New Horizon Boxing Club staged another exciting night of amateur action at the Palace Hotel recently.

The event, sponsored by TQC Construction, was a complete sell out and boxing fans were treated to 11 evenly-matched contests as the local club hosted to a strong team from Yorkshire who won the team match 8-1.

The standout performance for the Douglas-based club came from Onchan teenager Mickey Bucknall in a youth contest against Yorkshire’s Zhi Chew.

The visiting boxer started the first round well using quick counters to score. As the round went on though, Bucknall found his range and success with his long, straight punches.

The home fighter picked up the pace in the second round and soon had Chew on the back foot.

The third round was much the same as the second, with Bucknall dominating the round and keeping the pressure on the Yorkshire boxer.

The pressure started to tell as the referee administered two standing counts to the Chew, therefore Bucknall won on a unanimous points decision.

Ultimately, he was the only local boxer to get his hand raised on the night, with some close decisions going the way of the visitors, the most notable of which was the split decision given against Douglas schoolboy Lenny Henderson.

Henderson was in a junior contest against Yorkshire’s Layton Kaye and took control of the ring centre, working well behind a long jab as he looked to keep the smaller Kaye at arm’s length.

The Yorkshire lad did have some success when he ducked under Henderson’s jab to land overhand rights.

The second round was all Henderson as he increased the pressure and pushed Kaye back to the ropes, Kaye looked to be running out of ideas as he struggled to land the over hand right that gave him success in the first round.

Henderson was relentless in the final round as he boxed well at range to cruise to what looked like a unanimous points win. But it was the Yorkshire boxer who had his hand raised winning on a split decision.

On the night, New Horizon had eight boxers in action plus IoM Northern Boxing Club’s three boxers making up the Isle of Man team, with Ayann Taylor, Finnlay Richardson and Duncan Ferguson all acquitting themselves well in their first competitive bouts.

New Horizon schoolboys Alfie Bradford and Leo Philbin opened the show with a couple of entertaining skills bouts.

The home club also had junior boxers Louis Page and Towson Barton in action. Page fought against Kenzee Liveridge, with the Yorkshire boxer starting well and winning the first round, only for Page to come back into it in the second round.

Liveridge’s fitness paid off as he was able to finish the bout stronger and pick up the unanimous points decision.

Towson Barton went up against Zacary Smith and the home fighter used his clever southpaw boxing skills to counter punch and box well on the back foot in the first round.

Barton started the second round on the front foot and gave Smith a standing count, but he ran out of steam and was warned for holding which earned him a points deduction.

The final round was a messy affair with both lads running out of steam and in the end it was the Yorkshire lad who had his hand raised.

Two New Horizon senior boxers closed the show, with female fighter Courtney Carroll in her first bout being unlucky to go up against the whirlwind that was Lisa Pearson.

The Yorkshire lass didn’t stop throwing punches from the first bell until the referee administered the third standing count of the bout and automatically halted the contest. The Manx girl dug deep and did well to get to the final round and was disappointed for the bout to be stopped.

Top of the bill was a cracking bantamweight contest between New Horizon’s Cory Benjamin and Yorkshire’s Ellis Hunter.

Both boxers came out swinging, with big punches landing from the first bell. Something had to give and unfortunately it was the Manx boxer who was on the end of a big right hand that had him on the seat of his pants.

Benjamin was up quickly with only his pride hurt and soon went on the attack, enjoying some success with his body punching.

The second and third round mirrored the first in this all-action affair, but it was the number of head shots that Hunter landed compared to the high majority of Benjamin’s work going to the body that tipped it in favour of Hunter.

The trophies for best bout of the night sponsored by Saphire Construction went to the Henderson v Kaye fight and the best Manx boxer award went to Bucknall.

- This was the Douglas club’s first show of 2025 and boxers are hoping to be back in action at the Palace later on in the year.

New Horizon would like to thank all their sponsors for the much-needed support and the volunteers who worked hard behind the scenes to make this another memorable night of boxing.

JOHN CAIN