A day of competitive boxing returns to Gibsons next Saturday with a full afternoon of fights at the Gibsons Curling Club.
Dubbed War on the Shore, the June 18 event will be hosted by the Sunshine Coast Boxing Club and will feature all its top fighters.
Doors open at 1:30 p.m. with the fights slated to start at 2. Tickets are $20 and are available by calling Rick Shannon at 604-886-0928.
"Under the watchful eye of coach Ben Smith, our competitive team has shown significant skill and fitness improvement that has made them so successful," Shannon said. "I encourage the Coast's sports fans to come seethe exciting actionand experience the energy in the venue at amateur boxing competitions. Get ready for hard-fought bouts sanctioned by Boxing Canada and lots of fun, brought to you by the Sunshine Coast Boxing Club and its sponsors."
As a tune-up to their first home event, the club was in Parksville the weekend of May 28 and 29 for the B.C. Bronze Gloves tournament.
In a 147-pound bout, George Vourtsis took on Ryan Kehoe of West Bank.
Kehoe, a tall, slick boxer, started moving and jabbing well, but Vourtsis figured outKehoe's rhythm and easily slipped and countered his punches.
Between rounds, Smith told Vourtsis to slip the punches, step inside Kehoe's long arms and unload with combinations of punches.
Midway through the second round, as Kehoe wore down under pressure, Vourtsis twice staggered his opponent, and the bout was stopped.
In the main event, Nik Stevenson took on Parksville's Kalin Langerfield, who carried the reputation of being a murderous puncher into the ring.
With the shorter Stevenson in pursuit, Langerfield landed his big punches, which brought the hometown crowd to its feet. Well-conditioned and tough as nails, Stevenson took the blows and scored on the inside with his own bombs.
This continued through the first two rounds, but in the third, Langerfield began to tire and was bleeding and breathing heavily. Stevenson scored two standing eight counts in the third and had the battered Langerfield on his heels as the bout ended.
Stevenson was awarded a 13-9 points win, and both men received a standing ovation from the audience as Stevenson was crowned Bronze Gloves champion.
In Sunday afternoon's title bout, Vourtsis fought Josh Van Rhyn of Richmond for the welterweight title.
"George had a bad first round," Shannon said. "He was walking straight forward and taking punches, putting him behind on the score cards against the fast moving Richmond boxer."
Given the "get in the game" talk by Smith, Vourtsis loosened up and began to score more punches as the second round came to a close.
In the third round, it was all Vourtsis as Van Rhyn's legs tired, allowing Vourtsis to trap him. At that point he was beaten into a bloody mess and the referee had to stop the fight to rescue him.
Shannon said the only disappointment from the weekend was that heavyweight Dave Nygren travelled to the tournament only to find at the weigh-in that his scheduled opponent from the Griffins Boxing Club in North Vancouver was a no-show.
Nygren won the Bronze Gloves by walkoverwhen he wanted badly to have the fight he had trained so hard for.
"Itwas irresponsible of the Griffins Club to allow Dave to incur the travel costs without notice of the boxer not keeping his commitment to appear," Shannon said. "Our club always acts in good faith and expects the same in return."
