Islington Boxing Club have entered a total of 12 boxers into the Elite Championships – with Mason Smith getting a bye to the national rounds and two-time champion Cherrelle Brown looking for a third consecutive title.
The championship, which was formerly known as the ABA’s, will see Brown look to emulate her 2015 and 2016 successes at light-welterweight while Smith was named as the number one seed at lightweight by the Great Britain boxing team.
Darren Ballinger will return to the event for the first time in five years while Jerome Campbell, Amy Broadhurst, Inder Bassi and Lamin Conteh are all entered for the first time.
Mo Gharib is a previous London winner, having taken the title in 2014, while Sherif Musah will take part in the cruiserweight division after the weight category was re-introduced for this championship.
IBC’s other entrants are Troy Smart, Yaser Al-Ghena and Chris Onwegbusi.
The weigh-in for London boxers is on Saturday at the Mencap Building in Tottenham with the preliminary rounds of the London championships taking place on March 23-24.
The London Elite Finals will be held at Harrow Leisure Centre on Thursday, March 30, with the national finals being held in London between April 21 and 23.
Campbell warmed up for the event with a last-minute call up for an England show against Sweden in Basingstoke on Friday.
He stepped in to face Thomas Hodgson of Birtley ABC when his Swedish opponent withdrew and although the north-east fighter won a unanimous decision, it showed the progress of the Islington man this season.
He has already reached the national finals of the Development Finals in October and this was the first England vest claimed.
Conteh and Smart also had good warm-up fights at a Wellington ABC dinner in Telford.
Smart faced home fighter Shabaz Masoud in an eliminator for the English Elite Title belt and went down to unanimous decision.
However, there was better luck for Conteh who recorded his second victory in a week, defeating Conna Walter of Marydale ABC on a split decision.
His straight shots in the last round proved the difference.
Elsewhere, three Islington boxers were on Chelmsford ABC’s open show.
And both Slavisa Gegic and Masood Abdullah extended their unbeaten records.
Gegic made it six from six with a split decision victory after originally travelling as a spare fighter.
And Abdallah’s record is now four wins from four after defeating a Chelmsford ABC fighter on a unanimous decision.
He caught Holloway with two punch combinations at will and gave him two standing eight-counts in the final round.
Unfortunately Mateusz Szcepkowski couldn’t bring a win, going down to a unanimous verdict against Vickers of Miguel’s ABC.
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