Boxing News:The National Stadium in Dublin is bracing itself for the clash of the Darrens - Irish middleweight champion Sutherland and former Kilkenny minor hurler O'Neill - in a bout which could open the door for qualification for the 2008 Olympic in Beijing.

Sutherland, a DCU Sports Science student from the St Saviours OBA club in Dublin, and O'Neill, a recently qualified teacher, from the Paulstown club in Kilkenny, look set to go-head-to-head in the national senior championships which glove off tonight.

The championships will run over four consecutive days to facilitate the second last Olympic qualification tournament for European boxers in Pescara, Italy, in February and March.

Boxers winning or retaining their titles at the Stadium this week will be part of the Irish squad vying to secure Olympic qualification places in Pescara.

Boxers who fail to book their Olympic tickets in Pescara will take part in a box-off on March 15th-16th at the National Stadium with the semi-finalists from the senior championships for places on the Ireland team for the final Olympic qualifier in Athens in April.

Sutherland and O'Neill are both ranked in the top 15 in Europe, with Sutherland also ranked ninth in the world, and Gary Keegan, who directs the Irish Amateur Boxing Association's high performance unit, is predicting fireworks - but has cautioned, "don't rule out Eamon O'Kane".

He said: "The middleweight section is really capturing the imagination and if the two Darrens meet we could witness one of the most exciting fights seen at the National Stadium in a long time.

"However, Eamon O'Kane is an experienced campaigner who caused Andy Lee a few problems when Lee was an amateur."

Reigning light-flyweight champion Paddy Barnes could meet Jimmy Moore from the St Francis club in Limerick in Friday's 48kg final. As of yesterday, they were the only entrants - meaning that both will receive byes into the weekend's final unless there are further entries.

Barnes, of the Holy Family club in Belfast, qualified for the 2008 Olympics at the World Championships in Chicago last October, and beat Moore in last year's senior final. However, Moore defeated Barnes in the 2006 decider and says he is determined to regain his crown if both boxer clash on Friday night next.

The two final Olympic qualifying tournaments for European boxers will take place in Pescara between February 24th and March 3rd, and Athens, Greece, from April 7th to 14th.