Black Country clubs are all gold in Ireland

Fighters from Priory Park and Merridale Boxing Club were all gold after travelling over to Ireland for the Monkstown Box Cup.

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The Black Country contingent headed to Dublin for the annual invitational tournament at the Holy Child Community School in Sallynoggin, writes Craig Birch.

Dudley's Priory Park took a squad of 10 to compete and landed three gold medals as did Wolverhampton's Merridale gym, writes Craig Birch.

Josh Jeavons, Connor Jones and James Mongan won it for the Priory while Husan Hussain and Kara Murray sampled glory for Merridale, with Simran Kaur settling for silver.

Khan got the job done rapidly in his final by clobbering Joseph Foran, from St John Bosco in Mountmellick, by first round stoppage.

He'd already featured twice at 52kg in the boxers born 2002 section, outpointing each opponent by unanimous decision to seal his passage through.

First he vanquished Shane McLave, of the Old School in Monaghan, before repeating the trick against Riverstown's Patrick McCleery to reach the decider.

Mongan also won three bouts to secure gold and was the busiest of the Priory bunch, featuring at

46kg in the fighters born 2001 category. All three results were unanimous.

He opened with an over-the-distance victory over Wexford's Stephen Doyle Kearney. He went on to beat Sligo's Dean Clancy before rolling over Scott Turner, from Croxteth in Liverpool.

For Jeavons, it was an empty victory at 68kg (2001) as both of his opponents pulled out. Having not boxed, he didn't want to accept his gold medal.

Jones started off in style at 32kg (2003) and battered Markus Captil, from Hamburg in Germany. He dropped him twice in the second round, before a third attack forced the referee's intervention.

That put him through to a final against Crumlin's Brandon Stokes, where he had to show skill and power to push his spirited opponent back. His hand was raised unanimously.

Further golds for Merridale came from their Shropshire contingent, with Telford-based duo Murray and Hussain going all of the way.

Hussain unanimously defeated first Luke Riley, from Gemini in Liverpool, and then Munster's Jordan Sheehan at 48kg (1999).

Murray boxed a straight final at 62kg (2001) and unanimously vanquished Aoife Durkin, of St Brigid's, handing her a standing count in the second round.

But two-time national titlist Kaur could not make it back-to-back Monkstown golds, as she was stunned on a split for her first defeat after 11 bouts.

Her rival Ciara O'Brien, from St David's, had conceded the result the same way to Kaur in the previous weekend's Hull Box Cup.

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