Bryce Jurd and Ashley Duncan travelled away with coaches Colin ‘Chalky’ Rice and Jake Simpson to compete for different title weights.

Rice said originally it was only Jurd who was to compete for the National Intermediate Lightweight Title but Duncan showed skill during sparing sessions with Jurd and they decided to take him away as well.

“We thought it would be a good chance for him to pick up a medal or some sort of win. Both of them did incredibly well and represented Moree with pride in and out of the ring,” he said.

Jurd fought against a taller, more experienced fighter named Jesse Bailey of Bribie Island.

“Bryce was on his eighth fight and this guy was on his 23rd so we thought it would be a tough fight and it was. He fought four two-minute rounds and it was a unanimous decision which named Bryce the winner,” Rice said.

His coaches believe three out of the four rounds Jurd won and the last was quite even between the two.

“Bryce will now go to Nyngan to fight for the NSW title. I’ll give him a week off and then it’ll be back into hard training and disciplinary eating,” he said.

Duncan lost by one point against Sydney’s Vrewer Lynch who later went on to win the Junior Lightweight Title.

“We said to Ashley, ‘if you win this fight you will win the title’, and it was a hard fight which got the crowd up and going,” he said.

After 18 months off due to a motorbike injury, Rice said Duncan was a bit “rusty” but as the rounds went on his improvement shone through.

“It’s a credit to both the boys. The whole way through they’ve trained hard, followed instructions put to them by their coaches and now the hard work’s paid off, but it doesn’t stop there,” Rice said.

On November 8 a group of Moree Boxing Academy fighters will travel with Bryce to Nyngan, and Simpson will also take a group to Inverell to fight.

The Moree Champion will have more details on these fights closer to the date.