BELFAST'S world light middleweight Champion Andrew Grimason is looking forward to a new challenge in America after defending his world title at the weekend. Grimason led a Northern Irish select to Aberdeen, Scotland at the weekend. The 22 year old road engineer from east-Belfast retained his title after a stylish performance against the talented Scottish challenger Greg Docherty.
The bout was called a draw and Grimason returned home with his crown.
There was drama at ringside after the match and after much deliberation the WKN representative Robert Masterson stood in and declared Grimason the winner. In a draw situation the champion retains the belt under WKN rules.

Ian Young who was in Aberdeen with the team acting as chief second said “I know what its like to be on the wrong side of referees after a long spell in Irish league football and having a couple of controversial kickboxing decisions against me. There’s no way that this fight was a draw. I’m not a bias person and I call the fights as I see them, Andrew was much classier and busier throughout the fight.”

WKN representative Robert Masterson has called for a full investigation into officiating and the scorekeeping at the Scottish event. He has since contacted the WKN world office and lodged an official inquiry into this and other issues surrounding the event.

It was quite a weekend for the Prokick team said Coach Murray, “The main thing is that Andrew retained his title and is set to defend it again in America later this year. It’s quite ironic, whilst Andrew was defending his world title in Aberdeen one of his fights was aired on ESPN at the same time. I’ve had so many calls from Stateside about Andrew coming to America, he is an incredible talent and at the young age of 22 he has had three world title fights and there is so much more to come from him. He will be a huge name in the sport in years to come.”

Bringing up the rear was The Loup’s Darren Dougan who was to face Andrew’s former nemesis Stevie Kitchener. The Scot pulled out of the fight due to injuries sustained at work and was replaced by Scottish champion Stevie Peatrie from Dundee who was next in line to challenge for Dougan’s Celtic super middleweight title.

The Co Derry man put on a class display to defend his Celtic nation title for a second time. This puts Dougan in line for a British title shot later in the year.
“I was really nervous about this fight after loosing my last fight in Geneva but I done a lot of soul searching since then, trained harder than I have ever trained before and it really has paid off.” said the gutsy and talented Dougan.

Barrie Oliver started his kickboxing career in a blaze of publicity, the Killinchy fighter continues to make headlines. He kicked off his kickboxing career last month at the Falls Leisure centre when his mum Gillian was nowhere to be seen at ringside as she had to take a detour to hospital to give birth to Barrie’s baby brother Marcus. The 20 year old green belt from the Prokick gym won his second fight against tough Aberdeen fighter Martin Young. Barrie had the Scot down in the second round and went on to take a unanimous decision.

South Belfast’s Wayne McCormick made an explosive start in his competitive debut. The junior international footballer McCormick knocked out Dundee’s John Robertson in the first 30 seconds of the opening round.

Meanwhile Magherafelt’s Oliver Murphy had a close fight against Fraserburgh’s Chris Jones and was narrowly out pointed.
And West Belfast’s Darren Wilkinson took a hard kick to the rib in the second round of his encounter with Aberdeen’s Mark Ross and was forced to sit the third round out.

Overall it was a good result for the Prokick hit squad on tour with four wins out of six. The team now focus on the next outing - a major international event in Germany this May.

Check back here as video footage will be posted soon.

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