2017 USIBA NATIONALS: RESULTS

The 2017 USIBA Nationals are officially over and we are all back home safely!

Despite some mishaps with registrations and missing papers that resulted to two fighters not being able to compete, the tour was a big success for the club (and hell of a lot of fun)!

First of, we want to extend a huge thank you to Coach Luyando of Luyando Boxing, for coming along to Virginia and being in our corner! His tremendous experience and friendly personality helped everyone’s confidence and performance!

We are super proud to announce that one out of our 4 female fighters and three out of 7 male fighters won the belt in their division and are national champions:

• Anjali Ramani - F 119 Beginner,
• Patrick Li - 119 Beginner,
• Michael McDonough - F 152 Beginner and,
• the 3 times back-to-back champion, Robert Arias - 152 Novice!

Out of the people that did not get belts, noone was stopped and all the fights were close with multiple split decisions losses for Xavier, Sloth and Heuy - some fair, some not so! All-in-all, the coaches are very proud of everyone’s performance and are looking forward to next year nationals already (which may be hosted at home, here at UIUC ;) - stay tuned for more on that)!

Given that this year’s team had 11 fighters - 3 less than last years, getting 4 belts again means that the overall quality of our fighters has gone up! We are also happy to have increased our female squad size to 4 this year, one more from last year! Lastly, and amazingly, with the support of coach Luyando, we went 4 out of 4 in our championship bouts at this year’s nationals!!! Everyone stepped up to the occasion and was mentally (and physically) strong! Once again, congratulations to our champions and the whole team for their hard work and dedication!

Last but not least, like every year, a big big thank you to: Savana, Allan, Anna and Ilias for being there for the team for the third year in a row! Moreover, a big shout out to a surprise guest, and one of the very first members of the club, Matt who drove 10hrs by himself to cheer for the team and make sure that all the boxers have an amazing after-party! The nationals wouldn’t have been the same without you guys! Thank you for being there for us three years in a row!

The Illini Boxing Club