ALL four members of the GB Boxing squad were victorious on a memorable day two at the inaugural World Boxing Championships in Liverpool, including Callum Makin, who boxed in front of a home city crowd at the M&S Bank Arena.
The other wins for England were earned by Elise Glynn (57kg), Sacha Hickey (65kg) and Damar Thomas (90kg), meaning that so far in the competition, seven out of eight GB boxers have won their opening bouts.
On the morning of her 24th birthday, Elise Glynn earned England’s first victory of day two of the World Boxing Championships.
Back competing at featherweight, Glynn defeated Slovakia’s Bibiana Lovasova via a 4-1 split decision.
Glynn said: “It wasn’t my best performance, unfortunately. The first one is always the worst for me. But it’s only up from here, so Sunday I’ll be a lot better.
“I’ve spent seven weeks losing weight, cutting down 6.7 kilos for this tournament. I feel great. My lead coach Gary Hale has supported me the whole way, alongside nutritionist Mark Ellison and my dad.
“It’s my birthday today, so there was a bit of pressure, but it’s good to get that win, and the rust is off now.
“This is my 93rd fight now, believe it or not. Everyone gets nervous. I get nervous for every fight, but I’ve got a lot of experience.
“My first fight for GB was against Irma Testa, the Olympic bronze medallist, so I’ve boxed some great girls. You can only get better from here.”
Next up was Sacha Hickey, who maintained her unbeaten streak by defeating USA’s Paris 2024 Olympian Morelle McCane via a 4-1 split with a confident display.
The victory was Hickey’s second against the American in a matter of months, following a win at the World Boxing Cup in Brazil. She will now face India’s Neeraj Phogat in the next round.
Hickey said: “It feels good to get the first win out of the way. I had a hard opponent — a good Olympian, strong girl. I’ve beaten her before, but I beat her better this time. Once you’ve done it once, you know you can do it again.”
Concluding the action for England in the afternoon session was Liverpool’s own Callum Makin.
The boxer, competing at the new weight of 75kg, had the crowd on their feet in an eye-catching display against Croatia’s Petar Knezevic as he sealed a unanimous victory in his home city to set up a last-16 contest with Poland’s Michal Jarlinski.
Makin said: “Having the home crowd on your side really helps. I had a few people travel up from South London today, so hopefully everyone calls in sick next week and we can get a load of us up here supporting me!
“To win in my home city, in my own big arena as well, is what dreams are made of. A good performance against a good kid, and it’s only something to keep improving on.
“Every shot I threw and landed, I could hear the crowd erupting, so it was quite something. Long may it continue for the rest of this tournament.
“I’ve missed having crowd support since I’ve been boxing abroad. I’ve needed that little push, a word of advice that maybe the corner can’t see. I love boxing in my own city, and to have people come and support me — it’s a dream.”
The final action of day two saw super-heavyweight (90+kg) Damar Thomas comfortably dispatch a tricky opponent in the form of Kyrgyzstan’s Myrzakir Koshaliev.
Thomas said: “We’ve had all countries here in a training camp before the competition — the Uzbeks, the Kazakhs, the Germans… we’ve had everyone here. It’s been a long eight-week camp, but hopefully it’ll pay off now.
“On GB, everyone supports everyone, which is great and a real boost to hear when you’re in there competing. We go again on Tuesday and hopefully get the job done once more.”
In today’s action, we once again have four boxers competing.
Up first is Kesley Oakley, who, at flyweight (51kg), will take on China’s Xinyu Qi at 12:00pm.
She will then be followed into the ring by Liverpool-born Odel Kamara, who will face Kosovo’s Shpetim Bajoku at 2:45pm in the light-middleweight (71kg) contest.
Moving into the evening session, Lucy Kings-Wheatley will compete at 60kg versus Chloe Rasquart of Belgium at 7:15pm.
Concluding day three is fellow lightweight (60kg) Will Hewitt. He must beat Syria’s Mustafa Akraa at 9:45pm for a place in the round of 16.
For the latest news and information about the World Boxing Championships 2025, including tickets, the draw and boxers taking part visit www.worldboxingliverpool.com.
Tickets are on sale and prices start at £15 for adults and £5 for concessions (U16, OAPs, Students and those in receipt of benefits). A “buy 10, get one free” offer is available for group bookings.
The results of all the bouts involving boxers from Great Britain will be posted on GB Boxing’s social media channels and at www.gbboxing.org.uk.
