Britain rule the European Boxing championships
Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao may be the marquee names in boxing, but what about the next generation?
Away from the razzmatazz of the multi-million pound super-fight and media glare of championship titles there is the grass-roots level of the amateur and right now British interests are in rude health.
They are in the midway stage of the European amateur championships in Moscow and Rob McCracken’s boys are flying the Union Jack in style. Seven fighters have made their way through to the quarter-finals, all potentially one fight away from a bronze medal minimum.
It’s fair to say in the past Britain hasn’t exactly enjoyed a great deal of success in the post-war era of this particular tournament. The highest medal tally this nation has accumulated has been four in 1961, so it’s been slim pickings for the British on the contentment, until now.
Stand-out performer of the day was Liverpool lightweight, Tom Stalker who recorded an impressive 4-1 win over current world champion and three-times European champion Domenic Valentino.
This was a superb victory that will go down as a major tournament shock. Valentino, who lost a 2007 world championship final to Frankie Gavin, couldn’t get to grips with Stalker 's southpaw stance and Stalker went on to secure a tidy victory by three clear points.
Stalker fought off the back foot, improving as the fight went on, while the Italian struggled to find an answer for the Mersysider’s counter-punching. This win is certainly the biggest of Stalker’s career so far and he has drawn Artjoms Ramlays in the next round, leaving him a very good chance of advancing to the semi-final stage.
It was double-dip for the British against the Italians as Gamal Yafai, brother of Olympian Khalid Yafi, put on a composed performance above his 18 years in an exciting contest against Vittorio Parrinello, conquering his opponent 5-3. He joins his brother in the quarters who, along with Obed Mbwankongo and Tommy Stubbs, went through yesterday.
Elsewhere, Andrew Selby had a hard-fought 6-3 victory over Portugal’s Pedro Matos and featherweight Iain Weaver came through his test against Bashir Hassan-Salad in a tasty encounter that saw a hearty 8-3 win for Weaver.
It wasn’t all good news though, light-welterweight Bradley Saunders, another fighter with Olympic pedigree, had his match stopped when he was comfortably 8-4 up against Frenchman Samir Machroch. Saunders caught an elbow to the face and was eliminated on cuts, a very unfortunate end to his tournament. The only other disappointment came in the form of heavyweight Warren Baister was dismantled 12-3 by Hungarian Jozsef Darnos.
So a fantastic performance by the British boys and full credit has to go to McCracken and his team for masterminding the success. The best medal haul the UK has seen in this competition since that vintage team of 1961 is two in 1975, so we are well on course for smashing those records.
Right now boxing in Britain is in a very healthy state and it’s good to see that the groundwork is being laid for more quality boxers to come through the system as well.
British quarter-finalists
Tuesday June 8
51kg: Khalid Yafai v Derenik Gizhlaryan (Armenia)
57Kg: Iain Weaver v Oualid Belaoura (France)
Wednesday June 9
48kg: Tommy Stubbs v Patrick Barnes (Ireland)
54kg: Gamal Yafai v John Joe Nevin (Ireland)
54kg: Andrew Selby v Furkan Memis (Turkey)
60kg: Thomas Stalker v Artjoms Ramlavs (Latvia)
81kg: Obed Mbwakongo v Abdelkader Bouhenia (France)
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