After turning the bastion of free speech into the bastion of free-flowing punches, Oxford University Amateur Boxing Club took over the Oxford Town Hall triumphantly on Friday of Week 8, only a few short weeks after Town vs Gown. Whereas town had gotten the best of gown in that particular showdown, OUABC bounced straight back to a resounding 10-4 victory over Cambridge in ruthless fashion. Ruthless not only in the margin of victory, but the manner too, as Ciaran O’Loan’s absolutely brutal knockout came just seconds after the bout began, and men’s captain Ade Olugboji had his fight stopped after raining blow after raining blow cascaded down onto the head of his Tab opposite number, until the referee had finally seen enough. In fairness, I’m not sure what else you would expect when lining up against the BUCS Championship gold medallist…
With almost 500 attendees piling into the chamber, it was an event of great numerical and historical magnitude, as it saw the first instance of four women’s fights on the main card in the 117 years that the varsity boxing match has been held. Amongst those were four included Alice Ledzion, who waltzed round her opponent almost untouched, picking her off to such a calculated degree that the judges were faced with little choice but to announce her unanimously victorious. Jasmine Guo also won her bout, bouncing back from defeat at the Town vs Gown event to pull through a fierce contest between her and Ka Ching Shelly Lee that featured some close-quarters-combat in the second round, with Shelly Lee pinned with her back to the ropes.
While some fighters like Guo bounced back after an earlier Town vs Gown loss, Michael Cheng was one of only two boxers to win at both after beating Rhys Honey-Jones. His relentless pressure was too much for his Cambridge counterpart, as Honey-Jones simply couldn’t get anything to stick. Just like Ledzion who started off the evening, the decision was ultimately unanimous. Yet trawling through the footage of the bouts, I noticed that in the sea of 6-7GB files, two stood out as shorter than the others. I have already mentioned Ade Olugboji and Ciaran O’Loan, but the ferocity on show from those two is worth a second mention. Olugboji’s electric movement (both head and body) and vicious combinations are enough to make a second-hand viewer nervous – the standing count spelling the end of the night for his opponent.
Ciaran O’Loan’s devastating left meant that not only was he the second boxer to win at both Town vs Gown and varsity, but he was also left without an opponent after merely ten seconds – a time so short that by the laws of Cherwell style guide, I have to write out in full. This clip has garnered serious attention, and at the time of writing, a reposted edition of the clip on Overtime Boxing’s TikTok account has 42,000 likes and 427,000 views in just three days. As user _Frank_the_Duck_ rightly points out in the comment section of the post: ‘Man said “hold this comma”.’ Although I’m more inclined to agree with Vinnie the Chinchilla: ‘Why would anyone want to risk brain damage when they are ALREADY AT OXFORD OR CAMBRIDGE?’ I suppose if you’re Ciaran O’Loan, you’re not the one at risk.
