Sunraysia boxers show their class

LADD’S Boxing Club has put on another impressive showing coming home with three wins at last weekend’s Battle in The Hills tournament in Mount Barker.

Coach Steve Ladd said the event got off to a strong start with first cab of the rank Hamish Berry putting on a boxing master class against his tall rangy opponent.

Berry continues to show improvement each fight and used his skills and fitness to work his opponent with combinations to secure a dominant win.

“His next fight is the Australian titles and this fight was a great confidence booster. The reason we wanted this fight was because his opponent is tall and now he can go into those fights confident he can beat a taller fighter,” Ladd said.

Next up was 75kg Bodhi Kane who showed heart taking on a much more experienced opponent in only his second outing.

Although he didn’t come away with the win Kane learnt a lot which he will apply to future fights.

“This was hard test for Bodhi it was only his second fight and his opponent had eight and he had that little bit more ring experience to find distance and use his long-left jab.”

Also fighting in the 75kg category was Jack Evans who came away with the decision win.

Heading into the third and final round Evans dug deep and used south paw power punches to get two standing eight counts on his opponent to win the fight.

“Jack made a 5kg weight cut to get down from the light heavy weight into the middle weight division and put up a really good show using his lead hand to set everything up. He dominated with the lead hand to keep his opponent off balance out of range giving him a convincing win.”

Last up for Ladd’s was Henry Toutai who continues to impress every outing coming away with a win against a big dangerous opponent.

Toutai stepped up a weight class for this fight from his native 80kg to fight at 83kg and the bout became a cerebral chess match with each fighter acutely aware of the other’s power.

Toutai utilised his footwork, head movement and an effective jab to the body to ultimately get the decision.

“This was a worrying fight for us, we did a catch weight the other guy is 86kg fighter, so he lost 3kg to come to 83kg and Henry had to gain 3kg,” he said.

“Out of seven fights he had knocked six of them out, so we knew we had to box and move, Henry stuck to a game plan and was able to outscore him.”

Ladd said that overall he was pleased with how the team conducted themselves inside and outside the ring.

“There were some performances that showed some really classy boxing and showed where the gym has improved so far,” he said.

“The gym keeps conducting themselves with good sportsmanship the way we enter the ring, the way we conduct ourselves, our respect for everyone there — our gym is well respected in South Australia.

“Just because you are a champion boxer it doesn’t mean people should respect you — you’ve got to earn that in the way you conduct yourself from when you get out of the car to when you leave the venue.”