The Erne Boxing Club celebrated another milestone last week with Rhys Owens claiming the club’s second Ulster Elite title by taking home the Lightweight crown on Friday night at the Girdwood Community Hub in Belfast.

The last time the Erne outfit tasted Ulster Elite success was back in 2017, when Joe Joyce claimed the Super Heavyweight crown.

Despite their joy at Owens’s success, the club narrowly missed out on a further title as Anthony Malanaphy missed out on a debatable split decision in the Light-Welterweight final.

However, it was Malanaphy who got the club’s campaign off to a winning start last Wednesday night.

Competing in the 63.5kg Light-Welterweight class, Malanaphy took on former multiple Irish and Ulster titleist Rory Lavery (Holy Family Golden Gloves BC) in the semi-final.

Malanaphy boxed smartly controlling the distance to pepper his shorter and stockier opponent with crisp jabs and sharp counter punches to win all three rounds on route to a 5-0 unanimous points decision.

Next up was Rhys Owens who met a former foe, Teo Alin (Holy Trinity BC), in his 60kg Lightweight final.

Having dropped a highly contentious split decision to Alin in his semi-final last year, Owens was aiming to avenge that defeat as well as win his first Ulster Elite title.

Owens started brightly and landed with good clean single shots early on and then scored with good combinations after warming into the contest.

Alin was tricky and scored with some good shots of his own but the better quality and greater volume of work from Owens saw him run out a clear winner as he collected a 5-0 unanimous decision.

Malanaphy also found himself in a rematch as he was pitted against JP Hale (Star Boxing Club) in what was a repeat of last year’s final.

Hale a former National Elite champion and Ireland representative came out swinging powerful shots.

Malanaphy boxed smartly and wisely as he kept the contest at long range while Hale’s energy levels were high.

The first two rounds were very close with the harder better quality shots coming from Hale and greater volume of punches landed from Malanaphy.

In the third an final round Malanaphy bravely went forward taking the contest to his big-punching opponent forcing him back.

Hale was physically spent and trapped on the ropes for the whole of the last minute as Malanaphy tried to force a late stoppage and rained punches right up until the final bell.

It was a gruelling and highly entertaining contest but the judges returned a 4-1 split decision in favour of Hale that appeared harsh on the Erne favourite.

Erne Boxing Club Head Coach Sean Crowley said: “The whole club are immensely proud of these two lads, they really put the club on the map with their performances.

“I have mixed emotions, whilst I’m delighted for Rhys winning his first Ulster title we are gutted for Anthony coming away with silver after such a fine performance.

“Rhys demonstrated why he’s the best Lightweight in the country. We genuinely believe that he would have been National Elite champion last November has he not been called up for National duty at the European U22 championships.

“Whilst its back to the drawing board for Malanaphy, his performance was top class and he’s shown great improvement and he still has a big year ahead of him.”

Crowley acknowledged that he has been extremely busy working with the National Squad in Dublin as High-Performance Unit Manager since last September and that much of their success is credited to whole coaching team at the club.

“I just want to acknowledge Greg Copeland and Dessie Kennedy who provided great cover in my absence, and to Paul Cassidy and PJ Freehill who regularly help hold the fort,” he added.