MOST of the new champions crowned at Friday’s Irish Elite Championship finals night will at least have had the luxury of a sleep in the following morning – but not Clepson dos Santos.
The Banbridge man, who brought home bronze from last month’s European U22 Championships in Bulgaria, came up with the goods, boxing on consecutive nights and beating the experienced Ricky Nesbitt to claim the flyweight title.
He was back home by 11.30pm, in bed for midnight – then on the factory floor at Just Good Grub in Newry’s WIN business park by 9am on Saturday. No rest for the wicked, yet there was no annoying the 20-year-old after a landmark victory in his fledgling career.
“I was just buzzing to get it – it’s the main one you wanted to get, and I hadn’t got there.
“I’ve tried and been beaten in the elites before and, after the year I’ve had, it was good to finish it off with the elite title. Even though I got the European medal, winning my first elites probably means the most.”
It was an important night for Holy Trinity too.
Without an Irish elite champion since Caoimhin Agyarko won the light-heavyweight title six years ago, the Turf Lodge club claimed two on the one night when light-middleweight Jon McConnell joined Dos Santos in victory.
“It had been too long, so to get two in one night was good.
“John has entered them three times and come really close before, lost splits along the way that could have gone in his favour, so he was buzzing, and so was I.”
Dos Santos first burst onto the elite scene as a teenager at the 2022 Commonwealth Games. A few years down the line, he feels he is “10 times the boxer”.
“Back then I didn’t know anything about the international scene, and now I know a lot. It’s a completely different level, them boys I’ve been boxing and getting beat by, experience plays a massive part, as it does in any sport.
“When you have that, you’re just that wee bit better. I’ve got away with Ulster High Performance a good few times, done a lot of sparring internationally… if you weren’t getting that you’d still be where you were, but I’ve come on leaps and bounds.
“There’s boys who beat me every time I fought them when I was growing up boxing, but in the end it comes down to who works harder. You can have all the talent in the world but if you don’t work, there’s no point; I always work hard at everything I do.
“When I first turned senior, I was only a boy. I was the weight, but I wasn’t filled into it. I’m starting to get my man strength now, I’m big at the weight, and that plays a big part as well.”
ACTION-PACKED HARRY CUNNINGHAM CUP AHEAD
AN exciting night of boxing will take place in Belfast on Thursday night, with the annual Harry Cunningham Memorial Cup competition.
Eighteen bouts are scheduled as a talented young County Antrim team comes up against a select combining boxers from Cyprus and Italy.
The Beechlawn Hotel hosts the show, with the action getting under way at 7pm.
