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Conlan camp confident of taking gold medal in Doha

Ireland's Michael Conlan is declared victor over Dzmitry Asanau of Belarus, in the men's Bantamweight 56kg semi-final at the AIBA World Boxing Championships in Doha, Qatar<br />Picture: Sportsfile&nbsp;
Ireland's Michael Conlan is declared victor over Dzmitry Asanau of Belarus, in the men's Bantamweight 56kg semi-final at the AIBA World Boxing Championships in Doha, Qatar
Picture: Sportsfile 
Ireland's Michael Conlan is declared victor over Dzmitry Asanau of Belarus, in the men's Bantamweight 56kg semi-final at the AIBA World Boxing Championships in Doha, Qatar
Picture: Sportsfile 

MURODJON Akhmadaliev will stand between Michael Conlan and Irish boxing history on the Arabian peninsula tonight.

The Belfast bantamweight and Irish captain meets the Uzbek in the 56kg final seeking to become the first Irish male boxer to claim gold at the 18th AIBA World Elite Championships in Doha, Qatar.

Prior to Doha 2015, nine medals – one silver, eight bronze – were won by Ireland since the inaugural World Championships in Havana in 1974. 

Conlan and Joe Ward, who are both guaranteed silver in Doha, and Michael O’Reilly, who will be taking home bronze, improved that haul to 12 this month.

O’Reilly was beaten in the semi-finals, but the Portlaoise BC middleweight faces Egypt’s Hossam Abdin this evening in a box-off for a place at the Rio Olympics.

Conlan has already secured an Olympic berth through the World Series of Boxing, and the current European Elite champion is confident that he will be lining out at the 31st Olympiad as the reigning world champion.

“I haven’t really seen much of my opponent, I know he’s very good, he has to be to get to a world final. It’s going to be tough, but I’ll go in there with the right game plan and come away with the gold medal,” said the Irish skipper.

“The target all along was gold, that’s what I came out here for. It doesn’t get much bigger than this,” added the 23-year-old, who is proud to captain Team Ireland.

“Me being captain was the natural choice for Billy (Irish head coach Billy Walsh). I’m the only one here who’s been to the Olympics and took a medal and after coming out of the Europeans with the Best Boxer (award) and the gold.”

Akhmadaliev successfully defended his Elite belt at the 2014 Uzbek National Championships, two years after moving up to bantam.

The 20-year-old beat Antrim’s Kurt Walker on a split decision in the Strandja Memorial in Sofia in 2015, three years after winning silver at the World Youth Championships in Armenia.

His best performance to date was a silver medal win at the Asian Championships in Thailand last month, where he lost to Kazakhstan’s Kairat Yeraiyev on a split decision.

Yeraiyev, who was beaten by Akhmadaliev in Doha last Friday, controversially beat Conlan in Kazakhstan in the WSB earlier this year after the fight was stopped in the last round after an accidental clash of heads.

The judges outrageously gave it to the injured Kazakh, who spent most of the bout running away from Conlan, on a split after the stoppage.

“The Uzbek is very aggressive, but Michael has enough in his armoury to beat him. The first round will be crucial,” said Conlan’s coach and dad, John Conlan.

The O’Reilly versus Abdin box-off will be the third fight on tonight’s card which begins at 5pm (Irish time) with live coverage available on the BBC red button.

Conlan and Akhmadaliev are the fifth bout on the program, immediately after the light-fly final between Russia’s Vassili Egorov and Cuba’s Joahnys Argilagos, who beat Antrim’s Brendan Irvine in the last-eight in Doha.

Meanwhile, Joe Ward renews acquaintances with Julio La Cruz in the light-heavy final tomorrow. The Cuban, who beat Ward in the 2013 World semi-final, is targeting his third successive title. 

Ward is aiming to become the first international boxer to win AIBA World Junior, Youth and Elite gold medals.