WELTERWEIGHT Tyler Jolly made it a Fab Four of Scottish boxers into the Quarter-Finals on Day Four of the EUBC European Men’s Boxing Championships with a fantastic performance to defeat Croatia’s Marco Zeljko.
The Bravehearts boxer had too much for the 27-year-old Croatian in their 67kg preliminary contest, as he forced Zeljko into two standing counts en route to an unanimous decision victory.
The 22-year-old from Whithorn in Dumfries and Galloway is the fourth Scot to reach the last eight, following Reese Lynch’s victory earlier today against Turkey’s Adem Furkan Avci in his 63.5kg prelim and Matthew McHale (54kg) and Sam Hickey’s (75kg) wins earlier this week.
The quartet will all box for the chance to secure a medal tomorrow (Friday 27th May) in the Armenian capital city of Yerevan, as they look to win Scotland’s first senior European medal in 16 years.
Tyler started the first round well as he pressed his Croatian opponent back and landed a couple of clean left hooks to secure the round 4-1 on the judge’s scorecards.
Although Tyler was unfortunate not to take the first round on all of the scorecards, there would be no disputing who won the second round as a powerful body shot forced the Croatian to take a standing count.
Tyler would follow that up with a number of further left-hooks to the body which looked to knock the fight out of his opponent, as he won the second 10-8 on all of the scorecards.
It was more of the same at the beginning of the third and final round, as a big straight right-hand ensured a second standing count for Zeljko.
Under instructions from head coach Craig McEvoy, Tyler kept it at long range for the remainder of the round with one eye on tomorrow’s Quarter-Finals, where he will box Serbia’s Vakhid Abbasov who defeated Ireland’s Eugene McKeever by unanimous decision.
Meanwhile, 2021 World Championship Bronze medallist Reese Lynch will box France’s Lounes Hamraoui for a place in the Semi-Finals after his comfortable unanimous points victory over Turkish Light-Welterweight Adem Furkan Avci.
Southpaw Reese came out boxing on the back foot in the first round as he established his jab with his fluid hands down style.
The full-time GB boxer won the opening stanza on all of the judges scorecards, and was again dominant in the second round as the shorter Turkish opponent struggled with the Fauldhouse boxer’s superior footwork and speed, as Reese landed a number of clean blows.
Knowing that he was two rounds to the good on all five judges scorecards going into the final round, Reese did not seek to engage too often in the third round as he boxed and danced his way into the Quarter-Finals with a 30-27 unanimous victory on all of the scorecards.
