THEY were Commonwealth Games team-mates three years ago, but Jude Gallagher and Dylan Eagleson will battle it out for pole position to board the plane to Glasgow next summer.
Both brought home gold from Birmingham - Gallagher at 57kg, Eagleson at 54kg – as Team NI swept the boards, with the pair marking themselves out as top talents for the future.
A restructuring of the weight classes under new governing body World Boxing has seen several boxers consider their options ahead of the Ulster Elite Championships, which will form part of the selection process for Glasgow 2026.
Gallagher and Eagleson both find themselves at 60kg now – and the pair have been drawn to face each other in Tuesday night’s Ulster semi-final at Shorts Social Club, with the winner facing Jordan O’Donnell of St George’s.
It promises to be an intriguing battle, as these firm friends fight it out for supremacy.
This won’t be the first time they have found themselves in this position either, as the Commonwealth golden boys were in direct opposition for a place on the Irish team seeking qualification for the Paris 2024 Olympics.
That was at Dublin’s National Stadium in November 2023, in the 57kg semi-final of the Irish elites, with Gallagher getting past Eagleson in an all-action encounter.
That set the ‘Tyrone Tornado’ on the road to Paris as, after missing out on qualification at the 2023 European Games, he sealed his spot in the first World qualifier in Milan nine months on.
Eagleson, meanwhile, has had a frustrating time since. After going under the knife to fix an ongoing hand problem, further minor surgery was required to fix the issue – keeping the 22-year-old outside the ropes for well over a year, with only a handful of fights in between as he bids to get back to his best.
It hasn’t been plain sailing for Gallagher either, with last month’s Tammer Tournament success in Finland his first taste of competitive action since Paris.
A slipped disc was to blame for a longer-than-anticipated lay-off; what started as a small niggle pre-Olympics evolving into pure pain as preparations were stepped up for last year’s Irish elite championships.
Weeks of rehab and the same repetitive routine turned into months – one step forward, two steps back until, finally, light began to appear at the end of the tunnel as the summer of 2025 drew towards its end, then finally getting back between the ropes.
With so much at stake, it will be interesting to see how far along these friends come foes are when the first bell sounds.
Four of their Birmingham team-mates will also be in semi-final action on Tuesday night, as Clepson dos Santos takes on St John Bosco’s Padraig Downey, with a 50kg final clash against Ricky Nesbitt up for grabs.
Two-time Commonwealth Games silver medallist Carly McNaul is in the mix at 54kg, where she takes on Emerald’s Courtney McCrudden, with Nicole Clyde facing Armagh’s Aoife Duggan in the other semi-final.
Star’s JP Hale has another Ulster title in his sights, and he begins his campaign against Jake Daly, with Gianni Richmond and Fionn Duffy facing off in the other semi-final.
SCHEDULE
Tuesday (Shorts Social Club, 7pm)
BG 4-7 semis and finals
B5 60kg: J Corcoran (Carrickmore) v C Moore (Star), P Whitehouse (Killyman) v D McGuinness (St Monica’s); B4 57kg: O Brown (Star) v R Gillen (Canal); B5 66kg: C Cummings (Cookstown) v K Dubinovicus (Gilford); B6 63kg; J Doran (St Bronagh’s) v D Tennyson (Derryveagh); B7 65kg: S Gray (Clonard) v G McNamara (Raphoe)
Ulster elite semi-finals
50kg: C dos Santos (Holy Trinity) v P Downey (St John Bosco); 54kg: N Clyde (Antrim) v A Dougan (Armagh), C McNaul (Ormeau Road) v C McCrudden (Emerald); 60kg: C Craig (Glengormley) v C Moore (Emerald); 60kg: D Eagleson (North Down) v J Gallagher (Two Castles); 65kg: JP Hale (Star) v J Daly (D-Box), G Richmond (Cairn Lodge) v F Duffy (St Joseph’s); 80kg: J Molyneaux (Holy Trinity) v J McGuinness (St Monica’s), E Quinn (St John’s), P Rooney (SHBA); 90+kg: A Ahmed (Ormeau Road) v O O’Reilly (Oakleaf)
