Portland Boxing Club Sweep at the All-New England Golden Gloves Championships

Portland Boxing Club's Ilyas Bashir (right) at the All-New England Golden Gloves Tournament of Champions in Lowell, MA. Photo courtesy Steve Shea Photography.

Portland Boxing Club athletes, who were representing Northern New England, won seven championships at the All-New England Golden Gloves Tournament of Champions in Lowell, Massachusetts. PBC’s Xavier Tiger Diaz, a 125-pound novice featherweight from Brunswick, Maine, won unanimous decision over Shyne Fernandez Conce of Lawrence, Massachusetts who was representing Central New England. PBC’s Ilyas Bashir, a 132-pound elite division light welterweight and Bates College student from Auburn, Maine, won a unanimous decision over Anderson Blanco of Lynn, Massachusetts who was representing Central New England. PBC’s Lindsay Kyajohnian Francois, a 132-pound elite light welterweight from Gorham, Maine won a 4-1 split decision over Jessica Lampron of Boston, Massachusetts who was representing Central New England. PBC’s Wade Faria, a 165-pound elite middleweight from Portland, Maine, won a unanimous decision over Anthony Rodriguez of Woonsocket, Rhode Island who was representing Southern New England. PBC’s Zordan Holman, a 203+ pound novice super heavyweight from Westbrook, Maine, won a unanimous decision over Jareed Gaines of Framingham, Massachusetts who was representing Central New England in an exciting main event bout. PBC’s Kate Zehr, a 125-pound elite featherweight from South Portland, Maine won by walk-over winning the New England Championship title by virtue of her win the semi-finals over Brandy Young of Boston, Massachusetts who was representing Central New England. PBC’s Max Kennedy, a 139-pound light welterweight novice youth division from South Portland, Maine won a split decision over James Harvey of Chelmsford, Massachusetts who was representing Central New England. Wade Faria also won the Outstanding Boxer of the Tournament in the Open Class and Tiger Diaz won the Outstanding Boxer in the Novice Class. The Portland Boxing Club won the Outstanding Team of the Tournament. PBC’s wins helped Northern New England win the Regional Team Trophy for the first time in the 76-year history of the New England Golden Gloves. Elite open class boxers Zehr, Francois, Bashir and Faria advance to the 100th Annual National Golden Gloves Tournament of Champions on May 8 through May 13 in Chester, Pennsylvania. The national tournament can be watched live at www.goldenglovesofamerica.org. Portland Boxing Club fighters have won 238 championships in the organization’s 31-year history.