BLACKWELL TRAINER BAN

THE trainer who oversaw the shocking and tragic sparring session that left Nick Blackwell in a coma for a second time has had his licence withdrawn by the British Boxing Board of Control. Liam Wilkins, 21, was ruled on Friday to have acted in a manner that was ‘detrimental to the interests of boxing’ by supervising the astonishing session at Devizes Amateur Boxing Club last year, which pitted Blackwell, a fighter recovering from a well-publicised brain injury, against the light-heavyweight Hasan Karkardi. For his part, Karkardi, 29, was suspended for six months at the conclusion of a hearing which started on Wednesday. It has emerged that Blackwell still cannot walk despite regaining consciousness last month, with his family anticipating it could take up to a year for him to make a full recovery after requiring surgery to remove part of his skull following the incident. The board were furious about the sparring session, which took place in November — just eight months after Blackwell lost his British middleweight title to Chris Eubank Jr in a fight that left him in a coma. He made a remarkable recovery and announced his retirement in April before being granted a trainer’s licence. His tragic decision — unbeknown to his trainer Gary Lockett — to then spar against Karkardi without a licence to fight left him in a coma with brain injuries once more. Wilkins was only granted his trainer’s licence in February, while Karkardi had hoped to fight for the Southern Area title. Both were suspended immediately after the incident came to light, pending the outcome of this week’s hearing. Robert Smith, general secretary of the board, told Sportsmail on Friday: ‘We have had a lengthy hearing and taken this extremely seriously and the penalties are there to be seen.’