On February 4th, Roar was invited to watch the London University Fight Night hosted at the Greenwood Theatre by KCL Amateur Boxing Club.
The event started after a delay at around 2.30 pm with 11 scheduled bouts on the card. The card showcased students from KCL, Cambridge, UCL, Brunel, Imperial and Queen Mary. There was also one boxer from Finchley in district ABC, the club which Anthony Joshua came from. All bouts were scheduled as three two-minute rounds.
KCL Amateur Boxing Club had boxer involved in seven out of the eleven bouts scheduled, winning six of them – a strong showing. UCL won one out of four, Finchley won its one and only bout, Imperial one out of two, Queen Mary one out of three and Cambridge none. Despite it being held by KCL at the Greenwood Theatre, the atmosphere amongst friends, families, and coaches in attendance was filled with the utmost respect for all the boxers.
The event kicked off with a performance by the KCL Lions event team in front of the ring which offered vicious support for all the KCL boxers whenever they entered the ropes. During the event, Roar spoke to some members of KCL Lions: Yasmin Bumma-Dykes (Captain of Duchess Squad), Eleanor Thomson (coach), and Lydia Olika (Vice-Captain of the Duchess Squad).
Speaking about why they enjoy cheerleading, Yasmin mentioned her love for the uniform and pom-poms as well as how diverse the squad is. Eleanor, who just completed her masters at King’s, still comes back to coach this squad and remarked how she loved coaching the girls and generating a big family whilst challenging them to achieve their best. Lydia stressed the camaraderie of the team.
The atmosphere before each fight was aided by a plethora of cheering from whatever university boxer entered between the ropes; especially vocal were a group of UCL students. There various different entrance music from Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” to Indilia’s “Tourner Dans Le Vide”. There were two announcers; the 2nd one appeared to be doing his best impression of UFC’s announcer, Bruce Buffer.
Out of the seven KCL fights on the card, the results were as follows:
Fight 1 : KCL’s Levan Tkhelieze (58kg) beat Cambridge’s Will Tan (57kg) by split decision
Fight 3: ABC’s Maria de-Araujo Finchley (66kg) beat KCL’s Saloni Trivedi (66kg) by split decision
Fight 5: KCL’s Thomas Cittern-Suddaby (74kg) beat Imperial’s Serban Gutiu (73 kg) by split decision
Fight 7: KCL’s Taseen Hussain (67kg) beat QMUL’s Mohan Prasad Baskaran (67kg) by unanimous decision
Taseen and Mohan both throwing left hooks during their bout
Fight 9: KCL’s Petr Borodavkin (64kg) beat Brunel’s Callum Smith (64kg) by split decision
Fight 10: KCL’s Joshua Betts-Priddy (67kg) beat Brunel’s Jonathan Kwamena Abakah (67kg) by split decision
Fight 11: KCL’s Shaheen Alghofari (78kg) beat UCL’s Florian Yu-Deng (78kg) by unanimous decision
Notable Mentions from the fight night must go to the knockdown from as one of the trainers in attendance called him “Mr Muscle”, Thomas Cittern-Suddaby of his opponent in the final round of his bout with Serban Gutiu, who throw some heavy shots that rocked his opponent to his boots.
Thomas walking away from his opponent after knocking him down in the 3rd round of his bout.
Fight of the Night: Solomi’s fight against Maria of Finchley in district ABC.
The picture above shows Solomi taking a big shot from Maria during the fight but that doesn’t tell you anything about this fight at all. Solomi having come from a MMA background was in her first ever boxing bout and talk around the ring was that her power even troubled some of the heavier KCL boxers.
In the opening two rounds, Solomi had two standing counts against her and was being outboxed as this picture shows. But in the 3rd round, she bit down on her gumshield and showed true heart and guts throwing all what she had at her opponent which lead to the boxer from Finchley suffering a standing count of her own. The reaction of the crowd when this happened was vociferous and greeted Solomi’s shear pride as she raised her gloves aloft in the opposing corner.
Many thanks to KCL Amateur Boxing Club for allowing us to attend this great event and Roar looks forward to more great fight nights soon!
All photos courtesy of @thehoboslens
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