Hitman hails Harrison’s performance
ON the night England beat Wales in the World Cup in Qatar, 11-year-old Harrison “Harry” Wright travelled to Rotunda Boxing Gym in Liverpool to contest his skills against Sonny Ainscough, 12.
When the bell rang to start the first round, the Hamer boxer stormed out of the blue corner to meet his Rotunda opponent in the middle of the ring where both boxers exchanged a barrage of punches.
Instantaneously raising up the decibels in the room, it was a relentless first round in which both boxers continued to land aggressive punches upon each other.
As the round progressed it became visible that Harrison’s well-schooled punches were much sharper and more effective, whilst Ainscough continued to hold his opponent in every exchange, which must have caught the judges’ eyes.
At the start of round two, Harrison came out to land a one-two combination, followed by an effective left hook to the side of the jaw.
Ainscough attacked him again with multiple punches and Harrison replied with solid hooks to both the body and head.
Ainscough continued to attack, and he forced Harrison into the neutral corner where both boxers landed aggressive blows upon each other.
As the seconds ticked away, Harrison changed his tactics and he began to use faints to draw his opponent closer to him so that he could connect with combinations as Ainscough approached him.
When the Rotunda boxer moved into range, Harrison landed sweet and fast combinations to both the body and head, forcing Ainscough to continue to hold, which brought warnings from the referee.
In the third and last round, the Hamer boxer came out with purpose when he instantly landed a solid right hand to the chin of his opponent.
He continued to step forward on his front foot to take the action back to the Rotunda boxer, and he landed another stinging right hand to the head, before Ainscough forced him into the neutral corner again where he replied with punches of his own, only to receive another stinging left hook to the jaw.
As the round progressed, Ainscough continued to throw punches whilst he held onto Harrison with his left arm, which brought another warning from the referee.
Then, just before the bell rang to end the contest, Ainscough stormed towards Harrison to land another barrage of punches and as he did, he laid his chin upon the Hamer boxer’s chest, leading Harrison to momentarily step back and land a thunderous righthanded uppercut to the chin, followed by another accurate left hook to take the contest by a split-decision in a very closely fought bout.
Harrison’s coaches, Matt Lageard and Alan
Bacon, told him that he boxed brilliantly, whilst another extremely distinctive boxer who was in the audience that night – one Ricky ‘Hitman’ Hatton – told Harrison that he put in a terrific performance.