Tuesday 1 May 2007

Read all about it


HERE'S a copy of the feature I wrote for a magazine I edit, called Welsh Business. We publish it on behalf of the Chamber of Commerce in Cardiff.

Hanging Tough

Steve Robinson took on and beat all comers to become a boxing world champion. Since then, he has built a business training others. Now he faces his latest challenge - running his own gym

CALL it an art, call it the sweet science - you can even call it the game. But don't call it a game.

Think about it - you play football, rugby, cricket or golf, but you most definitely do not "play" boxing.

A century before sports science became the way for players to train, boxers would be on regimented training programmes, their food carefully chosen and their intakes closely monitored. It is the only way to succeed.

Steve Robinson - better known to his friends as "Robbo" - quite clearly still trains like a boxer. Some five years since he officially retired from the ring, he looks like he could still step back through the ropes and dish it up just like he did in the early to mid 1990s when he was on his way to - and won, and retained - the title of world featherweight champion.

Since retiring, he has become heavily involved in training. Here in Wales, he played a pivotal role in the introduction of White Collar Boxing, a pursuit that arrived from the US around five years ago.

It is what it is called - lawyers, accountants and other professionals undertake rigorous training regimes before strapping on the gloves and going toe-to-toe in four-round bouts that are as authentic as anything you'll see in boxing, particularly at amateur level. It should be pointed out that just as most amateurs will never turn pro, their level is a step up from White Collar Boxing.

But it's real taste of boxing and expert conditioning has won it many converts. Working out of other gyms across Cardiff, Steve yearned for a place of his own.

At the start of this year, he got his wish. Having teamed up with fitness trainer Mike Parsons, a former Glamorgan Wanderers and Caerphilly rugby player, the two men opened Fitness Factory Cymru, a state-ofthe-art boxing and fitness facility on Dumballs Road in the Bay.

Even though it only opened on January 8, it already has around 50 members, as well as 12 members of the Fight Club, the gym's White Collar Boxing class.

Steve's also setting his sights on something higher. "I want to train pros here. It's been my dream to train someone all the way up to world champion. I think it's possible. I'll be looking to take amateurs - I have contacts on boxing boards who can tell me who the good ones coming through are. I'd like a stable of fighters - boxers I can bring on and make as good as they can be. Help them realise their dreams."

It is not beyond the realm of possibility, either. Operating out of an unpreposing former rugby club in Newbridge, Enzo Calzaghe has managed to fashion a roll call of champions, not least his son Joe, who successfully defended his title for the 20th time against Peter Manfredo in Cardiff recently.

Like Joe, Steve belongs to an elite club of Welsh fighters who went all the way to the top. He did it against the odds in April1993, having only two days' notice to prepare to fight John Davidson for the featherweight title after Ruben Palcios, the champion that the Englishman was supposed to fight, failed an HIV test in the week of the contest.
Robinson fought with a dogged determination and won on points. He went on to make a further seven successful defences of his crown, until he was stopped by an ascendent Prince Naseem
Hamed in September 1995. He remained a force in boxing, however, going on to take the European featherweight title and challenge once again (although unsuccessfully) for world honours.

These days, his passion lies in training others. "With White Collar Boxing, people can get a buzz from fighting. They can get rid of all the stress that builds up in their day jobs. They can forget about everything. They can go into the ring and just focus on what's going on there. There is a lot of fun in it, too."

Steve has changed the way he has organised White Collar Boxing classes before. "This is much more set up like a boxing gym," he says. "There's more ring work, more sparring." The group is effectively split in two, with Steve supervising the sparring, and ex-boxer Darren Wilson taking the remainder of the group on the bags.
Along with brand-new equipment throughout the gym, members can also take advantage of specially-tailored training regimes, which will tell you what to eat and when to train, offered as
standard to all those that join up.

But you don't need to have ring aspirations to become a member at Fitness Factory Cymru, as the gym is also set up for more general purpose training.

Mike said, "This place isn't just for boxers, and we already have plenty of people coming here who don't want to do boxing. We are offering individual training, set up to suit the user. There's no point training if you don't enjoy it. It is for you, after all."

"I'd like the gym to grow - not too big, but big enough," says Steve. "I see there are
lots of things we can do here. I think we are set up to bring in new ideas. We are only really getting started here now."

- Basic membership at Fitness Factory Cymru costs £25 for the first two months, rising to £35 a month after that.
- Fight Club membership is £60 a month. There are two sessions a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, from 6-7.30pm. There are also boxfit classes on Wednesday evenings, from 6.15-
7.15pm. Fight Club members can use the facilities at any time.
- One-to-one sessions cost £30 an hour, and one-to-two cost £40 an hour.
- Fitness Factory Cymru opens from 7am-9pm on weekdays, 9am-2pm on
Saturdays, and 9am-1pm on Sundays.
Call (029) 2049 8200 for more details.

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