PICTURES: Highland Boxing Academy light up Inverness Ice Centre at "best ever" home show
Highland Boxing Academy put on a fantastic night of boxing at Inverness Ice Centre last weekend.
Stepping up to a bigger venue after consistent sell outs at the Legion, it was a bigger scale show that paid off for the club and spectators.
It was a successful night in the ring too, with the action getting under way with an exhibition bout between two home athletes – Ralfs Mihalkins and Rio Peden.
1 / 8
2 / 8
3 / 8
4 / 8
5 / 8
6 / 8
7 / 8
8 / 8Following that was the performance of the night from HBA's Callan Morrison, who suffered a dislocated shoulder in the first round of his debut fight but still went on to defeat Brechin's Ryan McArther by unanimous decision.
1 / 6
2 / 6
3 / 6
4 / 6
5 / 6
6 / 6Third on the card was another exhibition, this time between Highland Boxing Academy's Emma Miller and Elgin's Emma Innes.
1 / 6
2 / 6
3 / 6
4 / 6
5 / 6
6 / 6Following that was another win for a Highland Boxing Academy fighter, as Josh Burnside defeated Insch's Calum Paterson by unanimous decision.
1 / 8
2 / 8
3 / 8
4 / 8
5 / 8
6 / 8
7 / 8
8 / 8The third and final exhibition bout of the night followed between another two home boxers – Corrie Dishman and Aaron Wallace.
1 / 5
2 / 5
3 / 5
4 / 5
5 / 5After that came the penultimate bout of the first half, as Highland Boxing Academy's third Lewis Urquhart – handily from Inverness where the others are from Dingwall and Nairn – won by first round stoppage against Froyabjorn Fairbairn from Nairn.
1 / 5
2 / 5
3 / 5
4 / 5
5 / 5Rounding out the first half of the show, then, was a unanimous win for Joshua Morrison against Linktown's Joseph Galloway.
1 / 9
2 / 9
3 / 9
4 / 9
5 / 9
6 / 9
7 / 9
8 / 9
9 / 9HBA's first defeat of the night came in the first bout after the interval, as Keigan Mackenzie unluckily lost by split decision to Granite's James Stewart.
1 / 6
2 / 6
3 / 6
4 / 6
5 / 6
6 / 6The home club returned to winning ways at the next opportunity though, as Aidan McKinlay won by second round stoppage against Rhys Bradley (Linktown).
1 / 5
2 / 5
3 / 5
4 / 5
5 / 5Brodie Zindeldin (HBA) was not so fortunate in the 10th bout of the night against Elgin's Marcus McEwan, also losing by split decision.
1 / 8
2 / 8
3 / 8
4 / 8
5 / 8
6 / 8
7 / 8
8 / 8The second-last bout of the night brought about Highland Boxing Academy's last win of the show, as Alexander McClymont went up against clubmate Cameron Grant, winning by unanimous decision.
The main event of the evening then, saw Cole Fraser take on Elgin's Jacob Ballingall – another split decision defeat for the HBA athlete.
1 / 7
2 / 7
3 / 7
4 / 7
5 / 7
6 / 7
7 / 7Brothers Callan and Joshua Morrison had extra hardware to take home on the night, winning fight of the night and home boxer of the night respectively.
Highland Boxing Academy head coach Liam Foy says the feedback he received from boxers, coaches and supporters alike was positive, with most in agreement that it was one of HBA's best ever shows.
"It was the first show we've done at the Inverness Ice Centre, and we went all out to try and pull off one of the best shows we've done to date," he said.
"We had all the lights, we had over 400 people in attendance.
"The feedback that we've had from sponsors and families of the boxers has been that it was the best show we've done to date.
"We've moved around various different places. We were most recently at the Legion, but we had just outgrown it as a venue.
"We were consistently selling it out weeks in advance, and we would still be inundated with people wanting to buy tables.
"We needed to get somewhere bigger, so we were lucky enough that after seven or eight months of working away with the Ice Centre we could make sure it was the best version of a boxing show that could be done. I'm pretty confident we pulled that off."
1 / 34
2 / 34
3 / 34
4 / 34
5 / 34
6 / 34
7 / 34
8 / 34
9 / 34
10 / 34
11 / 34
12 / 34
13 / 34
14 / 34
15 / 34
16 / 34
17 / 34
18 / 34
19 / 34
20 / 34
21 / 34
22 / 34
23 / 34
24 / 34
25 / 34
26 / 34
27 / 34
28 / 34
29 / 34
30 / 34
31 / 34
32 / 34
33 / 34
34 / 34