Kingdom Boxing answer the call up in Highlands

Two Kingdom boxers, Youth James Fish and Elite Daryl Gray, fitted the bill to match up against two of the home HBA boxers whose opponents pulled out and took up the challenge at just two days’ notice.

The club’s boxers train and spar regularly and are always ready to travel and box at short notice especially to help out other clubs – pull-outs due to injuries and other reasons are common place due to the nature of boxing and are a matchmaker’s nightmare.

Kingdom’s 75kg 05 Youth silver medalist James Fish was in action in the top of the bill main event against HBA’s 04 Scottish Champion Joshua Morrison.

The two boxers came out at the first bell to a loud roar from the large, partisan crowd with the home boxer coming out of the corner fastest keeping Fish on the back foot.

As the round went on Fish started to settle and there were some good exchanges from both boxers with the home boxer’s work rate taking the round.

After a pep talk from coach Mathew Fleming at the break Fish came out for the second round blanking out the noise from the crowd, upping his work rate and coming forward with more offensive boxing.

It was another close round which was too tough to call.

In the third and final round both boxers came out with it all to go for. The crowd was now quieter, appreciating the skills and determination being shown from both boxers.

Fish started out how he finished the second on the front foot, taking the fight to his opponent, keeping

him on the back foot and, now having found his distance and all his training paying off, started to catch the home boxer with some good, clean shots.

Both boxers still had successful flurries and gave their all right to the final bell in Fish’s best round of the

night.

After an anxious wait it was the home boxer who had his hand raised as the winner but Fish can be proud of his performance, especially taking the fight at only 48 hours notice against the year older Scottish Champion in his own back yard.

This was a well matched bout between two young warriors who lived up to the expectations of being top of the bill by also winning The Best Fight of the Night award. Kingdom hope to arrange a rematch for some time in the future.

Gray’s opponent unfortunately had to pull out after passing the medical and weighing in due to a family emergency but luckily there was another HBA boxer available to step up in the ring.

But due to a difference in weight between the boxers it had to be a non scoring exhibition bout.

It was disappointing for Gray who was prepared for a competitive fight but after travelling all the way to Inverness he was happy to at least get in the ring and a good workout against a heavier, experienced boxer.

Gray will be travelling again next weekend along with Kingdom team mates James McLaren, JM Crombie and Adian Grubb who are all boxing at the Skyaxe Boxing Club Show in Dundee.