Former Weipa resident Dan Low puts some of his young charges to work at the Northern Peninsula Area’s new boxing club. Photo: Supplied.
After starring at Weipa’s blockbuster Fight Night 2.0 in July, Dan Low is hoping his love of boxing can help trigger a surge of interest in the sport in the northernmost part of Cape York.
Now based in the Northern Peninsula Area (NPA), Mr Low has launched a Bamaga-based boxing club and said he was inspired to give back through the sport after training under Cape York Boxing Weipa’s Scott Wallace for several years.
“Seeing Scotty work as hard as he has and basically do everything off his own back down there, working a full-time job, running a family and running the boxing is what’s inspired me to hopefully try and do something similar to help the community out up here,” he said.
“He’s the man.”
Mr Low is already a familiar face in Cape York boxing circles after producing a unanimous victory against Zenadth Kes Boxing Club’s Sam Scott to open last month’s pugilistic showdown in Weipa, which was attended by nearly 1,000 boxing fans.
The educator is running hour-long sessions on Wednesdays in the clubhouse at Bamaga’s Yusia Ginau Oval, with junior boxers aged 7-12 training from 4:30-5:30pm before seniors aged 12 and over don the gloves from 5:30pm-6:30pm.
“The kids that I’ve spoken to about it are all just super keen and excited to have something extra to do after school in the afternoons,” Mr Low said.
Mr Wallace praised his former boxing student’s dedication to using the sport to better communities, and said he believed having the new NPA club would pay dividends for Cape York boxers.
“When we started [Cape York Boxing Weipa] eight years ago, when Ken Dalton and Beaver Brophy came up here, the plan always was to have a club in every community on the Cape, which hasn’t really happened,” he explained.
“But if we had a fight night in Bamaga, a fight night on Thursday Island and a fight night in Weipa, all the kids that really don’t have any money to travel could still have three fights on the Cape every year.
“With Zenadth Kes on Thursday Island going so well, bringing two fighters down to [Weipa Fight Night 2.0], it’s slowly coming into play.”
