Felix Cash visits the Ring ABC with British and Commonwealth titles
April 27th, 2021
By Cameron Temple
Fresh off his victory over the weekend, the new British and Commonwealth champion, Felix Cash, attended the Ring amateur boxing club in Bracknell last night to show off his belts and hopefully provide some inspiration and motivation for some of the young fighters in attendance.
“I was buzzing to get my hands on the Lonsdale belt,” Felix admitted, “I’ve dreamt of winning that belt since I was a kid so to finally have it now is incredible. I remember seeing all the other top fighters win it, I was watching them when I was the same age as these youngsters here in the gym and to finally win it myself was a dream come true.”
“There was no doubt in my mind on Saturday night,” Felix continued, “I’d trained long and hard for that fight and I’d put a lot of hours in. I’d sparred so well and I looked at Denzel’s record and what he’s done and then looked at my record and what I’d done in the amateurs and I knew I had his number.”
Being from Wokingham, Felix is a local lad and he spent a lot of time sparring at the Ring ABC as a youngster and he was keen to continue to show support to the sport at grassroots level, as he told the Boxing Index:
“This is where it starts. You have to keep the younger generation excited and thinking ‘that’s what I want to do, I want to win that title.’ It’s also important that I’m someone local and that it’s not just someone they saw on TV whose done it, it’s someone they know in person and I think that inspires them a bit more.”
“Gyms like this one are so important.” Felix continued, “They get kids off the street, it keeps them disciplined and gives them something to look forward to. Especially after having been locked up for so long due to lockdown, it’s great to see boxing clubs opening back up now and everyone mixing a bit again.”
This was a sentiment reiterated by the gyms founder and head trainer, Darren Taylor, who went on to say, “You won’t affect all the kids who come through the door, but some of them you will in a really positive way, by building their confidence where they go from being shy and quiet to bubbly and outgoing and achieving something to be proud of.”
“We’re very grateful to Felix for coming down,” Darren continued, “He’s a local boxer and he comes from a similar background to everyone at the club. So, they can look at him and think, ‘if I work hard, put the effort in and live the life then I can be a champion just like him.’ Everybody looks up to someone they admire and aspire to be, whether it’s boxing, football or whatever sport you’re into, so it’ll be fantastic for the young fighters here.”
As has been the case for many amateur boxing clubs up and down the country, the pandemic has not made life easy, but Darren revealed that thanks to a lot of help from the local community, the Ring ABC is in better shape than ever.
“We’ve made a lot of changes round here, getting in some new running machines, more bags and there’s just generally more space. We’ve tapped up a lot of friends and a lot of people from the community have come along and helped us, which is fantastic and without their help we could never do what we do.”
“We were lucky because we got a few grants from the postcode neighbourhood trust,” Darren revealed, “and some of the parents chipped in as well to keep things going and they helped with the work. In a funny way, while it was frustrating to be shut, it was a blessing in disguise as it gave us the time we needed to do all the works on the gym. We didn’t stand still, we kept moving on and made sure things were ready for when we could open again.”
In terms of supporting boxing clubs in your local area, like the Ring ABC, Darren had a simple yet worthwhile message: “The biggest thing you can do is just give boxing a go and get to know the sport that we love.”
Former boxing World champion implores community to support Ring Amateur Boxing Club
Dec 12th, 2019
By Cameron Temple
The former two weight World champion Steve Collins made an appearance at the Ring Amateur boxing club, on a cold Tuesday evening in Bracknell.
In an attempt to lure in publicity and attract potential sponsors or donations, Darren Taylor, the man in charge at the gym, convinced Collins to come and show support.
The club has been running for almost six years and has produced numerous national champions as well as a fighter who now boxes for England.
The club will soon be travelling to Scotland with fifteen fighters in an attempt to emerge with more champions in the Lonsdale boxing cup.
However, unfortunately, due to financial constraints, in Collins’ words the gym is “struggling,” and like many other boxing clubs throughout the country it’s “screaming out for help.”
Collins, was quick to praise the dedication to the gym shown by Darren, saying, “It’s his own time, a lot of this comes out of his own pocket and all his hard work, blood and sweat has built this gym.”
“If you had to pay him for what he does here you couldn’t afford him, it’s a 24/7 occupation being in the gym and it’s something that you do from the heart, it’s something that you have to love to do.”
Darren expressed the benefit of having a gym like his in the community saying, “it teaches the kids a great discipline, so even if they don’t walk away with too much boxing skill or winning a world title, they have learnt about respect and hard work.”
A sentiment that Collins reiterated, “If you look around you, there’s fifty kids in this gym at the moment and that’s 50 more kids off the street and keeping out of trouble.” With his mantra of the evening being, “in the gym, out of trouble.”
Collins was impressed with the facilities the gym had to offer, exclaiming in his address to the kids in attendance, “you’ve got three boxing rings in here, that’s more than I had when I was training to become a World champion!” Indicating the importance of maintaining such facilities.
Towards the end of the interview, Collins made one final plea to the local community saying, “Anybody who reads this article and thinks that maybe they can help, come down, sit up in the galleys with the parents and watch what the kids do, watch what’s happening and if you can give some support, do it. Every little bit helps.”
Before I let him go, I couldn’t resist asking him when we could expect the Roy Jones Jr fight, to which he responded with a wry smile, “Give me till I’m 75. If it hasn’t happened by then it’ll never happen.”
Article also available in Bracknell news.