The first Varsity Fight Night was held on Friday 28 November 2008 at Bath University’s Sports Training Village in front of around 500 supporters, including around 50 who made the long trip down from Loughborough. There were 13 fights on the night, the last of which was a full contact bout worth double points. Despite Bath conceding almost 7kg per fighter on average to their opponents, it was an incredibly close affair and raised plenty of money for Help for Heroes.
As would become tradition, it was Bath that scored the first points of the night, with Jamie Richards and Anthony Shum putting us two points ahead in the first to go past 7 contest, an early but important gap which Loughborough acted quickly to close: future Chair Dani Harker and Richard Sharpe won their respective fights for the Leicestershire University against Jasmine Ngai and Georges Pargid.
The fiffh fight of the night was a cracker between Bath’s Tom McGee and Loughborough’s Chris Quenby, two of the most experienced fighters on either side. The fight was brutal and extremely close, but Bath emerged with a one point lead that they kept up in the following match as Alice Stewart and Jo Jones fought to a the one and only draw of the evening, and then doubled when JackMcLeod beat MickMcClelland to give Bath a 4.5-2.5 lead at the halfway point.
After the break, Loughborough hit back with two quick victories from Olawale Ogunye and Claire Kirkwood to equalise on the overall scorecard before the two point cushion was restored by top Bath fighters Jasper Chow and Daniel Parker: Bath were now 6.5-4.5 ahead, needing just one win from the final three fights to guarantee at least a draw on the night, but missed the first opportunity when Lauren Westwood defeated Julia Reed.
The penultimate fight of the night would also go to Loughborough and Stephan Siwak, equalising the scores once more and sending the night into the full contact bout with everything still to play for: Bath’s Max Basset vs Ryan Fagan of Loughborough. The bout was strongly contested and both fighters took punishing blows, but the two round affair ended up with a victory via points decision for Ryan Fagan and Loughborough. The final score was 6.5-8.5 in favour of the visitors.
Here are the evening's highlights:
Results and Statistics
The full results of the evening are below, with the winning fighter in bold.
On the night, Bath won six men's fights and lost four, while only getting a single draw from four women's fights, the other three matches going in favour of Loughborough.
The semi-contact fights were tied, with each side winning 6 and one draw, leaving the Full Contact fight to decide the evening.
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Bath Fighter
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Loughborough Fighter
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Score
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Jamie Richards
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Liam Ferguson
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1-0
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Anthony Shum
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Shivam Patel
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2-0
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Jasmine Ngai
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Dani Harker
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2-1
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Georges Pargid
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Richard Sharpe
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2-2
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Tom McGee
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Chris Quenby
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3-2
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Jo Jones
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Alice Stewart
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3.5-2.5
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Jack McLeod
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Mick McClelland
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4.5-2.5
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John Truong
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Olawale Ogunye
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4.5-3.5
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Carrie Stewart
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Claire Kirkwood
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4.5-4.5
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Jasper Chow
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Chris Owen
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5.5-4.5
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Dan Parker
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Paul Redington
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6.5-4.5
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Julia Reed
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Lauren Westwood
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6.5-5.5
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Luke Hollymon
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Stephan Siwak
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6.5-6.5
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Max Bassett
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Ryan Fagan
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6.5-8.5
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Bath University 6.5
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Loughborough University 8.5
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