Boxing: Buckhaven's Faris Tanahill loses out in tightly-contested last minute bout

Kingdom Boxing received a desperate call from Lambton Street Boxing Club in Sunderland asking Tanahill, 14, would take a fight at short notice at their show night against home boxer, Hull Boxcup champion, James Scott – whose opponent had pulled out of the bout.

It was a good match on paper with both the junior boxers being the same age, weight and exactly at the same records of 13 bouts, nine wins and four losses each.

As expected it was a well matched, close fight with Tanahill coming out fastest in the first round making the home boxer miss with his punches and scoring with counter punches to probably win the opening round.

The second round was closer, the English boxer changing tactics, being busier and coming forward with more assertion, both boxers having good spells but the home boxer landing the better shots to take the second round.

All down to the final round, whoever wins this round will get the verdict, the Englishman’s confidence up having had a good second round he came out in the same manner, both boxers having success in the exchanges and both pushing right to the final bell knowing whoever finished the best would win the fight and unfortunately it was the Sunderland boxer who had his hand raised as winner on points on the judges scorecards.

Kingdom’s George Forrester said of Faris’ fight: “It was a great experience and learning curve for him and he will be back in the gym on Monday and looking forward to the next one. We would like to thank Lambton Street Boxing Club for the invite and their hospitality, hopefully we can set up more matches in the future.”

Also boxing this weekend was Kingdom youth boxer Jackson Gammie who fought on in the joint Lochend and MacTaggart Scott Boxing Clubs show in Dalkeith Miners Club. This was a rematch against MacTaggart Scott’s Jamie Stamp who narrowly beat Gammie at Kingdom’s annual show in September at Pettycur Bay both boxers having improved since their last encounter but it was virtually a replay of that and it was Stamp who was victorious again by a points decision.

Next for the club is the Boxing Scotland Youth & Elite Golden Gloves Championships which take place over the next two weekends at Ravenscraig Sports Facility in Motherwell.

Kingdom have three boxers competing in the championships, James Fish in the youth middleweight category, Daryl Gray in the elite light middleweight and Davy Nelson at elite cruiserweight.