Boxing club sees brawl break out in crowd

A BOXING club has vowed to track down the thugs responsible for a brawl which took place outside the ring.

Lochend Amateur Boxing Club made the pledge after trouble flared at Saturday’s event, hosted by Barn Boxing Club in Coatbridge, North
Lanarkshire.

Among those in the audience was world champion Ricky Burns.

Video footage of the violence showed fans – including women and children – fleeing as chairs were thrown across the room and punches were thrown.

The event’s announcer took to the microphone to tell the thugs to stop, pleading: “That is enough – you have now spoiled a whole evening with your stupidity.”
Barn blamed ­football thugs supporting Lochend fighters for the rammy.

However, Lochend coach Terry McCormack said no-one knew exactly who was
responsible.

He said: “Unless there is solid evidence, how would you know? There were about 13 different clubs there from all over Scotland and 13 different groups of supporters – the whole thing has been 
fabricated and everyone is passing the buck.

“But if it does turn out it was a Lochend fan, we will find out who they were and they will be banned from the club for life.”

Mr McCormack, who did not attend the boxing show, said he was to meet with coaches in an attempt to find out exactly what had happened.

He said: “The story goes that right at the end of the night, a couple of guys got in to an argument and then chairs started flying.”

The fight broke out seconds after the final fight in which Barn’s Ross Logue was beaten by Lochend’s Tony James.

The meet was held at a secondary school in the home town of WBO lightweight champion Burns, 29, who said: “The show was ­absolutely fantastic and there was some cracking boxing on show.

“Unfortunately, there was some trouble which broke out right at the end of the match.”

A statement on Lochend ABC’s Facebook page said the behaviour of those responsible was “completely unacceptable”.

Barn coach Rab Bannon, who was Burns’s first coach when the champ was 12, said: “It was over in about four minutes after the troublemakers were shown the door.

“There were football fans who had travelled through to support one of the Lochend fighters. They are not boxing fans and it was a shame as there had been great boxing.

“It’s just a pity a small minority of thugs tried to spoil it for everyone else.”

Police Scotland said it knew about the ­incident but was not needed at Barn.