Latest Sport

Kent Boxer is Best in Britain

UoK boxer Aaron Hulston stormed to gold at the British University & College Sports Championships on the weekend of the 13th March.

Hundreds of competitors came to Sheffield to represent their university and compete against fellow university students in 24 sports over 5 days with Hulston competing in the boxing Welterweight division.

In December 2008 Hulston trained intensely with Coach Norman Phillips for the English University Championships, hosted by Portsmouth University. He fought three challengers before coming away with the Silver medal. Continuing his training and knowing what to expect for the British Championships, Hulston was more prepared than ever both physically and mentally.

There were supposed to be 11 competitors in the Welterweight category, however only four turned up. This meant that all four competitors would qualify straight into the semi-finals. After being conscious of his weight and keeping a close eye on his training and eating, Hulston was on weight every morning. The Kent boxer’s first opponent, a competitor from Kingston University weighed in over the limit yet was still allowed to fight. Regardless, Hulston still beat him to walk through to the finals the following day. The Kingston opponent was more of a brawler who threw fast and reckless shots. This allowed Hulston to manoeuvre out of the opponent’s way, picking him off and knocking him with speedy jabs. The more Hulston stuck to his relaxed style of fighting, the more frustrated the opponent became, throwing erratic punches with little success. The cool and calm approach from Hulston proved decisive in causing the most damage as he soon dispatched some fine jabs to open up his opponent’s nose with the fight suiting Aaron to a tee. He easily dodged the oncoming shots, causing the Kingston boxer to stumble and fall. In the third round Aaron’s opponent began to box with intelligence and with quick hands repaid Hulston for the earlier blood-shot to the nose with an effective upper cut of his own. Despite Hulston now carrying a blooded nose for the remainder of the round, he kept his opponent at bay and finishing the bout with a 6-2 win to set up a shot at gold.

Hulston said: In the first and second round I stuck to the game plan, making him come to me and counter fighting him. In the third round I began to brawl with him a bit which I realised was not smart as he managed to open up my nose. So I went back on back foot and came away with a good victory.

Hulston’s competitor in the final was a boxer from the University of Cheshire. Both had fought each other previously in the semi-finals of the December English University Championships. Hulston had won easily and it had been his easiest fight, so Hulston knew just what to expect. As anticipated, the final was an absolute breeze. Evident from the 7-0 score, the competitor just could not touch Hulston. With the first round ending in a score of 3-0, the opponent resorted to trying to dominate the bout. He eagerly came forward throwing flurries in an attempt to pressure and confuse Hulston. At the end of the second round the score was 5-0 and the opponent knew it was unlikely he could earn seven points in one final round, so he came in strong and fast to try to knock Hulston out. The ever-confident Birmingham-born boxer remained unfazed, easily dodging his competitor and scoring more points by throwing powerful and sharp clean jabs to knock him back. After three one-sided rounds where Hulston had fought his fight all along, it was no surprise when the referee raised the right hand of the Kent man. Surrounded by cheers from the fellow University of Kent students who had travelled up to support him, Hulston proudly accepted the gold medal on behalf of our university. He is now the British University Welterweight Champion 2009.

Hulston said: I am really pleased with what we achieved, we went there to win and we did. Coach Phillips made it clear that we didn’t go all that way to be a runner-up. I felt we walked through the competition, and I know that was all down to his coaching. I would like to say a massive thank you to him, I have never had a coach so good.

This is not the only recent success of the University of Kent A.B.C. Fellow boxer Alex Cooper also represented the University last week in his first A.B.A fight. He did extremely well as he dominated the fight by switching from body shots to head shots, persuading the referee to bring proceedings to a halt after just 60 seconds. This means that between both Hulston and Cooper there have been six representations of the University of Kent in boxing, with five of these having been wins. This is a first for UoK and the boxing club hope that such a high standard of boxing will continue in the future.

If you are interested in getting involved with the University of Kent boxing club contact President Tom Morgan on tm90@kent.ac.uk.

Comments