Brett McGinty may well have boxed for the last time as an amateur last night.
McGinty lost out to Gabriel Dossen in a middleweight semi-final at the National Elite Championships in Dublin,
The St Johnston man, an eight-time Irish champion from a stellar schoolboy and youth career, cut a frustrated figure as Doseen took a unanimous decision win to reach an Elite final at the first time of asking.
The Galway puncher, a World Youth bronze medallist, sported a heavily bandaged knee, but followed up on big talk.
A week earlier, Dossen put out the defending middleweight champion, Michael Nevin – who defeated McGinty in the 2018 final – and backed that up with a win over McGinty.
Now, the Oakleaf ABC boxer – a two-time Irish Elite finalist – is set to re-evaluate and a move to the professional ranks may well be imminent.
McGinty, a Commonwealth Youth silver medallist and a European Schoolboys bronze medallist, admitted last month after losing to Fearghus Quinn in the Ulster Elite final that ‘it’s going to happen sooner or later’.
There will be one Donegal boxer in action next weekend in the Irish Elite finals as Illies Golden Gloves’ light-flyweight Donna Barr was given a walkover from her semi-final. Emma Feeney, her scheduled opponent, withdrew.
On Friday night, Barr had a 5-0 win over Smithfield’s Ciara Walsh in a quarter-final.
Now, she faces Chloe Fleck in next weekend’s final. It is a repeat of their Ulster Elite final, won on a 3-2 split by Canal BC’s Fleck, who had wins over Carol Coughlan (Monkstown) and Courtney Daly (Crumlin) this weekend.
Meanwhile, there will be two club shows in Donegal next weekend, with Carndonagh ABC hosting a tournament on Friday night and Dunfanaghy ABC staging an evening of action next Sunday.
