JJ's Boxing Club presented their first open evening under Amateur Boxing Association rules with 22 bouts ranging from wild-swinging debutants to composed 16-fight veterans.

Worksop was well represented in the ring with five fighters from JJ's and two from Langold Amateur Boxing Club facing off against opponents from all over the north of England.

The local fighters were given rousing receptions by 650 spectators, but none more so than 20-year-old Nick Staff from JJ's who looked to avenge two previous defeats to muscular Belgrave ABC fighter Elias Egag.

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In what could have been the evening's main event, but instead took place halfway through the fight card, Staff shaded the first of three two-minute rounds and used effective counter-punching as Egag cut off the ring in the second.

The third round saw Egag display impressive head movement and heavy punches but Staff seemed to be landing the cleaner blows and was awarded victory by a unanimous judges' decision, sending his supporters into wild celebrations.

Staff's coach and event organiser Jim Ridley was delighted with the senior boxer's performance, gaining revenge on a fighter who had defeated him twice.

He said: "Credit to Nick, he completely outboxed him and we'd done extra training with him on his cardio fitness because in the first two fights it was his fitness that let him down."

Another of JJ's fighters received the junior boxer of the night award after arguably the fight of the night.

Kydi Watson survived a hellacious battle with Musab Belahouel from Benny's Gym in Nottingham to take a majority decision.

Both fighters threw an incredible number of punches, bloodying each other's noses and although Watson ate more punches in the third round, he scored with a thumping right hook on numerous occasions.

Ridley said that his young fighter gave everything during the bout and deserved the junior boxer of the night gong.

"What an explosive fight, and it was just his second bout. They both worked so hard and you couldn't ask for any more effort."

"Kydi showed heart, guts, stamina and he was physically exhausted afterwards, he had nothing left to give."

Keiron Ellis from Langold ABC suffered a unanimous decision defeat at the quick hands of Kevin Seal from Terry Allen's gym in Lincolnshire.

Popular JJ's senior boxer Robert Butcher lost by a majority decision to a fellow Nottinghamshire fighter, Robert Felstead, from Scots Grey ABC.
Although Butcher was full of effort, Felstead looked to be the more polished boxer and defeated the local favourite in the eyes of two of the judges.

Langold junior Matthew Brierley made short work of Centurion ABC's Ryan Morris with the referee stepping in to end the contest near the end of the first round, after Brierley had overpowered Morris and bullied him around the ring.

Debutant Jason Eaton tasted defeat on the judges' score cards after taking on the composed Nathan Power, despite using his reach to good effect in the second round.

Another junior entering the ring for the very first time was Nathan Keogh, but the plucky youngster was knocked down in round two by Hull Saints boxer Lyndon Corney.

Hull Saints coach Mike Gibbons said he had never experienced such a well-organised amateur boxing event.

He told the Guardian: "I've got 27 years experience in the sport and I've never seen a show like it, with 22 bouts, to run so smoothly with well-matched bouts."

"It was a fantastic show, we had three wins and one close majority defeat, and they were all well matched."

Organiser Ridley said the success of the event will only lead to bigger and better things at North Notts Arena.

He said: "It was fantastic and a credit to everyone who was involved, everyone enjoyed it and we were at maximum capacity, it was a complete sell out."

"The next one will only have 15 or 16 fights, we know we had too many on Saturday night, and we'll keep some of our lads like Nick Staff to the end."

"We're having the next event on 31st May and it will include a full tuxedo dinner-do with waiter service and a marquee and we'll learn from all the little things that we could have done better on Saturday," he added.

One exhibition bout has already been scheduled for the May event with Ridley confirming he will face off against his JJ's partner Joe Bierton in the ring.