Cambridge University’s boxers drew the historic Varsity series with Oxford level with victory in the 112th meeting last weekend.
Going into the clash, Cambridge were 54-53 behind, with four draws, but a 6-3 win at Cambridge Corn Exchange brought it all square to 54-54.
First up, as she could not be matched, was a non-scoring women’s bout between St John’s College’s Margarita Sambarskaia and the Army’s Ellie Blayden, which Sambarskaia won on a split decision.
Onto the competitive bouts, and Christ College’s Rafi Bertoli-Mitchell had a walkover at featherweight before Churchill’s lightweight Athi Chellappa showed fast hands and feet to put Cambridge two-up by beating Mu-Huan Lee in only his second ever bout.
Oxford pulled one back at light welterweight when Thangoig Ntelezos lost to an opponent who, at 6ft 3ins, stood as tall as a heavyweight, and despite being warned against leading in with his head, the Cambridge man struggled against his opponent’s height.
King’s College’s Matt Elliott, who had just got the call-up ahead of Alex Doble, got Cambridge back on track as he switched between head and body to score with ease against Kenneth Tann.
Alexander Stoilov, of Gonville & Caius, continued the good work at light middleweight, building on last year’s win and shrugging off a recent injury to beat Stanislav Dumas.
However, two defeats at middleweight let Oxford right back into it, with Homerton’s Joven Tasev, who has been outstanding in the gym, suffering a shock defeat to Daniel Byam-Shaw, while surprise entry Seb Dex, of Trinity, was on the ropes after being caught in the second round by Connor Gleeson.
Suddenly there was only a point in it, but Cambridge knew that a win for captain Judah Aiyenuro at light heavyweight would give them an unassailable lead.
And so it proved as the St John’s student, a recent BUCS silver-medallist, bagged his third successive Varsity win by beating Benjamin Spencer on a split decision.
With victory in the bag, James Lee put the icing on the cake for Cambridge at heavyweight.
The Jesus College student, who came over from the university’s rugby team after an injury kept him out there, saw off Edward Schwarck with a left hook in the first round to complete an outstanding year for him.