Kovacs boxers bouncing back after world titles

AFTER suffering heartbreak on the other side of the world Denis and Philip Kovacs could be forgiven for wanting to take it easy and lick their wounds.

WELCOME HOME: Philip, Attila and Denis Kovacs are welcomed home by wife and mother Rita after the IABA World Junior Boxing Championships. Photo: Ben Turnbull / NewsMail. Picture: Ben Turnbull

AFTER suffering heartbreak on the other side of the world Denis and Philip Kovacs could be forgiven for wanting to take it easy and lick their wounds after the 2015 AIBA Junior World Boxing Championships in St Petersburg, Russia.

Instead the twins will use their experiences as motivation as they strive to wear the colours of Australia in the future.

Both boxers are now ranked in the world's top 20 - Denis 13th in the 80kg class and Philip sixth in the 75kg class - after taking on and beating some of the most skilful young fighters in the world.

Philip had a bye in the first round and fought Kazakhstan's Daryn Berikzhanov in the second, he won on a split-point decision and had to fight Kosimkhon Kosimov from Uzbekistan.

Kosimov, a talented southpaw, found the going tough against Philip and struggled to get on top of the Aussie. The judges gave the fight to Kosimov in another split decision and he went on to earn the silver medal.

Denis won his first bout against Serbian boxer Stefan Spasic and won in a unanimous-points decision. After the Spasic fight, Denis took on Krenar Aliu from Finland and after fighting well was shocked to lose in the split-points decision.

Being knocked out before the medal rounds hurt the boxers, but they stayed on to train with the other eliminated fighters.

The pair stunned their fellow fighters in training with their speed and power, Denis took his frustrations out on his sparring partner and what was supposed to be a three-round session was cut to two after Denis showed his devastating punching.

Denis said there were no plans to retreat into the corner and he would definitely come out swinging after the disappointment of Russia.

Philip mirrored his twin's sentiment and all his energy now would go into preparing for a tour of Germany with Boxing Queensland in October and the 2016 world titles.

The boxers will have a couple of days rest after being away from home for three weeks, and travelling more than 30,000km, when they return to training they will take everything they learned on the other side of the world with them into the future.