Chelsea Foundation starts collaboration with boxing academy

A launch event for the new association was held at the McGuigan Cyclone Gym where former professional boxer Barry McGuigan was present to show participants from the Chelsea KICKs and Activate Senior Programmes the facilities which the likes of George Groves and Luke Campbell use when preparing for their upcoming fights. Those participants were also given the opportunity to see Groves, who is a life-long Chelsea supporter, up close and personal as he was put through his paces in the ring by trainer Shane McGuigan as he prepares for his super-middleweight title fight later this month.

Getting people active 

McGuigan, who was inducted into the international boxing hall of fame in 2005, said: ‘We’ve done a three-year programme with West Ham and we don’t want this to be a flash in the pan. We hope that we’ll get the same commitment to help us do a three-year programme at Chelsea too because the reality is if you want something to succeed you have to have a long-term objective to give you time to have an impact. The programme is about getting people active, giving them a chance to get fit and healthy, to learn about a new sport and to become friends – that’s what it’s about and if we can contribute to the problems in our society now then we’ve done our jobs.’

 ‘Kids were loving it’ 

Chelsea Foundation social inclusion coach Thomas Horrigan said: ‘We came down to watch George Groves train before his fight, it’s been quite impressive to see how he works and what he gets up to in the gym. The work that the Foundation do is massively important. We had Marlon who came down and did a taster session a few weeks ago and all the kids were loving it, so to give them something different other than football, getting them engaged in a different sport, has worked really well.’

Sport keeps kids healthy and disciplined 

Marlon Paul, a Barry McGuigan Boxing Academy coach, said: ‘I would hope that with this collaboration with the Chelsea Foundation that we’ll not just do work in inner London but we will be able to expand to the outskirts, then possibly nationwide, too. It’s really important that people get involved in these type of programmes for the reason that the younger generation are being labelled as obese, unfit and inactive so keeping active keeps kids nice and healthy, it keeps them disciplined and it’s about finding something that they enjoy doing.’

‘The Foundation keeps us off the street’

Luke Doyle, who is a participant on our KICK’s Programme, said: ‘I take part in football activities through the Chelsea Foundation on most days of the week and its fun, active, keeps us off the street, stops us from doing things that we shouldn’t be doing and it’s been great to meet new people. It has given me good links for coaching opportunities, like getting my coaching badges and other links to higher up in the Chelsea resources and I’m delighted to have the chance to know these people who are giving me the opportunities like today. I never ever dreamt of anything like this and then the Foundation changed the way I think and helped me believe that I could do something good.’