It has been said that boxing doesn’t build character but that it reveals it.
Friday, June 6, the Sunshine Coast Boxing Club’s 16-year-old Riley Ohlson made his debut at a sold-out amateur boxing event hosted by Griffins Boxing Club in North Vancouver with a thrilling come-from-behind victory. Riley summoned strong character and courage to battle back to win a unanimous decision victory after clearly losing the first round to 17-year-old Marcus Marino of the Port Kells Boxing Club.
In round one, the attacking Marino kept Riley off his game plan with an effective aggression that enabled him to land some hard punches and scoring a standing 8 count on Riley.
Riley gutted out the onslaught and survived round one.
Between rounds Riley’s coaching team offered the calm boxer a few tactical changes so he could battle back from the deficit he was in.
In round two, Riley began to control the distance between the boxers by using his considerable reach to catch Marino with straight punches as he attempted to swarm Riley with wide punches.
Near round’s end, Riley took over the fight as he was now out boxing his aggressive opponent in all situations.
In the third and final round, Riley intelligently set up his opponent for a variety of scoring punches with good footwork, defence and counter punching.
In the final minute of the fight, the well-conditioned Riley went on the attack, battering his now tired opponent almost at will and scoring two standing eight counts to cement the unanimous decision win.
Coach Shannon commented regarding the fight that Riley had trained hard in and out of the boxing gym and has been absorbing the boxing skills offered to him by coaches Emil Constantinescu and George Vourtsis at the Sunshine Coast Boxing Club, located on Venture Way in Gibsons.
The boxing club will be shutting down evening classes at the end of June.
Riley and other members of our Boxing BC/Boxing Canada sanctioned competitive team will return to competition in the fall.
The boxing gym is located at 1039 Venture Way in Gibsons.
