On an amazing night of boxing at Gosford RSL Club on May 25, Umina’s Josh Foley won the NSW professional light-heavyweight title with a crushing second round stoppage over Campbelltown’s Alivereti Dodomo.
Going in to the fight as the current NSW champion, and with a reputation for having KO power, Dodomo was a heavy favourite but was dropped in the first round when caught flush with a great left uppercut from Foley and did well to see out the round.
The second round round saw Dodomo dominate early as he landed some big shots but late in the round Foley was able to turn the former NSW champion on to the ropes and did not miss with a right hand to the body.
Dodomo could not beat the count of eight and Foley was crowned the new NSW Champion.
Foley, trained by Joel Keegan out of Complete Boxing, moves his professional record to 4-0 with 4 KOs.
“Josh’s ability to hurt opponents badly with either hand is very special,” Keegan said.
“I have trained a lot of good fighters in my time but his power is next level.”
Foley has been the backbone of the Umina Bunnies rugby league senior teams for more than a decade, and had a massive crowd cheering him home.
“He took to boxing after retiring from playing for the Bunnies and hasn’t missed a step since,” Keegan said.
“Foley headlined a great card of over 25 fights, which included eight local boxers all competing out of Complete Boxing and all having big wins.
“Jack Newman, the current Australian lightweight champion, continued on his winning ways with a good win in a great bout against the NZ champion Harrison Knew.
“Jack is the busiest man in boxing with over 40 fights in the past 18 months for only two contentious losses.
“Solomon Shepherd dominated rounds two and three to beat his opponent Reece Apolo, a big puncher from Wollongong.
“Brad Meredith showed the big crowd how much potential he has with a decisive victory against his strong Belmore PCYC opponent Ali Yassine.
“Both Daniel Maclean and Rueben O’Connor were outstanding in their very first bouts, looking all class against strong opponents.
“Paul Talbot looked sharp in his win over Penrith’s Marlon Rodriguez.
“Reef Sattler also won a very close fight against the very talented Mohammad Reda.”
The Complete Boxing gym continues to build on its reputation as one of the best gyms in the country with a strong stable of both professional and amateur boxers, led by world number one super bantamweight Sam Goodman.
Goodman is currently in hard training with the expectation that he will get to fight for the World Title later this year against the world champion and number one Pound for Pound fighter in the world Naoyo Inoue – nicknamed The Monster.