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McComb hangs up his cape to focus on Worlds

Holy Trinity's Seán McComb (left)  
Holy Trinity's Seán McComb (left)   Holy Trinity's Seán McComb (left)  

FROM champion of the people to champion of the world – that’s the journey Seán McComb hopes to complete in the next fortnight.

Earlier this month, the 23-year-old was hailed as Belfast’s Batman after a superhero showing on the city’s streets saw him feature on national news bulletins.

McComb hit the headlines when, in his role as a sales representative for Belfast City Sightseeing Tours, the red-coated crusader apprehended two would-be pickpockets within a matter of hours of each other, returning a handbag and an iPhone to stricken citizens.

All in a day’s work, though the city’s streets have been a little quieter since.

“They’re all hiding so I’ve been able to retire for a while,” laughs the Holy Trinity stylist.

“The whole thing was crazy – I can’t believe it even went as far as it did with the TV and all getting involved.

“It was a bit embarrassing, but you just have to look at the funny side of it...”

That dramatic episode aside, it has been down to serious business for McComb in recent times as he prepares for his second shot at the AIBA World Championships.

The action gets under way in the Qatari capital Doha next Tuesday, and McComb and his Irish team-mates have been out in Assisi since last week fine-tuning their preparation.

His performances en route to picking up a bronze medal at the inaugural European Games have given him the belief that anything is possible and, with three Olympic Games spots up for grabs at lightweight, he knows this is his big chance.

McComb admits preparation hasn’t been perfect.

A damaged tendon in his left knuckle, sustained in Baku back in June, forced him to withdraw from the Feliks Stamm tournament in Poland earlier this month.

It’s been frustrating, but the decision not to travel with the Irish team was purely precautionary ahead of the Worlds, says McComb.

“I saw a physio and he just ruled me out of the Feliks Stamm tournament – told me I had to be 100 per cent for the Worlds, so Billy [Walsh] agreed that I should give it a miss.

“It’s better I give myself the best chance of being 100 per cent at the Worlds instead of risking making it worse.

“I rested it, got an MRI scan at a sports clinic in Dublin and then I got it injected with a steroid right into the tendon and it’s held up brilliantly ever since.

“It would have been good to get a fight or two out there [in Poland] but, to be honest, I probably got better spars down in Dublin with David Oliver Joyce, Kurt Walker and Mick Conlan.

“We were doing 10 four minute rounds, so my conditioning is brilliant. I’ll be going into the World Championships injury-free and hopefully 100 per cent.”

And the top quality sparring certainly doesn’t end there.

Since arriving in Assisi last week, he has shared the ring with two-time Olympian and 2009 World champion Domenico Valentino, while teams from Azerbaijan, Costa Rica and Belarus have also set up camp in the Italian town.

Among the Azeri contingent will be the experienced Albert Selimov.

Before his successful European Games campaign, McComb sparred countless rounds with Selimov at a training camp in Baku.

The pair eventually met in the semi-final, with Selimov using all his cunning to score a unanimous win.

It is a distinct possibility that McComb and 2007 World champion Selimov could cross paths again in Doha, and the Belfast man says he is excited by the prospect.

“I wouldn’t mind. I’d like to get a few fights under my belt first, and I know for a fact he’ll not want to fight me.

“At the European Games medal ceremony after his final he said ‘you, me, final’. He said I was his hardest opponent, and he knows I’ll only get better.

“Sparring Selimov and then fighting him in the semi-final, that experience is going to take me up another level when it comes to the Worlds.

“It’s a massive ask to get into the medal stages, but I know I can do it. I just have to go out there and prove it.”

BRENDAN IRVINE is confident he will be fully recovered from an elbow injury in time to keep his Olympic dream alive at the forthcoming AIBA World Championships.

The St Paul’s light-fly picked up the injury in sparring while at a training camp in Sheffield back in August.

Recovery proved a frustrating affair, and forced him out of the prestigious Feliks Stamm tournament in Poland earlier this month.

It wasn’t a decision he took lightly but, with the Worlds getting under way in Doha next Wednesday, ‘Wee Rooster’ wasn’t about to take any risks.

“The elbow’s a lot better, I’m back to punching on it so hopefully it’ll be fine,” he said.

“It would’ve been brilliant to go [to Poland] and get a few rounds under the belt before such a major tournament, especially at such a high level competition, but it wasn’t to be.”

The 19-year-old returned to the ring a fortnight ago, and was sparring Olympic gold medallist Katie Taylor before jetting out to the Irish team’s training camp in Italy.

Quietly-spoken and with a mature head on his young shoulders, Irvine isn’t one to shout from the rooftops about what his intentions are when he reaches the Qatari capital.

No Irishman has ever won gold at the Worlds, with Donegal’s Jason Quigley the only man to ever take silver.

Irvine is aware of the magnitude of the task ahead but, having announced himself on the international stage by picking up silver at the European Games back in June, he is feeling quietly confident.

“I don’t like to say I’m going to go and win gold or do this or that because I’m not that kind of person.

“But I’ve been in with most of the boxers at the weight – the Ukrainian, the Cuban, the Azeri – so there’s no reason why I can’t go all the way.”

Should he match or surpass Quigley’s 2013 silver, Irvine will have put himself in the frame for a possible box-off against fellow Belfast fighter Paddy Barnes to decide who takes the 49kg spot.

Irvine admits he is growing weary of discussing the potential showdown against a man he counts as a friend outside the ropes.

“You do be sick talking about it because anybody you talk to is asking the same questions because it’s been in the paper the last few weeks and months,” he said.

“If I qualify [through the Worlds], then there’s two at the weight and they’d have to pick, but there’s a very slim chance they’d pick me because Paddy’s Paddy.

“I get on well with Paddy, we’re down in Dublin together and we don’t even talk about it. If it [a box-off] happens, it happens.”