On Saturday 7th April, We headed to Dunstable, to check out Raw Breed Promotions amateur boxing show to see what this new craze was all about.

Ever since any sport has been around you are guaranteed to get at least two levels, professional and amateur, this includes boxing. With the number of amateur boxing across the UK significantly increasing over the last few years we wanted to see first hand to see what this fuss was all about.

We headed down to the Dunstable Conference Center in Dunstable, Bedfordshire to attend a Amateur boxing show, the show was set to have 14 fights on the night, but this changed to 11 before the show began. So 22 fighters on the night showed up and were assessed by the on sight doctor to make sure they were all fit and healthy enough to fight.

The doors opened at 18:00 with the show starting anywhere between 19:00-19:30 this was all kept to schedule, although we did find that the later the night went on the more people turned up. When we arrived we were informed that around 500 tickets had been sold for the event and when it came to fight no more than 150-200 could of been in the building.

As the night went on more people showed up and the atmosphere significantly got better. By the time the 6 fight came around after the interval it was defiantly more lively and more people showed to support friends or family.

We managed to speak to a few of the fighters whilst we were there. One of the questions i asked them was why attracted them to take part, the response from them all was very similar, "Its great fun, it's a change from the normal job and it helps me stay in shape", so its clear to see there are physical benefits. What I wanted to talk about was the mental toll it takes, not only from the fight and the out come but from the preparations from the fight to, "You can clearly see those who are serious about fighting and those who are just here because they signed up and have to follow through with it" one audience member said.

This was our first attendance to an amateur boxing show, it was an interesting experience, throughout the night there was obvious reasons why it has suddenly become so popular and then there were moments i did wonder why so many people had turned up. I felt sorry for the ones who didn't have any or had very little support as they had no one cheering them on.

All in the night was a 6/10 I probably would revisit the show as i think it was well showcased on the night. if more tickets were sold then maybe it would be a little better.

Curtis Hinton