Professional boxing heads back to the Snakepit

It was regular home for 'The Bulli Blaster' Shannan Taylor who fought at the Gwynneville venue nine times in his career, including signature wins over world champions Lonny Beasley and Jake Rodriguez.

The South Coast Fighting Championship will return to one of Wollongong's spiritual fighting homes on Saturday with an 18-fight card featuring fighters from various local gyms.

Decorated amateur Travis Druce fighting out of Grange High Performance headlines the card in his second pro bout against tough Thai Weerachit Kitee, while Forte Boxing's Skye Falzon will take on Grange HP's Pam McLelland for the NSW featherweight title.

Kosta Skrapis will make his long-awaited pro debut against multi-discipline PNG slugger Jonathan Tuhu of viral kickboxing fame, while Zeke Campbell is the feature amateur bout on a pro-am card at a venue father Adrian fought at multiple times in his 31-fight pro career.

With Illawarra gyms represented in 16 of the 18 bouts, SFC's Lenna Wingate said the card serves the promotion's mission to give local fighters are chance to compete on home soil.

"We've tried to stack the card with as many locals as we can, all four pro matches feature someone from either Wollongong or the South Coast," Wingate said.

"That's really good because the whole idea of SFC is trying to build a platform for more local athletes to compete in front of home crowds without going to Sydney or interstate all the time.

"We're hoping to do the smaller amateur shows [at GHP] quite regularly, every six to eight weeks mixing up the [fighting] codes and then hold two bigger ones like this each year.

"We're trying to open up some pathways for local athletes with it. We've got some good amateur bouts, a couple of Masters' bouts on which is great to show some diversity in weight classes, ages and abilities."

The night will also see a charity auction to raise funds for the 'Bee Kind Like Libby' fund set up in honour of 19-year-old Libby Ruge whose life was tragically cut short in November 2020.

Read more: Thicknesse ready for homecoming battle as Wollongong Wars returns

Samaras food truck will also be present to create a festival atmosphere to go with the in-ring action.

"It's not a just fight card, we want create a great environment with it and it's sure to be a great night," Wingate said.

Doors open at 5.30pm with the bell to sound on the opening bout at 6pm.

Download the Illawarra Mercury news app in the Apple Store or Google Play.

Sign up for breaking news emails below ...