Paris 2024: Eric Donovan backs Jack Marley to have fight of his life

Eric Donovan is hopeful Daina Moorehouse and Jack Marley can lift Team Ireland's boxers with two strong performances this evening, with Marley on the cusp of at least a bronze medal as he squares up to the formidable Tajikistani Davlat Boltaev.

RTÉ boxing analyst Donovan was impressed with Marley's showing in his first outing in Paris last Sunday.

The Monkstown BC fighter booked his place in the quarter-finals of the men's 92kg division with a split decision victory over Poland's Mateusz Bereznicki.

Now, the 21-year-old takes on the teak-tough Boltaev - an Asian Games gold medallist who will be favourite to make the semis.

Donovan says Marley will need to produce the fight of his life to win, but highlighted the issues Georgi Kushitashvili gave Boltaev last time out as evidence that he can be rattled.

"Jack is up against a very difficult opponent, but you know what? He has the ability if he can put in a career-best performance to overturn Boltaev," Donovan told RTÉ's Olympics Podcast.

"Boltaev is a serious operator - Asian Games gold medallist, 25 years of age.

"What I liked about Jack's performance the last time against his Polish opponent, even though he beat him before, he just came out with real gusto. You could tell he's up for it. He's going for it.

"Boltaev won in his last-16 round against Kushitashvili of Georgia and the Georgian ran him so close. It was the closest of margins... I hope that the team wil be looking at the video analysis of that and just showing Jack what Boltaev doesn't like.

"He likes when you're standing off him and he picks you off. He loves a nice easy type of boxing where things are going the way he wants them to go. But if you jump on him, put pressure on him, let the shots go, high-volume work,