BOXING: IT PROVED to be a memorable weekend for two Clearys boxers after Lewis Williams and Danny Quartermaine progressed through to the pre-quarter finals of the Elite Championships.
After watching Ricky Atwal’s shock progression to the same stage last week, both Williams and Quartermaine produced the goods over the weekend to make it a hat-trick of boxers in the competition for the Leamington club.
First up was Williams who in only his second senior contest faced a difficult opponent in the shape of Tamworth’s Ryan Hatton in Warley on Friday evening.
World Youth quarter-finalist Williams knew he was in for a fight against an opponent who reached the semi-finals of the Elite Championships last year, but with the pair having sparred recently, the Leamington boxer had a game plan which worked.
Working off his jab, Williams took the fight to Hatton and controlled the fight from the off, taking the first two rounds before dominating the third.
Hatton walked into a series of uppercuts and dropped to his knees. In the next seconds Hatton rallied before dropping off the pace to allow Williams to cruise to victory.
“Beating Hatton will put Lewis now on everyone’s mind,” said coach Edwin Cleary. “This could be his year.
“Lewis has great feet for a big lad and needed them in a small ring.
“The senior Elites is the big one on the domestic calendar where every real boxer wants to get to but only a very few do.”
It was also a big weekend for fellow Leamington boxer Quartermaine who came up against Romain Ncube in West Bromwich in what was his 50th fight.
After stopping Ncube last year in the second round, Quartermaine showed his class once again by stopping his opponent in the first round.
The 19-year-old put his opponent under pressure early on and a neat combination ended with a standing count. Ncube recovered but a bunch of heavier blows gave the referee no choice but to end the contest.
“Saturday night was Danny’s 50th contest and he’s boxed them all,” Cleary continued. “The remaining opponents in the Championships Danny has already boxed and he’s beaten the number one seed. He will be going in with confidence.”
Quartermaine will now face Jordan Flynn (Hoddesdon) in this Saturday’s pre-quarter final in Doncaster, while Williams faces Greg Bridet (HOP) and Atwal comes up against either Ben Rees (Birtley) or Gary Dodds (Spennymoor).
There was more good news for Clearys after it was confirmed this week that Morgan Ansell will fight for England at the GB Junior and Youth Three Nations tournament in South Yorkshire this weekend.
“All boxers at Clearys are realising that there’s opportunities in the gym for them to become the very best that they can be,” Cleary added.
“There’s a real sense of excitement with everyone who competes. It’s a great time to be a boxer at Cleary’s and having a high level of fighters in the gym really does help with the development of the rest of the squad.
“I’ve had quite a few phone calls over the weekend from other coaches congratulating us on the gym’s achievements.
“This gives me a chance to pat all the coaches on the back. Without these volunteers giving up there time to coach and travel around the country the boxers wouldn’t be doing great things.”
