AMATEURS
A fantastic Haringey Box Cup highlights some rising stars in the amateur sport
Report from the Haringey Box Cup
THE definition of action-packed, the 11th Haringey Box Cup filled the Great Hall at Alexandra Palace from June 22-24.
Out of hundreds of contests and almost 400 boxers, there were standout performers. Gabriel
Dossen won the prize for Best Male Boxer and rightly so. Sharp, composed, with real handspeed, the Olympic Galway boxer put in a series of excellent displays.
He shone from the Class A 75kgs quarter-finals when he outclassed White Hart Lane’s Aboul-chakour
Toure. Dossen moved his feet precisely, managing the distance between the two and whipping hurtful right hooks in with his southpaw lead. Toure heaved the occasional right hand at him, but his success was only sporadic. Dossen won a unanimous decision.
Fairbairn’s Joshua Gustave reached the semi-final edging out Gemini’s Alex Pattison. The latter picked out openings with combination punching, while Gustave resorted to his strength and power, driving forward to catch Pattison and pocket a split decision.
But Gabriel Dossen defused Gustave when they met. The Irishman fired in his left cross and, confident in his accuracy, could wait for Gustave to come forward and unleash well timed counters.
Dossen won the semi and final by unanimous decision. His last opponent, Bulkington’s River Wilson-bent, was defiant, putting weight behind his right cross and lunging for Dossen. But Gabriel denied him opportunities. Fast, straight one-twos harried Wilsonbent and he punished River’s wild swings with repeated jabs.
Wilson-bent had taken a split decision over Triumph’s Bradley Goldsmith in their semi-final.
There were a host of ferociously competitive bouts throughout the event. One of the best was the women’s lightweight final between St. Mary’s Chatham’s Louise Orton and the Army’s Alanna Nihell. Orton tested her chin with a right
GABRIEL DOSSEN PUT IN A SERIES OF EXCELLENT DISPLAYS
cross straight through the middle early on in the first round. But Nihell kept up a high workrate and began to connect with her back hand. Her timing came into play as the contest progressed. But Orton rallied at the end of the second round, lining up cross after cross.
They tore forward in the third, opening up with wild punches, maximising their aggression to finish the bout. Orton came away with a unanimous decision victory and was the Best Female Boxer of the competition.
Repton, for the second time, won the team trophy, the Haringey Box Cup itself. Repton took four gold medals and one silver medal. Their Youths were impressive. Dennis Mccann caught the eye. He edged Dublin City’s quality Dean Clancy
in their Youth 52kgs final, while Repton Youth bantamweight Adan Mohammed took a unanimous decision over Golden Ring’s Lennox Gill in their final.
They were by no means the only impressive Youth boxers. Hoddesdon’s Henry Turner
did not rush his work against Islington’s Jay Jay Curtin. When the Londoner stepped towards him, Turner lashed him with a southpaw right hook. He began to plant clear left crosses on Curtin’s chin, timing those shots, getting into a rhythm and winning their Youth 64kgs final by unanimous decision.
St. Mary’s Chatham’s Youth 81kgs Karol Itauma is going places. The heavy-handed southpaw brought his aggression to bear against Southampton’s Luke Mcwhinnie.
Itauma came straight to him, jabbing high and firing a left cross into his body. He deployed quality punches and rocked Mcwhinnie with a right hook. A flush cross
dropped Luke to the canvas in the first round. Itauma kept the pressure on, wobbling him into the ropes. Coming off the strands, Mcwhinnie fought back, catching Karol. But in the third round Itauma drilled him with head shots and halted Luke inside the distance.
The winner of the prize for Best Youth was Harwich’s Rio
Gordon. The welterweight beat Poseiden’s Taylor Bevan. But he was by no means the only star from the Harwich club. Their Elite welterweight Paul Gordon scored a major upset when he took a split decision over Ireland’s vastly experienced Dean Walsh. The St. Ibrars’ man’s corner was not best pleased. Harwich light-heavyweight Pat
Allen Cripps manoeuvred deftly round Earlsfield’s Omar Augustine in their Class A final. He shifted his upper body away from punches and his footwork kept him clear of further attacks. Cripps chalked up the first two rounds but Omar hammered his body with left hooks, managing to get to him in the third. Cripps had a point deducted for ³
³ holding but it did not deny him a unanimous decision victory.
