Sheffield, England – 7 October 2023 – Promoter Izzy Asif, CEO of GBM Sports, set the bar high with his Clash On The Court event for the grand opening of the brand new Canon Medical Arena in Sheffield last night.

Asif promised that his sixth Championship Boxing event would be his biggest and best to date and he delivered a spectacular night of action and entertainment in the inaugural event at the stunning arena.

Boxing royalty and stars were in attendance at ringside, including reigning World Champions Ebanie Bridges and Sunny Edwards, Former Two-Weight World Champion Billy Joe Saunders, Sheffield icon Johnny Nelson and MC David Diamante.

Despite the early disappointment of the Reece Mould-Martin McDonagh title fight falling through, it didn’t dissuade the fans’ turning out in their droves to pack out the arena and create an electric atmosphere as they stayed to watch all the fight action.

In the main event, Commonwealth Super-Flyweight Champion Emma Dolan, from Newark, successfully defended her title in a pulsating, all-action, fight against the tough and game Worksop challenger Nicola Hopewell to win by wide margins on all three judges’ scorecards.

Red-hot GBM Sports’ Sheffield talents Faraqat ‘Frak’ Ali, Nohman Hussain, Naphtali Nembhard and Conisbrough Joe Hayden, all signed to and guided by Asif, showcased their skill and extended their winning records to highlight themselves as exciting future stars of the company.

Super-featherweight ace Ali took his record to 8-0 by winning every round against Mexican Christian Lopez Flores and is knocking on the door for his first title fight in the near future.

Welterweight prospect Hayden took his record to 11-0 with a four rounds points victory over MJ Hall.

A real star in the making, super-featherweight Hussain erupted the arena with a first round stoppage of Caine Singh.  That was the third stoppage for ‘Stormin Nohman’ in four fights as he continues on his road towards a first title challenge.

In his pro debut, flash middleweight Nembhard, who previously played for the Sheffield Sharks, made a seamless transition from basketball to boxing with a shut-out points victory over hard Russian Vasif Mamedov to show he means business in his new career.

Boxing in Yorkshire and Sheffield in particular is seeing a strong resurgence thanks to GBM Sports’ events in the region and the talented prospects under its banner.

An exciting new name will soon feature alongside Ali, Hussain and Nembhard in the six-time national champion MyKyle Ahmed who was unveiled as its latest star signing.  Ahmed will be jointly-managed by Asif and Billy Joe Saunders who both have extremely high hopes for the precocious talent and he will make his pro debut on a GBM Sports card very soon.

Further Sheffield fight favourites featured on the card with Liam Cameron, Red Johnson and Sam O’maison all in action.

Making an incredible return to the ring after 5 years out following a ban for failing a post fight drugs test and overcoming personal issues and a family tragedy, former Commonwealth Middleweight Champion Cameron defeated Robbie Connor on points over six rounds.

Brash light-heavyweight Johnson put on a show for his fans as he won every round against Ben Thomas as he took his record to unbeaten in four fights.

Former English Super-Lightweight Champion O’maison got back in the winning column with a four round points victory over Jake Smith and looks to return into the title mix again.

Worksop welterweight Declan Cairns completed the card who defeated Rustem Fatkhullin on points over four rounds.

Asif was delighted with his centre piece event and promises that this is still early days for GBM Sports and the best is yet to come.

He said, “We’re just getting better and better with each event and look how far GBM Sports has come in a very short space of time.  We’ve completed our first arena event with a first class production and we’ve got so much more to come, we’ve still really only just started.  Sadly we lost Reece Mould v Martin McDonagh earlier in the morning, but what a great fight it was between Emma and Nicola who both really stepped up to make it top of the bill.  Nicole showed real grit and skill and will come again, but Emma is a quality fighter.  We had a fantastic undercard with Naphtali starting his pro boxing career with a victory in his pro debut, Frak getting another win and then Nohman’s explosive finish to his fight.  Congratulations to all the lads’ on their wins, Liam, Red, Sam, Declan and Joe and I look forward to getting them back on soon.  To further add to the depth and quality of the GBM Sports stable and Sheffield boxing, I’m thrilled to have signed MyKyle Ahmed with Billy Joe and he’s going to be a real star in the future.  As the famous saying goes, You haven’t seen nothing yet!”

London, UK (17 February 2020) Former World Champion Johnny Nelson is a massive fan of top cruiserweight talent Isaac Chamberlain and can’t wait to see him return to the ring on Saturday 28th March at the Coventry Skydome, live and exclusive in the UK on free-to-air Channel 5.Nelson, the longest ever reigning World Champion in the cruiserweight division from 1999-2005 with 13 defence of the WBO crown, believes that people will say ‘Wow’ when Chamberlain fights for the first time in 16 months and reignites his trail to a World title.The pair were together at the launch of the charity Gloves Up Knives Down new initiative ‘Preventative Intervention’ last Friday at the Repton club alongside other high profiles names including former World Champion Darren Barker, former Two-Time World title challenger Kevin Mitchell and Ultimate Boxxer 6 Heavyweight winner Nick Webb.Chamberlain, 25, has now got his career back on track after last week signing a long-term promotional agreement with promoter Mick Hennessy and will feature on two show in just the space of a month.  First in Coventry on the undercard of the massive British Light-Heavyweight title clash between Shakan Pitters and Craig Richards and then on Alex Dilmaghani’s European title challenge against Champion Samir Ziani on Saturday 25th April at the National Sports Centre, Crystal Palace, also live on Channel 5.Sheffield great Nelson, who is now a pundit on Sky Sports’ boxing shows, said of Chamberlain, “Give him time because all of a sudden he’s going to grasp back on the scene again and they’re going to say ‘Wow’ and it’s nice because I want them to look back at Isaac fighting Lawrence Okolie and look at how much he’s improved now to what he was then.”Nelson added, “I’m a massive fan, there’s a couple of guys I’m a massive fan of in the UK and he’s one of them.”‘Chambo’ said, “It’s great to hear that from a respected former World Champion like Johnny who’s been there, seen it and done it.  I see my story in him.  He had to take himself off around the world for fights and sparring to better himself and that’s what I did sparring with the likes of Deontay Wilder and Alexander Usyk.  He knows the type of sacrifices that have to be made and these other guys in the division haven’t had to to do that.  The months of inactivity and living, praying and believing the dream that you will become a World Champion.  I’ve never stopped believing and now that is all going to pay dividends.”

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