Top Yard's Arif wins a National title in his first season as a boxer

​The 15 year-old became his club’s first National Development champion after putting on an outstanding display on Finals Night at the Arena Sports venue in Kettering.

Arif qualified for the semi-finals after winning the Eastern Counties title earlier in the year, but he was far from the favourite against more experienced, and bigger, opponents.

He first took on Aiden James-Murray from West Wythenshawe, Lancashire who had won all his previous seven fights and would probably have expected to beat the Top Yard prodigy.

But, although Arif started with caution, as soon as he put together a speedy combination to catch his opponent with clean shots, he quickly realised he had too much speed for his opponent.

Winning the first round allowed him take a few risks in the second and he took full advantage of his superior skills. He took a few shots to get on the inside of his opponent, but he still won comfortably on points, while saving plenty in the tank for the final.

Waiting for him was a more experienced, taller fighter in highly-rated John Haddikin from Boxing Staples ABC in Kent who had outclassed his opponent the day before with his range and slick movement.

As the shorter fighter, Arif knew he had to stick on his opponent from the start to take away his jab and lengthy range, and he did just that.

The city lad was relentless with his inside work and his natural speed was again too much as he squeezed his opponent, while landing solid body and head shots, all of which would have scored well with the judges.

With the first round in the bag Arif sensibly stuck to the plan drawn up by his coaches and his workrate was too much for his opponent.

The final round saw Arif throw non-stop punches to claim a famous victory with a unanimous points verdict.

Arif will now compete in the National Association for Boys & Girls (NABGCS) with four other talented boys from Top Yard in the coming weeks.

POLICE CLUB

The Peterborough Police had two fighters in action last weekend.

Over in Coventry at the Exhall ABC show on Saturday night, 13 year-old Sefin Jawad Ismail from Jack Hunt School took on Jack Ryan from Leamington Spa ABC at 51kg.

This was a cracking performance from Ismail, who came away with a well-deserved points win over a very tough well-schooled lad.

The local lad controlled the ring well and dominated on the front foot. He won the inside exchanges comfortably to confirm his rapid improvement over the last few months.

And at the Halstead ABC show in Essex the following day 24 year-old city man Josh Hall boxed Oliver Quinn from Eastgate ABC in Halstead in a crowd-pleasing fight at 70kg.

Unfortunately Hall came up short, losing a very close points decision against a tough home fighter after a cracking toe-to-toe contest.