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02
Jun
Ripon boxer wins Yorkshire Elite Belt
A Ripon boxer has won the title he said would be the “biggest achievement in my career to date”.
Ben Julian won the Yorkshire Elite Belt at Ripon Bowling Club on Friday (May 30).
The Stray Ferret last week spoke to Julian, who represents Ron Hopley’s Ripon Amateur Boxing Club.
The southpaw fought three intense, three-minute rounds against Whitby Boxing Club's Kane Morrison.
Morrison pushed him to the limit in a hard-fought split-decision outcome in which both fighters took some punishment.
The Stray Ferret attended the event and spoke to Julian after fight. He told us what the win meant to him:
The feeling more than exceeded my expectations. I was overwhelmed with relief. Especially when you hear that it’s a split decision – you can have decisions that go against you. But I think it was the right decision. I gave it my all and feel like I really showed heart.
Like I said last week, there’s no bad lads at this level. I feel like he was the best version of himself, I’m not sure if I was the best version of mine. But I got the job done. I’m over the moon.
The Harrogate district had a successful evening at the 16-fight show. H Hour Boxing Club, from Harrogate, fielded winners in the two other belts that were up for grabs.
Eddie Large won the Yorkshire Junior Championship and Charlie Eagling won the Youth Development Belt.
Ron Hopley, ex-professional boxer and coach of Ripon ABC, told us what Julian’s win meant for the club:
It’s like winning a world title. I’m so happy for him, he’s so dedicated and trains really hard.
Respect to Kane [Morrison], he was in it the whole fight. It was close – you could argue it went their way but I thought Ben outworked him in the later stages and that won him the fight.
Kane is a good fighter. He’s a southpaw too, which made it awkward. If he was an orthodox fighter Ben probably would have been landing a lot bigger shots and getting in easier. He will have learnt a lot from that to mould him into maybe going pro eventually.
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