MELTON FORCED TO CLOSE
A great club is coming to the end, writes Matt Bozeat
AFTER more than two decades of turning out champions and colourful fighters, Melton Amateur Boxing Club has shut. Head coach Trevor Booth says the decision to close the Leicestershire club was made after the landlord of their Rosebery Avenue gym decided to sell it for redevelopment.
“There’s nothing we can do about it,” said founder member Booth, approaching his 71st birthday and a coach for around 40 years. “We could have tried to carry on somewhere else, but me and [assistant] Royce [Dawson] are both in our seventies and nobody seemed keen to take it on.”
Between them they produced a national champion and four professionals. “We did OK for a small town,” said Booth. “We turned out some good lads, some tough lads.”
Paul Butlin is the best known fighter to emerge from Melton ABC. He had a couple of devastating knockouts in his 12 amateur bouts and as a professional, Butlin won Midlands honours and fought Anthony Joshua, Dereck Chisora (twice) and more. Butlin also steered Josh Quailey to the gym after working alongside him on the doors. Quailey reached the Elite superheavyweight final in 2017 and is currently a 2-2 professional. Two other fighters from Melton turned professional. Carl Griffiths was a game lightweight who retired after winning two of seven and David Kealy had a couple, winning one and drawing one after turning over at 30. Booth regards Kealy as one of the best talents he trained and says that had he not taken a break from boxing after joining the Army, he could have won the British title.
“Kealy would look at a bloke and figure him out straight away,” said Booth, “and you couldn’t hit him.”
Kealy always put his elusiveness down to the size of the ring at the club. “We measured it at 11 feet,” said Booth and boxers who learned the sport in there tended to be either slippery or tough.
Nick Ross was one of the tough guys. Booth called him “a piece of rock” and his bout with Matt Johnson (Heart of England) in February, 2002 was described by the excitable local reporter – me – as “a bout never to be forgotten by those who saw it.” After six knockdowns, Ross got the verdict and Johnson never boxed again.