Wally Doern and 2 Rivers Boxing Club's Rumble 32 took place on the evening of June 15th.
Competitors came from all over the province including clubs from New Westminster, Abbottsford, Kelowna, Vernon, Williams Lake, Fort St. John, Burns Lake, Prince George and Fort Nelson. The night had 16 matches, Doern said a good night of boxing is usually around 12 matches and they easily exceeded that.
"We had a full house, it was a really good crowd. There was standing room only," Doern said.
There were three matches featuring boxers from 2 Rivers including the night's main event.
Doern said the night's main event was 2 River's Karter Mott up against Corbin Jung out of Fort St. John. Mott lost in the decision but Doern said it was an excellent match where both boxers showed off strong boxing skills.
Ethan Bartholet from 2 Rivers boxed Jude Carr-Humphries from Williams Lake and lost in a very close split decision. That fight won bout of the night for being the most exciting match as determined by the roar of the crowd. Doern said there were a lot of good matches and he definitely agrees that one was a worthy winner.
In an exhibition match-up with no decision Dayton Swaan out of Quesnel boxed Thunder Innis from Prince George.
"We had great commitment by the out of town clubs so that helped," said Doern who runs 2 Rivers Boxing Club in Quesnel. "It was a great night, good participation from the crowd." Doern said the night went incredibly well and he has no plans to do anything drastically differently for Rumble 33.
"We're looking forward for the next one in late October," he said. Doern said the Rumble events have to happen outside of winter months so competitors can get to Quesnel from across the province. "We don't have the strength up here to rely on the north itself to put an event on at this time. We have to get a little help out of the south."
Doern said that the sport has gained more participation from families and there are more female boxers than ever getting involved with the sport.
"I like to see the kids involved in it, there's different sports for different kids and this is a sport that some kids would prefer over hockey or over baseball," Doern said. "We always have a pretty good showing of athletes so it's worked out very well." Doern said he's been putting on events since 1998 and has no plans of stopping soon.
This was the first Rumble event to be held at Bouchie Lake Community Hall since 2013. Doern couldn't host it in the new 2 Rivers gym on Front Street because the ceilings aren't high enough for the ring.