Kingdom Boxing Club: Super six fighters are rewarded for ‘outstanding’ exploits

David Fleming, Josh Galloway, JM Crombie, James McLaren and Daryl Gray were honoured on the night, with an award also going to clubmate Billy Cooper who was unable to attend the recent presentation ceremony.

Galloway and Cooper, both 23-year-olds of Kirkcaldy, won golds at the Boxing Scotland Development Championships in Motherwell just a couple of months ago.

Galloway triumphed in the cruiserweight division by beating Shaun Torrie of Brechin’s Cathedral Boxing Club, while Elite welterweight Cooper had a final success over Thomas Kirkpatrick of Solway Spartans Boxing Club from Dumfries and Galloway.

Two other Kingdom representatives competed at the Ravenscraig Sports Facility competition. Fleming, 25, of Kirkcaldy, narrowly lost the elite light-welterweight final to take the silver medal, while Crombie, 18, who hails from Edinburgh but works in Kirkcaldy, was a youth light-middleweight silver medallist.

McLaren, 23, of Kirkcaldy, secured a technical knock-out win over Sparta’s Mark Thompson in November, while 28-year-old Gray, of Kirkcaldy, beat home boxer Kamil Brojak at the Sparta show and also won Fight of the Night at Kingdom’s home show at Pettycur Bay.

Kingdom BC secretary George Forrester paid tribute to the group of young stars for their exploits in preparing for fights and putting this preparation into practice in fine style.

"The lads were all really chuffed to get these certificates,” Forrester told the Fife Free Press. “Boxing is a dedicated sport. It’s not like a team sport like football where you could have a bad day but your team-mates can carry you.

"In a boxing ring there’s just you and the person in the opposite corner.

"Your coaches are there to help but once that bell rings and you are in the ring it’s just the two of you.

"These guys are training a minimum of three nights a week.

"If they’ve got a fight or championships it’s three or four nights and then a day at the weekend.They’re also doing running in between times.”