Send-off fit for a true champion
FAMILY AND FRIENDS ‘PUT ON A SHOW’ FOR BOXER NICKY
“HE put on a show for the world quite a few times and now we need to put on a show for him.”
Those were the heartfelt words of Sherry Harrison, the cousin of the late Nottingham boxer Nicky Booth, ahead of his funeral.
The former British and Commonwealth bantamweight champion, who grew up in the Radford area of the city, died last month at the age of 40.
Known as “1 Smooth” during his sporting career, Mr Booth – younger brother of Jason Booth, who was also a boxer and known as !2 Smooth” – died from multiple organ failure, his family confirmed.
They arranged for two white horses and a white, specially-engraved casket for his funeral at Bramcote Crematorium yesterday.
Speaking before the service, which she arranged, Miss Harrison, 29, said: “It’s been quite a difficult situation for the whole family and for the boxing community really.
“I think it will be quite upsetting but in the same sense Nicky was sort of really an upbeat person. He was always smiling and he was always laughing. You never think about him and really think of a sad time.
“Of course it’s going to be sad but we have to celebrate his life and I have said it before: he put on a show for the world quite a few times and now we need to put on a show for him.”
The mum-of-two, from Huthwaite, also spoke of some of the tributes arranged.
“We have booked a white horsedrawn cart with two white horses. He has got a lovely white casket,” she said.
“We have had his name engraved on one side – and then ‘1 Smooth’ engraved on the other side with boxing gloves.
“I will obviously be leaving from the funeral directors’ with Nicky to go back to his mum’s in Strelley. That is where the rest of the family will be meeting.
“He did love his mum, Michelle. He was a mummy’s boy, so we’re just taking him to his mum’s once more and then we’ll be heading off to Bramcote Crematorium after that.
“On arrival [to Strelley], I have arranged for when the horses and cart come on to the street there will be a man, that works alongside the funeral director but not for him, playing a trumpet.
“He is going to play Amazing Grace as he comes down the street. And then he is going to walk him off playing the trumpet.
“We have got quite a few pieces of music to get through at Bramcote. We have got five different tracks, picked throughout the family.
“And obviously Jason, his brother, he’s picked a personal song for him.”
More than £1,500 was pledged to an online fundraising page set up towards the funeral costs, with hundreds more generated from an auction.
Mr Booth and his fiancée Kristy Alderman were waiting to buy a threebedroom house in Beckhampton Road, Bestwood, to be finalised so they could move into the property together.
Ms Alderman, 41, who had been engaged to Nicky for about three years, said: “It’s just like part of me has gone with him, a big part of me.
“All the people that have shown respect and with the flowers and all this, that and the other it would blow him away.
“Somewhere he is going to be seeing it. He would be overwhelmed by it and the attention he would thrive off.”
Ms Alderman, who is originally from Hampshire, having moved to the area 20 years ago, added: “Losing him has left incredible sadness and pain within me but our love is so strong – and it’s a bond that cannot be broken.”
With 30 members of the family and boxing community allowed to attend the service in-person, because of the current coronavirus restrictions, the family planned to stream it via Facebook.
Mr Booth stopped boxing professionally in 2003 after he lost a World Boxing Union title fight at the Harvey Hadden Stadium, in Bilborough, against Nathan Sting. He retired with a record of 17 wins from 23 fights