COMBER’S Enler Boxing Club held its first-ever fight night in Scrabo Golf Club on Saturday, welcoming fighters from around Northern Ireland and the UK.
It was the club’s first opportunity to put on a show since its foundation in 2024, coming off the back of success with a total of 22 champions, across different counties.
The night also doubled as a charity event, raising much needed funds for a worthy cause, special education school Mitchell House.
The dedicated charity fight came just before the mid-way interval, with Newtownards man Allan Foster, 46, stepping into the ring against club coach Aaron Hunter.
Allan undertook the bout to help garner donations for Mitchell House, the school attended by his close friend Brian Mayne’s son, Matthew, and it got the most rounding reception of the night.
The popular pair went toe-to-toe for three gruelling rounds, engaging in one of the most relentless brawls the crowd witnessed, receiving a chorus of cheers all the way, with the aim of raising money for specialist equipment and days out for the school’s pupils.
There was plenty of action for spectators to sink their teeth into both before and after the charity spectacle too.
The youngest fighters, seven- year-old Charlie Boardman, from Enler, and his St John Bosco (SJB) opponent, Cullea McCrea, got the action off to strong start. Despite the lack of experience, the two boxed with as much enthusiasm and gumption as anyone else.
They were followed by another series of home fighters, in the form of Charlie’s sister, Molly, Tommy Doran, Theo Lecky, Comber’s Enler Boxing Club, which was formed 18 months ago, hosted its rst boxing show in Scrabo Golf Club last weekend.
While there were no winners and losers in those contests, with each competitor being under the age of 10, they all gave good accounts of themselves and picked up valuable experience for their fledgling boxing journeys.
The spectacle of the occasion was added to by the presence of former professional boxers Tyrone McKenna and Tommy McCarthy, who handed out prizes and turned their hand to judging for the competitive fights after the interval.
There were unanimous decision wins for Carlisle Villa’s Harley McNeil and Danny Salisbury, against Corpus Christi’s Jimmy Hassan and Banbridge’s Josh Kilpatrick, while their clubmate Michael Ward got a split- decision victory over Luis Holmes (Corpus Christi).
Enler’s Zac Foster followed his dad, Allan, into the ring and also impressed, fighting at close quarters and landing eye- catching shots on his way to winning by unanimous decision against Banbridge’s Issac Ireland.
The family affair continued with the third Boardman sibling, Bobby – an ambitious young boxer who warmed up with a three-way and battled his way through a high quantity of punches to land the hits that mattered against Rathcoole opponent Kodi Watson.
The most impressive home showing of the event came courtesy of Samuel Hudeson – one of the club’s top prospects. Samuel may have only been boxing for around a year, but that did not show in his dominant performance against SJB’s Aidan Green, as he picked his shots carefully, awaited opportunities and unleashed a series of combinations, scoring two knockdowns.
Towards the end of the night, spectators were treated to the only fight without headguards, when SJB’s Padraig Downey took on Carlisle’s star, Chara Ruaengprat.
Chara came with the reputation of having stopped a number of opponents in England and although he had his work cut out for him, with Padraig displaying elite movement, bobbing and weaving, he survived a count of eight to take the split decision and earn fighter of the night.
The best was saved for last however, with Enler’s Phil Alexander and Carlisle’s Ben Reed producing the bloodiest brawl of all.
The pair engaged in blow-for- blow action, and neither backed down. Phil went through the wars to earn himself a split decision triumph, but it really could have gone either way – something that was shown with the award of fight of the night.
All in all, Enler Boxing Club could not have asked for a better maiden fight night, and head coach Jonny Hunter was delighted with how the hard work paid off.
“This is the first club show we’ve had. It’s massive for the club to pull something like this off and with the success we’ve had over the past 18 months, I think we deserved a night like this,” he said.
“It’s all about getting the kids out in front of a crowd and building that experience that will serve them well moving forward.
“There was no competitive boxing club in Comber before us and we wanted to be able to offer a dedicated space for young boxers here. A lot of the kids were involved in anti-social behaviour before they joined the club, so we’ve got them in off the streets and into boxing.”
