Luke Kent secures spot in national championships as Broome Boxing Club brings home another slate of wins

Broome Boxing Club has brought home another slate of wins as it continues to prove its fighters are a force to be reckoned with in the ring. Ash Schaffer, Rihari Wikatene Holmes-Ngatai and Broome Boxing Club prodigy Luke Kent all picked up wins over the weekend, with Schaffer and Holmes-Ngatai competing in their fourth bouts after flying down to Perth. It comes after Kent became the Wheatbelt Boxing Champion on June 4 after moving to Perth to pursue his boxing career. Holmes-Ngatai, after a close first two rounds, defeated his opponent Malakais Pryor in the third round and won the bout on a split decision. Schaffer let his opponent, Tyler Ballantyne, come to him, keeping him at a distance with his jab until he was ready to let Ballantyne walk into a flurry of punches, a strategy that won him the fight. Kent took yet another win in his 10th bout, defeating a tough opponent in Eric Kyanga and causing three 8-counts throughout the fight. Broome Boxing Club head coach Conor Gerrard said the Broome fighters had made massive improvements since the first time they went into the ring. “Especially Ash Schaffer, I nearly pulled him out of his fight in Karratha but then he just came into the gym and we had him a fight two weeks after that and the improvement in two weeks was just incredible, even the coaches in Geraldton were saying it,” he said. Kent has now secured a spot to compete in the 2022 U19s Australian Championships in Melbourne from July 6 to 9.