Come one, come all: Resolute Gym owner Daniel Cleave hopes to see plenty of numbers at the Boxing Victoria-run come and try day for females on Saturday.
Photo by
Murray Silby
Boxing Victoria is arriving in Shepparton this weekend to give females a fighting chance of pursuing their dreams in the ring.
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On Saturday, Resolute Gym (formerly Shepparon Boxing Gym) is opening its doors to the sport’s state arm as it looks to push pugilism in the region to women and girls of all ages and experience levels.
The three-hour session from 9am-noon has been floated as a come-and-try day, and while Resolute Gym owner Daniel Cleave says there’s a good female representation at his studio, many have taken up boxing training for the fitness aspect alone.
Saturday’s open invitation aims to change that.
“Boxing Victoria are coming up to run it all and it’s just a come and try day for females to try and get them into the sport,” Cleave said.
“It goes for a few hours, we’re hosting it at the gym and it’s open to all girls of any experience level, fitness level, age — whatever really.
“I’ve got a lot of females that do it for the fitness side of it, but this is trying to get them into the fighting side of it I’d say.”
The Goulburn Valley has a rich history of producing elite level athletes who donned the silks in decades gone by.
Max Carlos, Shepparton’s first Olympian, paved the way for the likes of the late Dwight Ritchie to thrive and even Ellie Fry made her way right up to the national level.
Fry aside, there’s still a slim representation of female boxers in the region who actually step into the ring, hear the bell ding and shimmy forward to engage in combat.
Punching on: Kailee Densworth is one of a select few female boxers in Shepparton who’ve competed within the past couple of years.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
One of Cleave’s disciples, Kailee Densworth, took the fated leap less than two years ago and has since gone on to hone her coaching skills within the female boxing realm’s top rope.
Densworth attended a women’s youth and elite national development boxing camp at the Australian Institute of Sport in February, showing just how possible an astronomic rise in the sport is.
Cleave is well aware of the potential goldmine in the Goulburn Valley, just waiting to be panned, shaken and polished for competition.
With that in mind, he ushered a challenge ahead of Saturday.
“Just give it a go, you’ve got nothing to lose,” he said.
Following the female come and try day, Resolute Gym is hosting an under-19 development camp on Sunday.
