\n Bradley Thompson, who is the chair of Clacton Reform and councillor for West Clacton and Jaywick Sands, stepped into the ring on Friday night against amateur boxer Jake Curtis.\n<\/p>\n
\n Mr Thompson, who was fighting under the name \u2018The Councillor\u2019, said he had lost four-and-a-half stone in the months of training leading up to the event which was held in front of about 200 people at Princes Theatre.\n<\/p>\n
\n Support – Bradley Thompson was supported by his daughter Jordan, far left, wife Andrea, far right, and son Ray, second from right (Image: Daniel Rees, Newsquest)\n<\/p>\n
\n His fight against Mr Curtis \u2013 who raised \u00a31,175 for the event \u2013 was billed as the evening\u2019s showpiece, but there were six bouts between keen amateur boxers beforehand which got the crowd on its feet.\n<\/p>\n
\n Commonwealth Youth boxing champion Arnie Dawson stepped up to referee the fights which were watched by Reform UK leader and Clacton MP Nigel Farage.\n<\/p>\n
\n Mr Thompson retired after just under two minutes of the first round after receiving a blow which left him unable to see from one eye.\n<\/p>\n
\n He said afterwards: \u201cI was doing alright, and then something hit me \u2013 I couldn\u2019t see for about 30 seconds.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cIt went black in my left eye and I just weren\u2019t going out in round two \u2013 that was it, I couldn\u2019t see.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cBut it was good, we raised some good money \u2013 about \u00a310,000.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n Mr Thompson, who became a councillor in 2023 representing Tendring Independence Group before switching to Reform last year, was cheered on by colleagues as well as his wife Andrea Thompson, daughter Jordan Thompson, and son Ray Thompson.\n<\/p>\n
\n The money raised will go to Jaywick Sands Community Forum, a charity made up of community groups which help young people and the disadvantaged.\n<\/p>\n
\n Groups include Winter Warmers, Jaywick Indoor Bowls, Jaywick Scouts, and Man Shed, among many others.\n<\/p>\n
\n Finale \u2013 Jake Curtis, far left, is handed the winner’s belt by Clacton MP Nigel Farage (Image: Daniel Rees, Newsquest)\n<\/p>\n
\n Mr Thompson said: \u201cThe money is going to go out to local community groups helping children get active, fit, socialising.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThey need a little bit of something, and we don\u2019t want to exclude anyone.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n Mr Farage said: “A lot of people here are mid to late teenagers.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cIf they do boxing, they\u2019re taught self-discipline, they get fit, they\u2019re not taking drugs, they\u2019ve got ambition \u2013 I think it\u2019s terrific, absolutely terrific.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bradley Thompson, who is the chair of Clacton Reform and councillor for West Clacton and Jaywick Sands, stepped…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":422160,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-422159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=422159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422159\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/422160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=422159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=422159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=422159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}