Amateur boxing takes centre stage King of the Ring

Cutro Promotions’ inaugural King of the Ring tournament drew about 400 spectators to Swakopmund's Club Salt on Saturday, with organisers now looking to expand the event to Windhoek following strong turnout.

Fights featured around 30 boxers across roughly 15 bouts, with competitors representing clubs including Elite TTN Boxing Gym, Walvis Bay Fight Club, Fessy.Com Gym, Swakopmund Fight Club and the Namibian Mixed Martial Arts Academy.

Organiser Ethan Hendricks said the event marked the fourth instalment of the promotion’s boxing series and its largest to date.

“Today is the fourth event of the Cutro Promotions boxing and today we have the King of the Ring, it’s our biggest tournament so far… people are piling in, the energy is going crazy,” he said.

Hendricks confirmed the tournament is expected to become a regular fixture.

“This is our first King of the Ring but it’s definitely going to be an annual event, seing how big the turnout is, we’ll definitely do this every year," he said.

The event drew mainly coastal fighters, with some travelling from further afield.

While the event focused on boxing, it also attracted athletes from other combat sports.

“This is just boxing but we do have a couple of kickboxers, Muay Thai guys trying the boxing, they want to develop their boxing skills a bit, he noted.

Hendricks said one of the key aims is youth development and creating alternatives to crime.

He added that there are plans to build athlete profiles and grow the sport locally.

“We’re definitely trying to build a team, we want to start building individual pages for each athlete, so that they also can grow on their own," he explained.

The organiser said the scale of the turnout had already exceeded venue capacity.

“We’d probably have to move location because Salt wasn’t enough seating… we’re also aiming to have the event in Windhoek as one of our main goals for this year," he said.

Despite the success, the event was not without incident. A fighter required medical attention following a knockdown in the main bout.

“Luckily, we have professional medics on standby. The problem was resolved very fast," according to him.

In the ring, several bouts were decided by unanimous decisions, while two ended in technical knockouts. The main event saw Jonathan Blatt defeat Heinrich Andreas by TKO. The fight between Mishca Araes and Nella Bronn was named fight of the night.