Maitland boxer Jesse Catt bowed out a winner and on his terms in front of a big home crowd at Club Maitland City on Saturday night.
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Catt, 23, had to use all his ring-craft to overcome difficult southpaw Jack Yates to claim the Hunter Valley 67kg Amateur Championship.
But after receiving the belt with a unanimous points decision, he told his fans of the decision he had wrestled with over the past few months.
“I just couldn’t commit fully to boxing as you need to and I knew it had come to hang up the gloves he said,” he said in an emotional change rooms after the fight with his partner Amy and their five-month old son Sonny.
“It takes a huge commitment to prepare properly for a fight and with work and a new son I just couldn’t do what was needed.
It was a hard decision but even leading up to this fight I wasn’t training as hard as I was in other fights.
I knew that if I kept going at this pace I would end up having a lot more losses and I didn’t want to end it that way.
“There’s no point if I’m not 100 per cent in it. It ends up becoming dangerous that way and (boxing trainer) Barry (MacDonald) though exactly the same way.”
Catt said southpaw Yates was difficult to counter.
“He is very constant, I knew that from before seeing him fight, but I didn’t expect the angles that he was stepping at.”
“When I saw him fight he was very forward, but he didn’t step around. He wanted to step around a lot tonight so I had to really work on the inside and then get on the outside.
“With him being a southpaw it’s difficult to do that and we ended up being on each other’s toes and right on top of each other the whole fight.
“You’ve got to get your distance, step back and then get around.”
In a huge night of boxing, Maitland City boxers Blake Stone, Andrew Chenoweth and Teale Callagher also claimed Hunter Valley titles.
William Clarke lost his 71kg title bout to Jake Collins Doherty after a slow start.
Stone claimed the 57kg title in a unanimous points decision over Joydon Bruce and Chenoweth got the points in the 60kg division in one of the fights of the night against Elijah Rodricks.
Callagher finished her fight in a flurry of punches to claim a TKO decision against Sarah Bottrill to a huge ovation from the crowd.
On the under-card Maitland City’s James Mordue also won with a TKO after a dominant performance against Jackson McGowan in their 71kg bout.
Chad Maher opened the night with a unanimous points decision against Jail Wilton. Callum Mudd lost a close fight with Grady Spokes.