Boxing in the UK is undergoing a big resurgence, with tens of thousands of people taking part in schools and gyms across the nation each week. The number of people registered with amateur clubs in England has nearly tripled since 2005, and the sport is likely to get a further boost from England’s David Haye winning a world heavyweight title 10 days ago.
The number of schools with boxing on the curriculum has jumped from 20 four years ago to 1,931 this year and the sport has become the toast of politicians and education experts who once dismissed it as too violent.
“Twelve years ago I considered boxing almost too dangerous to be considered as a mainstream sport,” said British Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell. “I was public health minister and the British Medical Association quite regularly at that time called for boxing to be banned.”
But she said boxing’s safety record had improved and it was now ranked 75th by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents on its list of the most dangerous sports, behind rollerblading, gymnastics and horse riding.
“It reaches young people that other sports don’t,” added Jowell. “In my own constituency, it’s probably the No. 1 sport that young people want to do. It gives them self-esteem, it gets rid of aggression, yet at the same time is a highly disciplined sport.”
“We know it can be a way of disengaging kids from gangs, carrying knives, from low-level crime and high-level antisocial behavior,” she said.
According to the latest national school sport survey, boxing is now available in 34 percent of secondary schools in England. The same survey showed that 5 percent of primary and 26 percent of secondary schools have a formal link with an accredited amateur boxing club.
“It has become so popular in schools, quite simply, because it works,” said Rebecca Gibson, head of development at the Amateur Boxing Association of England, who said the sport had benefitted from the success of fighters such as Amir Khan and a jump in funding from £50,000 in 2005 to £4.7 million this year.
One school that has become convinced of the sport’s benefits is the Harris academy in Merton, south London.
“It has had an impact on everything here from behavior and attendance to academic attainment,” said Gregg Morrison, the assistant principal with responsibility for sport.
“It has been one of the best things we have done in terms of helping individual pupils and has been particularly successful for those with behavioral or self-esteem issues, who are traditionally very hard to reach,” he said.
This weekend the second London Mayor’s Cup will be held in front of a sell-out crowd at the All Stars Boxing Gym in London, where Haye will be guest of honor.
The club’s owner, former Ghanaian boxing champion Isola Akay, said the event was another sign of the “manic” increase in boxing’s popularity.
“It is really amazing how many youngsters want to come and box in the last few years,” Akay said.
“We have 300 people who come here each week and there are queues of boys and girls at the side each night waiting for a chance to join in,” he said.
“I have known for years what boxing can offer people and it seems others are now catching on,” Akay said.
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