The Amateur Boxing Association of England (ABAE) has announced five ‘box-offs’ to identify the boxers that will represent England in the forthcoming GB Amateur Boxing Championship, on 12th and 13th November 2010, in Liverpool.
The ‘box-offs’ will be held on Saturday 16 October 2010 at Dagenham Park Leisure Centre , Old Community Hall, School Road, Dagenham, RM10 9HQ. People can pay on the day, £10 for adults and £5 for under-16s. Boxing will start at 8.00pm.
The GB Amateur Boxing Championship is a new competition established by the British Amateur Boxing Association (BABA) to identify the best male and female amateur boxers in Great Britain. It will pit the best amateur from Scotland, England and Wales against current members of the GB Boxing Olympic Squad and create an opportunity for those that are not currently in the squad to force their way into contention for 2012.
The ABAE, has selected five boxers to represent England and five ‘box-offs’ to identify the five remaining places. The boxers selected to represent England are:
52kg – Adam Whitfield (Army)
56kg – Luke Campbell (St Paul’s, Hull)
69kg – Anthony Fowler (Golden Gloves, Liverpool)
81kg – Lawrence Osueke (Newcastle College, Newcastle)
91+kg – Anthony Joshua (Finchley, London)
The box-offs are between:
48kg – Ben Fowl (Hoddesdon BA, Hoddesdon) vs Sam Smith (Kings Heath, Northampton)
60kg – Martin Ward (Repton, Bethnal Green) vs Martin Stead (Army)
64kg – Scott Cardle (Kirkham, Lytham) vs Liam Taylor (Middleton Select, Manchester)
75kg – Hosea Burton (Jimmy Egans, Manchester) vs Frank Buglioni (Repton, Bethnal Green)
91kg – Danny Price (Westway, Scarborough) vs Warren Baister (Sunderland)
“We have a real depth of talent in English amateur boxing and felt this was the best and fairest way to proceed with selection,” explained the Chief Executive of the ABAE, Paul King.
“We have a number of English boxers in the number two positions in the GB Olympic squad, however we think it is only fair to give an opportunity to those that performed well in this year’s senior ABAs so decided a series of ‘box-offs‘ was the best solution in some weight categories. It should be a very exciting night and great opportunity for a number of boxers to state their case for inclusion in the GB Boxing Olympic squad.”
Derek Mapp, Executive Chairman of BABA, which is organising the GB Boxing Championship added: “The GB Amateur Boxing Championship will be the biggest amateur boxing event to be staged in Great Britain for over a decade. It will be a high quality competition that will provide a real test for the existing GB boxers and have an influence on the make-up of the Olympic squad as we move into 2011. It is an opportunity for all of the competitors to showcase their skills and stake a claim to be part of the team for 2012.”
6,000 tickets will be made available for the finals and semi-finals of the Championship which will be held at the Echo Arena Liverpool on Friday 12th and Saturday 13th November 2010. Tickets for the event are priced from £10 to £30 and will be subject to a booking and handling fee. Tickets will go on sale from 0900 on Friday 6th August 2010. They can be purchased in person from the Echo Arena Liverpool box office, online at www.echoarena.com or by calling 0844 8000 400.