The annual Shippensburg University Boxing Club show was held at Henderson Gymnasium Saturday night.

The club competes in events all across the state, hosting one event each season at SU. There were 14 bouts in total, five of which featured Raiders. Eight different schools were featured, along with two gyms. Among the schools competing were Penn State University, Army, Navy and the University of Connecticut. 

There were several intense bouts throughout the night, the highlight most likely coming from Derrick Silva from Nye’s Gym against Adam Tidball of PSU. The only event to not end in a decision after all three rounds, Silva earned the result with a technical knockout (TKO) in the second round.

Both fighters were going hard from the beginning, but Silva began to gain the upper hand at the end of the first round. It got to the point when Tidball could not defend himself anymore against Silva’s onslaught, forcing the referee to call the match early.

The majority of Shippensburg’s bouts came in the second half of the night. The club’s two victories also were in the final few bouts. Three-time Nationals qualifier Tylik Guilford was the main event, fighting in the last match. He picked up an exciting win in a decision to continue his impressive domination. 

“Overall, I was happy with my team’s performance. The guys dug deep,” said SU boxing club coach Travis Wylie.

He also said the losses the club did have were very close and it was disappointing that the decisions did not go their way.

Thomas McIntyre started for the Raiders in the match immediately following the intermission. He went back and forth with Zubair Taalibuddeen from Cameron Street Gym, and the two seemed evenly matched going into the final round. The round seemed to go in favor of McIntyre, as his opponent did not put up much of a fight and was held against the ropes for the majority of the round. It was not enough for the judges, however, and McIntyre narrowly dropped the bout. 

Cameron Hines was the next Raider to step into the ring and he picked up SU’s first win of the night, with an impressive decision over Mike Roberts from PSU. Hines had the advantage almost the entire bout and did not give Roberts many openings to get back into the match.

Guilford took on Moses Sun from Army in the final bout. The two were highly touted at their schools and Sun kept pace with Guilford for the entire bout. Army had won almost all of its bouts up until that point in the event, but Guilford did not let it have the same success.

“This is just a stepping stone. I’m hoping to send a bunch of these guys to nationals. That is the ultimate goal,” Wylie said. 

The club will travel to Navy for its next show, and then on to Army and other schools in Pennsylvania before competing in regionals and then nationals.

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