Bradford College

Boxing Academy ‘Inspires’ International Recognition

Bradford College is rapidly becoming one of the leading players in boxing education - making huge strides since the opening of the Bradford Police & College Boxing Academy in September 2008. Now with an international reputation for excellence, elite boxers are jetting in from across the world to train at the high performance boxing centre.

Setting up camp at the Bradford Police & College Boxing Academy in preparation for the Indian selection process, prior to the forthcoming World Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan (September) are Chotelal Yadav (57kg), Santosh Kumar Virothu (64kg) and Mandeep Jangra (69kg).  Sponsored by the Mittal Champions Trust of India, these three elite level Indian boxers are tipped to become Olympic class athletes.

Paul Porter, Bradford Boxing Development Officer, reflected: “We didn’t even have a pair of gloves when I first joined the College. Now we’ve got the Boxing Academy and we host a lot of national events in conjunction with the Amateur Boxing Association, where potential Olympic class boxers are training. We have an extremely talented coaching set-up, led by Mally MacIver (Head Coach) and Kevin Smith (former Scotland National Team Coach and now running our Advanced Apprenticeships in Sporting Excellence Programme).”

Paul continued: “Kevin Smith will be responsible for the international boxers day-to-day training programme, during which they will train with our AASE students, carded club boxers under Mally and visiting sparring partners.”

Paul added: “In addition to training within the College, the lads will travel to venues across the country with Kevin Smith for sparring and training.  This will include spending a day at the English Institute of Sport working with the Great Britain Development Squad.  They will also be accompanied by physio and Team Manager Vaibhav Patil.

Bradford College's women's boxing programme has also been granted the ‘Inspire Mark’; the badge of the London 2012 Inspire programme which recognises innovative and exceptional projects directly inspired by the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
The Academy is also one of only six colleges in the country to become a designated High Performance Boxing Centre for aspiring boxers aged 16-19 years by the (ABAE) and (ECABA).

Paul continued: “The boxers will return to India before the Easter break, and then come back to Bradford for a six-week training camp starting in May, along with other members of their squad.”

Paul concluded: " Last week we had Commonwealth Games boxers Joe Ham and Aston Brown from Scotland training with Kevin Smith. They returned to Scotland to win the Scottish ABA Senior Championships!”