Golden Ring ABC are celebrating a remarkable hat-trick of NABC champions.

The Southampton-based club, who train at Mansel Park Pavilion in Millbrook, cemented their position as one of the country’s finest amateur gyms with Brad Pauls, Lewie Edmondson and Jack Stringer all bagging National Amateur Boxing Championship titles.

It is an incredible feat for Golden Ring whose head coach, Stuart Gill, said: “It was brilliant, just absolutely brilliant.

“It’s an amazing achievement for the club – to enter three fighters and get three champions is an incredible result.

“I can’t quite believe it.”

The first success came when Lewie Edmondson bagged his class B under-75kg title in Stoke – just months after almost not entering the competition at all.

“Lewie nearly never even entered,” laughed Gill. “He went on holiday to Ibiza and came back not long before the championships started and wasn’t in shape.

“I told him not to worry about this season and we’d concentrate on next season.

“He then found out that the lad who won it last year was fighting again and he was desperate to box him, so he lost five kilos in no time and got himself fit.

“He put in a great performance in the final.

“He boxed a very good kid who had beaten last year’s champion and Lewie stuck with the game plan, which was to throw clean shots and keep moving.

“He did it superbly and won really comfortably. It’s the best he’s ever boxed.”

The next day it was up to Folkstone for Pauls to make it two out of two in the class C under-71kg division.

“Brad has joined us from Plymouth as he is at university down here and not many people gave him a hope,” reflected Gill.

“He had come from a kick boxing gym down there and his foot work wasn’t great.

“We got that sorted out and he’s gone from strength to strength and won about 15 in a row.

“He’s really one for the future too.

“His semi-final was his final in many ways because of the quality of opponent he faced.

“But because of that I think he may have thought he already had it won because he hadn’t done a couple of runs and weighed in two kilos too heavy. I would normally have pulled him out but, as it was a final, I gave him a chance to lose the weight, which he did.

“He got the unanimous win but losing the weight definitely had an effect on him.

“It’s a great title and hopefully a lesson for the future as well.”

The icing on the cake came as Stringer boxed in Leeds against Newbiggen’s James Tyrer in the class A under-70kg division.

“Jack had a great ride to the final. In the quarter-finals he beat the Welsh champion, who he had lost to a couple of years ago, 11-1,” said Gill.

“He is normally a slow starter but we knew in the final we couldn’t afford to give much away.

“He boxed brilliantly in the first round and picked off his opponent nicely.

“In the second round their lad came out trying to stop Jack, as he knew it was the only way he was going to win.

“It turned into a brilliant fight, a real tear up, and he won it by a 4-1 majority.

“It was just a fantastic weekend for us all.”

 

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