As we look to get fitter in 2022, CommunityAd caught up with Greenhithe residents Katie and Terry McLean whose love of boxing saw them both set up their new company Tough Love Boxing.
On Boxing Day 2021 (what a beautiful coincidence), it was announced that Tough Love Boxing now have their own official amateur club North Kent ABC and CommunityAd spoke with Katie and Terry to find out more about this beautiful pugilistic pairing…
Can you give readers an indication into your boxing background and how/why you started up North Kent ABC?
During the pandemic lockdowns, myself and my fiancé Terry McLean, were both looking for new career paths and decided this was the time to follow our passions. From this we set up our company Tough Love Boxing Ltd, which offers boxing training but also focuses on mental health and wellbeing. Terry has had previous experience both training as a boxer and coaching youths and since starting this business he has qualified as a full coach with the London Amateur Boxing Alliance.
We knew from the start that we wanted to help people and give back to our community so to set up an amateur boxing club for local youngsters was always part of our plan. Boxing is a sport that is not only great for physical fitness but also helps build kids’ confidence, mental focus, discipline and offers them a social and inclusive environment with people of various ages.
Who is your favourite boxer of all time and favourite current active boxer and why?
My favourite boxer of all time would have to be Joe Calzaghe, I think he is very much overlooked these days considering he has a perfect record. I really enjoyed and respected the way he fought and his relationship with his father/coach was beautiful to see and by using boxing I created an amazing bond with my own son.
Current boxers, I like a few at the moment and there are several coming up that look like they will be incredible, but I would have to say my top at the moment is Oleksandr Usyk, he has beautiful footwork, defence and amazing shot selection.
You recently announced that as of now you are an official amateur boxing club, what are your ambitions as a club and do you have any future long term goals as a club for the next 5/10 years?
Our main ambition is to get more youngsters into boxing and off games consoles, mobile phones and hanging around street corners with nothing else to do. We hope that in 5-10 years we will have had numerous amateur National Champions and be helping top level amateurs turn over to the professional boxing circuit.
Can you inform readers of your training times, locations and for those who may want to volunteer, how they can get in touch?
We are running our sessions at Greenhithe Community Centre, Alexander Road, Greenhithe, DA9 9HH.
We hold North Kent ABC sessions, for anyone aged 10yrs and over, on Tuesday and Thursday from 4:30pm – 5:30pm.
Alongside of this, on Tuesday and Thursday, we run our Wolf cubs sessions for 5 – 9yr olds who may want to join the amateurs when they are old enough.
We also hold a women only boxing class on Wednesday at 6 – 7pm, focusing on proper boxing training and not boxercise.
Wheelchair boxing class on Sunday at 5 – 6pm, for any wheelchair user, where we work and adapt our training for any ability.
We run men only classes at 7 – 8pm for guys (15yrs and up) who want to train but don’t want to compete.
For more information on North Kent ABC or our other services people can visit our website, email us at either [email protected], [email protected] or call us on 07712 338879 or 07359 122351.
From a personal point of view, what do you make of the fact that boxing isn’t on the initial list of Olympic sports for the Los Angeles 2028 Games? How detrimental will this be to the sport of boxing if it is stripped of being an Olympic event?
It’s hard to stay away from boxing politics on this subject but in reality, there has been corruption, bribery and results fixing within a lot of sports and other industries. I think there are further measures that both sides, the Olympic governing body and the International Boxing Federation could put in place to rectify these incidents.
Personally, I feel boxing doesn’t get the help or support it needs at lower levels, like other sports, but isn’t in the public eye as much as say football is. So, to take it off the list for the Olympics in 2028 is proof that we need more help and publicity. It will also affect the chances of wheelchair boxing being included in the Paralympic games, which is being considered.
Boxing in the Olympics is a dream for young kids getting into the sport and many great professionals have come up through the ranks, entered the Olympics, done well and gone on to be some of the greatest ever in the sport like Muhammed Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard, Floyd Mayweather, Vasiliy Lomachenko and Oleksandr Usyk. This will mean that boxing in 20 years might suffer in a big way, and it shouldn’t suffer any more than it already has.