Galashiels boxer Jack Swaney wins Scottish cruiserweight title

The 22-year-old is positively buzzing after being crowned as Scottish cruiserweight champion at the Boxing Scotland Golden Gloves Elite Championship finals at Motherwell’s Ravenscraig Regional Sports Facility on Saturday.

“It felt brilliant,” said Swaney, of Galashiels. “I was just glad to get the job done.”

The Borderer said he’d felt he’d had the edge over his opponent, Paul Greville, of East Renfrewshire’s Barrhead Boxing Club, in the first of their intended three rounds of three minutes but, as things turned out, he didn’t have to go the distance to claim victory as their fight was halted in round two due to Greville tearing knee ligaments in a fall.

“After the fight, I was told I’d won the first round on the scorecards, so that one would have been in the bag, but I felt like it was more comfortable in the second,” he recalled.

“I was controlling it better and landing the better shots and then the boy went down after I’d hit him, but he must have gone down awkwardly and he hurt his leg so he couldn’t continue.”

Charting new territory for the Union Street club by bringing home their first-ever senior elite title made winning even more special, said Swaney, a worker at Oregon Timber Frame’s Selkirk yard.

“That was the cherry on top of the cake,” he said.

“I felt a wee bit of pressure because I was thinking I’d better get this done, but it’s a great achievement, especially with me being the first one. I feel really proud.”

His route to the final consisted of quarter-final and semi-final points victories in March over Sohaib Anaib, of Glasgow’s Rob Roy Boxing Club, and Davy Nelson, of Kirkcaldy’s Kingdom Boxing Club.

A member of the club since 2017, he’d previously picked up two novice championship silver medals, also at Ravenscraig, but his senior title knocks those into a cocked hat and he’s hoping it will lead to a call-up to represent Britain in the ring.

Swaney was coached by Steven Ross, Jack Grieve and Jim Gow at the final and all three are as pleased as punch at his success.

Ross said: “It was brilliant from Jack in all three of his bouts in the championships.

“He has put the hard work in over the years, which is now starting to show, and hedeserves every bit of this success.

“Everybody at the club is extremely proud of Jack and he should be incredibly proud of himself for this achievement.”

Grieve said: “He’s worked relentlessly to make this come true, and I’m glad he has achieved what he has been working for as there is nobody that deserves it more.”

Gow added: “We are all very proud of Jack.

“He has had many ups and downs in his career but now I feel it has all come together for him and he is the Scottish elite champion, which just goes to show that you should never give up.”