The next stage of Highland Boxing Academy’s family lineage has begun.

The Inverness club sent a squad down to the Scottish Development Championships in Ravenscraig last weekend, with this edition of the tournament for boxers who have had up to three competitive bouts.

Edward Nicolson and Sonny Davidson did themselves proud in valiant efforts before being defeated, while Fraser Macdonald won his quarter final by second-round stoppage to make it through to next weekend’s final stages.

Coming out of last weekend though, the HBA highlight was a competitive debut, and first title, for 12-year-old Robbie Foy – son of club head coach Liam.

There were question marks around whether the Charleston Academy pupil would even make the trip down, but a weather-related twist of fate cleared him to step into the ring, and he duly delivered by winning on a 4-1 split decision.

“Robbie is actually a footballer, he plays for Caley Thistle,” Liam said.

“Football is his main sport, and he’s the top scorer for Caley Thistle across all their age groups this season, including the first team.

“He has done a bit of everything in sport. He actually first started competing in judo, and it got to a point where I asked him what he wanted to be really good at, and he picked football.

“He was scheduled to play Dunfermline last weekend, so I was going to withdraw him from the Development Championships because if he wants to do football, that comes before boxing.

“Robbie will never be short of an opportunity to box so there was always next time, but then the Caley game got postponed, which allowed him to box in a straight final.

“He didn’t show it, but I know Robbie would have felt like he had the weight of the world on his shoulders with his dad being the head coach. He’s up on our wall of champions, so it’s a proud moment for him, us, and the club.”

Highland Boxing Academy can boast well over 100 champions across junior and senior, amateur and professional levels at this point.

It would be entirely understandable if Robbie’s title was a stand-out for Liam amongst all those successes, but there will be no complaints if the youngster never dons the gloves again.

“When I woke up in the morning, I had to tell myself to treat him like any other boxer,” Liam added.

“It was like the flick of a switch, and I just had to try and go through the process exactly as I would for anyone else. I didn’t want to put any pressure or expectation on him as a parent, but he took it in his stride.

“Robbie has obviously been down at Ravenscraig a lot over the years, seeing the highs and lows from all the different generations of boxers. He has learned from all that and been inspired by all that.

“For me, I’ve been messaging all the coaches who have sons at the club to say that I get it now. I’ve only gone through this once, but some of them have done it 20 or 30 times and it must be really hard for them.

“I’ll be quite happy now if Robbie hangs the gloves up and puts back on the football boots.”