Women’s boxing club opens up in Leicester

By Joshua Solomon

A boxing club in Leicester now has a club for girls who want to take part.

Unity Boxing Club in Leicester has now opened a club for girls between the ages of 16 and 19 who enjoy the sport or want to take part.

It comes after Leicester City Council agreed to fund the programme for girls boxing from ages 16 to 19. The programme commences on Saturday, May 22, with the sessions free for the foreseeable future.  

Also, all attending will receive a free set of boxing gloves and training pads. 

Ajmal Butt, the owner of the Unity Boxing Club, said: “The council and the mayoress have always supported us since I opened 11 years ago, males and female classes have always run at Unity ABC.”

He added: “It’s important for females to be encouraged in our sport, and one of the most successful boxers is a female from our club. Paige Murney won Commonwealth Games silver two years ago and is currently on the GB 🇬🇧 squad.”

Former professional boxer from the midlands, Kelton McKenzie, who is now an independent boxing and fitness specialist coach who runs Boxercise4health, will also be involved as it is a joint venture with Unity Boxing Club.

If you are interested in joining the club you can contact them on 07976704585.

Unity Boxing ClubUnity Boxing ClubLeicester, LE4 0RX.

Mike Tyson and Roy Jones Jr boxing exhibition ends in a controversial draw

By Adam Rear

With a combined age of 105 years, Mike Tyson and Roy Jones Jr came together for a veteran heavyweight clash at the weekend at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

After the eight two-minute rounds of boxing had finished, many thought that the 54-year-old Tyson had won the bout, but the result was officially as a draw.

The fight was originally meant to take place on September 12 at the Dignity Health Sports in Carson, California. In August, it was announced that the date had been pushed back to November 28 in order to maximise revenue for the event.

The fight sold more than 1.2 million pay-per-views in the US, raking in £45 million.

Tyson, a boxing icon who excelled in the 1980s and 1990s, is understood to have pocketed around £7.5 million for his 16 minutes of fighting in the ring on Saturday night.

PRIME MIKE TYSON: A menace in the ring, as pictured, at the beginning of his first fight with Evander Holyfield in 1996

As well as the shorter fight length (eight two-minute rounds instead of 12 three-minute rounds), both fighters wore 12oz gloves rather than the usual 10oz.

Furthermore, the fight was judged by former World Boxing Council champions instead of professional judges.

The fight was scored as a split draw and the three judges scored the fight as followed: Chad Dawson (76-76 draw), Christy Martin (79-73 for Tyson) and Vinny Pazienza (76-80 for Jones).

The results were controversial because it seemed that Tyson was winning most rounds, and the stats agree.

DOMINATION: Mike Tyson landed more punches in every round, except the sixth round where they were even

Tyson out-landed Jones Jr continuously throughout the exhibition bout, landing at least twice as many punches in five rounds out of the eight in total.

Round 6 was the only round that Jones Jr landed an equal amount of punches.

A closer inspection of the fight as two halves (Rounds 1-4 and rounds 5-8) shows much of the same, Tyson clearly landed a higher number of punches.

PUNCHING PEDIGREE: Mike outshone Jones Jr in both halves of their exhibition fight

Although Tyson clearly landed more shots, he was not annoyed at the split decision draw.

“I’m good with a draw, because I entertained the crowd,” said Tyson during the post-fight interview.

“The crowd was happy with it. I’m just happy I got this under my belt.”

The Boxing Binman: The rags to riches tale of Leicester’s breadline boxer

Rendall Munroe talks to Adam Rear about the highs and lows of boxing fame, fortune and failure.

Cheers, screams, boos, roars, music, tension, anticipation and, most importantly, an ocean of hi-visibility jackets. Money, pride and a European Super Bantam Title were on the line. Rendall Munroe knew this. He was ready. Life at that time was perfect for him, but his life inside and out of the ring didn’t always show the picturesque postcard of happiness.

Check out the full article on AdamRearBlogs here: https://adamrearblogs400755103.wordpress.com/2020/11/17/the-boxing-binman-the-rags-to-riches-tale-of-leicesters-breadline-boxer/

CHAMPION: Rendall Munroe achieved so much inside and outside the four corners of the ring

Leicestershire female boxer goes professional

By Molly Kerridge

A 19-year-old female boxer from Leicestershire has just become a professional in the sport after years of training.

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Ellis Hopkins has recently been made the first female boxer from the traveller community to take the step from being an amateur to a professional.

Hopkins said: “I felt very proud and happy when I signed my first professional contract, and got my licence granted.

“It’s been a dream of mine since I was a little girl.”

Hopkins told the BBC in an interview that her mother owned a dance school but she was kicked out for fighting. She was then sent to a boxing gym with instead.

She added: “At first, everyone was like ‘well why do you want to box? Only boys should box?’

“But I didn’t take any notice of them, still don’t.”

Ellis mentions her inspirations as boxing champions such as Tyson Fury and Katie Taylor, but she has also become an inspiration herself to younger girls in the traveller community.

They now go to the same boxing gym to watch her and take part themselves.

Her father, Elvis Hopkins, owns Kings Gym in Leicester, and has been helping to train his daughter since she was 10 years old.

Since then, she has gone on to represent England and competed at the England Box Cup.

Elvis said: “I’m very proud of her, really really proud of her,

“We’ve been around the world for the last couple of years, and she’s got some really good wins under her belt. She’s mixing it up with the world’s best.

“We have one goal, that’s world champion.”

Former pro boxer provides fitness classes across Leicestershire

By Erik Dawson

Former professional boxer Kelton McKenzie is providing a host of boxing and fitness classes for the people of Leicestershire through his Boxercise4health programme.

The Leicester-born boxer fought professionally for 10 years in the featherweight division, ranking fourth in the United Kingdom and 15th in the commonwealth, boasting a record of 14 wins, eight of them coming via knockout.

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Kelton McKenzie won the Midlands featherweight title in 1992.

Over his decade long career, McKenzie also won the Midlands title, contended for the British title three times as well as various IBO (International Boxing Organisation) titles.

After his retirement in 1998, Kelton studied at De Montfort University and completed a sports degree so he could set up his boxing and fitness training business ‘Boxercise4health’.

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Kelton graduated from De Montfort University with a sports degree after his retirement from boxing.

Mr McKenzie said: “When I retired, I wanted to put what I had learned from boxing and growing up in Leicester back into the community.”

The former boxer now offers one-on-one boxing classes as well as ‘boxercise’ and HIIT (high intensity interval training) workouts weekly to young people and adults across Leicestershire.

He said: “To set up my business was the perfect opportunity for everyone to acknowledge what I was about in the boxing and fitness industry.”

Personal training sessions can be booked on a weekly basis and female-only ‘boxercise’ and HIIT workouts are held every Saturday at Unity Boxing Club in Beaumont Leys.

Boxercise4health also holds classes for adults over 18 at Fleckney Sports Centre in south Leicestershire every Saturday from 10-11am.

All classes are pay-as-you-go and can be booked on the company’s website or can be booked via email by emailing box4health@live.co.uk.