Haverhill Amateur Boxing Club’s Olly Smith shines on skills bout debut

Haverhill Amateur Boxing Club’s OIly Smith made an impression in his first ever skills bout at the weekend.

Smith only took up the sport around the turn of the year, but having shown plenty of promise, he was ‘fast-tracked’ to feature on the card at an event in Burwell on Saturday.

Coach Lewis Catterick said: “Olly has only been boxing for a couple of months but due to his willingness to learn and hard work he’s fast-tracked his way to a skills bout.

“Olly showed great composure and controlled the bout from start to finish.

“We’re really excited to get Olly started on his boxing journey.”

Meanwhile, on the same day, the club’s Izzy Coston and Catterick travelled to the Great Britain and England Boxing headquarters in Sheffield to take part in an Aspire training day.

It proved be a useful learning experience for both the fighter and the coach, which included sparring, technical drills, pad-work drills and video analysis with more than 70 female boxers and a mix of coaches from all over the country in aid of International Women’s Day.