The AJ Bell stadium will play host to a night of amateur boxing on the 25th of October.
Boxing coach Gary Booth spoke to Salford Now about the event which will have 14 amateur boxing bouts at the home of the Salford Red Devils and Sale Sharks.
He spoke about the importance of the event and the positive impact that he believes that the sport can have on kids:
“It gives the kids something to do, there’s no such thing as a bored kid. It gives them something constructive to do, keeps them off the computers and off the streets.”
Furthermore, events like these can contribute in helping aspiring boxers turn professional and as a boxing coach Booth has aspirations of his own:
“I have a professional managers license. I started this gym 13 or 14 years ago and I have a dream of training a young kid from scratch through to the professional ranks, turning pro and obviously the dream is to go to Vegas with them and win a world title.”
He has already played a part in the career of Savannah Marshall who is set to fight on the Davies junior v Ritson card at the Utilitia arena in Newcastle on Saturday in what will be her eight professional fight.
6️⃣ days to go ?@Savmarshall1 back out in front of the North East fans next Saturday as ‘The Silent Assassin’ closes on a World Title shot for 2020! ? #BadBlood pic.twitter.com/PoOynoDk0D
— Matchroom Boxing (@MatchroomBoxing) October 13, 2019
The AJ Bell stadium is an impressive venue for an amateur evening of boxing and it makes a difference from the usual type of venue that usually hosts this kind of event.
This will be the sixth show put on by Gary at the AJ Bell stadium, the last one being a professional bout.
“You usually get boxing events in working mens clubs, they’re a bit dark.”
Our next Amateur show will be at @AJBell_Stadium @britishboxers @vipboxing @salfordcitybox1 @SalfordCityFC @SalfordYC pic.twitter.com/vrKbRTyXBi
— salford city boxing academy (Gary Booth) (@salfordboxing) October 15, 2019
He spoke about how it is not as straight forward as just putting an event on but getting kids into the gym can prove difficult.
This is often because his hometown of Irlam is dominated by football and rugby, and he expressed his bemusement of the hundreds of pounds that parents are prepared to spend on kit for sports like football, but not boxing.
But he still is passionate about the positive impact that boxing as a sport can have:
“It will inspire kids and it does inspire kids but its getting them in the gym first. What you’re doing when you get them in the gym is you’re keeping them preoccupied and away from all the knife crime and that.
“Its not like it’s advertised on the telly and everyone can see whats going on, we just use social media (to promote it).”
Tickets for the event cost £15 for adults and just £7 for kids.
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