International Battle of the Badges – UK vs USA

By Harvey Hudson

On October 3, the International Battle of the Badges returns for another evening of competitive amateur match-ups, all in aid of The Fire Fighters Charity. 

The show will be held at Yeadon Town Hall and will see fighters from West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service, South Yorkshire Police, Northumbria Police and Firefight Boxing Club take on overseas opponents from The Fire Department of New York and Denver Police. The charity event has been organised by Firefight Boxing Club, a gym located in Leeds that boasts around 70 regular attendees. 

Firefight is affiliated with England boxing and was founded in 2019 by firefighter and boxer Rich Fella and coach Craig Wood. The journey started after the pair organised a successful boxing event for those fighting out of the West Yorkshire Fire service back in 2019 at the renowned First Direct Arena in Leeds, which has ultimately been pivotal in securing further international events.

The publicity and traction created by the event reached New York and led to FDNY inviting the club to participate in another charity card abroad in aid of the Tunnel to Towers foundation. 

Earlier this year, a selection of Firefight boxers made a trip overseas to New York City for the first international Battle of the Badges event. The event was held at the iconic theatre at Madison Square Garden and was streamed live on UFC fight pass, making it a priceless experience for those taking part. The event proved to be a success, too, as $50,000 was raised for the Tunnel to Towers Foundation. 

Rich Fella was content to finish his amateur career on a high as he boxed for the last time on the card at 40.

“It’s nice to say that my last bout was at Madison Square Garden in front of 4,000 people,” says Fella, who went on to explain how he juggles promoting, boxing and coaching. 

“It can be difficult at times but I kind of get the rewards of doing it all and seeing a show come together and I have actually been able to box on the shows that I help promote as well. It’s quite good and it’s quite unusual having somebody that coaches, boxes and organises the event and promotes the event as well.” 

Boxing News asks Fella about the logistical side of organising international amateur match ups. 

“There’s a little bit more paperwork than usual,” Fella responds.  “You have got to apply through England Boxing in the first instance and you have got to ask for permission to invite teams from abroad. There’s a few hoops to jump through but you’re creating a night that’s going to be remembered by a lot of people for a long time.” 

The process involves a ‘Permission to Box Abroad Form’ being submitted and also involves back and forth discussions between the coaches in regard to match-ups. Fella highlights some of the noteworthy bouts on the card.

“In terms of a firefighter versus a New Yorker, we’ve got a rematch between Lisa Pearson and Aaliyah Abrahams. I think she was our first one on the night [MSG] and I’ll be honest after thirty seconds I thought our girl was going to get stopped, but she just kept walking through Aaliyah’s punches.

“She ended up being too much for Aaliyah and nearly stopping Aaliyah and winning on points, so on paper that’s a great fight. I have also got a kid fighting for the first time called Jack Oakes. He’s got a real big following and I think he’s sold about sixty tickets already. He’s fighting an FDNY firefighter called Lirim Begai; that’s an 80kg match-up.

“We’ve also got George Dobbins, who fought Sean Dillon in New York. He’s fighting quite an experienced lad who’s had fourteen bouts from FDNY called Kyle McGrath. They are all pretty tasty fights to be fair on paper.” 

Fella also touches on the positive impact that the club and its shows have had on those who attend outside of boxing. 

“Two of our fighters have actually come from training at our place and have ended up being operational firefighters as well which is really good,” he explains.

“We are bringing people in and training them up in boxing and because we do work with the fire service and The Prince’s Trust boxing programmes they get to see certain things and it gives them a little bit of a kick up to say I fancying doing that as a job. One of them is called Cole Cooke and he’s actually fighting on the show against a kid from Denver police called Luis Carrazco.” 

Firefight Boxing Club have previously hosted boxing events at Yeadon Town Hall and Fella makes accurate comparisons to an iconic venue in British boxing, as the venue has similar looks and has no bad seat in the house. 

“I’d have liked to have done it at a bigger venue but in terms of show costs and venues they are extortionate now,” he says. “Luckily we’ve got a good partnership with Yeadon Town Hall which allows us to do a good show in a venue that’s a bit like York Hall.” 

Fella explains how the donations for the Battle of the Badges event work for those interested: “It’s all done through ticket sales, but they can go online and go to The Fire Fighters Charity website and there is a big donate sign on the homepage so they can actually just go and donate to the charity if that’s what they wanna do or they can buy a ticket and that will go towards the charity as well.”