23 May 2024 , 14:51
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Tyson Fury’s camp may be licking their wounds after last Saturday’s defeat by Oleksandr Usyk, but interest in boxing has never been greater.
At Home With the Furys has been a Netflix sensation, while Fight Game: The McGuigans on BBC - following the McGuigan family’s boxing antics, has also been a hit.
But it’s not only celebrity boxers who can boast family dynasties.
The Bowers family, who own the prestigious Peacock Gym, have been in the ring as far back as they can remember.
“We have traveller blood,” explains Laura Bowers, 38, who works at the family-run gym in Canning Town, east London, owned by her dad Tony Bowers, 65, and her uncle Martin, 62, who is a renowned trainer.
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L-R Kevin Bowers, Ted Bowers Laura Jane Bowers (Philip Coburn)Kevin Bowers, 66, a cousin of the owners, who is assistant director of Essex Boys and Girls Clubs, explains: “Our family goes back centuries in Silvertown on the river. People used to come down on canal boats from Scotland, and stop off and say ‘right, who is your best man?’ and they would fight them on route.”
Kevin, who was a schoolboy boxing champ in the early 1970s, adds: “This is our family base and we have been there ever since.”
The first Bowers boxing champ was Sam, born in the early 1800s - a rugged bare knuckle fighter, whose ring career lasted until 1867.
Since then, the family name has become synonymous with the sport, with each generation wearing a pair of gloves and sparring for success.
In the 1930s, Bill Bowers, Laura’s great-grandad, entered family folklore when he fought a very unusual opponent.
“He actually did an exhibition bout with a kangaroo in the circus,” explains Laura.
And Kevin’s father George was a successful professional, producing over 200 junior champions - and being honoured with an MBE for his services to the sport.
The Peacock gym was started in 1978 by Tony and Martin Bowers above the Peacock pub in East London.
The gym has an incredible history (Philip Coburn)It has since been upgraded to a building in Canning Town, complete with three boxing rings, a gym, a dance and recording studio and a beauty salon.
Many famed boxers have come through its doors to spar in the ring including Lennox Lewis, Chris Eubank, Naseem Hamed, Danny Williams, Steve Collins, Ricky Hatton, Paul Lloyd and Amir Khan. Rising heavyweight star Daniel Dubois, 26, was trained by Martin at the professional gym until last year.
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“Daniel Dubois used to come down with his dad as a teenager to sit in the front of the gym for six months asking to see Martin, who kept turning him away. Until one day he said he was ready,” explains Laura. The gym also has famous patrons including former heavyweight Frank Bruno, and he met the Bowers through one of their friends before he was a professional boxer.
In the years before Frank became a boxer in 1982, he was subjected to a racist attack in a station by four vicious skinheads armed with flick-knives when former football hooligan Cass Pennant, who was the leader of the Inter City Firm, stepped in to help.
“Frank was getting jumped at a station and Cass Pennant jumped in and saved him,” says Laura. “He was having a fight with four white guys, it was basically a bit of a racial attack and Pennant jumped in and saved him and the two became buddies after that. Cass was very good friends with my dad [Tony] so that's how they got Frank Bruno through.”
In 2009 Floyd Mayweather came to visit the gym, and hundreds crammed inside the gym while a further 2000 flooded the street outside. “His mum was lovely,” explains Kevin. “I was sitting with his mum talking to her, and she was going. ‘He's not, he's not really a bad boy!’”
It has hosted some incredible fights (Philip Coburn)Tyson Fury too has, of course, been down to visit - sparring with Derek Chisora in 2019. “.He's a nice guy,” says Laura. “I'll say that much and I guess that's why we quite like him as well as he's just a bit of a normal lad.”
The Peacock Gym’s tagline is “the home of sport and friendship” - but it is primarily a family affair, whether that be chosen or by blood. “I think boxing is one of the only solo sports that is improved by a family involvement in what you do. Our boys train as a family,” says Laura.”It just generates this bit of individualism while still understanding there is a group unity to it. You’re in the ring alone, and yet you are not.”
Kevin adds, “You've always got a family behind you,” and for his grandson Ted Bowers, 13, this is something that will hopefully serve him well as he continues the Bowers legacy. “I want to be a pro,” he says. “It's all about having determination.”
Hagland family
Reggie and his dad Lenny Hagland who run the Islington Boxing Club in north London (Philip Coburn)Launched in 1974, the bright red club has been in the Hagland family since it was first established.
“We’d just lost my sister when she was five and my dad needed something to take his mind off it,” explains Lenny Hagland, 59. “My dad saw the advertisement in the local paper and asked if I would like to go along too and start boxing.”
Lenny began boxing when he was nine years old, had his first fight at 11 and retired at 21, before beginning his successful career as a coach - then rising through the ranks to run the club.
Now his son Reggie, 33, is the club manager, his daughter Millie, 25, is the marketing and admin manager - as well as running the front of house - and sister-in-law Tina Spencer, 60, is his PA.
And they all regard the boxers who use the gym as a kind of extended family.
Millie says: “It's quite a lonely sport when you are in the ring, just you and your opponent. So, as a team, it's you and whoever is in your corner.
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“So, when the boxers are training or in coaching, they're very much treated like our family.”
Lenny agrees, adding: “You have to get close to people because they rely on you.”
Aside from being a source of community, camaraderie and exercise, being involved in the boxing gym has also helped many people to choose the right path in life and provided a way out for youth, who may have been susceptible to gangs.
“We can never quantify what we’ve done, but we know there have been many, many kids from the local area and further afield who are on the periphery of gangs that have come to this club,” explains Lenny. “The more they get into boxing, the more they move away from gangs, and the gangs find it okay for them to do boxing. If they were doing an art class or something that wouldn't be okay but boxing's good publicity, if you like, for the gangs so they allow them to do it. Boxing gets them away from the problems on the street, because they have to be disciplined.”