IC Boxing – Imperial beats Bristol

After a successful trio hit up the BUCS national boxing championship (almost a record-breaking number of fighters for Imperial College Boxing Club), we managed to churn up a further two specimens of fight-worthy material for Bristol’s notorious Fight Night. Jie Rou, a fresher in Civil Engineering decided to move on from Chinese Kick-Boxing to regular old-school Boxing this year and Dave, in his 3rd year of Mechanical Engineering, joined IC Boxing last year, but they were both fighting for the first time. On Saturday 24th February, Jie Rou and David were accompanied by our two Imperial coaches, George Burton and Terence Akinlade, and made their way down for what was to be a tremendously smashing evening of boxing. The event was a mass sell-out, with over 300 people in the crowds and 10 fights overall. With such a huge turn-out and atmosphere bursting with excitement, the pressure was on for IC Boxing to perform.

First up was Jie Rou, our shining star from Singapore. On a regular day you’ll find her smiling and generally being an all-round nice gal. An ‘all-round nice gal’, until it’s time to be in the ring that is! She told me afterwards she felt so bad for punching the other girl in the face, because the Bristol Boxing Club had been so nice! Well I tell you now, that’s not what it looked like in the ring. She maintained some awesome slipping and rolling and her clean-cut style allowed her to catch her opponent out every opportunity she left herself open. In the end, the judges came to an uncontested decision to crown her victorious.

Dave was up 3rd and started out strong, keeping up his defence and throwing well-timed jabs and hooks towards his opponent. He maintained his ground for the first two rounds, but it was very close. The final round was a tie-breaker. Unfortunately, his opponent came back strong, managing to strike a shot, causing the ref to step in and do a standing count. Dave got hit by a flurry of punches in the last few seconds just as the whistle was blown. It came to a split decision, but unfortunately the judges gave the fight to his opponent.

It was not all that bad for Dave though, because pre-fight he was already over the moon about the match. The ‘match’ being not his own but the rugby Scotland v England Six Nations - with a 25-13 final score, why would any Scotsman not be? Anyway, he took the loss on his chin, and celebrated Scotland’s win with plenty of food and bevvies at the end of the night. Happy days for everyone!