Two Tredagh Boxing Academy girls, Breanna Johnston and Grace Conway, (both current All Ireland Champions) competed in the “Golden Girls Boxing Championships” in Boras, Sweden recently.
In the semi-final Breanna boxed against Viola Latifi, the Danish Champion who is very tall and looked to use her reach advantage throughout the fight. However, Breanna gave a master class performance to win by unanimous decision to march onto the final.
Both Tredagh girls had an early morning start on the Sunday for weigh in at the Barashallen Arena and time to prepare for their retrospective finals of the “Golden Girl Championships”.
First up was Grace Conway boxing Faith Barrass from England – who looked very impressive in her semi-final. The first round saw the English fighter come forward and Grace catch her throughout the round with popping jabs and beautifully timed backhand crosses, polished off with lead-hand hooks. A round Grace clearly won.
In round two a more urgent English fighter pressed throughout only to be met with looping long hooks on the Q turn by Grace and then followed up by fast 1 / 2 combinations. Grace was also getting the better exchanges on the inside and the English fighter was being warned for holding. Another round in the bag.
In the third round the experienced English fighter tried her best to knock Gracie out but the All Ireland Champion was one step ahead on each exchange catching the barrage with perfectly timed counter combinations. At the final bell – the decision seemed to be formality but, to the amazement of the whole stadium it was announced that the English girl had won on a 2-1 decision.
The Tredagh corner queried the decision and learnt that there were two English judges who voted for England and 1 neutral Swedish judge who voted for Gracie. As one Tredagh corner man opt it – Grace was victim to the greatest Irish robbery since the Thierry Henry handball.
Next up was Breanna who faced Letizia Battois from Germany, in the final. The German Champion presented as big, very big and strong. Breanna set about her work from the opening bell… Sussing her opponent out with feints and changing angles.
The strong German kept coming forward and Breanna kept counter punching throughout the round. The second round presented a more urgent German. While Breanna continued to counter punch she also pressed forward at the right moments to push the strong German backwards landing heavy backhands and perfectly timed uppercuts… Followed by her trademark over the top hard hitting backhand.
Round three saw a young lady, who said two days ago that it has been her dream to fight at these Championships for the past five years – go all out. She pressed the fight throughout with fast hard hitting combinations.
At the closing of the round Breanna landed a heavy backhand that rocked the German’s legs and forced the referee to give the mandatory 8 count. Luckily there were no German judges and the neutrals awarded a unanimous decision to crown Breanna “The Piranha” Johnston “Golden Girl Champion 2022″in Sweden by a unanimous decision.
Both girls ‘boxed out of their skins’ and executed their plans perfectly at the “biggest all female boxing Championships in the world”. Tredagh Boxing Academy are very proud of their two “Golden Girl Champions”.
Meanwhile, as the girls boxed their final in Sweden Tredagh had four of their lads boxing in Manchester representing Tredagh and the ‘Leinster Development Squad’ Versus ‘The North West Region’ of England Squad.
Well done to Frankie Sheehy, Callum Carragher, Kevin Mc Keever and Thomas Mc Donagh. Frankie Sheehy was first Tredagh man up for Leinster facing a hometown favourite Alfie Gargan with both lads going ‘toe to toe’ for the three rounds but it was Sheehy’s hard hitting backhand and spin hook turns that was the difference which saw the Tredagh man win on a split decision.
Next in the ring was Kevin Mc Keever who. Although he was giving away 4 kg to the English Champion, still progressed with the fight. He managed to win one of the rounds but was edged out on a close points decision.
Next up for Tredagh, in the Leinster colours was Callum Carragher who faced the experienced Connor Yates. Both these boxers are at the top of their divisions in their retrospective countries and this was one of the most eagerly anticipated battles of the night, southpaw v southpaw. Carragher gave a masterclass performance with his sharpness, jab / hook, backhand crosses, uppercuts, range and footwork and his hand was raised on the final verdict from the judges.
