England’s amateur boxers produced a impressive display of at the York Hall in London’s Bethnal Green this evening, to see out an astonishing 9-2 victory over their American counterparts. Neither team fielded their full first team, but what the evening showed was a great strength in depth that the English amateur system currently has. The evening began with a few technical problems and even part of the ring canvas fell through in the opening bout, but that couldn’t take the shine away from a vintage performance. First up was Paul Butler, who came in at short notice to replace the experienced Darren Langley. Butler showed his class though and came through against Malcolm Franklin via a score of 19-7 to put the home nation in front. Flyweight Khalid Yafai showed some of the skills he possesses with an awesome first two rounds against Qa’id Muhammad. Yafai raced to a 12-0 lead at the halfway point, but struggled with his stamina and opponent in the final round. A computer failure meant the old scoring system was applied, but Yafai ran out a unanimous winner. Technical problems were brushed out in time for the next bout, but computer scoring wasn’t needed as Michael Maguire raced out and outscored David Clark inside of two rounds. The American team enjoyed a brief comeback over the next two bouts. Firstly Rico Ramos managed to get a victory over Thomas Stalker in what has to be said wasn’t the most entertaining bout of the evening and the Miguel Gonzalez made sure that Karl Place’s international debut wasn’t one to remember as he took a 12-5 victory. Place came in for Frankie Gavin at short notice and struggled with the level of competition. Gonzalez’s victory was to be the last for the American team though as England won each of the remaining six bouts. Craig Dixon beat Dan O’Connor in what was another untidy bout, which may have been down to the mix of an orthodox and southpaw stance. Dixon took a 13-11 victory after showing good heart in the final round to come from behind. Billy Jo Saunders impressed observers including WBC/WBA Cruiserweight champion by stopping Greg Carter in three rounds. Saunders needed three points to outscore his opponent with less than 15 seconds remaining, looking for an impressive victory he came forward and gave England a 5-2 lead. Victory was sealed by the ever impressive James DeGale, who showed just what he’s made of against the highly regarded Shawn Porter. DeGale’s first two rounds were nothing short of awesome as he showed a Cuban style in picking and scoring at will. In the second half of the fight he showed the flaws that have cost him at big, namely the lack of concentration. DeGale took his foot off the gas, but still took a comfortable 23-4 victory. Light heavyweight Obed Mbwakongo had possibly the toughest opponent in the shape of Golden Gloves champion Siju Shabazz. Both men had claims to represent their country at Octobers in Chicago, but just fell short. In an entertaining bout Mbwakongo showed how agile he was especially for a light heavyweight in taking a 20-2 victory. Heavyweight Danny Price is a boxer full of confidence at the minute, after just returning with a Gold medal from an test event in China. He boxed strongly to beat Quantis Graves by a score of 21-1. A sign of how good Price performed, was shown by the fact that he didn’t concede a point until the last round. Price will hope to take this form and confidence into the next Olympic qualifying event in Italy in February. The show closer saw the same incident with the ring canvas as we saw in the opening bout, but didn’t take anything away from a good little battle. Local boxer Damian Campbell came good in the last round to pull the fight back to 6-6 and was given the nod by the countback system. All in all an impressive performance from the England team, who showed just what they had in reserve for the coming years and hopefully the good form will continue into 2008 and ultimately the Beijing Olympics. Results 48kg – This content is protected beat This content is protected 19-7 51kg – This content is protected beat This content is protected Unanimous decision 54kg – This content is protected beat This content is protected RSCOS2 24-4 57kg – This content is protected lost to This content is protected 5-7 60kg – This content is protected lost to This content is protected 5-12 64kg – This content is protected beat This content is protected 13-11 69kg – This content is protected beat This content is protected RSCOS3 22-2 75kg – This content is protected beat This content is protected 23-4 81kg – This content is protected beat This content is protected 20-2 91kg – This content is protected beat This content is protected 21-1 91kg+ - This content is protected beat This content is protected +6-6 Overall Score: ENGLAND 9 USA 2 the guys who stood out where the light heavy obed mbwakongo and light welter james deGale and now added michael maguire :rasta
I think you forgot to mention michael maguire as a guy who stood out i thought he was better than degale and that was only his first senior fight.
