"I Could be So Good For You!"
East Leeds Magazine, September 2010

July 28th 2010 saw the opening of Lee Murtagh's new boxing gym 'The Bethlehem Boxing Club' on South Accommodation Road in Richmond Hill. As well as the usual suspects training in White Collar Boxing, Lee has put a large emphasis on the youth of the area:

"It used to be the St. Saviours Church Hall but it had the name Bethlehem above the entrance, no-one knew why, so I took it as a sign.  You could say we're fighting with God on our side. I got a great feeling the moment I stepped in the place, it just reminded me of the gym on Minder back in the 80’s! Richmond Hill is supposed to be a bad area but I haven't met one bad kid as yet.  I want this club to be here for years. In many ways I want it to follow in the footsteps of St. Pats, the connection with sport & religion and the need to do things the right way."

It does seem like Lee is going about it the right way, Sergeant Anthony Coultate, part of the local community police team has given his seal of approval, the emphasis when training the kids is on fun and they all seemed to be enjoying it:

"It's not important if the kids are here because they want to become boxers, it's more about fitness, having a laugh and yes, getting them away from the games consoles or away from street corners." 

And if some of the discipline and primal honesty of boxing added with Lee's values rub off on the kids that can't be a bad thing. Fifteen-year-old Liam Hayes has already been training with Lee for eighteen months:

"Initially I came just for the training. I was bored hanging about on street corners, although I was never in trouble with the police, it could have gone that way. I wanted to do something different and I ended up here. After a while I decided I'd like to test myself in the ring.  I had my first amateur fight last year."

Liam, a pupil at Corpus Christie School was too modest to mention that he also spent his spare time helping Lee train some of the younger kids. His ambition is to fight professionally but whether he realises his ambition or not, even at his young age, Liam is already aware that boxing has changed his life for the better.

Also at the opening day was EBF British & Commonwealth Lightweight Women's Champion, Sam Smith who appeared well-rested and back in training to take on another fight:

"The rest has done me good and given my body and mind time to recover, I can't wait to get in the ring again.”

And she will be doing so very soon. Sunday 26th September at the Oceana Night Club sees Sam taking on Amsterdam's  Anissa Haddaoui in the long awaited rematch for the European title. They scored even on the ‘Fighting for Maddy’ bout in March, a fight which boxing MC Tony Dean described as the best he's ever seen.

There are two other championship bouts on the bill, DJ Bizz defends his Yorkshire Area Belt, Pete Kerrigan takes on Paul Wood for the vacant Leeds Area Heavyweight Title, as well as Leeds versus Liverpool, White Collar Boxing.

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