Moyo nabs another award
‘TT’ impresses with a pair of dominant displays
THABISO ‘TT’ MOYO was awarded the Dave Pratt Memorial Shield at Leicester Railwaymen’s ABC’S show on April 7. The shield is named after one of the founders of the original club, Old Robin Hood. Pratt, a former amateur and pro, set up Old Robin Hood in 1987 and died in 2015, aged 53.
Moyo became the club’s first national champion when she won NABGC honours last December.
And the 16-year-old southpaw followed that by winning the Junior ABA Championship at under-75kgs at Loughborough University with a pair of dominant displays. In the semi-finals, Moyo faced Lillie Parry (Wirral CP) and handed her a count in each round to win unanimously on the cards.
That sent her through to the following day’s final, where she met Marshall Miller (Workington).
The fighters met in the centre of the ring and traded punches furiously in the opening few seconds before Moyo gave herself some room and found the target with some long, clean shots to force an eight count.
Miller tore into Moyo on the resumption and tried to match her punch-for-punch in hard exchanges until Moyo took over in the last. She forced two more counts with lefts and it was stopped.
Moyo was among a packed crowd for her club’s show at their East Park Road base and saw three of her clubmates have their hand raised.
Austin Linford is the 15-yearold son of Neil Linford, who won European Youth bronze as an amateur and challenged for British and Commonwealth pro honours.
Neil was in Austin’s corner, along with Rendall Munroe, the former Commonwealth and European champion and the most successful boxer to wear the club’s red and green colours.
Austin made it two wins in the space of a few weeks, using a thumping jab to control Liam Hunt (Atherstone).
And there were stoppage wins for his clubmates Lewis Sharpe and Sheldon Squire.
Sharpe returned after a year out to stop Liam Tomlinson (Pound 4 Pound) in the second.
The 14-year-old forced a count with a flurry early in the second and finished the bout impressively.
He slipped a jab and countered with a pinpoint right to the jaw to have Tomlinson covering up.
Sharpe switched his attacks downstairs and with nothing come back, the referee stepped in.
Squire was too strong for Skegness southpaw Zak Ison in a battle of junior debutants.
The compact Squire was soon crowding Ison and gave him two counts with short, heavy punches before it was waved off.