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.
A former British army sergeant major from Harrogate has spoken of his fears for the future of an Afghan family he has been trying to help leave Kabul.
Rob Smith taught locals boxing during a six-month tour of duty at Camp Souter military base in Kabul in 2010. Mr Smith is now head coach at H Hour Amateur Boxing Gym on Harrogate’s Skipton Road.
One Afghan man he coached called Omar died in a car accident last year, leaving a young wife and daughter, two sisters and parents.
Mr Smith says the family are at risk from the Taliban and he has been trying to get then out of Kabul. He said:
“I am very worried for them. I don’t know what to do now or tell the family, as there are no flights out of Kabul.”
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Mr Smith has written letters of recommendation to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Home Secretary Priti Patel, former veterans minister Johnny Mercer and his successor Leo Docherty, and Andrew Jones, the Conservative MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough.
He said only Mr Mercer and Mr Jones had replied expressing interest to help.
But with the paperwork incomplete before the British and American departure from Kabul, the situation is now desperate.
Mr Smith coaching in Afghanistan.
Mr Smith said:
“I realise the top tier are under immense pressure to deliver many things. Johnny Mercer and Andrew Jones MPs responded, but my request for help went in too late for assistance.
“No one thought the Taliban would be able to seize control of Afghanistan in such a short period of time, I’m sure evacuation plans for at risk people were in place but in slow time to ensure vetting and other checks took place.
“What many people forget is the percentage of Afghans that can’t read or write Dari/Pashtun, let alone read English and be expected to fill out forms.
“I am just gutted that my friends are not safe, I hope measures are being planned to assist the people at risk left in the country.”