Repton heavyweight triumphs on national stage

Repton Boxing Club’s teenage heavyweight prospect Jesse Dean Harris underlined his ring potential as he swept to his latest national award in the England Boxing Youth finals at Rotherham last weekend.

‘Birdie’ Harris, 17, has already shown his ability at international level and underlined his domination on the home scene as he took control of his final clash.

He eased the disappointment of the defeats of the Bethnal Green club’s highly-fancied pair, Henry Turner and Shiloh Defraitas, earlier in the three-day event.

Harris’ final opponent, Theo Fearon from Nottingham’s Bilborough Community club, was on the receiving end of the Repton boxer’s effective shots as he dominated the exchanges at long range.

Fearon tried gamely to turn the bout his way, but Harris continued to find the target as he stayed on top and clinched the unanimous verdict from all three ringside judges.

Earlier, the Repton boxer had made sure of his final spot by eliminating north east rival Clyde Best from the South Durham club in their semi-final meeting.

The Durham entry, a former national titleholder, could not halt Harris’s title progress with the Repton boxer moving through with the unanimous votes of the ringside judges.

However, Repton officials were less impressed with a split vote that went against Defraitas after his 56kg final against European junior champion Charles Frankham (The Ring).

The eagerly awaited duel of the outstanding multi-titled duo proved disappointing with too many scrappy exchanges and warnings from the referee before Frankham took the verdict and the title.

Defraitas showed his speedy skills on his way to the final eliminating Wallsall Wood’s Hamzah Ahmed in a quarter-final bout on opening day of the tournament.

Darlington’s Joe Tyers was his next rival on the title trail, but coluld not stop the Repton boxer’s progress and Defraitas set up his final clash with Frankham.

Multi-titled Turner’s hopes of adding to his success list were halted in his quarter-final 60kg clash with Mark Chamberlain from Portsmouth’s Wiseman Boxing Academy.

Chamberlain, with more than a year age advantage, edged the verdict over Turner, a gold medallist at last year’s European Schools Championship.

• Fight fans saw more — and less — than they expected of unbeaten cruiserweight Robin Dupre at York Hall on Saturday night as he recorded his 12th straight victory.

More because weighing over 200lbs, Dupre was clearly carrying extra poundage, and less because the bout with Greek rival Dimitrios Neroutsos was cut in half to a four-rounder.

“I was not happy with my display, it was all a mix-up over the weight, but I wanted to box after a lot of friends had bought tickets to watch me,” Dupre explained.

He went through his four-rounder jabbing his way to a 40-36 victory over his solid looking Greek opponent on the Hellraiser show, but the east London fighter wants tougher tests to move into the title bracket.