LOCHGELLY'S Emma McCulloch recorded the 20th win of her boxing career last week with a notable success against one of England's best.

The 25-year-old was the standout performer at a St Andrew's night ABA (Amateur Boxing Association) show between Scottish and English select teams in aid of the Ken Buchanan Foundation.

The event, held in Birmingham on Thursday, saw eight Scots travel south to compete for the Ken Buchanan trophy, with proceeds from the night going towards the foundation's aim of creating a statue of the legendary former world lightweight champion in the capital.

Emma, the current Scottish female light flyweight champion, was paired with English title winner Miriam Zouhou, who won the prestigious Haringey Box Cup in June after reaching the final of England Boxing's Elite National Championship Finals.

Glenrothes Boxing Club star Emma dominated the bout from the outset and won by unanimous decision, which was the only fight on the card not to be decided on a split by the judges.

It helped the Scots to five victories, which handed them the trophy, and dad Alan, who is also a Glenrothes coach, said: "Emma was the only Scottish female selected; there were eight boxers selected, seven guys and one girl.

"Emma was against Miriam Zouhou, who won at Haringey in June. Stevie (McGuire, Emma's coach) said to her to stay in the middle of the ring and let her come to you.

"In my opinion, Emma was far stronger physically. She was throwing punches and the other girl was feeling them, and gave her a standing eight count in the second round with a barrage of punches.

"I think the bell saved her (Zouhou) from being stopped. Emma won on a unanimous decision - it was the outstanding performance of the night and she stole the show."

Alan continued: "Anybody going down there and winning has done well so Emma was pleased with how it went. Scotland won 5-3 and were presented with the trophy as well.

"It was a high standard of boxing. All the fights were on a split decision apart from Emma's and you could see right away that Miriam didn't like it; Emma was hitting her too hard.

That's 20 wins and five losses she's had overall and five fights since September. she's boxing well just now."

Next up for Emma, who won the annual Celtic Box Cup tournament earlier this year and competed in her first international with Scotland at the Women's Silesian International Tournament, is likely to be February's annual Gold Girl Championship in Sweden.

Not only did she compete in this year's event, which is Europe's biggest tournament for female boxers, but she became the first Scot to taste victory when she powered her way to glory in the 48kg category.

Alan, who said Emma would like to thank her main sponsor, Tom Harrower, for his continued support, added: "We're looking at the Golden Girl tournament again. There's a former European champion, from Malmo, and she's said 'I need to box her'.

"So at the moment, that's probably the next one for her."