Lynden Hosking talks War in the Bool, branching out to Melbourne

 
FORMER Olympian Lynden Hosking is out to make his mark, this time as a promoter.

 
The talented former amateur, who represented Australia at the Atlantic Olympics before picking up a bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur, will promote his second event in five months this weekend.

 
Only days away from his latest promotional offering, Hosking speaks with a sense of optimism about the future.

 
“We haven’t set out to just run regional shows; eventually we will end up a few in the city,” said Hosking.

 
“I started out wanting to do a show in my hometown in Bendigo. Putting on a show is a lot of hard work and there is a lot involved – so we wanted to be closer to home – it was a comfort thing for me.”

 
“The next show in Warnambool, we have a really good relationship with the guys down there,”

 
“We’ve previously had sparring events down there and the gyms are very strong so we decided to put the feelers out and it’s turned out great. We have two locals on as well, which I’m sure they will draw a good crowd.”

 
“One of the advantages of having a show in a regional area is that everyone is talking about it.”

 
The eight fight card will be topped by former WIBA super bantamweight titleholder Shannon O’Connell, who will face seasoned Thai import Anrey Onesongchaigym for the vacant WBC Silver super bantamweight title.

 
In a rare doubleheader, former IBF and WBC bantamweight champion Susie Ramadan will take co-main billing.

 
With the two aforementioned females topping Hosking Promotions current roster of fighters, Hosking is eager to make his promotional debut in Melbourne, where he will showcase some of his recently acquired talent.

 
“After this we will be looking at later in the year heading into Melbourne,” he continued.

 
“We will also look to have some more fighters who have recently come on board, which will be great.”

 
“The opportunity came up for both girls to fight on the same card. After Shannon’s fight last November, which ended with a clash of heads, we were fortunate enough to get this fight for the WBC Silver title,”

 
“Susie then came on board and probably has the hardest fight of all on the night to be honest. We also have a Queensland girl Cherneka Johnson who has come on board as well making her debut, so three girls in total.”

 
And while Hosking has two of Australia’s more prominent female fighters signed to his promotional entity, he has no immediate plans to pit them against one another. With that said, he isn’t ruling it out altogether.

 
“Shannon and Susie are the two high-profile fighters I have at the moment, so its just great that it’s worked out that they ended up on the same card. It doesn’t make sense for them to fight each other, at this stage anyway,”

 
“They both have their own agendas and both girls are going their separate ways,”

 
“But who knows what could happen down the track.”

 
Hosking and his fledgling team have placed a strong emphasis on building new talent with Saturday night’s card featuring twelve combatants with less than three fights. This is something Hosking aims to continue doing.

 
“Our goal is really to help a lot of the younger fighters coming up,” he concluded. “Along with the established fighters such as Shannon and Susie, we hope to give them some good fights against good quality opposition,”

 
“In the end, hopefully it will better the sport and better the fighters.”

 
“I’m expecting a massive contingent to see Nathan MacClean and Greg Bell, who are local boys from Warnambool. We also have two fighters from Bendigo, three fighters from South Australia and a couple from Melbourne,”

 
“I really want to do my apprenticeship with these shows in the country towns and then move on to the city,”

 
“It just makes sense. We are expecting six to seven hundred people, which will be a good result for the town. We also have a live stream running on Live Boxing and we still have some tickets available.”

 
 
Photo: Hosking Promotions