An eight-member Bahrain Royal Guard boxing team has returned to the kingdom from England after a history-making tournament against an elite crew of pugilists from the British Army at the Infantry Training Centre (ITC) in Catterick, North Yorkshire.
An audience of 1,200 people was left stunned by the prowess of the Bahraini boxers, even though the British Army won the eight-bout contest, 6-2, with Supreme Council for Youth and Sport first deputy chairman, General Sports Authority chairman and Bahrain Olympic Committee president Shaikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Khalifa, who had flown to Catterick specially for the event, calling it a “historic occasion”.
“It was great, a real life-learning experience for our boxers even though we didn’t manage to win the competition,” the Bahrain Boxing Federation’s (BBF) technical development manager and national team coach, Tony Davis told the GDN.
“Everybody in the 1,200-strong audience was left pleasantly surprised – probably even a bit shocked – by our boxers’ ability.
“And Shaikh Khalid said: ‘You’ve made history! This is an historic occasion when the Bahrain Royal Guard and the British Army have come together and boxed against each other at such an event’.
“He spoke to everyone at the end and said that he was extremely happy and that for us to have done something of this magnitude was immense.”
The event was a follow-up to last year’s ‘Royal Rumble’, held at the Bahrain Rugby Football Club (BRFC), which pitted a nine-member team of the British Army’s Royal Regiment of Fusiliers against the Royal Guard.
The Royal Guard triumphed, 8-1, in that contest with the sole Fusiliers win coming in the very first bout.
But Davis – a former ABA senior light heavyweight champion and former British military boxing coach who also served as the World Class Performance Coach on the GB Boxing Olympic programme – had warned before the Catterick tournament that the opposition, this time, would be much tougher.
Still, the Royal Guard got off to a perfect start with Mohamed Fakhr defeating Kane Howles to win the first bout – a 67kg contest.
“In the second bout, our team captain Prakash Limbu Ijan was unlucky to lose by split decision to Lewis Harvey in the 61kg category,” Davis said.
“And in the third, also a 61kg bout, Omar Budahei pushed the British Army’s Lucas Forington to the limit but eventually lost because the referee stopped the fight in the last few seconds of the third round.”
The fourth bout, a 72kg faceoff, saw the Guards’ Taha Ahmed really lay into James McCool, the British Army’s team captain.
“Taha won by unanimous decision against a very tough opponent. So both teams were tied, 2-2, going into the break,” Davis explained.
“Our Maryam Khamis then took on British national champion Niamh Brookes in the 55kg category – the fifth bout and the only women’s fight of the evening.
“She fought very well but the referee stopped the contest in the third round after a fourth standing count. She was fine and not hurt but the rules state that if you get four counts in a bout, the fight is automatically stopped.”
Next up was the Guard’s Ali Jaafar against Cody Pearson in the 81kg category.
“Ali was up against a good, strong boxer,” Davis said.
“And the bout went into the last seconds of the third round. Ali was holding his own but then, due to an issue with timekeeping, the round was extended and the referee stopped the contest in the dying moments. I was pretty unhappy about that.
“After that, Nurkhan Mussabeyev, who we thought would win us our third fight, just appeared to run out of steam in the second round of his 87kg bout with Nick Wright. He had won the first round but seemed sapped of all energy thereafter against a formidable, much more experienced boxer.”
The last fight of the day pitted the Guard’s Rasheed Mehrinfar against Jack Lorja in the 88-90kg category.
“Rasheed won the first round clearly but, then, didn’t capitalise on that and, I think, gave the bout away,” Davis said.
“Still, despite the overall result, it was a very competitive tournament. Bahrain put on a great show on the British Army’s home turf in front of more than a thousand home supporters who were cheering their team on.”
This was just the beginning of the Royal Guard’s collaboration with the British Army, Davis added.
“My counterpart in their team was one of my boxers,” he explained.
“I coached him to England honours. So, after liaising with him, we could, hopefully, have the British Army team over here for a training camp next year. Also, I hope to have this event as an annual fixture.
“And this experience was a fantastic one for the Royal Guard kids. Overall, boxing is booming in Bahrain now and we’ll continue to take positive strides forward.”
Meanwhile, Bahraini boxing fans will have a chance to actually be ringside at another face-off between boxers from the two countries’ militaries on November 30 with the Royal Guard taking on the British Army’s Parachute Regiment this time, again at the BRFC, in Royal Rumble II.
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