Picture Special: Golden Gloves Boxing Club senior tournament was a huge success
Aaron O’Donoghue of Golden Gloves BC and Cody O’Reilly from Portlaoise BC in action during the Northside Boxing Club/Cork County Boxing Board senior tournament at Northside Boxing Club. Pictures: by Doug Minihane
A very successful senior boxing tournament promoted by the Golden Gloves Boxing Club took place at the Northside Boxing Club in Blackpool recently.
Amist a great sporting atmosphere patrons enjoyed twelve cracking contests.
A feature of this tournament was the presentation of the Brendan Mooney trophy.
This was presented to the boxer who was selected for giving the best spirited display of the event.
The tournament was run in conjunction with the Cork County Boxing Board.
John Morrisey the head coach with Golden Gloves BC was the match maker.
Morrisey is a veteran campaigner on the amateur boxing circuit and his selections ensured the bouts would make for very competitive boxing.
Pat Ruan, the former president of the IABA travelled with his boxers from Portlaoise and other clubs who participated in the event included Mitchelstown, De Courcey, Togher, Golden Gloves, St Saviour's, Midleton, Northside, Spartan and Westside.
Irish Elite Champion from the Goldarn Gloves BC Aaron O'Donoughe gave a vintage display in his victory over Cody O'Reilly of Portlaoise BC.
Others who gave sterling performances included Mike O'Donavan, De Courcey, Darragh Lee, Midleton Rece Buckley, Northside and Dean O'Sullivan, Golden Gloves.
Two Waterford Boxers from the St Saviour's Club, Gordan and Franko acquitted themselves with great distinction.
Following the final bout of the tournament the Brendan Mooney trophy was presented to the very popular Johnny Sheehan from the Golden Gloves Club following his great victory over Ola Wahab of Midleton BC.
The presentation of the trophy to Johnny was made by Paul Buttimer who was an Irish Olympian in Barcelona in 1992.
This prestigious trophy was dedicated to perpetuating the memory of the late Brendan Mooney.
He was a much loved and ired Leeside sports journalist. Brendan covered Boxing and Athletics for the Echo and the Examiner.
Proud member of the Mooney family were guests on the day and they included Breda Mooney, Scott Lavin, Brendan Murphy, Peter Mooney and Sophia Lavin.
Brendan travelled to many Olympiads around the world and also covered the noble art at local and national levels.
Brendan, himself was an accomplished athlete who participated at the highest level on the national stage.
On one memorable occasion he was travelling with an Irish Boxing Team abroad who were under the management of Dan O'Connell.
During the trip Bredan expressed and interest in keeping in shape.
Dan invited him to train with the Irish Boxers and he was delighted to avail of this opportunity.
However, an hour later Brendan appeared to be a broken man. He had pains an aches all over and he often laughed that he thought he had pains in parts of his body which did not even exist.
From that day forward Brendan had a completely new perspective on a Boxer's fitness level.
Brendan Mooney will always be ed as one of life's gentlemen.
The great coverage he gave to the sport will always be cherished by the Cork Boxing Community.
This award will be presented on an annual basis by the Cork County Boxing Board.
App?
