An evening of exceptional entertainment took place recently as boxers from the Royal Navy and Army went toe-to-toe at the HMS Sultan Boxing Show.
This is an annual event which sees novice fighters from HMS Sultan and HMS Collingwood compete and raise money for The Royal Navy and Royal Marines Charity.
This year guest boxers from the Royal Engineers and the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers regiments of the Army combined to compete against the RN hosts.
At the beginning of the evening all of the boxers made their way in to the ring to be paraded in front of the sell-out crowd before the Corps-of-Drums from RM Band Portsmouth helped build on an already electric atmosphere.
Ten bouts of rounds were on the Show’s Card, nine of which pitted the Royal Navy against their Army guests with one additional all Navy clash featuring Sultan vs Collingwood.
Everyone hoped for some tightly contested clashes and the action in the ring didn’t disappoint. In all but one of the bouts the fight went the full scheduled time with nearly all contests decided by a split decision.
At the end of competition individual awards were presented to bout winners and to the best runners up.
Captain Peter Towell, the Commanding Officer of HMS Sultan presented Engineering Technician Marine Engineering Jake Murray with the award for the best boxer on the night.
After achieving a total of six wins to three, Brigadier Richard Bennett MVO, the Commandant of The Defence College of Technical Training presented trainers from the combined Army squad with the overall competition trophy.
The event was organised by HMS Sultan boxing coach, and Petty Officer Physical Trainer Peter ‘Ozzy’ Oswald who said: “It’s really important in preparing for the Boxing Show to make it a special event, as for many of the boxers it’s the first time that they will have entered the ring and something that they will remember for the rest of their lives.
“The evening has been a massive success and it was great to have our Army guests involved who have really enjoyed it.”
“All of the fighters have trained really hard and shown a lot of courage and determination to go into the ring and give it everything they’ve got.
“Our own fighters have come away with a real buzz about them, many will now go on for selection for Eastern Region competition and this could even lead on to boxing for the full Royal Navy squad.”
