An Cosantóir

An Cosantóir June 2020 www.dfmagazine.ie 34 | seconds to dispose of this prized French fighter, the former world junior championship semi-finalist Frances Michel Gavaj. This battle brought him to the forefront of the Chinese fans imagination, as no one else had the ability to TKO fighters in the championships so far. Pte O'Brien was now a marked man at 91kgs he went onto to beat the Finnish elite national number 1 'Krenar Aliu' who ironically Danny had spared at a multi nations training camp in Germany 7 weeks prior to the showdown. There are no easy fights in a competition of this magnitude as the competitors are a mix of the nations olympic athletes in training and the world's top military athletes. The quarter- finals were the hardest competition to date and to win the bronze Danny had to defeat the Brazilian olympic quarter finalist from Rio 2016, Juan Nogueira. In the blue corner we had a national senior champion from Ireland NOT yet an elite national champion, on the other corner we had the best 91kg fighter a country of 209 million could present. On Paper it was a long shot to expect Danny to realistically compete at this level, however that is the beautiful thing about the art of boxing ...anything can happen.... Danny went into the fight brave and battled hard, he knew he would need the fight of his life to cause an upset. Once the bell went the Brazilian seemed surprised at this supposed Irish unknown entity and his fearless 'all or nothing' toe to toe style. The Brazilian corner soon realised their man had to go 'all in' for the last round, as he was behind, in order to beat this Irish army warrior. The Brazilian support was immense but the Chinese at this stage had grown to love Danny. In the true style of a real fighter Danny seemed to step it up the higher the competition stakes went. Once the final bell sounded the anticipation for the decision was immense, refereeing is a strange and final business, the two fighters poised in the middle of the ring and the Brazilian seemed confident he had done enough. Deservedly we took the bronze medal by winning the fight that night and the Irish supporters were ecstatic. We left the stadium quickly amid all the fanfare to the village in an elated state. The olympic village cafeteria was serving 24/7 and the standards of food never dropped, it was no surprise ironically some fighters never made weight for their respective categories. We asked Danny about a late night snack and he refused stating he had the weigh in for the semi final at 0700, I suppose this is the unromantic real dedication stuff no one knows about as a fighter, the real self sacrifice to make weight. Kazakhstan's Abzal Kuttybekov was the next fight for the silver medal, at the weigh in I was amazed he was a cruiser- weight for the size of him. Abzal had already beaten the last guy to beat Joe Ward arguable Irelands greatest ever ama- teur before he went pro, so we knew we had a serious bout coming our way. The first round was tight Abzal used his reach to hold Danny at bay and once Danny started to fight on the inside his success in the second round started to become appar- ent, without warning in the heat of battle both fighters clashed heads resulting in a gaping wound in Danny's head and Afzal's eye lid being opened. With both fighters bleeding heavily, the fight was stopped not even half way through. The decision went to the judges who on count-back awarded the fight to Kuttybekov. Although disappointed at being denied the opportunity to fight three rounds, we soon found ourselves in the back of an ambulance with both fighters on the way to the local A&E. It was amazing to reminisce on the journey whilst looking at the athletes that 10 minutes earlier in the ring they were intent on literally finishing each other off, however within minutes we suddenly found ourselves as a team with the opponent amongst us on the way to the hospital. None of the Kazakhstan entourage accompanied their fighter to the hospital and he looked perplexed at the fact that so many Irish came to ensure our man was ok. Outside the hospital we took photos together in friendship and it was a beautiful moment of solidarity and respect. In the hospital once everyone was medically fit we laughed at the fabulous journey we had begun, years earlier in the 7th Battalion dreaming of a CISM medal. Kuttybekov meanwhile was in an argument with the doctors to plead for glue to stop his eye bleeding rather than stitches so he could fight the final the following day. Ironically Kuttybekov was stopped in the final the fol- lowing day by Uzbekistan's Madiyar Saydrakhimov within seconds as he focused on the wounds Danny O'Brien had opened up the previous day. It will be very interesting to watch out for the above two athletes at the Tokyo Olympics

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