Roundup: Town vs Gown 2015

The annual Town vs Gown boxing match was held last night at The Guild Hall in Market Square and it was a cracker.

The Cambridge University Boxers managed to avenge last year’s defeat in this fixture to comfortably win the match 8-3 this year. In front of a sold out arena in the center of Cambridge, the University Boxers delivered a resounding victory which is bound to give them confidence as they head into their Varsity match later this term.

There were 12 fights in total on the night, with each of them providing a unique encounter between the boxers. The standard of the bouts was high all night with the highlight being the encounter between Ed Hezlet and Andrew Cox. The match was a real back and forth affair that got really got the crowd involved, Cox started out strong delivering a few heavy blows to Hezlet including one that knocked his mouth guard out, but Hezlet came back strong in the second and third rounds showing a great deal of resilience to win a great match on a judges decision for the University Team.

Rather them than me

The style of the fights also varied dramatically throughout the evening there were long tactical battles like that seen in fight 4 between Harry Davidson and Paolo Trofa, where again the Town fighter got of to a stronger start winning the first round but the University fighter Davidson came back strong to take the final two rounds on the scorecards and win the fight. This was a really great match to watch as early on Trofa was very tactical and composed but as the fight went on Davidson seemed to figure him out and by the end he was able to land some big hits to Trofa and win the fight on the scorecards.

On the other end of the scale there was one particularly short fight where Steve McGregor got caught early on by Luke Pederson for a technical knockout after the referee felt it was unsafe for him to continue. This was a real shame as for the short time this fight was going on it looked as if it would be a real great matchup between two tactical long-range fighters.

A real tactical battle

One of the strongest performances of the night came from Jas Birk in the final fight of the night against his unfortunate opponent Dale Hughes. Jas was dominant from the outset and Hughes did very well to get out of round one, but he did not last long into the second with Jas delivering the best punch of the night to knockout Hughes and end the bout in style.

After a poor showing last year the crowd was in much better voice this year, while they were not loud through out the whole evening they were very good in spurts throughout the evening especially in the fight between Billy Fitton and Hongo Wei, where again the CUABC boxer Fitton got of to a slow start in the first round but rallied back in the second and third rounds to win the fight on a unanimous decision. This was a fight that the crowd really influenced they rallied behind Billy and carried him through the final round in which he dominated Wei and won the match.

The University side now turns their attention to the Varsity match that is being held later this term, where they will try to avenge the defeat they suffered last year and tie the all time record at 52-52.

If last night is anything to go by, they have a great team for Varsity and every chance of returning the trophy to Cambridge this year.