Another night of drama and boxing action was on tap at The Coast Hotel and Convention Centre in downtown Langley, Friday, March 2.
The main event saw Adam Braidwood of Port Kells keep his winning streak alive with win over Ryan Dallas of Action Boxing in a four round non-title heavyweight fight. The fight was billed as a B.C. Heavyweight Title Fight, however, the Braidwood camp did not want the five round bout, instead opting for a four round non-title affair. Braidwood prevailed by stopping Dallas in the fourth round.
The semi main ended with an injury. Mat Andreatta, of City Boxing and a Brookswood Senior Secondary student, was knocked off balance with a slap and broke his ankle as a result of the fall and was unable to continue. Akbar Qurban of the North Burnaby Boxing Club and current Super Lightweight Champion was warned twice by the referee for throwing such blows.
After taking a solid left hook by Andreatta, Qurban threw a wild slap that took Andreatta off balance, resulting in the injury. Andreatta is expected to be in a cast for 4-6 weeks and is hoping for a rematch this summer. Qurban's camp has agreed to rematch Andreatta.
City Boxing’s Alisha McPhee and Sara Haghighate-Soo fought an outstanding four round fight that was scored a draw. The fight was very close and the match even round by round. Both women entered the ring undefeated and left the same way.
City Boxing’s Gurp Buttar was in what was most likely the night’s most exciting fight. Buttar's opponent, Jarez Brown of Action Boxing, won a split decision.
City Heavyweight Champion Ritchie Evanochko won a split decision over Luke Creighton of Warriors Boxing. Evanochko is with the Port Kells Boxing Club, which also saw Jillian Sask win a close decision over Katherine Russell of Beyond Boxing.
The eight-bout card went over well with the crowd of about 400.
Also the British Columbia Combative Sports Association the association that sanctions and supervises the fights gave their annual awards.
Club of the year went to the Port Kells Boxing Club. The Walters Award given to the fighter of the year was awarded to Mat Andreatta of City Boxing. The Denny Ross Memorial Award for the individuals making an outstanding contribution to amateur boxing went to referee Rick Shannon. The next show is taking place on April 6 and keeping with the promotions trend of naming the events after old movies will be called “Guys And Dolls”. City Boxing Manager and fight organizer Dave Allison says the show will feature four or five women’s bouts, including a B.C. Title bout featuring Canadian Bronze Medallist Jaime Ward, who will fight Jen Yeager for a B.C. Lightweight Title.
City Boxing’s Alisha McPhee will be challenging Darcie Nestor for a City Super Featherweight Title. Also two outstanding juniors will be on the card when Matt Ruff, 16, from Kitimat will box Pavir Atwal, 16, in a light heavyweight tilt.
School teacher spars
Most often the image of a teacher is not that of boxer, especially when the teacher is a young woman. Alisah McPhee has, in many ways, defied conventions and stereotypes all her life and has succeeded often against all odds.
Born and raised in Williams Lake, Alisah always had an interest in very competitive sports — any sport offered and she was in on it. She was involved in soccer, volleyball, basketball and gymnastics to name just a few. Her parents decided to draw the line when she wanted to play rugby. Alisah prevailed and did play rugby.
She moved to North Vancouver to attend Douglas College and get her teaching degree, in pursuit of a dream she had had since she was young. She always wanted to be a teacher. While attending Douglas College she played soccer for four years on a team that won two CCAA National Titles and in one tournament she was named tournament MVP.
She had always wanted to box because of the individual nature of the sport. She joined the Mission Boxing Club about three years back. After about a year of competing she needed to take time off to complete her teaching credentials.
She now teaches and loves it. She is teaching at Bradner Elementary School.
She also started training at Langley’s City Boxing Club to pick up her boxing career and has been training with the father-son team of Dave and Jamie Allison.
Alisah defeated Gina Skopelitis in her last fight two years ago at the very first Clash @ The Cascades. Skopelitis had a win over Sarah Pucek when Pucek was an amateur.
Pucek avenged the loss a couple of months later and was to fight Skopelitis in the pros, however, Skopelitis pulled out. Skopelitis had split two fights with Jaime Ward, perhaps B.C.’s number one woman boxer.
The win against Skopelitis was an upset and McPhee’s biggest win to date.
The Allisons have become known for producing top-quality women boxers. Currently world ranked professional Sarah Pucek is being fostered to fight for the world featherweight title and is McPhee’s primary sparring partner.