Hard lessons learned for Christian Amendola
Christian Amendola hit a steep learning curve as his England Youth Championship hopes evaporated in swift order after a trade off.
He was pulled out by the referee before the first round was over of his bout at the Wallace Centre in Stoke-on-Trent last Sunday,
Amendola, from Priory Park Boxing Club in Dudley, had elected to swap leather with a strong opponent and came off second best.
The first national tournament on the unpaid boxing calendar for 2016 continued, at the same venue which will also host the West Midlands finals on Sunday.
A single age range - born in either 1998 or 1999 - houses the hopefuls, who have been split into weight classes before being whittled down. Bouts take place over three, three minute rounds.
Amendola came into the reckoning at 60kg in the area semi-final stage, after a couple of byes. He went toe-to-toe with the strong Jamie Edwards, from Triumph in Coventry.
The teenager was given heart after connecting cleanly with a couple of straight right hands and charged in, getting picked off as Edwards boxed on the back-foot.
They both backed off before coming together again with Amendola again striking first blood, before Edwards put more power into his shots and combined a straight right and right hook.
Both landed flush and forced the man in the middle to step in - with Priory Park coach Warren Davies also preparing to throw in the towel.
Davies said: "We put Chris in for experience, really, and it's worth mentioning he's only had five fights, to the other lad's 48. He's now lost two of those.
"He didn't listen to instructions and it cost him. We wanted him to feel his way into the bout, box off his lead hand and suss his opponent out.
"That all went out of the window when he got through with a couple of good punches. It ended up playing right into the other kid's hands.
"I knew Jamie could box and bang and was arguably the toughest draw we could have had, at this stage. We had a 'cat and mouse' game-plan, to keep moving and frustrate him.
"We could have still stuck to it, had he learned his lesson the first time or if we had got him back in the corner at the end of the first.
"He was getting caught with the backhand a lot as was throwing his own shots and, to be honest, I wanted him out of there. He was upset, he felt he wasn't hurt and wanted to box on.
"But we are only looking after his welfare. This was about a minute into the round and there was another two to go. He lives to fight another day and, hopefully, he'll learn a lot from this."
The only Black Country club still represented in the Youth competition is Wolverhampton's Merridale gym, who are waiting for Akash Tuqir's campaign to begin.
Tuqir walked over when Burton's Shazad Amran withdrew last weekend in a three-pronged 52kg. The reigning European Youth champion will now take on Hall Green's Zach Davis.
Both fighters will come in fresh, with Davis also benefitting from a bye. Tall southpaw Tuqir is looking to claim his first national club title in his last year competing as a Youth.