KOROIT boxer Jason O’Grady ensured a temporary break from the sport started on a high when he scored victory in Melbourne.
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O’Grady took his record to 7-3 after the points-decision triumph in an 81-kilogram bout against Jason Mifsud (not the former Koroit footballer) on Sunday.
The bout, at the Reggio Calabria Club, was his last before he embarks on an overseas trip, which will sideline him from boxing for the next three months.
His coach, Lyndon Edney of Lyndo’s Boxing, said the victory was just reward for one of the most committed members of the Koroit gym.
“He (Mifsud) was a staunch young lad with a similar record to Jason and is about to turn pro. This was one of his last amateur fights,” Edney said.
“He was short and really strong and looking for the big haymakers but couldn’t find his way through.
“Jason was a little bit too effective and definitely outworked him. Jase has always had a really high work rate. He’s super fit and works hard.”
Edney said the win “taught me nothing that I didn’t know about Jase”.
He was pleased with how O’Grady dictated the tempo in the ring.
“He’s durable, he took a few big punches here and there but otherwise controlled the pace, set a really high pace the other guy couldn’t keep up with,” he said.
“It goes without saying that our guys always come to fight. They fight with a lot of heart muscles.”
O’Grady was one of two Edney-trained boxers who featured on a card dubbed the Cos Brizzi Memorial Cup, in memory of the Darebin boxing legend.
Brizzi, a son of Italian migrants who created Brizzi Brothers Boxing with his sibling Ben, died after a stroke on May 29, aged 72.
Andrea Iurissevich was also in action and scored a points-decision win in a 91-kilogram bout against Rick Ashby, which took his record to 2-3.
“He’s really starting to turn a corner. He’s got a really high work rate,” Edney said.
“Accuracy is one thing we’ve been working on with Andrea and that showed through yesterday. He outworked the guy five to one.
“He kept throwing and the other guy was looking for the clean counter shots. But what he landed compared to what Andrea put on him was nothing.”
Teenager boxer Jye Clark, trained by Rodney Ryan at Warrnambool gym Rudy’s Boxing, completed the south-west representation on the card.
Jye defeated Jackson Murphy in a 48-kilogram junior bout on points. The fight was the third time the pair have met, with Jye winning twice. “It was a pretty stock-standard fight. Jye was probably a bit stronger than him,” Ryan said.
“Where the fight had to be won was in the clinches and Jye was a bit sharper and harder when they were getting mixed up.”
Ryan said Clark had shown encouraging progress during his time in the gym.
“Once upon a time he was sparring with Luci (Hand) and Bessie (Slater) and they were towelling him up but now he can hold his own against them,” he said.
“They’ve been to national titles and are getting ready for a world title shot and he can hold his own against them.”