BOXER Rio Emmins will be stepping into the ring this weekend determined to win a national championship.

The Billericay & Wickford ABC fighter has made it to the final stages of the National Junior ABA Cadet Championships.

It will be luck of the draw who he faces in Sheffield but club head coach Les Cooke knows Rio is ready to take on other regional champions.

“This year Rio has made progress in the gym with his skill level and sharpening up his defences after hours of hard work from all the coaches at the new gym,” said Cooke.

“Every coach is offering something a little different and Rio has been taking on board snippets from all 12 coaches!

“Rio has no intention of giving in easy and has his eye firmly fixed on becoming the new English Cadet Champion next weekend.”

Rio is in his second season with Billericay & Wickford and has already made the national semi-finals of the schoolboys championship, where he lost on a very close and controversial split points decision to Repton’s R Beck.

He made up for that disappointment by winning the Essex cadet title with a unanimous points win and then took the regional Eastern Counties crown with a first round TKO win.

The 48kg category boxer then defeated two experienced boxers in the pre-quarter and quarter-finals to secure his place at Ponds Forge International Sports Centre in South Yorkshire this weekend.

Rio will box either Tyne Tees & Wear and East Midlands champ Thomas Harty (Kettering ABC) or Merseyside & Cheshire champion John Doyle (Salisbury ABC) in Sheffield.

But if he gets drawn to box the semi-final, he would have to fight both rivals on Saturday before contesting the final on Sunday.

Rio has already faced Thomas, who defeated him when he was with Brentwood ABC, and Cooke would relish a rematch between the pair.

“We are hoping Rio boxes Harty, as this will show what an improvement Rio has made over the last two seasons with our club,” Cooke added.

“Rio is a superb athlete and also a very down to earth lad, that helps out in the kids’ academy with the newbies every week, always giving his time and experience to help others.

“He is a genuinely nice lad that really deserves to win the national title after all he has done for others.”

  • CHADWELL St Mary Boxer Klayden Russell-Mead will also be fighting in then Junior Cadet Championships at Ponds Forge.

Russell-Meade, 14, a pupil at the Gateway Academy School, has beaten Newham boxer M Isiamell in the pre-quarters and J Coultas from Portsmouth in the quarter finals to secure his place at the finals.

Chadwell St Mary Boxing Club head coach Scot Johnston believes Russell-Meade has what it takes to win the competition.