Darren O’Toole of Jobstown BC, left, celebrates after winning his 2025 Senior Cadet title against Niall O’Driscoll of Muskerry BC Photo by Sportsfile
Jobstown boxing club represent Ireland at World tournament
JOBSTOWN boxing club represented Ireland at the World of Havoc Boxing tournament held in Florida from 28 July to 2 August with Darren O’Toole fighting in the 66kg division.
After winning his semi final fairly decisively Darren was paired up against Emerson Pena from New York. Pena was a two time junior olympic champion and had a wealth of amateur pedigree behind him.
The accolades did not intimidate O’Toole however winning every round of the contest with many even being 10-8 rounds only further highlighting his dominance.
Darren’s original opponents had pulled out of the tournament leading to a redraw when arriving at the arena.
Luckily for Darren, while some fighters had all viable competitive opponents pull out and were forced to undertake exhibitions, O’Toole got to compete against high quality opposition.
Darren is a recent addition to the roster in Jobstown, originally from Bray he joined the team about seven months ago in search of high level training.
Amanda Spencer, founder of Jobstown Boxing Club spoke about the arrival of O’Toole.
“He contacted us because we have a lot of high level champion boys. It took us a few weeks to get used to him and his style.
‘He was an Irish champion when he came to us and had won a few titles under his previous club. He came from a very good club, we’ve a lot of boys similar age to him.”
The 16 year old will be training with the Olaniyan brothers Adam and Josh who are two of the brightest prospects in Irish boxing at the minute.
Spencer touched on the importance of having a representative at the tournament.
“It was brilliant, it’s high level boxing out there. America is always going to have a high level, they have an olympics, a junior olympics which is something we don’t have here in Ireland.
‘You know when you draw against the USA you’re going to be against tough boys of a tough calibre.
‘It’s a test for us to see where we’re at in levels and what we need to improve on. It’s good for us and good to know that a little club in Jobstown has a boy boxing in Florida.”
Jobstown boxing club was only formed 10 years ago, Spencer commented on the incredible progress the club has made in that time.
“It’s unbelievable, there’s clubs that are open 50 years and they don’t have as many medals as we do. It’s amazing and it shows that Jobstown is full of top talent.”
