AMATEUR boxing is sitting up to take notice of Vauxhall Motors ABC this season after three of the club’s fighters made it into the Four Nations top 10 rankings.

The club, which welcomed world heavyweight legend Mike Tyson to Ellesmere Port on Sunday (see page 6), has struck a blow for smaller boxing clubs with their achievements this season.

Paul Butler, for years the flag-bearer of Vauxhall’s ambitions in boxing, is ranked fifth in the flyweight (51kg) standings and second in England.

He has been joined by Wayne Adeniyi, second in the cruiserweight division, and Jamie Kelly, 10th at light-flyweight (48kg).

The rankings include fighters from Scotland, Wales and Ireland as well as England.

While the self-supporting club have three fighters in the rankings, their big spending Liverpool rivals Rotunda have just two and Golden Gloves only the one.

Also Joel Crossley has reached the final of the NACYP Youth Clubs competition.

And this Sunday more Motors fighters could begin to make a name for themselves as the ABA Championships get underway.

Vauxhall’s honorary secretary John Smurthwaite said: “It is all great news for the club.

“Our lads are delivering the goods and they are outperforming fighters at these prestigious clubs. We are ahead of the Rotunda at the moment.

“This is not the end either. We have a lot of young fighters coming through and of course, Matty Fagan is still working his way back into the frame.

“He always had a lot of natural ability. The last time we had three fighters in the top 10 rankings was a few years ago when Butler and Fagan were both there.

“But that was the English rankings, the Four Nations is bigger again. But Fagan could conceivably get himself up there, with some good performances under his belt.”

Butler has recently worked his way back into the minds of the ABA international selectors with a string of good performances while Adeniyi was the only Motors fighter to reach last year’s ABA Championship final.

Kelly has climbed the ladder due to his consistency in the ring over the last 18 months.

Vauxhall Motors are sending a 10-man team to Copenhagen to take part in the multi-nations Hvidovre Box Cup in Denmark.

Among the squad will be Jordan Pleavin, who is on the road to recovery following an accident last year.

He is now a rising star at Vauxhall Motors ABC.

His team-mates will be Jake Batchelor, Tom Lloyd, James Delaney, Connor Leat, Kyle Timpson, Ethan Bibby, Jack Kelly, Jay Holmes and Connor Stein.