Warriors shine in second show
THE North West Female Boxing Team – also known as the North West Warriors – held their second regional show of the season at Macclesfield Community Centre.
After picking up a best team win at the Winter Box Cup, they joined forces with the regional England Boxing Select, coming together from all over the country to box the North West Warriors.
We started out with the young, less experienced girls on skills bouts, all looking to learn and develop from these contests ready to box next season. There were five skills bout and 10 bouts.
First up in a proper bout was Lexi Joyce out of Tyson Fury’s Amateur club Jimmy Egan’s, who gave a great display of work but lost on a split to a very good girl from Birmingham.
Kemi Odipe, who recently had lost confidence but through the squad training built it back up, gave a performance of fantastic boxing to get a unaminous win.
Sara Taj gave a fantastic display of her technical boxing to a really tough girl 12 months older to get a win on a split.
Scarlett Holden and Kayla Dryden, both from the same region, went toe to toe in a fantastic battle. This bout was so close, both as tough as one another, with just a matter of a few scoring shots between them. Scarlett just nudged the win on a split.
Amy Ford, a senior boxer, was pitted against a boxer from the Isle of Man and got off to a good start in first round, landing big shots. In the second round the Manx girl got the measure of her opponent and started to gain, giving Amy a count.
Amy got on her toes in the third and started to land the bigger shots again to give the Manx girl an eight count. At this point they were even but Amy kept the tempo and power up just enough to take the win on a split. A great contest.
Raya Hopkins was up against a Merseyside girl. This fight had been on a couple of times before but kept getting pulled but today it was on and both girls wanted the win. Raya went out and was very relaxed, her opponent tracking her down and landing some big shots but Raya worked off her back foot and countered beautifully. She kept her head together dealing with the big shots and countered brilliantly which was good enough to get her the win.
Marshall Miller and Ashley Hoskingson, 70kg, had a fantastic bout as Marshall – tall and rangy – and Ashley, short and stocky. I’ve seen both these girls box before and Marshall is a force to be reckoned with. Ashley did brilliant to take big shots and came back fiesty to land some big shots herself. Marshall caught the judges eyes and got the win on a unaminous.
The day went really well all the girls and coaches all said what a fantastic day of boxing, one of the best they’d seen. The away boxing coaches all had good feedback and said would like to be involved if we ever have another one. A fantastic day all round.
A spokesperson said: “The North West Warriors would like to give a big thank you for all the volunteers who helped out on the day and also to the donating of the food and the staff in the kitchen. Thank you. Onwards and upwards.”