GB heavyweight Isaac Okoh is on a roll.
After underwhelming at the World Championships a year ago, Okoh has been on a fantastic winning run which culminated in a Commonwealth Games gold medal in Glasgow.
He now wants to keep the momentum rolling into the European Championships, which are under way in Sofia.
Okoh has his first bout in Bulgaria on Sunday against Poland’s Alexey Sevostyanov.
“I’m confident I can beat anyone in the world at the minute. It’s going to take a really good fighter to beat me,” Okoh told Sky Sports.
“There’s a lot of great competitors at the weight. I feel like I’m up there and I’m in real contention for a gold medal.
“I’m well up for it and I fancy my chances against anyone at this tournament.”
His victory in Glasgow has buoyed that confidence. “It’s a dream come true, When you first start boxing the Commonwealth Games is one of the tournaments you dream of going to and then obviously to bring home the gold medal not too far away from home with friends and family there, it’s a proud moment,” Okoh said.
“It fills you with confidence going on into the future, Olympic qualifiers round the corner and the Olympics two years away.
“Since the World championships I’ve been boxing brilliantly. I knew I had to… I’ve been flying.”
Okoh is a Commonwealth Games gold medallist
Britain has a strong team at these European championships.
“We’ve got a great squad. We had a brilliant medal tally coming back from the Commonwealths, one of the best in a long time. We’ve got a great squad at the minute, lots of talent, very young, fresh, hungry. So the mood’s brilliant in camp and morale’s through the roof,” Okoh said.
“It’s a great team and a great group of people to be around.”
Strong start for White
Although Sacha Hickey suffered a surprise loss to Croatia’s Sara Beram, fellow Commonwealth Games medallist Ruby White got off to a strong start.
After losing in the flyweight final in Glasgow, White returned to action on Saturday and dominated Serbia’s Nikolina Dzida, handing her counts in the first and second rounds en route to taking a clear unanimous decision.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: skynews.com
