My first professional boxing event.
I went to my first boxing event, and this is how it went.
I arrived and was given my ticket, which was, as I learned, quite rare as usually email barcodes were more commonly used for arena-based events. This was nice as it gave everyone who went a kind of souvenir to remember the event. We went inside and found our seats, and as some of the groups were wheelchair users, we had a small section to ourselves. We were sitting slightly above the other seats, which was great and meant we wouldn’t struggle to see the ring because of the people in front of us standing up. Our seats were directly opposite the ramp, and the stage where the boxers would do their ring walks I enjoyed sitting and chatting with everyone and learning more about the upcoming card. I was excited to see the fights as I had only watched boxing on TV before and never in person.
The first fight of the night April Hunter vs Kirstie Bavington was eight rounds at junior middleweight. They had previously boxed with Bavington coming out on top so the pressure was on Hunter to get even. The fight was entertaining and competitive. Hunter secured the victory on points at the end of the fight after scoring a late knockdown.
As the night went on, the excitement in the auditorium increased with people chanting for fighters and singing along to songs in intermission between fights.
I was especially interested in the second fight because Callum Simpson had started from the VIP Boxing gym in Astley, Manchester, and this was one of his first Professional fights for Sky Sports and the BOXXER promotion. One thing I enjoyed about this fight was hearing the support and chants for Simpson throughout the fight. Simpson was commanding the fight and throwing lots of shots, during the first few rounds, I expected the fight to be over quickly; however, Crighton was consistently smothering Simpson when he got close, which prolonged the contest. Simpson won on points via a unanimous decision from the judges after an entertaining fight.
The crowd came alive in the third fight between Zak Chelli vs Mark Jeffers for ten rounds at super middleweight. The atmosphere in this fight was amazing, the crowd around the arena was chanting for Jeffers, there was a body shot in the first round that could be heard up in the stands, which demonstrated just how hard these punches were at a professional level. The fight was very technical and competitive, with Jeffers emerging victorious to a loud positive reaction from the crowd.
Ben Whittaker fought Vladimir Belujsky at light heavyweight next. This fight was entertaining as Whittaker was showboating to the crowd during the fight. I understand that it was slightly disrespectful, but his dancing in the ring was entertaining. He was able to pick up the victory on points.
The fifth fight of the night was between Natasha Jonas vs Kandi Wyatt for ten rounds for the welterweight for the vacant IBF welterweight title. The previous fight went all the way to the bell, the referee was forced to stop the fight in the 8th round resulting in a technical knockout (TKO) result and Natasha Jonas becoming the new IBF Welterweight Champion of the World. It was exciting to see big championship fights in person, especially as this was my first event, and the experience of hearing the cheers and energy from the crowd when the winner was announced was terrific.
The final fight was Franchon Crews-Dezurn vs Savannah Marshall, consisting of ten rounds at super middleweight for Crews-Dezurn’s undisputed super middleweight title. This fight was entertaining and quite tense as was I supporting Marshall, who is from the UK. The crowd reactions were terrific with Savanah Marshall having much more success than her American opponent. There had been so much build-up to this fight throughout the night, and the promo video and the national anthems before the fight made it even more exciting. The one thing I didn’t like about this particular fight was that one of the judges scored the fight evenly at 95–95 which was not an accurate representation of how the fight had gone. However, despite this, Marshall was announced as the winner by majority decision and became the world’s new undisputed Super Middleweight champion.
The crowd’s energy and the fights’ competitiveness were terrific, and I would go to another boxing event in a heartbeat. This verdict was shared by everyone else from Kronik Warriors and everyone thoroughly enjoyed the night.
I would like to say thank you Ben Shalom, Sky Sports and BOXXER for donating the tickets to Kronik Warriors UK.
