Ex-coach Gibbs bows out after 37 years in boxing
JEFF Gibbs has bowed out of boxing after 37 years as a coach, judge and referee.
His last show was at Hinckley Rugby Club where Heart of England coach Nick Griffin handed the 72-year-old from Leicester a plaque to thank him for his contribution to the sport in the Midlands and beyond.
Gibbs started out as a coach at Braunstone ABC where his success stories included brothers Mark and Lester Walsh.
Mark won the NABC championship and gave Gibbs one of his fondest memories of nearly four decades in the sport when he beat Carl Froch on a club show in Nottingham.
Gibbs regards the club bout between Lester and Alan Foster in Northampton as one of the best he saw.
“The last 30 seconds they threw everything at each other,” said Gibbs, who was in Walsh’s corner.
“Ken Buchanan came up to me afterwards and said: ‘That was some fight!’”
Gibbs was also instrumental in setting up the successful Leicester Unity club.
He said: “(Ajmal) ‘Hudge’ (Butt) was going down the unlicensed route, but when I went to the gym and looked around, I saw fighters like Leon Woodstock who I knew had potential.
“I told him: ‘You might get some England internationals if you go the amateur route’ and I agreed to help them out for 18 months with coaching and matching.”
Gibbs remembers Paige Murney turning up at the Beaumont Leys gym and watching her shadow box.
“She had won two and lost two and her feet were all over the place,” he said.
“I told her: ‘I’m not showing you how to throw punches until we’ve sorted your stance out’.”
Murney went on to win Commonwealth Games silver in Australia.
Gibbs will be best remembered as a no nonsense referee who took charge of the 2006 ABA finals at the York Hall.
Champions crowned that night included Frankie Gavin, a boxer Gibbs regards one of the best he refereed.
Gibbs was known to referee three or four shows a week.
“I got a phone call from a coach in Birmingham one Sunday lunchtime saying: ‘We’ve got a show on and the referee has just pulled out, can you help us out ?’
“I went over there and did 27 bouts – without a break.”
But Gibbs isn’t walking away from boxing entirely.
He said: “I will still go to club shows and have a couple of pints.”