Young Horsham boxer shows vast improvement in cracking bout

Harvey, in his first competitive bout, showed vast improvements since his home show skills bout which was his introduction to boxing.

Harvey started the first round being the more aggressive, coming forward behind straight shots with a good high guard, catching Riddler and putting him on the back foot.

Both boxer showed good boxing skills, but Harvey quite clearly won the round.

The second saw more of the same, in what became a game of cat and mouse as Riddler was again on the back foot using the ring well as Harvey tried to put on the pressure.

Towards the end of the second round, Toby caught Harvey with a good shot which bloodied his nose.

As the third bell commenced, with his nose bleeding, Harvey undeterred and came at Riddler with some big rear hand, left hooks which seemed to slow his opponent up.

Both boxer gave it their all until the final bell in what was a cracking bout.

Coach John Essex said: “Over the past couple of months, Harvey has been training extremely hard and working on the improvements he needed to make to become an accomplished boxer.

“His dedication has been great, and he has been in the gym five days a week, working on not only his boxing but his fitness too.

“Harvey had a bit of a disastrous skills bout first time round but has improved tenfold since then.”

Fellow coach Danny Essex added: “Harvey has an awkward style which could be tricky for his opponents.

“If he keeps showing this dedication, I have no doubt he could go on to do very well in the sport.

“It was great to see him box Friday and the hard work he has put in really did show and paid off for him.

“As coaches we couldn’t be prouder.”

In other club news, female club captain Olivia Baker, club captain Madhav Purcell and Mike Bell have started on their level one coaching course and will soon also be part of the coaching team, helping to pass on their boxing skills to the young, up and coming junior boxers.