Five-star show for Trad TKO

Trad TKO's Siar Ozgul, Onder Ozgul, Mo Hussain and Mehmet Aba celebrate another win (pic: Gianluca Di Caro) (Image: Archant)

Canning Town’s Trad TKO Gym has always had a reputation for coaching some of the most exciting prospects in the UK and five of their fighters celebrated wins at York Hall last weekend.

Marianne Marston headlined the event, when she challenged Hungarian number one, European number three and World number 31 Marianna Gulyas for the MBC International super-bantamweight title.

Marston, who is trained by Brian O’Shaughnessy, pulled out one of the performances of the year, outboxing her more experienced opponent from start to finish, and sending Gulyas to the canvas seven times, although only two counted as actual knockdowns.

Judges Ben Doughty and Matt Hamilton scored the bout 100-89 and Lee Murtagh had it 99-88 all in favour of Marianne.

Victory shot Marston up the rankings to UK number one, European number three and World number 24, as well as making her Britain’s pound-for-pound number one female, all of which puts her nicely in line for a shot at a world title in 2015.

WIBA world champion Shannon O’Connell of Australia and her team recently made a tentative approach for Marston to challenge for the coveted crown, so it could be sooner rather than later that TKO’s ‘Golden Girl’ heads to the world stage.

Former England amateur captain Antonio Counihan, who is trained by his father Paul, made his first step towards Championship honors when he competed in his first six-rounder against Lithuania’s Janos Vass.

A classy, stylish boxer, young Counihan easily controlled his more experienced opponent with stiff jabs and quick double-handed flurries.

In the third round his skills and power proved too much for Vass, whose corner threw in the towel on the one minute 50 seconds mark to save their man further punishment.

The fight of the night, though, was Siar Ozgul’s battle royale with Nottingham’s Matt Scriven.

Coached by former Commonwealth lightweight champion Mo Hussein, Ozgul played his part in some great toe-to-toe action.

After four scintillating rounds referee Lee Murtagh scored it 39-37 in favour of the Trad TKO fighter, who saw elder brother Onder, also coached by Hussain, involved in an all-action thriller of his own when he took on late replacement Remigijus Ziausys.

The fight had the crowd on it’s feet for virtually the entire four rounds, with Onder victorious by a 40-36 margin in another close contest.

Cruiserweight Jerome Haywood, also coached by O’Shaughnessy, completed the Trad TKO line-up as he made his debut against the highly experienced Rolandas Cesna.

Haywood started slowly, but once the nerves subsided he put in a fantastic performance, scoring his maiden victory by a 40-38 margin.

Trad TKO head Johnny Eames said: “We’re so proud of every single one of them, they proved they can battle it out when they need to, each and everyone of them done us proud.

“When I first met her I may not have a been a fan of women’s boxing, but Marianne soon changed that.

“She put in a magnificent performance on Saturday and we’re all so proud of her, she deserved this, she’s always in the gym and always up for a fight.

“It didn’t take her long to become the flag bearer for female boxers, not just at the gym but in the UK full stop.

“What can I say about Antonio, this kid is a super star in waiting, we really need to be moving him on to bigger and better things.

“On Saturday he proved beyond any doubt he’s ready to start eyeing up title fight opportunities next year.

“Onder and Siar have proved they too are ready to step up to six rounders. They both fought magnificently on Saturday, they really proved they can hold their own with the toughest of fighters.

“Jerome made a fantastic start to his career. Cesna was a late replacement and a lot heavier than Jerome, but he showed he can handle whatever is thrown at him. We’re all really pleased for him.

“We have a great team and a great squad here at the Trad TKO, it really is exciting times for us.”