Sydenham amateur boxing club took a team of eight boxers and three coaches over to Boras, Sweden to compete in the King of the Ring tournament. Ashton Anthony, Cole Hancock, Fabien Sulmina, Blake Wright, Lucas Holman, Theo Mitchell, Bradley Watts and Keelan Preston-Harris were all going for gold under the supervision of Coaches Callum James, Jack Hughes and Glyn Watts.

The competition had 700 boxers in action over different age groups and categories. There were teams from 16 different nations including, USA, Canada & even Greenland!

Going into the semi-final stage we still had 4 boxers in the competition. First up was 14year old Theo Mitchell who came up against a tall southpaw Amer Selimovic from Sweden. After 3 tightly contest rounds, Theo missed out on a points decision and claimed a Bronze Medal. Straight after this we had our current National champion and GB Tri Nations silver medallist Fabien Sulmina in action. He came up against another southpaw boxer from Sweden called Erik Lundstrom. After 3 rounds of Fabien landing the stronger shot and even busting his opponents nose he missed out on the decision to everyone’s surprise.

The 3rd semi-finalist in action for Sydenham was 17-year-old Cole Hancock. Cole was up against Aputsiaq Didriksen from Greenland. Cole got the win within 20 seconds after was on the front foot and unfortunately the Greenland boxers shoulder dislocated out of place forcing him to retire. It wasn’t they way we would of like to get to the final but these things happen.

After this we had our last semi finalist in action who was 14-year-old Ashton Anthony. Ashton was against Moroccan born boxer Caeser Zetali who was fighting out of Sweden. Ashton boxed superbly showing great footwork and shot selection to claim the victory on the scorecards. This meant we had both Cole and Ashton boxing for a gold medal.

On Finals Day Ashton was against the current Scottish national champion and GB Tri nations Silver Medalist Ethan Storrie. We knew this was going to be a massive test but we were more than up for the challenge. However, Ashton fell short in the contest and claimed himself the Silver Medal which is still great achievement.

Later that day Cole stepped in the ring to box against Denmark’s Erik Minyashan for the gold medal. After 3 absolute gruelling rounds. Where both boxers had success it was Cole who claimed the win via a split decision to crown himself the King of the Ring champion.

As a club we are immensely proud of all the boxers’ efforts. It was a brilliant experience for everyone involved and for a small club from Bridgwater to come back with 1gold, 1 silver and 2 bronze medals from Europe’s biggest amateur boxing competition is just fantastic.

However, there is no time to rest as Sydenham ABC have a home show in Bridgwater at the Blake hall on Friday, November 29. It promises to be an action-packed night. We will have 15 local boxers in action.