Connor toasts another exciting University of Portsmouth show

Around 500 people packed into the students’ union to watch 14 amateur bouts.

Of those contests, all but one involved fighters from the GYM 01 & University of Portsmouth Boxing Club.

Connor made sure each of his charges were matched up against opponents of a similar ability.

In total, his troops recorded eight wins and five defeats.

Ryan Rodriguez, Owen Kew, Ant Lewendon, Omar Barry, Alan Rastelli, Cormack Garvey, Antreas Chasapis and Milton Vita were all victorious.

Nevertheless, Connor saluted all of his fighters who were involved on another exciting show hosted by the university team.

‘It’s one of the best ones we’ve done and the best atmosphere,’ said the head coach.

‘We’ve built up a good reputation on campus and it’s the biggest student event at the university.

‘If you look at the production, there’s walkout music and cheerleaders on at the interval.

‘It’s very professional and not many amateur boxing events do that and have that sort of production value.

‘In total, we picked up eight victories and five losses.

‘I matched the show and didn’t want to give any of our guys any easy bouts, so to get that many wins was very good.

‘There were a few decisions that could have went our way and a few fights the judges could have scored the other way, so eight wins was about right in the end.’

Rastelli won Boxer of the Night for his victory over Ewortise Arenyenka.

The heavyweight was having his first fight since winning gold at the King of the Ring Box Cup last November.

Despite being under pressure in the early stages against the more experienced Arenyenka, Rastelli fought back valiantly to gain a unanimous-decision victory.

Connor hailed the fledging talent’s grit and the resolve he displayed.

The head coach added: ‘Alan had only four bouts but he’d stopped three of his opponents.

‘He took on a very experienced lad and hadn’t fought since winning gold in Sweden in November.

‘Alan took a real big step-up and he took over halfway through the second round and started really rocking his opponent

‘Despite being cut and badly bruised, Alan kept going and ground his opponent down and took a unanimous decision against a far more experienced opponent.

‘He earned Boxer of the Night for that performance and it was something to behold – he really does not stop working.’