Mount Isa's Basketball Stadium transformed into a boxing arena last Saturday September 21 as Derrick's Boxing Club held their inaugural fight event.
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A packed house saw 31 bouts and it was a good night for boxing coach and event organiser James Derrick as his fighters went on to win all six of their fights.
In coach Derrick's opening bout Kael Chong-Burns defeated Jordan Sekhmet of Cairns in a gutsy display.
Derrick said Kael did what he had to do to win the fight.
"Kael fought a very technical fight and his footwork was the best on the night maneuvering around Jordan and proving to be overpowering with the fight stopped in the second round," Derrick said.
Up next for Derricks was Livai Savuro who fought current Golden Gloves champion Memphis Algie and edged him out for the win.
Derrick said Savuro fought with a strong arsenal of punches to win and will go into the final tournaments for the year in strong form, with some minor footwork adjustments to correct.
"It was a great win for Livai especially as his grandfather, Noah Savuro who is a Mount Isa league sporting legend himself, arrived from Brisbane to see Livai's fight minutes before he entered the ring," Derrick said.
The momentum continued in Derrick's third fight as Gordon 'Bad News' Barry put on a classy performance against Lachlan Reid from Cairns.
Gordon finished his opponent in the second with a referee stoppage.
Derrick said It was good getting Gordon back in the ring after having three years off.
"I'm glad he has the hunger to get back in," he said.
Derrick's fourth fighter Jaiden Menzies brought more success with a gutsy punch for punch contest against Francis Bruce from Arrente community, Northern Territory.
Both fighters were counted in the first, before Bruce was counted again in the second followed shortly after with the ref stopping the fight as Menzies proved too powerful.
Things did not look like slowing down when Derrick's Dean Moloney enjoyed a win over local Charles Page of Cloncurry PCYC to make it five from five wins.
Derrick said Charlie had recently returned to training, however he fell short of a win with Dean's defensive game and attack the superior on the night.
In the main card event Derrick's Sunny Raitava was all class against Daniel Zammit of Do It Boxing Cairns.
Derrick said the fight was dictated by Sunny.
"He applied pressure, kept his range when he didn't want to engage and never let Daniel get settled in with the fight stopped in the second round," Derrick said.
Mount Isa fighter Sunny Raitava will now compete at the Australian Masters in Adelaide for a national title in October.
The inaugural fight night for James and coach Kerry was a success drawing teams from all over Queensland, throughout the Northern Territory and Kununurra, Western Australia.
"It has been a dream of ours for some time to host our own event sanctioned by Boxing Queensland, and we got serious about making it happen over the last 12 months", Kerry Derrick said.
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