Boxing will command the spotlight in Wyndham in the aftermath of the AFL grand final this weekend.
Some of the best amateur boxers in the region will converge on the Italian Sports Club in Werribee for a day in the ring on Sunday from 12.30pm.
Talented fighters out of the local Wyndham Community Boxing Club, Balla Bros Boxing and Werribee Kickboxing stables will be fighting on the card.
Darren Cowley, a trainer at the Wyndham Community Boxing Club, is excited to be entering some of his charges into the competition, including Saipele Vaimoso, Lleyton Drozario, Sam Stewart, Jake Thompson and Eli Brown.
“All will fight to the usual high standards the club sets,” Cowley said. “They love fighting on their home patch, so we’re hoping for a big crowd so it will maintain its place on the local boxing calendar.”
Thompson is the boxer to watch from the Wyndham Community Boxing Club team. Fast-tracked from the gym to ring, Thompson is primed and ready to show he means business.
“Jake has come along in leaps and bounds, having only taken up the sport earlier this year,” Cowley said.
“It’s the old adage in boxing, the harder you train, the luckier you get and I’d imagine this will continue to apply to Jake’s boxing career.”
It will be an event for the young and the old. Drozario is at the younger end of the scale at 13, while Stewart is a late bloomer competing in the female masters division.
“She has plenty of venom behind her punches,” Cowley said. “It’s more a case of slowing her down and getting her to box rather than teaching her to rip in as she is a natural at that aspect.”
Brown and Vaimoso will bring the thunder on the day. Both tip the scales over 115 kilograms and have a lethal power game.
It will be the first event on a busy end-of-year calendar for the Wyndham Community Boxing Club fighters, who also take part in events in Melbourne and Mornington in October and Warrnambool in December.
“We never rest on our laurels,” Cowley said.
“We are always looking to improve, train harder and add to our current crop of warriors.”
