Last Saturday night in Richmond, the Sunshine Coast Boxing Club’s George Vourtsis came up short in his bid to become the Combative Sports Association Of British Columbia’s (Combsport) welterweight champion.
Vourtsis was matched against the North Burnaby Boxing Club’s Ron Pryce. Each boxer holds a win over the other from previous bouts this year.
The Richmond Sports Club was packed with boxing fans and was buzzing with energy in anticipation of this bout.
Scheduled for five rounds, the bout began with Vourtsis walking down Pryce in his attacking style, which usually turns his fights into wars of attrition.
Pryce was up to the task, though, as he showed a lot of grit by holding his ground with counter punches as well as some solid body punching to take the first round.
In a back-and-forth second round, the action whipped the audience into a deafening frenzy.
The third round went much the same way until near the end when Vourtsis caught Pryce with some huge punches, stunning the Burnaby boxer as the bell rang.
Showing huge heart and great conditioning, Pryce recovered in time for the fourth round.
Boxing the round of his life, Pryce counter-punched inside of Vourtsis’ widening punches, scoring enough solid blows to Vourtsis’ head that referee Kevin Dorenen had to stop the bout to access his condition.
Dorenen, who also referees professional boxing and MMA matches, determined that Vourtsis had been hit hard too often and stopped the bout to save him from taking unnecessary punishment as the bout had swung in Pryce’s favour.
While Vourtsis and his supporters were disappointed, he showed class and sportsmanship in defeat.
He plans to take a break after three fights in two months and in will return to the ring early in 2013.
— Submitted
