THEY'VE been boxing clever in the Vale of Clwyd!

The Denbigh and District Boxing Club has continued its winning streak.

Denbigh boxers Jac “The Ripper” Hughes, 15, and Cai “Magic” Murphy, 17, fought successfully at Wrexham Maelor Boxing Club’s most recent boxing show in Oswestry.

The excellently run show hosted boxers from a large range of clubs in North Wales and the North West.

Jac Hughes was boxing out of the blue corner against Wrexham Maelor’s Kieron Hughes in a 66kg match.

Maintaining a high degree of boxing skill throughout, Jac started the bout at a fast pace, causing Kieron some difficulties early on.

Managing to connect with powerful punches from awkward angles, Jac was able to increase the pressure.

He stunned his opponent by landing several combinations flush on Kieron’s head, forcing a standing eight count at the end of the first round.

The second round started very much in the same fashion.

Jac had worked out the Maelor boxer’s style and was now landing very powerful punch combinations almost at will, until the referee stepped in for another standing eight count early on in the round.

Kieron was unable to recover sufficiently to carry on and the referee had no option but to stop the fight in Jac’s favour.

Following the bout, Jac said: “I couldn’t really train over the summer months as I was recovering from an accident, so getting back to full training and then winning by a second round stoppage in my first fight since the break is fantastic!

"I now can’t wait to celebrate with my favourite food, chicken nuggets!”

Next up for the Denbigh club was Cai Murphy, also in the blue corner, against Llay’s Finley Jeffreys.

They were matched at 68kg and had both recently won the Welsh Novice Championships in the 69kg weight category, with Finley triumphant in the older age category.

This fight promised to deliver both quality and excitement in what was effectively a battle of the Welsh champions.

As expected, the bout was full of dynamism with both fighters sticking to a very tidy school of boxing and looking to land effective punches and combinations.

Cai was able to slip some of the punches thrown at him and move forward with many flush landing punches to Finley’s head and body, closing the first round strongly with a standing eight count following several clean punches to his opponent's head.

He recovered quickly and showed some true boxing skill and determination going into the next round.

However, Cai continued to capitalise on the openings he was able to create, and repeatedly landed powerful scoring punches, causing the referee to give Finley another standing eight count.

Throughout the last round, Finley kept his boxing to a very high level and appeared to have recovered well, but Cai managed to come out on top of most exchanges, allowing him to finish the contest strongly.

The Denbigh boxer deservedly won by a unanimous decision in what was a fair, skilful and hard-fought contest between the two champions.

Cai said: “He was a very tough opponent and managed to hurt me on a few occasions.

"I really had to dig deep to win and I think we both learnt a lot from this fight."

Denbigh and District Boxing Club would like to thank its sponsors Wales & West Utilities for their support.

The club trains at Myddelton College every Monday and Wednesday (6.45pm).

For further information, contact either Pete Mackie on 07763 389153, Craig Mackie on 07525 202439 or Nathan Hanika on 07776 202855.