SEVENTH HEAVEN
York ABC shows off its talent in Huntington
YORK ABC had seven winners when they staged a show at Huntington WMC on Saturday, May 6, including teenage middleweight Tommy Naismith.
In his second senior bout, Naismith, who broke his hand when winning the Celtic Box Cup last September, ground out a unanimous points win over Callum Daniels (Fox) in a thrilling fight.
There wasn’t much between them in the opening two minutes as they traded jabs before Naismith started to push Daniels back and land some heavy shots in the final minute.
He knocked Daniels off balance with a left hook that left him dabbing at a wound over his right eye and later in the round smashed a clean right hand off his jaw that Daniels took well. The second round was similar with Naismith getting stronger as it went on, walking through some punches to land his own shots down and up.
Naismith came out on his toes at the start of the third and boxed sharply behind his jab before planting his feet again to rip in body shots and left hooks. Daniels slammed back, but Naismith got the better of the exchanges. The doctor was called to look at the wound over Daniels’s eye, shortly after Naismith had been warned for a low blow. Naismith has a busy end to the season coming up. Coach Billy Wilson, who’s trained Naismith since he was eight years old, revealed he’s entered in next weekend’s Angel of the North Box Cup, along with the Haringey and Hull Box Cups.
Wilson also has super-heavyweight Arlo Stephens in action next weekend, in the Tri Nations Championship in Rotherham.
Stephens represents England after reaching the final of the NACS last month, losing to Gideon Antwi (Hoddesdon).
Wilson revealed Stephens was on hand at the club’s show “setting up chairs and helping the lads gets warmed up.”
Wilson boxed for the club himself, having around 40 bouts at 71kgs before turning professional.
Fighting at heavyweight, he had seven fights and said: “I didn’t want anything to do with boxing anymore after I finished my pro career.
“But then I got bored and decided to go back down to the amateur gym. There wasn’t much happening. They hadn’t had anyone in any championships for years and I decided to get involved.”
That was 14 years ago and Wilson now has 10 boxers carded, including
Lukas Butfield. Butfield won the Yorkshire Youth Elite belt at 60kgs after a bout in Bradford that produced four standing counts. Butfield was on the receiving end in the opening round against
Noah Nicholls (Training Cave) before he started to land his long punches.
Nicholls took two counts in the second and another in the last after Butfield found his jaw with a pinpoint right.