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Paddy Barnes duly took his place in Irish Olympic history last night, securing the team's fifth medal of the London Games.
And next on the radar for the Belfast light-fly is a 'reunion' with his Beijing nemesis, China's Zou Shiming. He had too much ring-craft for Laishram Devendro Singh in the ExCel Arena and, despite a public warning for holding in the third, Barnes took the verdict 23-18.
It establishes him as only the second Irish athlete (and the first boxer) to medal at different Olympiads and he will now be one of three Irish fighters boxing for Olympic final places tomorrow.
No bout of apoplexy or jibes about the social habits of the men scoring his performance then from Barnes, who made international headlines four years ago with his outburst after being deemed not to have landed a single scoring punch in his 0-15 defeat to Shiming.
That incident gave a glimpse of both the intensity and humour that endear Barnes to colleagues. In China, he observed that it was the judges who needed drug-testing and it wasn't difficult to believe that even the most self-absorbed of that blazered judiciary allowed themselves a quiet chuckle.
Barnes repeated that Beijing mantra of bronze medals being "for losers" last night, but there was a mischievous glint in his eye as he spoke. "Listen," he said "I'm fighting a guy next fight who beat me 15-0 in Beijing, so my plan for that fight is just to out and score a point!
"Just to get that one point, that's my Olympic gold. Ha ha!"
Last night's fight was always going to have an element of personal business about it, given the boxers' familiarity with one another from that pre-Olympic training camp in Dublin. And Singh, who stopped his previous opponent in the first round, clearly came looking for a repeat.
He chased Barnes furiously in the first round, caught him with some heavy shots and his corner visibly recoiled when a score of 7-5 went up in the Irishman's favour. Barnes then took control in the second, connecting with some furious barrages that had Singh resorting to some tactics that aren't permitted in the sweet science.
When he blatantly led with his head in that second round, a public warning added two points to Barnes' total and he was virtually out of reach when the score for the round went up as 10-5 to the man in red. Singh again came charging in the third and it was clear that some of his punches hurt the Irishman. With a minute to go, Barnes got a warning for holding and there was the faintest ripple of worry in his eyes at the clang of the final bell.
But he got the verdict 23-18 and asked to comment on his place in history, Barnes revealed: "I haven't even thought about that yet. Someone mentioned it to me the other day. But just even qualifying for two Olympics, that was a dream come true. But now I've got two medals.
"Look, the team had a game plan going in. I slacked off a bit in the third round and caught a filly silly shots. I feel ten times stronger than anybody here. I know for a fact I am. I'm making the weight easy. I was point six under last night. I'd take my top off and show you how well built I am but it's a bit cold.
"Look I'm improving 10pc with every fight. Another 10pc next fight, I'll be at 120pc"
Behind the chuckling bravado, the trending on Twitter, the gauche little Opening Ceremony stunt, Barnes is a complex, sensitive man who generates deep affection in those with whom he shares the daily rituals of a life in High Performance.
He brings overt aggression to the ring that, he admits, is partly illusory. Before departing for London, he conceded that all that anger, the glaring, glove-thumping, neck-rolling pre-fight ritual was actually a front for nerves. "I still really get nervous before a fight," he revealed. "I walk to the ring saying 'What am I doing here?' No matter who I'm fighting, it's just something you have to get over.
"I say things like 'I'm going to kill them' just to wind the other lads up. I'm just trying to be as intimidating as possible. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't!"
Of Shiming, whose 13-10 decision against Kazakhstan's Birzhan Zhakypov was jeered in the arena, Barnes opined "He's getting old! Nah look he mightn't look as sharp as he did (in Beijing), but he's a three-time World champion and an Olympic champion, he's world class."
