LEGIONS ABC boxing coach Ashley Martin has said that he “couldn’t be prouder” of his fighters’ efforts after the latest of the club’s home shows.

The Clifton Moor-based gym had 16 amateur boxers in action during the night and took on visiting boxers from Sheffield, Peterborough and south Wales.

In total, there were eight wins and eight losses for the Legions fighters and the spectators at the packed-out Acomb Working Men’s Club were treated to closely matched fights in each of the bouts.

“Going into this show, I said that all of the fights were going to be that close that I wouldn’t have been shocked had we lost all 16 of them,” said Martin.

“We’ve come away at about 50/50 in terms of our wins and losses. I’m more than happy with that total.

“Every single boxer went out there and fought their heart out. Two of our boxers came back off the canvas and put in two brilliant performances. I couldn’t be any prouder of the lads.

“In our stable at the minute we’ve got Yorkshire champions, national champions and a European champion. Every time those kids are stepping in the ring, they’re in there against somebody who wants to win. You can see that by the performances that they’ve put in.

“All of the guys went in there and fought their hearts out.”

The evening’s action was headlined by Elite Yorkshire 69kg champion Zachary Evans who came off the floor to defeat Steel City’s Gabriel Kayani.

A Kayani left hand in the first round put the former kickboxing world champion down for the first time in his combat sports career but he recovered well to answer with some telling body shots in the second.

By the third. the blows to Kayani’s midsection were beginning to tell and and he dug in further and outworked the South Yorkshireman’s attacks to take a split decision victory.

In the preceding contest, Alessandro Delrio and Peterborough Police’s Ryan Davies put on the fight of the night in an all-action contest.

Delrio was down in the first round but, like Evans, showed great powers of recovery to rally in the second - the highlight of which was a brutal trade-off in the centre of the ring.

Davies was bloodied from the right eye as a result and in a nip-and-tuck final three minutes, it was he who edged the bout on a split decision.

The evening’s home fighter of the night was awarded to recent national semi-finalist Brad Casey who took a unanimous decision over Conner Moran.

Stablemates Jamie Leigh-Smith, Rosanna Bycroft and Leo Atang also won their contests by the same verdict, with the latter two both scoring standing eight counts.

Legions’ Riley Edeson, Reece Fitzgerald and Connor Dunckley were all victorious too, though their wins came via split decisions.

Classy boxers Reuben Smith and Henry Marshall were matched well and lost out only on split verdicts.

Eight other Legions fighters were in action too and boxed commendably in defeat. Riley Holmes, JayJay Butler, Lewis Clough Jay Carter and Tom Scaife were all beaten by unanimous decision though their performances were rightly greeted with great responses from the crowd.

Legions Gym are sponsored by SAY Scaffolding.