Boxing: Hamer Boxing Club fight report

Connor Middleton and Kylan Roberts

On Saturday 28 January, 12-year-old Conor “The Removal Man” Middleton travelled to the Riccall Regen Centre in Selby, Yorkshire to meet Kaylan Roberts of Rourkey’s Gym.

When the bell rang for the first round, Conor stormed out of the blue corner to unleash multiple hooks to both the body and head of his opponent as Roberts lay upon the ropes, before the referee momentarily stopped the contest to warn the Rourkey boxer for holding. The bout continued with Connor unleashing more continuous hooks to the body and head as Roberts lay upon the ropes. On occasion, Roberts unloaded a strong right hand to the chin of his on-coming Hamer opponent, which instantly aroused the crowd and the volume within the room, but the Hamer boxer brushed it aside and continued to attack his opponent with great enthusiasm and vigour.

Before the start of the second round, the Hamer coach Steven Connellan told Conor to continue to force Roberts back onto the ropes with his hooks to the body and head, but then step back half a step before coming back in with a straight right hand to the chin. He also told Conor to unleash uppercuts when Roberts puts his head down when he lays upon the ropes.

The bell rang for the second round and surprisingly the Hamer boxer came out probing slowly with his jab, which briefly inspired Roberts to step forward and attack his Rochdale opponent, but as he did, Conor unleashed another barrage of punches upon Roberts before the Rourkey boxer was warned for holding. When the bout was allowed to continue, Conor approached his opponent with straight one-two combinations to force Roberts upon the ropes, where he unleashed even more hooks to both the body and head. Just before the bell rang to end the round, Roberts was warned again for holding his opponent as he tried to land his own punches.

Before the start of the last round, Connellan asked his boxer if he could keep up the momentum of the action and when Conor nodded a yes, he was told to continue with what he had been doing, whilst bobbing and weaving as he approached his opponent, so that Roberts would miss with his right hand when Conor stepped into range.

The bell rang for the third and last round and Conor came out like a storm throwing a blizzard of punches upon his opponent throughout the entire round. All that Roberts could do was to back off onto the ropes as he continued to take blow after blow from his Hamer opponent, who was awarded his third victory in a row by a unanimous decision, for his non-stop action.