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Posts Tagged ‘Coach’

Wushuky Press Release

Wushuky club situated in Mosta and headed by Master Silvio Camilleri for the last 24 yrs, is now extending classes for those athletes, ladies,beginners and kids who want to work out. One can find different disciplines to train and not only Kickboxing. Classes vary from beginners, intermediate and advance evening classes for kickboxing, morning fitness classes for theladies and new to the club are Boxing classes headed by professional boxer Mr. Steve Martin who is licensed under the Brithish boxing board. He is also graded as a Black belt in Kickboxing but is now focusing more on boxing . He is currently the Wushuky boxing coach and from his past experiences he has what it takestopass on agood trainingknowledge through a professional system of boxing techniques and stamina classes.

One of his students Tyrone Borg, has recently undergone a series of intense training classes and took part in Gladiators Fight Night event on the 7th December held at MFCC Ta’ Qali where he faced opponent Chris Debono, a Ying Yang student who has been in the scene and competed in several events.

Coach Steve Martin has trained Tyrone and recently competed in 2 boxing events were he won both. The last boxing fight consisted of 4 rounds, were the first 3 rounds ended in a draw. It was in the last round that Tyrone stepped up the pace and threw very clean punches and showed good technique that led to victory.

Tyrone has also competed in the Malta Kickboxing Championships were he is the current title holder for the Local Cruiser Weight division.

Anyone interested in attending any of these classes kindly contact Master Silvio Camilleri or Alan Borg , WSK CLUB ,Fortizza road, Mosta or WUSHUKY homepage on Facebook. Wsk is a member of 2 recognized federations named WUMA (world united Martial arts) & WMKF (world Martial Kombat Federation).

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Wille ‘Sandman’ Mitchell knocks out opponent in ‘brilliant’ performance

Ireland, Belfast: Thursday, 22 December 2023

Local boxer, Willie Mitchell, left, who won his second professional fight on Saturday, knocking out Mally Richardson in the third round. He is photographed with his coach, Joe Gallagher.

WILLIE ‘Sandman’ Mitchell’s fledgling professional boxing career took another massive step forward on Saturday night in the Emerald Roadhouse, Belfast, when he knocked out Mally Richardson in his second paid contest.

There was plenty of acrimony in the build-up to the encounter, with Richardson taunting the local boxer, calling him ‘Sadman’ and bragging that he would laugh in the Tattyreagh GAA Club man’s face after taking his hardest punch.

On the night, and in front of a huge and passionate bunch of supporters, Mitchell displayed all of his talent and made a mockery of the Blackpool fighter’s pre-bout claims by knocking himdown in the first round, controlling the second, and knocking him out in the third. Ahead of the contest, the fighters had agreed to make it a ‘winner takes all’ bout, but after winning so convincingly and in the spirit of the season, Mitchell gave Richardson his cut of the purse.

“He boxed brilliantly,” beamed Mitchell’s coach, Joe Gallagher. “He decked him in the first round, owned him in the second and knocked him out in the third, it was great.

“The support Willie had on Saturday was unreal, the door staff at the venue told me that they had never seen support like it. Mally turned out to be a really nice guy and apologised for the acrimony before the fight. His exact words were ‘it’s all just panto’, and Willie doesn’t hold grudges.”

Having firmly put Richardson away and having already dispatched Downpatrick’s Mark McMahon on his debut at the Mellon Country Hotel in October, Mitchell will be travelling further afield for his next encounter.

The 26-year-old southpaw has been invited to fight in Malta in February for a televised bout.

“The Boxing Board of Control in Malta have invited Willie over in February for a televised fight,” explained Gallagher. “They are trying to build up boxing out there and they see Willie, with his big punches, as they excitement they need. So, they have given us four options of who to fight, so I will watch some videos of them before we make a decision.”

And in further good news within the ‘Sandman’ camp, Gallagher confirmed that Mitchell has received offers from two big-named London promoters - Frank Warren and Mickey Hellit - who are interested in promoting the light-welterweight’s future fights.

“Frank Warren and Mickey Hellit have both expressed an interest in signing him. Hellit wants to promote him in Omagh, bring fights and possibly a televised fight to Omagh and gradually grow it, so we’re considering our options,” concluded Gallagher.

