By Russell Bennett
A prodigiously talented group of local boxers will go wherever, whenever to meet their next challenge head-on.
An Australian team headed by teenage boxers Ethan Bernades and Antonio Lopez, along with their renowned trainer Nathan Skeen – all three from Pakenham’s ‘Urban Boxer’ gym – has recently returned from competing in Dublin, Ireland at the famed Smithfield Boxfest.
The invitation-only tournament has a proud tradition of attracting world class competitors from right across Europe and countries with a strong boxing heritage.
The multi-national event is part of the Irish Athletic Boxing Association’s (IABA) national events calendar, and just a matter of days ago the Australian team headed up by Skeen returned from a journey of a lifetime.
Also featuring in the team were three other standout Victorian boxers – Campbell Somerville, Lachlan Lewis, and Jarvis Bindloss.
Skeen’s boxers have a hard-earned reputation based off a tireless work-rate and thirst for success.
They know they won’t ever be treated with kid gloves at Urban Boxer – that the time they spend there is all geared towards making them the best amateur fighters they can be.
And the gym’s reputation for fostering promising talent and converting it into proven success is there for all to see.
In recent times, Urban Boxer fighters have also competed right across Victoria, in South Australia, the ACT, and New Zealand – with their latest frontier their training base in London, before competing in Dublin.
“You have the likes of Russia, the Ukraine, England, Ireland, and Latvia all competing at Smithfield, and this was the first time Australia had ever featured in the event so we were thrilled to fly that flag,” said Skeen, who has extensive experience in the ring, himself – both at amateur and professional level in Australia, and also the UK.
He started boxing when he was just 14 – the same age as a number of his protégés are now – and ultimately went on to train under some of the biggest names in the fight game, including John Tandy and Ian Burbedge in the UK, and the legendary Johnny Lewis in Sydney. Lewis is the former trainer of world champions Jeff Fenech and Kostya Tszyu.
Bernades is a Victorian champion who will soon compete in the nationals on the Gold Coast, alongside Lopez who has also earned his way there – despite having just a handful of fights to his name so far.
“He really did himself proud – he fought a Russian and lost by unanimous decision but gave him a hell of a fight,” Skeen said about Lopez, who’s only just starting to scratch the surface of his potential.
“Ethan, who only has 13 fights to his name as well, boxed beautifully and was named Junior Boxer of the Tournament.
“He’s a real power-packed combination puncher.”
Lewis and Bindloss fight out of a Leongatha gym that Urban Boxer also has particularly close ties with, and both of them also fought superbly on foreign soil – as did Somerville, an Australian Commonwealth Games and world-level representative.
“We were named Team of the Tournament at Smithfield too, which was fantastic,” Skeen said with obvious pride.
“Last year the Ukrainians took their national side to compete at this event, for example.
“This is a serious event, so for our boys to know they belong at the level is a massive positive for them.
“Ethan is still only 14 and a bottom-age junior, but he’s racked up an amazing amount of experience already and that’s only going to hold him in great stead as he moves forward with his boxing.
“We went to New Zealand and won the Auckland Cup, and he’s come home and boxed in Canberra, and in Bendigo he beat the best kid in Australia at the (Jeff) Horn – (Michael) Zerafa weekend.
“You can see he’s a real standout – the volume punches he throws, the combinations the head movement, there’s just a touch of class in everything he does.”
On the trip to the UK, Skeen explained how his fighters learned so much from the more experienced, 22-year-old Somerville – his discipline and dedication, as much as his in-ring craft.
Not only will Bernades and Lopez compete for Victoria in the nationals later this month, but Skeen will also serve for the first time as a state coach – validation for the countless hours of tireless hard work they’ve put in at Urban Boxer.
