Spare gym ‘deflated’ as show is cancelled

Lee Spare and Leo Fanthome. Picture: Callan Bannam-Bradshaw

SATURDAY’S show at Coventry’s Sports Connexion Leisure Club – a showcase for up-and-coming talent – has been cancelled.

And that’s a particularly heavy blow for Lee Spare’s Boxing Clever Academy, in Nuneaton, which originally had three boxers on the packed bill: former Midlands light-middle champ Ashlee Eales, Leo Fanthome and Minaaz Gurung.

Gurung, Britain’s only Nepalese born pro, was forced to pull out two weeks ago after succumbing to Covid. New pro Fanthome and Eales were primed and ready to go.

The decision to pull the plug was reluctantly made by promoter Jon Pegg on Monday. In truth, he had no choice. Medical issues and withdrawals had hit the event hard. I also understand some boxers had not sold the number of tickets they were expected to.

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Spare understands, but that doesn’t make the news less of a bombshell for his men.

“It’s deflating,” the 50-year-old said, “it’s upsetting. We’d done everything properly. We have a programme and they did two or three sessions a day some days. They work really, really hard. I tell my fighters, it may be four or six rounds, but you have to be 10 rounds ready

“The only plus side is they are prepared for the next two, three fights down the line. Leo is from Redditch but will sell 100 tickets. The people who have sold the most, done their part and are physically ready have seen the show cancelled because others have not done their part.

“There are also five or six journeymen who have lost a payday, they have lost that week’s money.

“It’s a business – no one wants to lose money and, hopefully, they (my boxers) will be out again very soon, very quickly, the preparation will not go to waste.”

The 50-year-old added: “It’s the emotions you go through during a camp. They feel sorry for themselves because they’re tired, you get to fight week and they’re tapering down. It’s a body blow for them, emotionally and mentally.”

Fanthome said simply: “Gutted is an understatement.”

I understand some of the boxers scheduled to appear on the Saturday show have been moved to Pegg’s bill at the Holiday Inn, Birmingham Airport, the following afternoon, former Midlands super-middle champ Liam O’Hare among them.