Portlaoise Boxing Club’s Louis Griffin ignites new year with National Youth Competition success

PORTLAOISE Boxing Club’s Louis Griffin has made a very encouraging start to the new year, winning four bouts en route to the National Youth Competition 63.5kg title.

A hard-fought 3-2 split decision victory over 2023 World Junior Championship quarter-finalist, Patrick Kelly of St. Abbans/Kilmyshall in the National Stadium completed his march to the title, with Portlaoise head coach, Pat Ryan very impressed by the performance of the Ennistymon competitor who only joined his club last year.

“It was a tough fight against Kelly, but for me, there was only ever going to be one winner,” Ryan told the *****Laois Nationalist*****.

“Kelly is a very good young athlete and he’s got great attributes. He likes it at close quarters, he likes to get in on the inside.

“The most important thing for me when it came to the fight against Kelly was that Louis would box at range to middle-distance.

“Of course, the fight doesn’t always work that way. Louis loves a tear-up as well and he’s well able for that. He did very well defensively and it was great win,” he said.

Griffin and Kelly are certainly no strangers to one another, having now met in four Irish finals, resulting in two wins apiece.

This latest triumph for Griffin capped an impressive campaign that began with a 5-0 victory over David Tennyson of Derryveagh in the preliminaries and was quickly followed by more unanimous decision wins against Dunfanaghy’s Luke Kelly in the last eight and Nojus Smataukas of Gilford in the penultimate rounds.

For Ryan, who has trained no shortage of national and international champions, Griffin will certainly benefit from his move to Portlaoise, something that was organised in conjunction with his previous club, Kilfenora BC.

“Louis came to us from Kilfenora Boxing Club last year,” said Ryan. “His parents Matthew and Peri were very important in that move and his coach, Patrick McCormack in Kilfenora always had a great affiliation to me and Portlaoise Boxing Club and it was his vision for him to come to us.

“For me it was done the right way, because everyone was around the table and everyone had a contribution,” he said.

With access to high-level sparring against other emerging Portlaoise stars in the likes of European medallists Edward and Johnny Harty as well as Lorcan Holohan and Kevin Pukuta, Griffin is sure to flourish.

What’s more, Griffin will also benefit from involvement in international competition such as this week’s multi-nations in Poland in which Portlaoise will field seven boxers.

“We have a very unique club with, maybe, four or five national champions to spar Louis at any given time,” remarked Ryan.

“The most important thing for me this year was to get Louis away to international competition.

“We were in Lithuania, Poland and Latvia. He’s had numerous training camps, Scottish and Welsh, and the belief and the confidence that he has gained from being involved in those competitions has been huge. It’s given him massive experience.

“The European Under-18 Championships in October/November are the ultimate aim this year, but we have to get the experience by getting into meaningful competitions against stiffer opposition to make Louis better and improve his understanding of how to box.

“But Louis’ development is a real team effort that involves all our coaches and boxers. There’s a huge investment of time, effort and money.

“But Louis is a very talented young lad and this whole process is aimed at getting him to box at elite level, but he has to keep learning and developing his skills to reach that higher level,” he insisted.