Quality Boxing in the Ring at Arafura Games 2009

Fri, May 15 2009

Darwin’s Michael Sacco started in the blue corner against Kyle Merewether from New Zealand in the 81kg light heavyweight division on Thursday night. In the first round the two fighters were punch for punch but at the end of round one only three punches had scored points, with Sacco down by 2/1.

In the second round Sacco started aggressively and landed two quick punches mid-bout followed with a hard left to the New Zealander’s chin. He landed two further good rights before the round ended with him leading 6/3.

In the third, Michael again landed the first punch before slipping in a few quick one/twos. Thirty seconds towards the end of the fight Michael gave the Kiwi a good left and went on to win convincingly 9/4.

In the final on Friday night Sacco meets Northern Ireland’s Steven Ward, who won his bout just as convincingly 7/0.

Northern Territory’s Sam Ah-See also had a great fight in the 69kg welterweight division. His opponent was Western Australia’s William Rankin. Both fighters displayed an extremely high standard of boxing prowess but Ah-See pulled away to win in a 10/2 points decision.

Friday night Ah-See meets Rohan Murdock in the gold final. Ah-See was beaten for selection by Murdock for the world cadet champs two years ago, but, although they have not officially meet in the ring, they have been competitors ever since.

In the 51kg flyweight Julio Bria from Indonesia and Michael Conlan from Northern Ireland went punch for punch for the full three rounds. The points lead changed a number of times and the crowd was evenly split behind both boxers. In the end Conlan pulled away to win 13/11.

Friday night Michael meets Camilo Kiakai from Papua New Guinea in the final of the flyweight.

There will be a full card of 18 fights for the finals on Friday.

For more information go to www.arafuragames.nt.gov.au.

Gail Liston (08) 8920 5536 or 0407 207 335.