By James Bovington
In an outstanding display of skill, strength and courage boxer Jack Toye, 18, who fights out of Bramley Villagers, has won the coveted Caged Steel English title in the lightweight division.
He beat Torin Kerry, 17, based at Yorkshire Gladiators in Pontefract, in a semi-professional bout of five two-minute rounds at Doncaster Dome on Saturday, 3 December.
“This was a major fight for me,” said Jack, “because Caged Steel is so well known and has an international audience given that so many people pay to watch live online. Although it’s mainly an MMA event with fighters from Iceland coming here, this time they’ve introduced cage boxing and my fight was one of the first.”
Toye easily won the first round, leaving his opponent reeling from a powerful and obviously painful body shot.
Kerry came back and kept up the pressure in the following three rounds before succumbing to a volley of body and headshots in the final round. Toye had met his opponent previously back in May and the result was a draw. This time Toye’s victory was decisive.
“Torin was a class opponent,” admitted Jack. “He boxed well and kept going while taking hard punches. He’s a brave fighter, young like me, who took this fight on fairly short notice so all credit to him and I wish him well.”
For Toye, who only turned 18 in July, this has been a key year. He’s established himself on the northern semi-pro scene with three wins, one draw and one loss to add to his 11 previous bouts.
Toye now aims to continue developing on the semi-pro scene before turning fully professional in a couple of years.
He’s also become something of an unofficial ambassador for the Leeds-based Downs charity Sunshine and Smiles, raising over £650 this year.
He said: “I want to thank all my sponsors and supporters for helping make 2022 such a successful year for me and I’m hoping that there’s more exciting boxing in store for us in 2023. Now it’s time for a rest over Christmas.”
