A fantastic first day of action at the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games saw 22 bouts take place across the men and women’s weight categories at the Scottish Exhibition Campus (SEC) on the banks of the River Clyde.
It was a mixed day for the hosts as one of their biggest medal hopes, Aaron Culllen, lost out in his bantamweight (M55kg) contest against India’s Jadumani Singh Mandengbam. However, Leo Church gave the home fans cause to cheer as he delivered an impressive a performance to secure a unanimous victory over Vi-J Tebouwa of Nauru at welterweight (M65kg).
The big winners on the day were Lesotho and England who won three and four bouts respectively.
The competition got underway with a sparkling performance by England’s Lauren Mackie who eased to a unanimous victory over Kenya’s 2024 African Games bronze medallist, Amina Faki in their bantamweight (W54kg) contest.
Mackie was too fast and skilful for her opponent and inflicted a second round knockdown on Faki, as she won the bout on all five of the judges’ cards which contained a number of 10-8 rounds.
The biggest surprise of the morning came in the fourth contest of the day when Mathealira Seholoholo of Lesotho stunned Northern Ireland’s Louis Rooney with a spectacular second round knockout in their bantamweight (M55kg) clash.
Representing the nation that finished top of the boxing medal table at Birmingham 2022, Rooney had looked comfortable in edging the first round but was floored by a powerful overhand right from Seholoholo which brought the contest to an immediate halt in round two.
It signalled the start of a great session for the tiny land-locked kingdom of Lesotho, which won all three of its bouts.
In one of the best match-ups of the day Pooana Khoahli delivered a barnstorming final round to edge a see-sawing welterweight (M65kg) battle with De Niro Pau from Niue, 29-28 on all five of judges’ cards.
And in the last final fight of the first session, Refiloe Thai secured a 4-0 victory over Nigeria’s Ayomide Hassan Foly at lightweight (M60kg).
The later session proved to be a day of mixed fortunes for the home nation with Aaron Culllen’s loss and Leo Church’s win.
However, traditional rivals England enjoyed two more wins to make it the most successful team on day one of boxing as Lucy Kings-Wheatley outpointed Papua New Guinea’s Petronella Nokenoke at lightweight (W60kg) and Patris Mughalzai overcame a spirited performance from Ghana’s Abdul Wahib Omar at welterweight (M65kg).
Following the wins by Lauren Mackie and Ellis Trowbridge in the early session it meant that English boxers won all four of their bouts on the first day of competition.
All of today’s results, details of the draw, daily schedules and all other competition information is HERE.
Saturday’s action will feature two more sessions of action starting at 11:00 and 18:00 local timeand will be televised live on TNT Sports and HBO Max.
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