Spring Showdown brings heat to ring

While there weren’t quite as many fights at the Spring Showdown as Ryker Batson may have liked, the boxing card certainly didn’t lack any action on Saturday.

The Brandon Fitness Combat Academy owner and boxing coach put on the event at the Victoria Inn’s Imperial Ballroom, which initially started with 20 fights but gradually got whittled down to 11.

“We started at 20 but it came down to about 10 within a few days beforehand,” Batson said. “Injuries, another club couldn’t make it and more injuries.

“That’s boxing, I guess. Sometimes that’s how it goes but you roll with the punches, as they say. We made some extra matches last minute and it turned out to be a pretty great night.”

The fight of the evening was easily an action-packed 63-kg bout between Oak Lake’s Jesse Kreutzer and Winnipeg’s Zachery Geswein.

Batson wanted Kreutzer to take a step up in competition and while his fighter fell to 3-3 with a narrow decision loss, Kreutzer showed well against the more experienced Geswein in a fight later judged to be the evening’s best.

“Jesse is a skilled boxer,” Batson said. “I picked more of a challenging fight because I know he has a lot of potential so I continue to push him: He can go far. Jesse handled himself really well. I’m biased so I thought he won but that’s how it goes.”

In another terrific bout featuring an Oak Lake product, 16-year-old Lucas Branum stopped Stan Doris Daniel of Winnipeg by technical knockout after the referee issued Daniel a second standing-eight count.

“I was kind of nervous going in,” Batson said. “He did great. He worked his butt off and got the W.”

The match on Saturday was Branum’s first bout beyond just sparring in the gym. He took up the sport in the last couple of years, and the student at Virden Collegiate Institute quickly found it was a good fit, but that didn’t make the opening moments of the fight any easier.

“He caught me off guard with that first punch,” Branum said. “We’re not sparring anymore. I realized I had to adapt and keep throwing back and make sure he doesn’t get points over me and eventually that led to two eight counts.”

Daniel kept his guard tight with his hands close to his face, a technique Branum had experienced while sparring at the club, so combined with the nerves he was feeling, it took some time for him to settle down and solve the problem.

The key proved to be getting on the inside and eluding his jab-cross combination.

“We were both the same height so I can’t really get out of his range,” Branum said. “He was throwing ones and twos, so I realized I can’t throw ones (jabs) anymore, I have to get in. I got in there and that led to me throwing a lot of hooks and uppercuts.”

While Branum plans to stay in the sport for a while, an early victory certainly doesn’t hurt. Even so, the most surprised person in the ring that the fight was over may have been the teenager.

“It was pretty cool,” Branum said. “I found out it was the second eight count and I was like “What? I won?’ I was pretty happy with that.”

In the other official bouts, Jesse Becks of Kenora beat Hyden Frishholz of Weyburn, Kohen Jones of Brandon topped King Carnia of Winnipeg and Liam Parkinson of Winnipeg defeated Steven Flatfoot of Pine Creek.

In the finale, Rob Bruderer of Brandon was game in his debut loss to the lanky Evan Mass of Weyburn, who earned the TKO in the third round after a pair of standing-eight counts were issued.

Many of the local fighters ended up in spirited sparring sessions instead of judged bouts, with Darcy Vandenberghe of Boissevain facing Kelly Smith of Shilo, Oak Lake’s Ken Kreutzer meeting Wyman Bear of Peguis, Adam Gabrielle of Brandon battling Gabriel Bear of Peguis, Brandon’s Ashton Day fighting Wyman Bear of Peguis and Brandon’s Larry Stetsiuk of Brandon competing against Gary Caribou of Brandon.

Vandenberghe, who lost 130 pounds in his journey to the ring, had a wide smile on his face at times during his sparring session.

“It was the time of my life,” Vandenberghe said. “You can’t beat that, the rush you get when you step in there and the other guy is standing across from you and you know you’re going to brawl.”

He estimates he had about 65 to 70 people in the crowd, but they nearly didn’t see him.

On Friday night, he strained his leg during a walk, but he looked fine on Saturday in front of his many supporters.

“It was unreal,” Vandenberghe said. “I’m so glad I went through that journey to do that.”

He plans to keep training and be ready to go again, and may not have to wait long.

Batson is already planning the next card, which will likely be in October. Even with the struggles he faced putting together’s Saturday’s card, he was excited with how well it went and is already looking forward.

“It was great,” Batson said. “I’m already excited for the next one. It takes a lot of planning and ups and downs with the match making but overall I had a blast.”

pbergson@brandonsun.com