American boxing delegation has links with the top names in the sport

The Scorpion Boxing Club had the honour of bringing a top class team of boxers from Washington DC to visit Ballymoney and the local area.

The Team were staying in Belfast and were in N Ireland to compete in the return leg of the Belfast Beltway Boxing tournament at the Europa Hotel which is an International Competition between N Ireland and Washington USA.

Said Alan ‘Spike’ Martin of the Scorpion Club: “During their visit we took them to the Giant’s Causeway and Dunluce Castle; they then attended a Mayor’s reception in Riada House where Mayor John Finley met with them and talked to them for about an hour.

“They then visited our Castle Street Gym where they did a short training session before they returned back to Belfast.”

The party that visited included Sean Brebbia the great great grandson of legendary bareknuckle world champion Jake Kilrain who shared the ring with John L Sulliven; also International judge and ref Candy Jacobs whose father Dave Jacobs trained Washington’s greatest ever fighter Sugar Ray Leonard; also three of the fighters that visited are on the US high performance programme. All in All it was a fantastic day and one that the Scorpion Boxing Club will remember for a long time.

Added Alan: “The Belfast Beltway Project is something we are very proud to be part of.”

In the Belfast tournament Scorpion’s Brian McAlister at 54 kilo was matched against Hakeem Middleton USA and Paul Donnelly against much fancied switch hitter Adam Mitchell from USA .

Back in April Scorpion ABC’s Karol Dlugosz and head coach Alan Martin had the privilege of travelling with the Ardoyne ABC to Washington DC to compete in the 6th Annual Belfast Beltway Boxing Tournament, a prestigious event held in the nation’s capital which enables kids from DC to compete with their counterparts from Belfast and surrounding areas.

It was a week long trip which took in visits to the Supreme Court, Capitol Hill, Northern Ireland Consulate, the Irish Embassy and the White House.

The team was taken to the Headbangers Gym home of World Champ Lamont Peterson where they were able to watch him train before being taken to Palmer Park, Maryland and to Sugar Ray Leonard’s Gym where the weigh in for the fights was conducted.

There were 10 boxers on the team and during the trip they all took to the ring with Danny Boy and the Star Spangled Banner sounding out.