Five Go Mad At York Hall – Sensational Victories For TRAD TKO Fighters Last Saturday

TRAD TKO Boxing Gym in Canning Town has always had a reputation for coaching some of the most exciting prospects in the UK, last Saturday at York Hall in Bethnal Green, five of their young stars were in action, each not just winning but winning in style – TRAD TKO style.

Winning is in the blood of any of boxer trained at the famous East End fight factory, but on Saturday the TRAD TKO crew took it to another level and added yet another Champion to their ever growing list of Merit.

TRAD TKO’s very own ‘Golden Girl’ Marianne Marston headlined the event, when she challenged Hungarian #1, European #3 and World #31 ranked Marianna Gulyas for the MBC International Super Bantamweight Championship.

Marianne, who is trained by Brian O’Shaughnessy, pulled out one of the performances of the year, completely out boxing her more experienced opponent from start to finish, as well as sending Gulyas to the canvas seven times, although the referee only counted two as actual knockdowns.

Judges Ben Doughty and Matt Hamilton scored the bout 100-89 and Judge Lee Murtagh 99-88 all in favour of Marianne.

This excellent victory shot Marston up the rankings to UK #1, European #3, World #24 as well as #1 British Pound for Pound Female, all of which puts her nicely in line for a shot at a World title in 2015.

In fact Marianne had already come to the attention of the WIBA World Champion, Australia’s Shannon O’Connell, whose team recently made a tentative approach for Marianne to challenge for the coveted crown, so it could be sooner rather than later that the ‘Golden Girl’ heads to the World stage.

Former England amateur captain, Antonio Counihan, who is trained by his father Paul, made his first step towards Championship honors, when he competed in his first six rounder, against Lithuania’s Janos Vass.

A classy, stylish boxer young Antonio really shined on Saturday, easily controlling his more experienced opponent with stiff jabs and sensationally quick double handed flurries.

In the third round Antonio’s skills and power proved to be too much for Vass, as his corner threw in the towel on the one minute and fifty seconds mark to save their man from further punishment.

Fight of the Night though has to go to another of the gym’s young stars, former Commonwealth Lightweight Champion Mo Hussein coached Siar Ozgul, who had a Battle Royale with Nottingham’s Matt Scriven.

What a fight, it was all action back and forth with some great toe to toe action thrown in for good measure.

After four scintillating rounds referee Lee Murtagh scored it 39-37 in favour of TRAD TKO’s Siar, the correct verdict but that doesn’t really express just how great the fight was or how close each round was.

Siar’s older sibling Onder Ozgul, who is also coached by Mo Hussein, was also involved in an all action thriller, when he took on late replacement Remigijus Ziausys in a four rounder.

It was a cracking fight that had the crowd on it’s feet for virtually the entire four rounds, it was that exciting, a great closely fought bout that see Onder emerge victorious by a shut out 40-36 points margin, however as with his brother’s bout the scoring doesn’t show the whole picture, this was another seriously close fought bout, many of the rounds could have gone either way, it was that good.

The final TRAD TKO youngster on the card, Brian O’Shaughnessy coached Cruiserweight Jerome Haywood, made his professional debut, against the highly experienced Rolandas Cesna.

Jerome started slowly but once the nerves subsided put in a fantastic performance, scoring his maiden victory by a 40-38 points margin.

TRAD TKO head honcho Johnny Eames sounded more like a proud father when he spoke earlier about his fighters successes.

“We’re so proud of every single one of them, they proved they can battle it out when they need to, each and everyone of them done us proud.

Well, when I first met her I may not have a been a fan of Women boxing but Marianne soon changed that.

She put in a magnificent performance on Saturday and we’re all so proud of her, she deserved this, she’s always in the gym and always up for a fight.

It didn’t take her long to become the flag bearer for female boxers, not just at the gym but in the UK full stop.

What can I say about Antonio, this kid is a super star in waiting, we really need to be moving him on to bigger and better things.

On Saturday he proved beyond any doubt he’s ready to start eyeing up title fight opportunities next year.

The fighting brothers, Onder and Siar have proved to me they too are ready to step up to six rounders, they both fought magnificently on Saturday, they really proved they can hold their own with the toughest of fighters.

Our newest pro, Jerome Haywood, made a fantastic start to his career. Cesna was a late replacement and a lot heavier than Jerome, but he showed he can handle whatever is thrown at him, great start, we’re all really pleased for him.

We have a great team and a great squad here at the TRAD TKO, it really is exciting times for us.”

www.tkoboxinggym.com