Photo: Local boxer, Willie Mitchell, left, who won his second professional fight on Saturday, knocking out Mally Richardson in the third round. He is photographed with his coach, Joe Gallagher.

Irish Boxing News

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By Gianluca (Rio) Di Caro

On Saturday night British Light Welterweight Champ Ashley ‘Treasure’ Theophane defended his coveted Lonsdale belt against late replacement Ben Murphy.

Whilst Theophane did manage to retain his title, it was far from a convincing win, and it was the challenger who received all the plaudits, probably because he dominated the fight and all ringside judges had Hove’s Murphy firmly ahead on points at the start of the eleventh.

No surprise then that most of the media reports make a big point that Theophane was very, very lucky to get the win in the end, as well as lavish praise on Murphy for his magnificent performance. Something I readily agree with especially knowing the circumstances surrounding the fight - Murphy took the fight at just a couple of days notice, fought at a higher weight division than he normally does and more importantly had been cut during the successful defense of his Southern Area Lightweight title just two weeks earlier.

As such I really wanted to get an inside track on this mighty warrior, as well as the fight itself, so rather than talk with Murphy so soon after the fight Instead I spoke with his coach Johnny Eames at his famous fight factory The TRAD TKO Boxing Gym in Canning Town.

However before we get onto the interview with the esteemed Mr Eames I thought it sensible to give a very brief rundown on the fight for those that hadn’t been lucky enough to watch Murphy’s magnificent performance.

Murphy completed dominated the first half of the fight, he took the fight to the bigger man, pinning Theophane on the ropes and letting rip with nonstop venomous salvos, to win the first five rounds easily. Theophane had a little more success in the sixth, but still not enough I felt to win the round - mainly because it was clear that it was Murphy that was still in full control.

Round seven see the Tasmanian Devil Dog like Murphy completely tie up the champ, as in the early rounds, to secure the round, even though Theophane had managed to tear a nasty gash over Murphy’s right eye - On this point some reports say was the result of a left uppercut, whilst various of those present ringside, including his coach Johnny Eames, claim this was due to the dubious use of the elbow.

Either way at the end of the day Murphy was badly cut, something that clearly affected him, as such initially he seemed wary to go full pelt as previously, which allowed Theophane to actually gain some semblance of success for the next couple of rounds.

Round eleven sees Murphy fly out the traps and again take the fight to the Champ and keeps the pressure up for a minute or so. As soon as the major assault subsides Theophane starts one of his own. Theophane steps up the pace and continues to do so until the referee Howard Foster steps in and stops the fight on the 2 minute 33 second mark.

Interestingly many pundits disagreed with the ref stepping in and stopping the fight at this point, including myself, but it was surprisingly refreshing that Johnny Eames didn’t, something he explains during the following interview.

Rio -First question I have to ask is just how did this fight actually come about?

Johnny- Frank Maloney called me on Tuesday evening and asked me if Michael Grant wanted to fight Ashley Theophane for the British title as Nigel Wright unfortunately had a problem with his brain scan - obviously my sympathies go out to Nigel Wright, who’s a good friend of mine. I spoke to him up there and hopefully all will be all right once they get the second opinion - I said Michael wasn’t available and maybe he should try Peter McDonagh, who trains here in the gym.

Obviously the answer was that he couldn’t do it, so I said look I’ve got another guy here, who I don’t actually manage, but train and I’ll have a word with him, Ben Murphy, I said the only problem is he only fought two weeks ago and in that fight he got cut, so it was a big if Ben would be willing to take the fight.

That was a stupid question really, because I phoned Ben, maybe I should have rang his manager first but I always have a sort of special relationship with my fighters and I rang Ben he answered immediately I said do you want to fight for the British title Saturday, bearing in mind this was Tuesday and the answer was yes. He didn’t ask who, where, how much, what weight, nothing!

Obviously it was a step up in weight, which was a gamble, but I worked with Ashley (Theophane) for two or three years and I know Ashley quite well. I knew that Ben was the kind of fighter that Ashley really didn’t like fighting. The big question mark over the fight was it was two weeks since he fought and had been back in the gym once, all right he did a couple of runs and he always keeps himself fit.

We hadn’t prepared for it, but that’s all right because Ashley hadn’t prepared for us - then again how can you prepare for Ben Murphy - you know he was prepared to fight Nigel Wright, a southpaw, and now he’s got a little bull like animal who wants to rip his head off with every punch he throws.

