Whangarei boxer Josh Bowman beat Counties-Manukau's Ben Kilgour by a technical knockout to retain the Peter Gilbert trophy at Kensington Stadium on Saturday.
After two frustrating rounds for the Whangarei United Club boxer, Bowman finally made headway against Kilgour in the third round of the four-round welterweight feature fight.
After stopping the
fight twice in the round to give Kilgour a standing eight-count, the referee awarded the fight to Bowman - much to the pleasure of the fiercely partisan crowd.
"He had a good reach and a good guard for his head so I had to start throwing body shots ... but then he stopped throwing punches and the ref stopped it because I was scoring too many shots to his body," Bowman said, adding that it was good to be able to hold on to the Gilbert Trophy for another year.
Bowman's father Tim, who organised the night's 18 bouts, hoped it would turn into a regular feature for local boxers.
"It would be good for us to have two tournaments a year, with one at the beginning of the season and another at the end, perhaps with United hosting one and us the other," he said.
Up to 500 people showed up to watch the event, which was organised to raise funds for a new boxing gym at Oakura and to showcase local boxers.
"I don't think Whangarei gets enough of this sort of thing and the people always come out to support it when there is a boxing event," Bowman senior said, noting that from the four Oakura boxers, three had wins.
Kayla Munday was awarded the most scientific boxer for her victory over the more experienced Kate Thompson from Counties.
Meanwhile, 16-year-old Chen Hing and 10-year-old Te wairua Hiku also had wins, while Leiyton Brown was defeated.
