopped me from going to Azerbaijan.“I’ll keep doing what I’m doing and in a month or so, I could have my ticket for Rio in the bag.

“It wasn’t my best performance at the weekend but I slugged it out against a tough, strong opponent to get the decision.

“I got caught with a good one in the first round but I did what people who aim to be champions do and got the win.

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“It was tough, but a very good win. His opponent was very unorthodox, but Steven slugged it out well to get another fine win,” said Eddie Bolger, part of Donnelly’s coaching team.

Donnelly has three more fights in the WSB this season, the next against Argentina followed by meetings with Italia Thunder and Venezuela.

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