Augustine however had impressed in his semi-final against Triumph’s
Aaron Bowen. Omar piled into him from the opening bell, the onslaught constant. He never let his workrate relent and while Bowen clipped him with the odd counter, he didn’t got a foothold in the contest or drive Augustine off. Omar forced him on to the backfoot and took a split decision win. His Earlsfield team-mate
Connor Marsden also reached the semi-finals. Like many boxers under the current scoring system, he felt obliged to box aggressively, neglecting his jab as he didn’t want to chance boxing in the backfoot.
Marsden opened his account beating Nemesis’ Carlos Regina Moran
who was penalised and ultimately disqualified after a third warning for holding. Connor met Dublin City lightweight Terry
Mcentee in the semi-final. Tall for the weight, Marsden still bored into him, bringing a long right uppercut through and doubling up his right hook.
Mcentee began to adjust, working on the inside to pop in his right cross. He swept his backhand over the top. Both boxers engaged, their exchanges quality. Mcentee took a split decision win. The Irishman won gold in the final outpointing Irish Colleges & Universities’ Patryk Adamus also on a split decision.
Shamim Khan was the Army’s gold medallist. He must be a nightmare to box. A southpaw, cheerfully he keeps his hands low and leaps forward to swing punches in from unexpected, awkward angles. In the 56kgs Class A final he took a unanimous decision over
Sean Purcell of Irish Colleges and Universities. Sportingly after the bout each in turn presented the other with their medal.
But one of the Army’s leading boxers, Ryan Fillingham suffered a shock defeat. He looked in marauding form in his 64kgs quarter-final, hammering salvoes of punches into Downend Police’s
Tom Williams to win a unanimous decision. But in the semi-final Keith
Flavin of the Celtic Team caught him out. He stunned Fillingham and then hammered him down to the canvas to win a knockout victory. Westree light-welter Sam
Noakes is entertaining to watch. He barrelled into Senan Kelly of Dublin City Univeristy. Eager to land
damaging shots of his own, Noakes let left hooks through his guard as he marched forward. But he drove right crosses through with mauling aggression. He handed Kelly a standing count in the second round and pressed on mercilessly in the third, ultimately taking a unanimous decision win and gold in his group.
Basingstoke had a good tournament with two champions in Bryce Goodridge and Jacob
Gabriel, winning their fifth and third Box Cup gold medals respectively. Goodridge capped a successful season, unanimously outscoring Djurgårdens’ Alex
Bwambale in their Class A 91kgs final.
Gabriel collected a sequence of good victories. Jacob secured his gold medal with a split decision victory over Islington’s
Lamin Conteh in their Class A 69kgs final. In the semi-final he beat Guildford’s skilful Alfie Winter with a split verdict. Gabriel opened his campaign at the tournament unanimously outscoring Henry’s Gym’s Rafal Benka, crossing his arms to defend his body and taking the measure of his opponent to pick out openings.
The final bout of the final day saw super-heavyweights collide. Jewellery Quarter’s Delicious Iwichukwu landed long jabs on
Gideon Antwi. The Hoddesdon southpaw slung through his right hook. He switched stances briefly but Iwichukwu began to show greater variety as the contest progressed. Antwi whipped a hefty right uppercut through. Gideon shifted his body well but Delicious found success as he increased his punch output. Iwichukwu applied further jabs and both provided a grandstand finish, trading ferocious punches. Delicious took a split decision and the title.
High calibre action overall made this tournament, expertly organised as ever by Terri Kelly, Brian John, Ken Marsh, Gerry Willmott and Haringey’s team of volunteers, thoroughly entertaining. And MC Dan O’sullivan managed to announce the bouts and the results constantly ranging round all the rings (five on Friday, four on the other two days) throughout three long days, and even threw in some updates from the World Cup while he was at it.
For the full results from the mammoth tournament visit https:// jabforms.com/haringeyboxcup2018/ programme/. bn
YOUTH LIGHTHEAVY KAROL ITAUMA IS GOING PLACES