PADDY BARNES GREW up dreaming of the day when he could call himself a world champion.
But when he looks at his set of major championship medals, that’s the one that is still missing.
This morning he tries to right that wrong when he faces Milos Baltic in the last 32 of the flyweight division.
He can’t win a medal against the Serbian but he can lose one, and Barnes needs no reminder that the first step on the road is as important as the last.
Two years ago in Baku, he came into the Worlds rusty after a long injury lay-off and was beaten in his first fight.
That forced him to take the long way round for Olympic qualification but he was good enough book his place in London and then go on to win a second bronze medal to add to his success in Beijing in 2008.
It was another reminder of the class he showed in 2010 when he was crowned Commonwealth and European champion in the same year.
Now all he needs is one more to complete the collection.
“People think you’re killing yourself thinking, ‘I’m going to be world champion, I’m going out there to win gold’ but I don’t do that,” he said.
“I just take one fight at a time and do my best. If my best isn’t good enough, then I know I’m not good enough to do it.
The only person who can put pressure on me is myself and I don’t do that. I just keep telling myself that at the end of the day it’s only a sport and try my best.
Before he throws his first punch, he already faces a new challenge. John Joe Nevin’s decision not to travel to Worlds left the Irish team without any representative in the bantamweight division and when Michael Conlan stepped up from flyweight to fill that gap, Barnes did likewise and took Conlan’s place at 52kg.
It seems a strange decision for the man ranked third in the world at light-flyweight (49kg) but Barnes feels bigger and stronger than ever.
Barnes: missed European Championship final with a broken nose (INPHO/Cathal Noonan)
Like a lot of Ireland’s northern boxers, he is working with strength and conditioning coach Ryan Whitley in the Sports Institute of Northern Ireland (SINI) and that has paid dividends.
I’m just raging I didn’t do this a long time ago because it could have got me going last year. All I needed was to be 1% stronger.
The new 10-9 scoring system, where boxers are awarded rounds rather than points for each clean shot landed as before, will suit him too he feels.
But fighting without headgear, his only concern is to protect his nose. A bad break at the European Championships this summer ruled him out of the gold medal bout and forced him to settle for silver without a fight.
“The world medal is the one medal I haven’t got and even before the Olympic Games, as a kid I always wanted to be a world champion.
“Now’s my time to try and do it.”
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Ray Moylette and Tommy McCarthy are the other Irish boxers in last 32 action today in Almaty. Moylette faces Ermek Sakenov of Kyrgystan in the 64kg division while McCarthy will also look to book his place in the last 16 with a win over Canada’s Samir El-Mais.
