Dad Kaz Reynolds (left) and coach Scott Wallace (right) celebrate Billy Reynolds as the 63 kg champion of the Mareeba Amateur Boxing Club fight night. Photo: Facebook (Cape York Boxing Weipa).
A Cape York boxing champion is landing blows across the state after dominating the competition in Mareeba earlier this month.
The pressure was on Cape York Boxing Weipa’s Billy Reynolds as the only fighter to represent his region at the Mareeba Amateur Boxing Club fight night on 13 September. But he beat the heat and came out on top as the 63 kg champ across three rounds.
Though the fight ended in a split decision, Reynolds said he was satisfied with his performance in the ring – and the result motivated him to keep pushing.
“I felt happy, I left everything in there,” he said.
“It’s good when it’s a split decision; it means the fight was a good fight where the other fella is the exact same level and he’s hard to beat.”
Cape York Boxing Weipa founder and coach Scott Wallace said Reynolds was the uncontested champion in his eyes.
“I think he won every round fairly, but it’s hard to come from 800 kilometres away and get a unanimous decision,” he said.
“Even if he’d lost, we knew that we’d won, so that’s the way you’ve got to look at some competitions.”
Reynolds, with teammate Samson Poi Poi, is now travelling to Mt Isa to train with Fortitude Boxing Gym founder Steve Deller and former NRL star-turned-boxer Justin Hodges, who appeared as a special guest at Weipa Fight Night 2.0 earlier this year.
“That’s going to be amazing, seeing what the boys learn off the best coaches in Australia,” Wallace said.
He said the travelling was helping to grow boxing in the small community by building relationships and Weipa, Thursday Island, Northern Peninsula Area, Yarrabah and Mareeba were working together to ensure remote athletes received as many opportunities as possible.
Next month, fighters are off to Yarrabah to participate in the local tournament.
“Both the boys will fight in Mt Isa, and next month, to reciprocate Yarrabah coming up and fighting at our fight night, we’re going to their fight night,” Wallace said.
“You’ve got those clubs now that are supporting each other with their fight nights to ensure their boxers are getting some time in the ring.”
