Inaugural event was a hoot

Autumn McDowell
Sports Editor

For the first time ever, The Owl was in support of people punching each other in the face.

The first annual boxing event at the University of Regina on Sept. 24 showcased some of the top amateur boxers in Saskatchewan and also featured up-and-coming boxers from various parts of Western Canada.

The event saw boxers both young and old enter the ring. With the youngest fighter listed was just 13 and the oldest was in the senior category (19-and-up), there were men of all ages going to battle.

There were six bouts listed on the card as well as three sets of sparing matches to kick off the night, and all of them went the distance.

The main event, which featured Sandro Celis vs. Corey Sylvestor, was a back-and-forth battle that saw both boxers land shots on their opponent’s buttons. Celis earned the split decision victory, which looked to be the right call.

Of course, a boxing event would not be complete without a little controversy. Another fight that went the distance and also ended in split decision was Oliver Levictoire vs. Logan Clouthier. It seemed to nearly everyone in the room that Clouthier won the fight, everyone except for the judges. Levictoire was awarded the win, but one had to wonder what fight the judges were watching.

Former Saskatchewan Roughrider defensive lineman Marcus Adams, who trains at New Line Boxing Academy, was in attendance and clearly thought that the judges had made a mistake.

“What fight were they watching?” Adams said when the winner was announced.

Adams’s words summed up what everyone else in the room was thinking, including one of the men that was working the event who wished to remain nameless.

“In my opinion, those guys are blind, but I’m not them,” he said. “The thing is, they use clickers to count the hits, but they are not suppose to click unless they see the hit directly. If the boxer’s back is turned to the judge it can look like a hit was landed when it wasn’t. There is no way that he won.”

However, it goes back to the golden rule: never leave it in the hands of the judges.

Despite the controversy, Moses B. Alli, the promoter of the event and owner of New Line Boxing Academy, was extremely pleased with how the event came together.

“I am ecstatic about how everything turned out,” he said. “It is exactly what I had in mind.”

After a successful first event, Alli hopes that this will be the first of many boxing events to come to the University of Regina.

“The plan is that this event is going to be part of a bigger plan,” Alli said. “This is the first year that we are doing it and we want to start doing it annually. For the next time, we will go back to the drawing board and make a few changes, but we will be back next year.”

Not only was Alli proud of the event itself, but also he was also proud of the performances put on by the athletes.

“I think that the boxers came out and they had exceptional performances, they demonstrated their excellent skills of boxing, and they showed exactly what we wanted to see from them,” Alli said. “I think that they showed the public an exact demonstration of what boxing should be.”