By: Clint Thomas, Metro Staff | Posted: Jan. 3, 2018 | Source: WV Gazette-Mail
After years of amateur preparation and ring success, Laura Byrnes, who trains at the Elk River Boxing Club in Clendenin, will make her professional kickboxing debut later this month in Moundsville.
Byrnes, a Florida native who lives in Hurricane, will fight on Saturday, Jan. 20, at the Moundsville State Penitentiary. She will compete against Crystal Beyers of Wheeling in the 145-pound weight division.
Byrnes’ match will be part of the Felony Assault live boxing and mixed martial arts card at the penitentiary, which was retired from prison use in the mid-1990s. The contests will get underway at 5 p.m. on Jan. 20.
Last April, Byrnes defeated Kayla Varney of Wheeling by unanimous decision at the Waco Center in Glenville to claim the West Virginia Semi Pro Women’s Welterweight title. She has also won Toughman competitions during her ring career.
Byrnes’ interest in boxing began when she was a 16-year-old student at Winfield High School. “I started at a gym in Nitro, but it got shut down and I quit for a while. When I was 18, I found another gym in Charleston, but it shut down after a while. I started training on my own for the Toughman Contest,” she recounted in a May 2017 Metro East article.
In 2010, she met Rob Fletcher, the owner, operator and coach of the Elk River Boxing Club, and enrolled in classes and training at Fletcher’s gymnasium.
“She started out just boxing,” Fletcher said last week, “and won a few boxing events. She got into IKF kickboxing, and, in 2011, she had her first kickboxing match.”
The following year, Fletcher said, Byrnes placed second in an international kickboxing competition in Orlando, Fla. In 2013, he added, she fought in a K-1 kickboxing event in New York City.
“She’s probably one of the hardest workers I’ve got,” he said. “She’s always at the gym, always training. She’s a single mom and works a full-time job. A lot of times, she has to pack her son with him — he’s only 3 — and she’ll work out for four or five hours and go home.”
Fletcher said he’ll be in Byrnes’ corner during her Moundsville bout.
“This is her passion. We’re super excited about this opportunity. It’s hard right now in this area to get not just women’s kickboxing, but any professional matches. Normally, we have to go to New York, Virginia, New Jersey or other places along the East Coast or out West.”
Byrnes is employed as a Humane Officer at the Putnam County Animal Shelter in Red House. When her workday is done, she is focusing intently upon her impending professional kickboxing ring debut, she said.
“I’m excited about the fight,” Byrnes said. “I train at least five or six days a week, at least three to four hours a day or six hours a day on the days I’m not working. I’ve been traveling to train, and I’m planning to travel soon to train with some other girls in Morgantown.”
For further information about Byrnes’ Moundsville match, contact Rob Fletcher at 681-313-6001, visit www.JimFrioPromotions.com or call 304-312-4418.
Additionally, the Elk River Boxing Club will host the 2018 West Virginia State Amateur Boxing Championship the following week. The championship bouts will get underway at 7 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 27, at the former Clendenin Middle School on Koontz Avenue in Clendenin. Tickets are $10 for adults and $8 for students. For tickets or additional information to the Jan. 27 event, contact Fletcher at the telephone number above.
Metro reporter Clint Thomas can be reached at cthomas@cnpapers.com or by calling 304-348-1232.
