The Sunshine Coast Boxing Club had a perfect night at the Golden Gloves held April 15 to 16 in Richmond, with all three fighters entered returning as champions.
On Friday night, heavyweight Dave Nygren tangled with Pemberton's hard-nosed brawler Alex Campbell in a rematch from the provincial finals held in November when Nygren defeated Campbell.
In this bout, the aggressive Campbell stalked the increasingly skillful Nygren, only to be peppered with jabs and straight right hands.
Nygren followed coach Ben Smith's game plan to a tee and took a 7-4 decision.
On Saturday night, George Vourtsis found himself matched against Philip Chang of Vancouver's Contenders Boxing Gym in the 69 kg welterweight final.
In the tournament draw, Vourtsis got the bye while Chang had to beat a Surrey fighter Friday night to advance.
The championship match was a rematch of a bout between the boxers two weeks prior, when Vourtsis stopped Chang in the third round. This fight was a replay of the first meeting between the boxers, with the aggressive Vourtsis pressuring and wearing down Chang. Chang survived the bout, but Vourtsis took the judges' decision.
In the main event, Gibsons' Nik Stevenson took to the ring to battle for the super-heavyweight title against North Vancouver's Dave Brett, who is the owner of the Griffins Boxing Club.
Sunshine Coast Boxing Club founder Rick Shannon said Stevenson gave up 15 pounds against the 230-pound Brett and much more boxing experience.
"The fearless and aggressive Stevenson followed Smith's game plan and stalked Brett to the ropes throughout the fight, forcing Brett to cover up and use a counter punching strategy," Shannon said. "While on the ropes, Brett landed a number of body punches that have defeated his former opponents, but not on this night, as the well-conditioned and tough Stevenson walked through them."
Shannon said the fight was very close, but with the pressure applied on him by Stevenson, Brett was forced to hold and clinch. Finally, referee Jeff Lalgee had to take points away from Brett for his actions that put Stevenson ahead in the fight to stay and claim the Golden Gloves Championship.
"We've been very successful lately and that is due to the amount of effort the boxers are putting into their training and the support they give one another as teammates," Shannon added.
Up next for the club are fights tomorrow (April 3) at the Griffins Boxing Club in North Vancouver where it is expected there will be a Stevenson/Brett rematch in front of a packed house as well as bouts involving other Coast fighters.
