It’s a knockout
Britain’s history with boxing runs deep. Back in Victorian London, the slums of Whitechapel produced a fearsome crop of Jewish fighters like Ted ‘Kid’ Lewis who became worldwide superstars. In later years, figures from Henry Cooper and Chris Eubank to Prince Naseem crossed over and became household names. While any championship fight involving Frank Bruno or Barry McGuigan meant all of us children being allowed to stay up into the small hours of the morning to watch a shaky transmission from America.
And its popularity is bigger than ever. England Boxing has 27,000 registered fighters, and hundreds of thousands more use it for training, while over 1,000 clubs are affiliated. Places like Bronx Gym in Camberwell, where Orlagh Berry trains. ‘I've played other sports, and sometimes there is just that point where you're not really going to improve much more, whereas with boxing, there's always those little adjustments and improvements that you can make,’ she says. Having had 9 fights, she’s currently building up to turning elite. ‘Even though it's a solo sport, you go through such hell in the training and you're with the people that are going through it with you. So you rally together. You push each other through, and it makes you closer. So it’s weirdly competitive, but almost like siblings.’ Berry’s fellow fighter Malachi Elijah James affirms this as they get back to the pads under the watchful eye of Coach Simon ‘Kingsley’ Bent. ‘We all train together, we sweat together, win together, we lose together. Even though you get in there individually, it still feels that you're a team.’
