Friday night saw the first ever Amateur Boxing Scotland “Bring Back Boxing” Dinner event held at the Thistle Hotel in Glasgow in conjunction with Rob Roy Amateur Boxing Club.
The Ballroom was crammed to its 400 seat capacity with guests watching the highly anticipated Glasgow v Edinburgh contest. Guests were given an evening crammed full of top boxing bouts, a four course dinner and a charity auction.
ABS was delighted to have Josh Taylor as their special guest at the event. Josh is an amazing ambassador for the sport and has recently qualified for the London 2012 Olympics Boxing team. Josh is the first Scot in 20 years to qualify for the Olympics and the assembled guests definitely showed their appreciation of this fantastic achievement.
After dinner and the formalities it was time for the Glasgow v Edinburgh battle to commence. First into the ring were Derek Skinner and Chris Givens with a unanimous victory for the Edinburgh side.
Next up with the pressure on for Glasgow was Brian Douglas from Rob Roy ABC and Andy Thorburn. With the Glasgow crowd behind him and many of his boxing comrades cheering him on it was Brian who gave a convincing performance to come away with a win.
Glasgow continued to dominate in the next two bouts with unanimous victories for novice boxer Marco Giannotti and Daniel Welsh both wearing their Rob Roy colours.
However Edinburgh fought back hard in the next round. The bout was action packed from the first bell with Connor McGregor from Clovenstone beating Dennistoun McNair’s highly regarded Scottish Champion Craig McIntyre.
It was Glasgow wins all the way for the next 5 bouts which delighted the local crowd. David Jamieson, Steven McAslan, Steve Jamieson, Kevin Kane and William Mowat all outshone their Edinburgh counterparts.
So it was Glasgow’s night with 8 wins out of 10 against their Edinburgh rivals. Rob Roy ABC in particular had a fantastic night of boxing with 3 of their boxers winning their bouts.
Reflecting on the event, ABS Chairman Richard Thomas commented ”I would like to express my sincere thanks to James Lyon and Bradley Welsh for their hard work and dedication in putting tonight’s dinner and show together. This was a hugely successful boxing event and hopefully the first of many as ABS Dinners as we continue our campaign to Bring Back Boxing. Our campaign is designed to increase the numbers of young people taking part in the sport at grass roots level, develop the talent already competing for medals and raise the public profile of amateur boxing from a spectator perspective.”
RESULTS
69kg Chris Given, Holyrood beat Derek Skinner, Kilsyth GG – points
70kg Brian Douglas, Rob Roy beat Andy Thorburn, Holyrood – points
60kg Marco Giannotti , Rob Roy beat Ben Tulley, The Bronx – points
69kg Daniel Welsh, Rob Roy beat Sam Ewing, Holyrood – points
56kg Connor McGregor, Clovenstone beat Craig McIntyre, Dennistoun McNair – points
81kg David Jamieson , Blantyre beat Kevin Gorrian, Clovenstone – points
59kg Steven McAslan, Rob Roy beat Samir Singh, Meadowbank – Round 1
91kg Steve Jamieson, Paisley YM -beat Roan Morrison, Holyrood – points
81kg Kevin Kane, Dennistoun McNair beat Pieyam Khosrowpour, Clovenstone – points
64kg William Mowat, The Barn beat Sean Spence, Meadowbank – points
