Joe Ward: The unluckiest man in Irish boxing - 'I’ve been through it all and now I can fight through this'

Joe Ward had the world at his feet. He was an amateur boxing sensation, he had a golden future laid out before him. Until disaster struck, over and over again.

In 2011 Ward made history, becoming the youngest Irish boxer to win a gold medal at the senior European Championships.

Even at that early stage hype was building for what Ward could accomplish at the London Olympics. But at the 2012 qualification event, tucked away in Trabzon in Turkey, the teenage Ward lost a contentious decision to the host nation boxer.