Fight for the future: The rise of boxing in Bristol

When he was younger, Garry Cave used to spar with former world champion boxer Jane Couch.

He remembers camera crews following women boxers around, such was their novelty in a sport dominated by men. A lot has changed since then as boxing has not only grown in popularity and prominence, but also diversified.

Garry runs Smelters Boxing Gym on Barracks Lane in Avonmouth, which has a rich history dating back to the 1930s when an amateur boxing club was formed behind the canteen on the site of the National Smelting Company, a large heavy chemicals works. Today, anyone over the age of eight is welcome here.

“The training regime is pretty intense and our club is like one big family, everyone looks after one another,” Garry tells Bristol24/7.

With the help of a group of local tradespeople, Garry renovated the current home of Smelters at Avonmouth RFC but the club has now outgrown its existing venue and is hoping to secure new premises to move into.

This is the story of many Bristol clubs as boxing has shifted more into the mainstream and become more popular as a sport, as well as being an effective way of increasing fitness and stamina with the rise of non-contact classes for all ages and abilities.

Garry Cave (centre) with some of the boxers he trains at Smelters – photo: Garry Cave

But boxing still hasn’t lost its roots as a sport that broke new ground in bringing people together and this is at the heart of work done by Chris Sanigar and his son, Jamie.

Chris founded Bristol Boxing Gym in 1989 – going on to put our city on the boxing map with several national and international champion boxers. The full story, however, dates back to 1972 and the establishment of Empire Amateur Boxing Club on Newfoundland Road in St Paul’s.

The club was one of the first places in Bristol where people of different races came together to train, forging lasting bonds between communities.

Taking this ethos, Jamie and Martin Bisp went on to found Empire Fighting Chance in 2006, a charity that transforms young lives through boxing and operates out of the current home of Bristol Boxing Gym on Lower Ashley Road, one of the places in Bristol that formed part of the royal visit of Harry and Meghan in 2019.

“Boxing has been the most successful sport in the West Country,” says Chris, talking to Bristol24/7 from Glasgow where one of his boxers was due to be fighting that evening.

“It has a massive impact not only in the inner city, but for everybody in Bristol. It’s definitely changed over the years and we’ve seen the profile of professional boxing go up.”

Chris reminisces about when he first started running non-contact classes, he would get only a handful of people through the door. Bristol Boxing Gym now runs more than 30 varied classes a week and attracts people of all ages.

“In the old days, it was amateur boxing clubs and it was a bit of a closed shop,” adds Chris. “Whereas it’s become more inclusive and also commercial now.”

Chris and Jamie, under the name Sanigar Events, host boxing shows across the Bristol area and beyond. One recent event, held in the cavernous space underneath the Galleries, saw Charlie Sutton become the first female boxer from Bristol to fight professionally in her home city since Couch.

Charlie Sutton says boxing is becoming more welcoming for women, but there is still a way to go – photo: Sanigar Events

Speaking to Bristol24/7 about the sport she has been doing since she was a child, Charlie says: “I got into boxing through my family. We all started off as kickboxers and then went into boxing. I think boxing is starting to become more welcoming for women but I still think there’s a fair way to go.”

The Kingswood boxer adds that amateur boxing is a very different sport to professional: “In amateur boxing, you’ve got to be much quicker and always busy. Where I find professional boxing is more about power punches and making every punch count.”

Jonny Para, aka JP, the founder and head coach of Noble Art Boxing, also started out as a kickboxer – becoming a three-time world champion. He has been involved in boxing for some 15 years and, during lockdown, converted an old garage on Frogmore Street opposite the Hatchett pub (once famous for having a bare-knuckle boxing ring) into a boxing gym.

The traditional interior of the gym has been used as a filming location for Paramount+ thriller The Killing Kind, but when it’s not featuring on the small screen, Noble Art sees a diverse range of clientele coming in to train.

JP believes part of the growing popularity of boxing is because some of the stigma has been lifted from the sport. Bristol mayor Marvin Rees was a boxer in his youth and even brought international boxing to City Hall in 2019.

“There were a lot of negative stereotypes of aggression and bare knuckles but now that’s completely changed,” said JP. “I’ve noticed an upturn in the people coming through the door. For the sport, it just makes it more accessible to people.”

Noble Art Boxing Gym was opened in 2020 – photo: Jonny Para

Main photo: Sanigar Events

Read next:

• Bristol world champion Jane Couch to be inducted into Boxing Hall of Fame
• A night of boxing underneath a shopping centre
• The Bristol boxing champion training the city’s rising stars

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