World champion boxer Josh Warrington thrilled members of a boxing club in Harrogate last night when he dropped in on a training session.
Warrington, the IBF featherweight king, was accompanied by IBO lightweight world champion Maxi Hughes at H Hour Boxing Gym on Skipton Road.
Rob Smith, head coach at the club, has known the fighters for years and invited them down.
They brought their world title belts and posed for pictures first with junior members and then with the seniors.
Maxi Hughes (left) and Josh Warrington with juniors Eduardo Pereira (front left) and Jeno Laki.
Warrington told the Stray Ferret he often visited Harrogate with his wife and daughters and found it peaceful compared to his home city of Leeds.
He has visited H Hour Boxing previously and said he particularly liked having the opportunity to inspire kids.
“It’s easy for them to go down the wrong path. I like to talk to them and say ‘life is hard, boxing is hard but stick at it because it’s worthwhile.
“I started at seven or eight and never thought I had the natural ability to succeed. It was my mindset that did it and now I like to instil that in other kids.”
Some fans brought memorabilia for Warrington and Hughes to sign and were clearly thrilled to meet them.
Dane Hall poses with the champs.
Dane Hall, 22, who has been training at the club for just under a year, got the fighters to sign his gloves. He said:
“Josh is bloody brilliant. He’s one of the boys. My dad is also a massive fan.”
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Rob Smith, who puts on training sessions three times a week at the club, is well connected in boxing. He is chairman of the central area of the British Boxing Board of Control and has brought the fighters to the gym on previous occasions. He said:
“Harrogate is perceived as an affluent area but boxing is a working class sport.
“Some of our members are not from the wealthiest families and they look at Josh and Maxi and see guys from similar working class backgrounds who have done the business at world level so it inspires them.”
Training at the gym last night.