National Senior double for Crumlin Boxing Club

By Stephen Leonard

THERE was double delight for Crumlin Boxing Club in last Friday night’s National Senior Men’s and Women’s Championship Finals as both Tony McGlynn and Leona Houlihan picked up belts.

While the latter received a walkover for the Women’s 81kg honour, McGlynn completed his march to the Men’s Middleweight crown when he took a split decision against Kelyn Cassidy of Saviour’s Crystal Boxing Club in the decider.

It marked the final step in a very impressive campaign that was made all the more remarkable given that he had not fought since receiving a bad cut to the eye in an international in Hungary early this year.

“Tony had picked up a bad cut over the eye when he boxed in Hungary earlier in the year,” explained Crumlin head Coach Philip Sutcliffe. “He had to get a few stitches and he hadn’t fought since then.

“He put on a bit more weight over the summer so we put him into the National Seniors at 75kg. He usually boxes at welterweight.

“He had three hard fights to get to the final, where he came up against a tall awkward boxer.

“It was a split decision, but I thought he won every round. He cruised through the first round. The second was very close, but I thought he had more of the clearer shorts.

“He got a bit tired in the third round, but he nicked it.

“He made the fight. He’s a beautiful southpaw boxer with a great lead upper-cut that he used well along with his back hand,” he recalled.

The victory over Cassidy completed a great campaign for McGlynn who started it out with another split decision win over Jason Clancy of Ballinacarrow in the preliminaries.

This set him up for a quarter final meeting with Twin Towns’ Paul Kelly which he also won 2-1 after which he took a unanimous decision over Chris McClean of Two Castles in the last four of the competition.

The win over Cassidy marked a very first title for McGlynn who has been boxing out of the Crumlin club for the past five years.

Next up for him will be the National Elite Championships in February when he expects to return to his more natural welterweight class.

Houilhan is also set to contest the Elites next year and coach Sutcliffe is expecting a strong showing by her this year saying “she’s a super trainer.

“In the world of boxing she’s still really a novice, but she won the Dublin Novice Box Cup two season’s ago and has had a few exhibition fights,” he pointed out.