Steven Donnelly

Steven Gerard Donnelly (born 7 September 1988) is an Irish professional boxer from Northern Ireland who represented Ireland at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil as an amateur.

Boxing career Donnelly represented Northern Ireland at the 2010 Commonwealth Games held in New Delhi, India. Competing in the light welterweight division he faced Australian Luke Woods in the first round and was eliminated from the competition after a 0–10 loss. Following his defeat Donnelly was subsequently sent home from the Games by team management after drinking alcohol and causing a disturbance in the athlete's village.

Donnelly took part in the 2015 World Series of Boxing, representing the Polish Hussars team. He won five of his six fights, beating Kazakhstan's Madiyar Ashkeyev, Brian Ceballo of the United States, Puerto Rican Nicklaus Flaz Guillen, Alberto Palmetta of Argentina and Italy's Dario Morello, but was defeated by Venezuelan Gabriel Maestre and suffered a walkover defeat after visa issues meant he was unable to travel to fight Azerbaijan's Parviz Baghirov.

Donnelly qualified to represent Ireland in the men's welterweight event at the 2016 Summer Olympics to be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, via his fourth-place ranking in the World Series of Boxing. Only the top two ranked athletes were due to qualify through the rankings but two of the athletes ranked ahead of him qualified by alternate methods, Morocco’s Mohammad Rabii secured his place through the 2015 AIBA World Boxing Championships and Andrey Zamkovoy won the Russian championships to confirm his place.