Joe Ward retained his Irish Elite light-heavyweight title following a commanding win over Ken Egan at the National Stadium in Dublin last night. In the rematch of the 2011 final which Ward also won the current European champion racked up a 29-10 victory over the 2008 Olympic silver medalist. Egan probably scored the first point of this encounter with a right jab within the first three seconds. However, from that point on Ward began to take control of the contest and claimed the first 9-5 before forcing Egan into a standing count in the second en route to stretching his lead 17-8 by the end of the second. The third round was all Ward also, and while Egan managed to find the target with his trademark jabs, the 2010 AIBA World Youth champion was picking up more scores with some power-packed combinations. It was an emphatic statement of intent by the 18-year-old, who, if he remains at light-heavy, looks set to dominate the 81Kg division in Ireland in the second decade of the 21st century the same way Egan dominated the opening 10-years.

“I’m delighted with my performance. I went in there wit the right tactics. I used them well and I got the right result,” said Ward, who also collected the boxer of the Championships award. “I knew if I made him miss he would walk into the big shots. No disrespect to him, he came out in the first round to fight. He did not come out to move – he came out to go forward,” he added. “I really enjoyed it. I knew what was going to happen and how long it would take because I had the bigger shots. I had the technique in them and I really performed well. “Kenny is a legend. It’s good that there is someone new coming in taking over from Kenny. Hopefully I can do as much as he did.” Egan, gracious in defeat, said that if Ward qualified for the Olympics that he would put money on him to finish amongst the medals.