Maguire off the mark at European Championships
LUKE Maguire of Esker Boxing Club will be hoping to build on his impressive start to his EUBC Elite European Men’s Boxing Championship campaign in Yerevan.
The light middleweight boxer carded a unanimous 5-0 victory over Poland’s Daniel Wieslaw Piotrowski in his preliminary bout on Tuesday to progress through to the last 16 of the tournament where he will face off against the Number Three seed, Eskerkhan Madiev from Georgia tomorrow, Thursday, May 26.
Maguire, who was the first ever fighter to represent Esker in the National Elite Championship Finals last year, has served up some impressive performances for Ireland in the months leading up to the Europeans.
“So far, he’s had about six internationals bouts and he’s lost only one” said Esker Boxing Club Coach, Ed Griffin.
“He boxed at the Strandja Tournament and also competed [in the Golden Gong Multi Nations] in North Macedonia where he won the ‘Best Boxer of the Tournament’ Award.
“The Europeans is a major tournament, and Luke’s now got a win under his belt no matter what happens.
“It was a good Polish lad that he boxed and he did really well. He controlled the fight the whole way through and he just picked his opponent off in the last round, conserving energy. He won on a unanimous decision.
“I think he just needed to get that win [over Piotrowski] to get the ball rolling
“His next opponent [Madiev] boxed in the Tokyo Olympics, so he’ll be tough, but Luke is getting there all the time and I’d be confident of him doing well.
“It’s brilliant for him. The work he puts in is huge. Even throughout Covid he never stopped” Griffin told The Echo.
Maguire is the second boxer from Esker to compete on the European stage this year with Nathan Ojo having travelled with the Ireland Under 18 squad to Bulgaria last month.
And the Finnstown man will be hoping he can serve up a great run in the Armenian capital in the same week that his club marks its 10th anniversary with a show in the Ringside Club this coming Saturday.
