It was the RAF’s turn to host the annual UKAF Elite Boxing Championships, and the location of choice was RAF Honington. Held alongside the RAF’s first ‘Festival of Boxing’.
Coming off the back of a long training camp, involving fixtures against Yorkshire and East Midlands regions and even a training camp at The Lions Den, Team GB’s training set-up in Sheffield. The RAF team was looking ready to challenge for the UKAF title, both individually and for team glory. Unfortunately, due to some withdrawals from the other services, only 4 of the team would get to box for the coveted UKAF belt on the night.
The first fight of the night brought the RAF’s first win of the night. In a classy performance, Air Recruit Jaydon Johnson showed off his skills against Fusilier Matty Calderwood, to take the 57kg UKAF Elite title.
That was followed by the only female bout of the night between the Army and Royal Navy. Leading PT Billie Matthews beat Captain Rachel Rose by unanimous decision.
The third bout saw the RAF’s only loss of the evening. An extremely close bout between the Army’s Private Dylan Swales and RAF’s AS1(T) Blaine Lambert. The two battled it out in a back-and-forth contest, with Lambert very unlucky to lose out on a split points decision. Making Swales the 67kg UKAF Champ.
Next up was RAF team captain and Boxing Scotland full time elite athlete, Cpl Arran Devine. Devine used his experience operating at the highest levels of the sport to outbox LCpl Marc Thompson of the Army and cruise to a unanimous points victory. Taking the 71kg UKAF belt.
After the interval, we saw a fantastic display of boxing from Team GB member and Olympic hopeful Cpl Kyle Shaw-Tulin of the Royal Marines. Beating his Army opponent, Sapper Marley Devitt, by unanimous decision.
The fourth RAF boxer of the night was Sgt Cam Lewis, looking to become a 2x UKAF Champion after winning the 75kg title in 2024. In a tough, well contested bout, Lewis’ tenacity and skill saw him edge out Marine Connor Fanning and take a split points decision. Earning him the 80kg UKAF title for his collection.
The final bout of the night was a 92kg affair between the Army’s Private Kieran Cooper and Marine Dominik Zieba. Cooper redeemed his loss in last years final with a unanimous decision win.
Bringing the final tally of the evening to RAF 3, Army 2 and Navy 2. But, as is tradition, due to rules around points for walkovers, due to the shear size of the army team they managed to retain their UKAF title. Final points were, Army 5, RAF 4 and Navy 1.
An amazing effort from the RAF team that the association is extremely proud of, giving top performances against the full-time athletes of the other services. RAF Boxers Sgt Cam Lewis, Cpl Emry Parry, Cpl Jen Sabine, AS1 Carys Mainwaring and AR Jaydon Johnson will now all go on to represent UKAF in the National Amateur Championships.
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