LOWELL, Mass. (January 20, 2018) – The 72nd annual Lowell Sun Charities Golden Gloves Championships continued last night with Central New England (Greater Lowell) novice and open class action at historic Lowell Memorial Auditorium.

Novice quarterfinals and semifinals matches were held last night, as well as preliminary bouts in the open division. The female championship bout in the middleweight class was also held last night, in which Amesbury’s (MA) Jessica McFadden edged Brookline’s Samantha Surface, 3-2.

The Fight of the Night was an open-class welterweight showdown between Salem’s (MA) Charlie Espinal and Amesbury’s Kenny Lawson, which Espinal won by a score of 5-0.

“It was a good night,” New England Golden Gloves Executive Director Bobby Russo said. “Good weather helped draw a big crowd, the largest of the season so far. There were a lot of good matches, some open division to go along with the novices. The Espinal-Larson match was the best of the night, a war from start to finish. It was the type fight you didn’t want either fighter to lose. Espinal had a little better boxing and experience that carried him to victory.”

The action switches to Thursday evening (Jan. 19) next week at Lowell Memorial Auditorium with more novice and open class matches. See the complete 2018 schedule of events below as well as last night’s complete results.

Season tickets for the remaining seven events are still available and reasonably priced at $75.00 (general admission). To purchase call the Lowell Memorial Auditorium box office at 1.866.722.8881 or order online at www.lowellauditorium.com. Individual event tickets are also available to purchase, starting at $13.00, only $7.00 for students (ID required).

Proceeds from the Lowell Sun Charities Golden Gloves Championship go towards sending the New England Golden Gloves champions to the National Golden Gloves Championship (starting May 14, 2018 in Omaha, Nebraska), in addition to supporting local athletes and area gyms, the Boys & Girls Club, soup kitchens, homeless shelters, cancer funds, scholarships and many other great charitable causes.

Semifinals: – Thursday, Jan. 25

Championship Finals – Thursday, Feb. 1

Novice Class Semifinals – Thursday, Feb. 8

Novice Class Championship Finals – Thursday, Feb. 15

Open Class Semifinals – Wednesday, Feb. 21

Open Class Championship Finals – Thursday, Feb. 22

Tournament Executive Director: Bobby Russo

Director of Contestants: Art Ramalho

Chief of Officials: Lauri Purcell

Ring Announcer: John Vena

Venue: Lowell Memorial Auditorium, 50 Merrimack St., Lowell, MA

Website: www.lowellgoldengloves.com, www.lowellauditorium.com

Twitter: @LowellGloves