Rio - You touched on my next question, normally Ben fights at Super Featherweight and Lightweight, didn’t you worry about him stepping up to Light Welter so quickly.

Johnny- If it had been any other Light Welterweight in the Country I might have been a bit concerned, but I know Ashley quite well, he aint what you call a big puncher, he’s quite accurate but not a big puncher so I knew Ben would be able to deal with the power.

Ben walks around at 10st 4lbs, 10st 5lbs and he makes Lightweight quite comfortably and he did make Super Featherweight for Prizefighter, so he’s pretty flexible. He’s a good liver so he can keep the weight on or take it off as it makes no difference for him, so we virtually fought at walking around weight.

Ben’s a different animal, yeah it was a gamble, but a calculated gamble.

Rio- Ben’s only been with you around six weeks or so, so I assume a lot of what we see was his normal fight style and not that you have bought much on board yet.

Johnny- When he came to me he had three weeks ‘til his Southern Area title defense, there’s nothing I can teach in three weeks, not even Superman could teach anyone anything in three weeks, and there’s a lot better trainers than me out there (Rio - I doubt there are many better, with the levels of Championship success Johnny has had over the years) that would tell you that you couldn’t teach anyone anything new in just three weeks, so we just had to make sure he was ready for a ten rounder, which he was.

After the first fight I said we’ll get you in the gym and I’ll start teaching you some of the things you need to know. He was due to be in this Monday to start our coaching for fights after Christmas.

Obviously it’s not how I want him to fight, but for Ashley it’s the way he had to fight. I spoke to him beforehand and said that there’s things I want to teach you to do, but said to him for this fight just go out there and do what you do, because he had to do what he does. It aint pretty but it’s effective.

Rio- Now I’m going to get onto the fight itself - unfortunately I couldn’t get up to Sunderland so I watched it on TV - I thought he did amazingly well and that the stoppage was early, but please tell me how you see that fight.

Johnny- I was amazed at how he could back Ashley up so easily in the first six rounds, I mean at first I thought Ashley was having a look to see what Ben’s got to offer. I knew he hadn’t prepared for Ben, all good fighters can adapt during a fight and Ashley is a good fighter.

As I said I thought Ashley was just having a look, then after the first round went, and then the second and then the third went I realised he couldn’t deal with it.

Ben was very fired up, I was asking Ben not to put power in every shot, unfortunately that side of it we haven’t taught him that yet and he just went round after round.

I had us win the fist six rounds, without a shadow of a doubt. For me personally I had us lose the next four, going into the eleventh I had us two up. I believe, no I know for definite because I spoke with the judges, that one judge had Ben five up going into the eleventh, one had him four up and one had him one round up.

In hindsight if I had known that I would have told Ben to go out there and hang on him for dear life, but not knowing if he’d be able to do that or not, because that’s not his style.

Everybody was in his favour, at the end of the tenth round, I think it was, he came back - he was cut in the second round, it was a cut that he got two weeks before and we knew it would reopen, and then cut again in the seventh round - and he’d started to get beaten up a bit, I’m not someone that I’m not one for letting my fighters get beat up so I said to him unless you win this eleventh round I’m not letting you out for the twelfth.

Obviously partly to fire him up but also to make him aware he was taking too many shots. Unfortunately the referee didn’t let him get back to the corner, but a lot of people who watched it on TV said they didn’t feel the stoppage was justified, from ringside it was and Howard (Foster) did a good job, a very good job.

Ben did everyone of us proud, when we went back to the hotel the officials stood and clapped us in, I’ve never seen that before.

The bottom line is that it could open doors for Ben in his own weight division.

Rio -Again you’ve touched on my next question - what’s next for Ben.

Johnny - Ben is a Lightweight, he really is a Lightweight, he will do Lightweight again and he will be fighting at Lightweight in the next fight.

I’d love to think, and reading the reports and website that everybody thinks that Ben should be mandatory challenger for the British Lightweight title. I’d love to think he would.

Anthony Crolla is a good friend of mine, Joe Gallagher is a good friend of mine, but I’m pretty certain if they was watching that they wont be fancying facing Ben Murphy at Lightweight and I’m pretty certain that he could go and take the title from Anthony.

Rio- So if he does get the shot and wins the title, do see Ben progressing further than that?

