Local club get some support from West Ham ABC to enjoy their visit to the Infinity Hotel

Islington Gazette: Islington Boxing Club's Mason Smith in action against 1860 Munich rival Ahmed Ham (pic: Islington BC).Islington Boxing Club's Mason Smith in action against 1860 Munich rival Ahmed Ham (pic: Islington BC). (Image: Archant)

An Islington Boxing Select Team returned victorious from a Pro/AM show over in Munich, Germany on Saturday held at the Infinity Hotel.

Mason Smith opened the night and competed for the first time since April, but he lost on a split decision to 1860 Munich’s Ahmed Ham following a slow start.

Smith did come back into the 62kg contest, but he wasn’t throwing frequently enough to warrant a victory, nevertheless he could be proud of his efforts.

Jordan Blake, of West Ham ABC, was one of three guest boxers for Islington and he made his first contest in a year and a half.

The ring rustiness didn’t show though as he won all three rounds against Khaled Alfa Gani.

He continuously put pressure on his tricky southpaw opponent to win by a unanimous verdict.

Blake’s West Ham club-mate Viddal Riley was next on the card and fought in a 91kg contest against Adrian Chmielevski.

Riley was always on top on his return from injury and he managed to stop the German hope halfway through the second round after a strong right hook saw Chmielevski stumble, and as a result moved Islington 2-1 in front on the night.

The best contest of the evening came when Islington’s Lamin Conteh came up against the highly-rated Magomad Schachidov in a 72kg contest.

Conteh started off brightly and managed to pick up Schachidov with quality punches to win the opening round, only for the home hope to come back strong in the second round with a higher work rate.

Despite the Islington boxer digging deep in the final round with some strong uppercuts, Schachidov won on a split verdict to set up a final-bout decider.

Jeamie Tskieva, of White Hart Lane BA, was guesting for Islington in a 115kg contest against Roman Gorst – a boxer he had beaten on a unanimous verdict back in March last year when representing London ABA.

This bout followed a very similar pattern from their first encounter with Gorst winning the opening round.

Tskieva came back though, taking over in the second and third rounds after pressuring the experienced super-heavyweight boxer and landing the cleaner blows to win, which enabled Islington to claim an excellent 3-2 away victory in Munich and conclude a good night’s work.

Islington also had two boxers compete in the National Development Championship quarter-finals on Saturday, held at Threemilestone Social Club in Truro, Cornwall.

Chris Cunningham progressed to the next round of the National Development Championships when he defeated George Pomphrey (Broadplain ABC).

Cunningham (U75kgs - Class A) never allowed his opponent any time or room to work throughout the contest and his strong punches landed frequently.

However, there was disappointment as Masood Abdualh (Islington, U60kgs - Class A) was defeated. He started slowly and lost the first round against southpaw boxer Shabir Haidire (The Factory ABC).

Abdualh improved as the contest progressed, with the second round being a lot closer and there was no doubt that he won the last round, but Haidire won on a 3-2 split decision.