THREE young fighters from Droitwich Amateur Boxing Club (DABC) have have won titles at the West Midlands Schools Championships in Telford on Saturday.

Mikey O’Toole, Wayne Smith and George Butler tasted success in the tournament for 12 to 14-year-olds.

In arguably the bout of the tournament, DABC pair O’Toole and Luke Evans were pitted against one another in the class three 54 kilogram category.

Despite being friends outside the ring they gave it their all – Evans the hard man, always dangerous, and O’Toole the more mobile and skilful but also a hard puncher.

The decision went to O’Toole, who had a particularly good second round mixing clever defence with cracking punches of his own, but Evans remained dangerous to the final bell and played his full part in an enthralling contest.

Smith, 14, was in a different class to his opponent, Joshua Rafferty (Lions, Dudley).

He dominated the contest piling up the points with his educated jab and with occasional flurries of punches which had Rafferty in all sorts of trouble and ran out the conclusive winner.

Butler, 12, had a mountain to climb – or so it seemed when set against his very tall opponent, Shaun Rutherford (Walsall Wood).

But Butler gave a classic display, mobile in defence and sharp in attack, to take the well-deserved decision.

Solomon Butler, 13, was also up against it, facing the current champion Josh Jenkins (Tamworth).

In a cracking contest which swayed one way and then the other it looked impossible to split the two boxers, but by a split decision the verdict went to Jenkins.

“The boys have trained hard all over Christmas and the New Year to prepare for these championships,” commented coach Chris Andrews.

“Every one of them gave superb performances and can be very proud of themselves.

“The big disappointment was Mikey and Luke ending up in the same weight category – we tried hard to avoid it but sod’s law prevailed.

“Mikey, Wayne and George now go on to compete for Midland Counties titles.”