He gave it his all and had the bloodied face to prove it, only it wasn't enough to earn David Oliver Joyce another bout at these Rio Olympics, as he lost his second-round lightweight bout to Albert Selimov, the Russian-born fighter now representing Azerbaijan.
Selimov, the 30-year-old World championship silver medallist, was always going to be hard to stop, but although he was awarded the victory on a unanimous decision, he didn’t have it all his own way.
All three judges awarded the first round to Selimov, 10-9 each; the second round brought further worry for Joyce as the cut he received at the end of the first opened up and appeared to upset his rhythm even further.
Still, two of the judges awarded that round to Selimov, one to Joyce, giving him plenty to fight for in the last round.
And fight he did, landing a series of combinations late on, two of the three judges awarding that round to the Irishman.
It wasn’t enough for Joyce, however, who still leaves Rio with some just reward having taken out Andrique Allisop from the Seychelles in his opening bout.
Joyce quit boxing for seven full months after missing out on London but the death of his grandmother last year convinced the Athy fighter to commit for one last try. At 29, he first took his Olympic bow, and now has made his exit.
“Tough fight, what can I say, he’s a really true champion, a really good guy,” said Joyce afterwards. “He’s a world silver medallist and second best in the world at the minute, at the end of the day it was going to be an uphill battle with him.
“But I wouldn’t take anything away from myself, I’m up there with him. We thought we could have come out the right side of the decision, I gave it everything I could in there and at least I got out of the ring knowing I tried everything I could and the better man came through on the day.”
After the bout, Ireland coach Eddie Bolger commented on the O’Reilly outcome.
He said: “I don’t want to sound too dismissive of it all, because there are families involved, and everything, but I never gave it a thought, because you can’t.
“And we’ve been kept in the dark, really. I do feel for his family, it’s a serious issue, but the IABA have been absolutely brilliant in the last year or two. I feel for his family, but the IABA have been very supportive to us.”
