HENRY WHARTON celebrated another successful show at his gym in Acomb as home favourite Joe Stilgoe claimed a Yorkshire title on the main event.

In total, 11 boxers from Henry’s Gym were in action with two regional title fights concluding an entertaining afternoon.

The vacant senior Yorkshire challenge Class ‘B’ belt was up for grabs in the day’s final last between local lad Stilgoe and Louis Brow, who was representing Eastburn ABC.

And the two boxers did not disappoint, putting on an incredible display in which both fighters hit the canvas but recovered to pull out all the stops in a thrilling final round.

In the end, it was Stilgoe who took the verdict from the ringside judges, doing enough to win on a split decision.

From the off, the narrative was set with Stilgoe being the aggressor and he launched some stinging body shots in the opening minutes.

The York boxer was pinned to the ropes and looked to be fighting back smartly but suddenly he found himself dropped and it temporarily looked as if he’d fall through the ropes.

The flush shot evidently rocked him for the reminder of the round, but he fought back to end it on his stool.

Back came Stilgoe though and he was having particular success with his overhand right, catching Brow clean multiple times in the round, though Brow did reply with the same shot.

A Stilgoe burst then saw his opponent forced into a standing eight count, levelling matters in that regard, before the pair traded blow for blow until the bell.

The back-and-forth action continued in a thrilling final round with both boxers doing exceptionally to keep up such a tempo until the last seconds, upon which they received a merited loud applause from the crowd.

The narrow verdict went the way of Stilgoe who went home with the belt around his waist.

The other title bout - for the vacant Yorkshire youth title - saw Harrogate’s Jacob Millar stop Henry’s Gym’s John Wayne Bamber in the second round.

The fight was competitive in the first but stopped with the classy Bamber evidently tiring in the fight in the face of Millar’s constant pressure.

The day’s boxing began with a series of skills bouts - contests in which no result is given at the end of the fight and the emphasis is on building the technique and ability of both boxers involved.

Liam Finney, Eddie Bamber and Danny Campbell were the three fighters from Henry’s Gym competing in these.

John Edward Finney, brother of Liam, was successful in the first competitive fight of the afternoon, defeating Joe Williams from District Youth on a unanimous decision.

The two bouts went the way of the away fighters, as Joe-Lewis Smith and Alfie Emmett lost unanimous decisions to Ethan Allinson (Bishop Auckland) and Reece Bolam (North

Star) respectively.

Henry’s Gym’s Jake Day was also edged out by a split decision by Arnold School of Boxing’s Aaron Sharp.

However, hometown fighter Joe Watts recorded a stunning first-round stoppage of Kaml Zietara (Ripon) having forced two standing counts.

Ben Webb suffered a unanimous decision loss to the powerful Jack Harris, who also scored two standing counts.