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| Human Interest | |
|---|---|
Sport Specific Information | |
| Club / Team | All Saints Amateur Boxing Club: Ballymena, NIR |
General Interest | |
| Hero / Idol | British boxer Amir Khan, US boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. (Athlete, 04 Oct 2010) |
Sport Specific Information | |
| Name of coach | Zaur Antia [national] |
| When and where did you begin this sport? | He began boxing at age 13 at All Saints Boxing Club in Ballymena, Northern Ireland. |
Further Personal Information | |
| Occupation | Athlete |
| Languages | English |
General Interest | |
| Nicknames | Stevie, Donno (thesun.ie, 29 Nov 2015; Athlete, 04 Oct 2010) |
| Sporting philosophy / motto | "Train hard, fight easy." (Facebook profile, 10 Jun 2016) |
Further Personal Information | |
| Residence | Ballymena, NIR |
General Interest | |
| Injuries | He underwent surgery to rectify a minor hand injury in April 2016. (irish-boxing.com, 01 Apr 2016) |
| Awards and honours | In 2015 he won the Mid and East Antrim Adult Sportsperson of the Year award in Northern Ireland. (ballymenatimes.com, 09 Mar 2016) |
| Other information | SANCTION In September 2016 he was given a severe reprimand by the International Olympic Committee [IOC] for placing bets on the boxing competition at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. He was also required to demonstrate he had successfully followed the educational programme of the IOC in order to be eligible to compete at the 2020 Games in Tokyo. (swimswam.com, 29 Sep 2016) WORLD SERIES OF BOXING He competed for the Poland Hussars in the 2015 and 2016 editions of the World Series of Boxing [WSB]. (irish-boxing.com, 01 Apr 2016; independent.ie, 02 Dec 2015) PERSONAL SETBACKS He was beaten in his first bout at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi, India, which he blamed on overexerting himself in training. He was then sent home early from the event by the Northern Ireland team management after going drinking in the athletes' village. He neglected boxing for the following two years and he appeared in court on several occasions. He returned to the All Saints Boxing Club in Ballymena in late 2012, determined to get his sporting career back on track. "I had to go to the club and say sorry. It wasn't an easy thing to do but I knew I had to do it because I had let so many people down. When I look back at that period of my life now I'm embarrassed, totally embarrassed. I was drinking myself into oblivion, getting into fights, getting barred from pubs. The mistakes I made have been my motivation for getting back to what I do best." (belfasttelegraph.co.uk, 13 Feb 2016; ballymenatimes.com, 18 Jan 2013) |