Cowan makes it a debut to remember with St Helens win
HAVING taken a bout with just 48 hours’ notice at JC Boxing Club’s show in St Helens, Macclesfield Boys Boxing Club had two youngsters on the card – George Oliver and, making his debut, James Cowan.
George was boxing a very experienced kid form JCs, Keziah Kindon, whose opponent pulled out a couple of days before.
We knew he was heavier and had a good record but we are keen to keep George busy so took the bout straight away.
This bout didn’t disappoint as both these kids are quality boxers. George’s first round was effortless has he caught his opponent at will, showing really good reflexes and shape counters. Keziah couldn’t keep with him.
Round 2 and Keziah’s team changed the game plan, he was now matching George and both kids were pushing their boxing skills to the limit, making it a very close round.
The third round saw the tables turned as George’s fitness just dipped slightly and with that his reflexes also slowed. It made Keziah’s jabs look impressive as they landed cleanly. They weren’t hurting George but looked good in front of the judges and come the final bell it was very close but the home fighter just tipped the scales as the judges awarded the win on a split. No arguments as it could have gone either way but what a display of true boxing ability from both kids, pleasing the crowd
through out.
Next up was James Cowan making his debut. His opponent, also a home fighter from JCs, was Aaron Cox.
They touched gloves as Aaron towered over James – he must have been around 6ft 3ins with long arms, so the odds were stacked against James.
Round one and James did the only thing he could do against a much taller boxer, that was cover up tight and put the pressure on, take a shot to get a shot which he did as Aaron tried his best to keep him at arms’ length so he could get the solid shots in.
James never once gave him the space to box, applying himself forward constantly and catching with some beautiful accurate shots that were clearly causing Aaron problems.
The coaches were telling him to keep pushing on and keep throwing so it was inevitable that the eight count would come and it did in round three. The referee was continually pulling James up for anything – head too low, hitting round the back, holding – anything to give his opponent some breathing space as James never stopped cutting the ring down. Again he caught Aaron cleanly, giving the ref no option but to give a second eight count.
Any other referee may well have stopped it but Aaron was allowed to see out the round. James had performed meticulously and as instructed, bagging himself his first unanimous win away from home and he was very pleased to say the least. Big shout out to all the coaches Ben Oliver, Donna Shaw and Tom Barnes.
We weren’t so lucky on the next night, having scheduled a bout for Rahual Igbal over in Northwich on the New Era show. We were bang on weight at 45.4kg on a 46kg match. Unfortunately, his opponent weighed in at 49.6kg, over four kilos heavier, so it was a no go. We had trained hard for the contest, been meticulous with the weight only to be let down on the night which happens from time to time but is avoidable with better communication.