Tragedy hits as crowd erupts at BCB event in Walsall
At the end of a great night of professional boxing at Walsall Town Hall violence erupted in the crowd as they waited for the verdict on the main event. Local lad Luke Paddock took on Myron Mills from Derby in the main event of the night for the IBF youth lightweight title (14/10/17). Both fighters had brought great support with them, but the majority of the crowd were for local lad Paddock, both sets of fans roared their fighters on in a great 10 round fight.
The violence erupted as the crowd waited for the judges decision, it seems that insults were exchanged between fans and a few drinks were thrown. This then turned into nearly every table and chair being turned over or thrown across the room. The hall was virtual empty when the result was announced, a split decision with Mills winning the title.
It was at this point that people at ring side became aware of the tragedy of what had happened at the entrance to the event. Ring side paramedics and doctors rushed to the front entrance where a male teenager was treated for a stab wound, the young man was rushed to hospital and is in critical condition. There where also reports of another man being injured but it is unclear of the extent of his injury's. The indecent was said to have happened outside the town hall and not in the entrance as has been reported, it has also been mentioned that it may not have been a knife that was used and could have been a broken bottle or something similar but this has not been confirmed yet.
Update 17.00 15/10/17
The column has been informed this evening that the teenage man who was in hospital fighting for his life has died, our hearts and prayers go out to the family and friends of the 19 year old. If you know anything that you think could help the police catch this scum bag please contact them on -101 or crime-stoppers - 0800 555 111.
The Black Country Boxing Promotions has also announced that the super series show that was due to be on today Sunday 15th October has been cancelled and will be rescheduled for a later date.
Dexter Thoughts
This is not the kind of write up I ever wanted to do, the report about the boxing on the show will come later in the week. I could not believe what I saw last night, these mindless idiots didn’t even wait for the result before kicking off. It would be hard to say what or who started the trouble, but when I heard the old football chant no surrender I thought trouble was coming.
My Heart and prayers go out to the family and friends of this unfortunate teenager, words can not express the sadness I feel of this cowardly attacks as knife crime enters a sport I love. Since the fatal stabbing of Cristina Edkins a young girl on her way to school who was tragically murdered on a bus in the city centre I have been involved in “drop the knife” campaigns. This knife crime is getting out of hand and it is beyond me why these idiots think it is OK to carry and use knives with such disregard for human life. I hope they catch the dirty scum bags who carried out this sick attack and they get put away for life.
Massive respect has to go to the doctors and paramedics ringside who rushed to this young mans aid and gave him a fighting chance as they treated him before the ambulance arrived.
I am also gutted for the fighters who where fighting in the now cancelled BCB super series today (15/10/117, they have had to pay for training camps and have trained hard for this tournament, the police have closed the area around the town hall making it impossible to use the venue.
I have been to many Black Country Boxing shows and they are always well run the trouble was no fault of the promotion and their shows usually run smoothly with no issues. I have been informed that there where 16 door supervisors on shift and there was a very strict serach policy. I will look forward to reporting on the super series and all of BCB promotions shows in the future.