Conlan becomes first Irish boxer to make World Championship final

Michael Conlan has progressed to the World Championships final in Doha after defeating Belarusian Dzmitry Asanau.

O’Reilly has secured a bronze medal at the least, but he must reach the final or else win a third-place box-off to qualify for the Rio Olympics – although convoluted AIBA rules mean another path may possibly open up depending on other results.

“I’m really looking forward to the final now”, said Conlan.

“I knew what had to do – play a game of cat and mouse and make him feint, make him throw first and that’s what he kept doing – I clipped him every time with the left hook when he came in”.

Conlan has already qualified for the Olympics in Rio next summer but you get the sense that, with his aging maturity, his success at the Commonwealths and now a semi final at the World Championships to prepare for, he is gearing up for Brazil perfectly.

The 21-year-old Irishman, who previously picked up bronze at the 2013 Worlds, will face Elshod Rasulov of Uzbekistan in the last four tomorrow – another former foe who Ward has defeated in the past.

Joe Ward is one win away from booking his Olympic spot.

And he revealed himself that the fight was on his mother’s birthday.

The 23-year-old Belfast native claimed a 30-27, 29-28, 29-28 win after controlling the fight, although two judges surprisingly scored the second round for Asanau, the World No 17.

“We just had the right tactics today and it was an easy enough fight”.

“It was a good fight today, quite handy and I thought it was going to be a lot tougher”, said Conlan.

There was disappointment for light-flyweight Irvine, however, as he lost a 3-0 unanimous decision to Cuban Joahnys Argilagos.