Tourists become first London club to beat 1860 Munich on home soil

Islington Boxing Club became the first London team to defeat 1860 Munich in a team match in Germany, watched by over 2,000 spectators.

The Hazellville Road club took four of their own boxers in a squad of nine, including two from Double Jab and one from Repton, Nemesis and White Hart Lane.

And Jay Jay Curtin (60kg) was first up against former Hungarian and German junior champion Ahmed Ham who, despite some good spells from the Londoner, took a unanimous points win.

Islington’s Jerome Campbell (60kg) made his 30th appearance against southpaw Andre Jager, who had 65 more bouts of experience, and beat his rival to the punch in the first two rounds, before holding on for a split decision to level it up.

Double Jab’s Ola Alausa (82kg) rallied to edge Emil Breuer on a majority verdict, before Repton’s Jacob Peterson (90kg) used his jab to good effect to beat Mike Lehnis on another split decision for a 3-1 lead.

But Islington’s Chris Onwegubsi (76kg) slipped to a slender defeat after a close contest with Uwe Hernandez, who suffered a cut on his eyebrow in an accidental clash of heads in the second round but recovered to claim the judges vote.

London Elite super-heavyweight champion Courtney Bennett (103kg) of Double Jab used his left and right combinations to outwork Roman Gorst in a confident display for a majority win to make it 4-2.

And London Elite light-welterweight champion Elliot Whale (64kg) of Nemesis produced a great southpaw display to secure overall victory by comfortably winning all three rounds against Daniel Jab.

Crowd favourite Granit Shala hoped for a consolation win against former two-time National Novice champion Jeamie Tshikeva (White Hart Lane), but was denied by a split decision, before the last contest saw Islington captain Inder Bassi (71kg) lose on unanimous points to highly rated Magomed Schachidov.

Bassi started off brighter, using his jab whilst on the back foot and countering with his back hand, but Schachidov upped his work rate and came out firing with strong shots in a close second round.

After Bassi was given a standing eight count, Schachidov landed more quality shots in the final round for a fully deserved consolation win.

Islington matchmaker Reggie Hagland said: “We are incredibly proud of all the boxers in our squad and for the fact we were the first London team to defeat 1860 Munich away from home.

“It’s never easy to go abroad and box in someone else’s back yard as it’s often against you rather than in your favour. I’m thankful for the other club matchmakers and coaches who allowed us to have their boxers guest for Islington and for the wonderful hospitality 1860 Munich showed us.”

Islington Boxing Club are planning on brining 1860 Munich over for their dinner show in early November 2017 with a return match pencilled in for May 2018.