Johnny- I never look beyond the British level with one of my fighters until they win it and defend it and then we look to see what’s around. The Lightweight division on the European scene is a very good division.

I’m not saying Ben aint good enough, but let’s see what happens with the British title first and then we’ll see where we go after that.

Rio- You’ve only had five weeks working with Ben, what’s your absolute honest opinion of him.

Johnny- The American trainer that was with Ashley said to me after the fight ‘put that man back in the cage, he should be on chains.’ That’s exactly what he is, he’s a total throwback, he’s not scared of anybody or anything.

When he was up here training with Bryan Lawrence, he’s a Lightweight but he was sparring with Middleweights because the lighter weights didn’t want to spar with him. That’s the kind of kid he is and any fighter that has Ben’s attitude I’ll give them as much time as I can.

As a character and as a person he’s amazing, he’s just amazing you know I’ve never had a fighter with such a positive thinking way of fights. In his mind no one can beat him and he don’t care who he fights.

I just wish there were a lot more fighters like him out there. Fighters these days are picky, want to be guaranteed wins, this kid don’t give a shit, he’ll fight whoever you put in front of him.

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RICKY HATTON admits he will be nervous before his ring return next week.

The two-weight world champion starts his new career as a trainer at Oldham Leisure Centre on Saturday November 12.

‘Hitman’ Hatton will be giving the instructions instead of throwing the punches when Blackpool’s Adam Little boxes a four round welterweight contest against a selected opponent.

Hatton said: “I will be nervous and anxious when Adam has his first contest with me in his corner because all eyes will be on me.

“Just because I have been a good boxer doesn’t mean I am going to be a good coach. Some of the best trainers in the world weren’t great boxers.

“Just like I was when I was a fighter I will love the challenge.

“I am confident in my own ability and have a lot to offer my fighter. I will be throwing every punch with Adam because he has put his faith in me.

“I don’t want to be in the corner of any fighters where they think I am there for a pay cheque.”

Denton Vassell tops the Oldham bill that is being televised live by Sky Sports when he makes the second defence of his Commonwealth welterweight crown against Cameroon born Australian Samuel Colomban.

Other fights: Matty Askin v Roman Kracic, Kieran Farrell v Youssef Al Hamidi, Jazza Dickens v Badis Ouari, Dezzie Higginson v Sid Razak, and Kieran Maher v TBA

Boxing starts at 6.15pm and tickets priced at £35, £55 and £75 VIP ringside. You can buy by calling 01925 755 222, Ticketmaster 0844 847 2500, Ticketline 0844 888 9991 or online www.hattonboxing.com

ALL MEDIA AND PUBLIC ARE INVITED TO ATTEND THE WEIGH-IN WHICH WILL TAKE PLACE AT OLDHAM LEISURE CENTRE, LORD STREET, OLDHAM, OL1 3HA on Friday 11th November at 3pm

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Maltese Professional Boxer – Clayton “The Punisher” Vella will be leaving Malta this Saturday for a training camp at the renowned TRAD TKO Boxing Gym in London.

Vella who is Malta’s first locally registered professional boxer is 25 years of age and is at the moment preparing for his professional debut.

Before deciding to switch to the professional ranks, Vella was fighting on the Maltese unlicensed boxing circuit, were he built himself a reputation as an aggressive and hard hitting fighter.

Vella is looking forward to his sessions at the TRAD TKO Boxing Gym, which was founded by World class boxing coach Johnny Eames and is located in the heart of London’s Docklands, at Canning Town.

The TKO first opened it’s doors in September 2006, as the home gym for his stable of Eames highly successful professional boxers.

Whilst TRAD TKO Boxing Gym is primarily a gym created for professional boxers and their coaches, Johnny Eames is a firm believer that the gym and it’s facilities should be available for all, regardless of age or experience, and as such has a team of World class BBBofC licensed coaches and sports conditioning specialists who are available to assist anyone, whether professional, amateur or those that just want to box for fitness, to achieve their goals.

Recently TRAD TKO BBBofC Coach, Barry Smith was in Malta for two weeks and he held several training sessions with some of Malta’s new professional boxing prospects.

In an interview with ‘Malta Boxing News’ Barry said that he was surprised at the standard and enthusiasm of the Maltese boxers and he looked forward to working further with the local prospects.

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