Historic success at the East Regional Championships for Top Yard Boxing Club

Top Yard boxers and coaches, from the left, Bilal Javed, Santino Harris, Adam Javed, Akif Shirazi, Aamir Shirazi, Henry Doe, John Doe & Claude Gray.

It’s the best-ever return at this level for the city club who claimed a hat-trick of titles through Adam Javed, Aamir Shirazi and John Doe at Billericay last weekend to go with the two already won by Santino Harris (14) and Claude Gray (16).

Javed (14), despite an unbeaten record in three fights, is inexperienced for this standard, but at 48kg he is a powerful puncher.

He unleashed a barrage of punches in the first 30 seconds that overwhelmed his Hockley opponent.

And, having set the tone, he continued with the rampage keeping his opponent on the back foot, while showing his fitness was on point as he continued at the same pace for all three rounds.

This was by far Javed’s best performance to date and an emphatic unanimous points win at this level showed great maturity so early in his amateur career.

Two-time national champion Shirazi’s experience and boxing IQ was again in evidence.

After an unusually quiet first round, where he waited for his opponent to drop his guard, which didn’t happen too often, Shirazi’s nifty footwork kicked in, while his fast combinations starting to land and frustrate his opponent from Holland Shore ABC.

The underdog fought hard though and put in a commendable performance giving Shirazi a good warm-up fight for the next stage of the championship.

Doe (15) boxed at 52kg against a taller boy from Smokey’s Gym in Tilbury.

Doe knew he had to adjust from his normal counter punching style to be more aggressive, to get on the inside and to get the scoring shots to the body and head.

And he was clinical in his performance, quick to the punch with very good movement as he clinched a classy unanimous points win.

It was a special moment for club coaches Bilal Javed, Akif Shirazi and Henry Doe who also happen to be the proud fathers of the winning boys.

**Club youngsters Beanie Joe Foster and John-Terry Harris were in action in Wycombe.

Foster put in a good solid performance to win a well-contested fight.

Harris just came up short against a slick home fighter.