Danyal digs deep to take gold in cup

QUEENSWAY ABC boxer Danyal Mahmood collected the gold medal at the recent Lord Lonsdale Box Cup.

Mahmood travelled to Penrith, Cumbria, to compete in the new competition alongside nearly 300 other boxers from across the country.

The Box Cup sees fighters get the chance to box three times over the same amount of days, running down to quarter finals, semis and a final for the chance to take gold.

This was Danyal’s first outing in more than a year since winning a national title and sustaining a bad hand injury which had prevented him from competing.

After progressing through the early rounds, Mahmood was up against Thomas Dring from Halewood ABC in the Merseyside and Cheshire region in the final.

Coming into the bout, Dring had almost twice the amount of bouts as Danyal but Queensway coaches felt this would be the case as they entered him in the under 20s category even though he has only nine fights under his belt.

“The reason they didn’t put him in the under 10s was down to confidence in his ability and we thought that he would be taking a backwards step doing so,” said David Hodkinson.

The first round saw both boxers trying to dominate the centre of the ring and get their jabs working.

The cleaner work came from the Queensway boxer as he knocked the head of Dring back on a number of occasions, taking the round clearly.

Being behind, Dring came out fast in the second round trying to even things up but the southpaw style of Mahmood was proving too tricky. Even though Dring got some success with the lead backhand, Mahmood did enough to take the second as well.

In the third round, Mahmood stayed on the outside of his opponent’s stance and landed the cleaner shots again frustrating Dring which left him taking more chances and leaving himself open for the counter.

After three rounds it went to the judges who were all in favour of Mahmood’s work, therefore landing him the win and the gold medal.

“It wasn’t Danyal at his best but we knew after such a long lay off and the fact it was during the month of Ramadan it was always going to be tricky,” added Hodkinson. “Given that we felt that he performed great and showed what a talent he is.”

He now has to defend the title over the next two years to win a Lonsdale belt.

‘We felt he performed great and showed what a talent he is’