Eight Cranbrook Eagles showed off their skills in Nelson at Fight Night VI on May 11.
The Cranbrook group included experienced and new boxers to the ring as they put on a show for the crowd.
“I’m super proud,” said Bill Watson, coach. “There’s never a moment when a coach can’t be prouder than when it’s all said and done and you have other coaches come over and compliment you on the performance of your boxers — that’s what happened Saturday night.”
Dylan Clark had what was considered the most entertaining fight of the night when he went up against Portland’s Gustavo Garcia.
“It was an entertaining one,” Clark said with a smile. “It was fun and a little bit of showboating.”
Clark went on to win his match against Garcia by a unanimous decision. Going into the ring Clark wanted to use his height and reach as an advantage.
“I stuck to the jab and I could let go some power shots as soon as he tried to come close. That’s what we did and executed it,” he said.
Clark was also awarded the Best Boxer Trophy at the end of the night.
“He left over coaches in awe of his performance,” explained Watson. “He was doing things you don’t really see boxers do. He got very creative, which is good. I encourage boxers to do that as long as they aren’t getting hurt.”
Hannah Jung had the first fight of her boxing career. In her exhibition bout, she went up against Salmon Arm’s Kristin Dyball, the match was stopped in the first round.
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“It went pretty well,” said Jung. “Around a minute-and-a-half, I got two eight counts on her in the first half, so they had to stop the fight.”
A standing eight count is when the referee stops to action and during the time the referee determines if the boxer can continue. After this happened twice, the referee in this match stopped the fight.
“For my first fight I thought it was pretty cool,” said Jung. “I wanted to fight more because it was under a round, but that’s okay and I understand.”
After the bout was stopped, Jung went in and showed her sportsmanship by hugging her first opponent and finding out if she was okay.
With this being the first match for the 15-year-old, Jung said it was special stepping into the ring.
“I was fine until I walked up to the steps and got into the ring,” she explained. “I was like ‘oh my gosh’ I had so many butterflies, my body was like jello. When the bell went it was like everybody wasn’t there and I was ready for this.”
It was a learning experience for Jung, which she hopes to take the feedback into her future fights.
“Instead of just going for attacks, move around a little more and use more of my defence, instead of going straight for offence,” she said.
Other Cranbrook Eagle matches in Nelson included Dawson Canning winning a unanimous decision against Nelson’s Manson Mackay; Cody Dinunzio won in a second-round technical blowout against Revelstoke’s Caden Hedley; Nike Blackmore’s exhibition bout was stopped in the first round against Nelson’s Brett Adams; Cohen Penner won in his Fun Box match against Nelson’s Marino Raffo; Connor Ferrier lost in a close decision against Nelson’s Stryder Sutton; and Ty Kolbeck lost a close decision to Portland’s David Calderon.
Up next, three Cranbrook Eagles boxers will be off to Rumble at Rock Creek where Clark, Dinunzio and Alexa Hansen will all take on opponents. Clark will be in the ring against Kelowna’s Donavan Cridland for the main event.
The boxers will then have the summer off and be back at the gym for September.
jessica.dempsey@cranbrooktownsman.com
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