In case you missed it… here’s what happened at Gentlemen’s Fight Night

Gentlemen’s Fight Night might be the most awaited event in the Brookes social calendar, and it did not disappoint. We all got into our suits and nice dresses, got a bit too drunk at pres and headed to a tent that was honestly the same size as one you’d see at Reading Festival. It was a great night, and one I won’t forget, so if you missed it, here’s what happened at Gentlemen’s Fight Night 2022.

What is Gentlemen’s Fight Night?

Gentlemen’s Fight Night (GFN) is a yearly event run by The Ox Events where Brookes students take to the ring and compete after going through an eight-week training course. The night is filled with black-tie outfits, a lot of pints, shouting and falling over chairs.

This year it was hosted at Horspath Sports Ground, a rather obscure location and quite far out from central Oxford. It consisted of 16 fighters and eight fights, with three rounds per fight which each lasted two minutes long. This year, one of the fights was between two women, which was a first for Brookes GFN.

Outside the tent at GFN

Pre-event

When we arrived the line went quicker than expected. However, queuing for getting a drink before the event was mortifying along with the queue for the portable toilets outside. A cider set you back £5 and a double shot with a mixer was £6. You just had to hope and pray someone didn’t kick your drink over if you put it down for more than five seconds – it’s brutal out here.

There were several portable toilets outside with a free-for-all system of queuing. The second a door opened, it became a miniature fight night to get in there before someone else. In addition to the toilets, portable urinals were set up as well but there was no fencing, so privacy was at an all-time low for the boys.

Fights

What a start to the night, I would include what happened at the start but I was too busy at the front of the toilet queue to see the start of the event, gutted. After doing the quickest toilet trip of my life we legged it in time for the first fight. Loads of people were stood on chairs – which also meant loads of people fell off chairs, this got worse with the more drinks consumed and more embarrassing. Below are the fighters and who won in order:

William Brounger vs Freddie Scoular – William won

Joe Gordon vs Oli McCrum – a draw!

Harrison Campbell vs Ollie O’Donnell – Ollie won

Tara Dempsey vs Sasha Weaver – Tara won

John Bewicke Copley vs Nils Raber – Nils won

Nathan Kiflom vs Max Payne – Nathan won

Archie Walwyn vs Tom Wiblin – Tom won

Will Madders vs George Smith – George won

In between the fights musical entertainment was provided in the form of a singer and a guitarist playing acoustic versions of classic songs. When they played Sweet Caroline the tent went a bit mental with hundreds of students singing along to the classic song – I expected nothing less from Brookes.

One thing I loved was the fighters’ entrances. Some of the song choices were incredible, with Thunderstruck by ACDC being one of them – amazing choice. With Nils being Swedish, the people behind him when he entered were wearing viking beards, which was one of the best entrances I’ve ever seen. Everyone was hyping the fighters up as they walked out all seriously with fire blazing behind them. It was like a movie scene.

After the event

After all the mayhem and shouting, it was time to figure out a way to get home. We checked the taxi companies before the fights even finished and it was fully booked. What a nightmare. At this point, my feet were in excruciating pain from standing up for two hours in heels, which is the worst idea I’ve ever had and I’m pretty sure my feet are still recovering.

Luckily for us, my friend was on hand to give us a lift which I am forever thankful for after hearing some of the stories of how people got home from the event.

The blessed people got taxis or a lift whereas the not-so-blessed got a bus, coach, or even worse, they walked. Some people ended up without a coach seat after trying to fight their way onto one of them and ended up walking from Horspath to their houses.

Bridge hosted an afters for Fight Night, I can only assume it was a great evening like Bridge always is but I was unable to attend due to work being at 8:30am, which I wasn’t impressed with the next morning.

Overall the night was a success, it was something different and definitely an event I would attend again. If you missed it this year I recommend not missing next year, as a Brookes student you need to experience this event at least once for a true black tie uni experience.

Related articles recommended by this writer:

• If you can relate to these things, you’re definitely a third year Brookes student

• You won’t want to miss these events in semester two

• The Ox Events is going to to be releasing ‘scrunchies’ to help stop spiking of drinks