The Peacock Gym: Providing The Future Of British Boxing
By Ben Lettman
The Peacock Gym is located in Canning Town, in the East End of London, England and is home to many fighters. On the wall of the gym there is a banner that reads: “The Peacock Gym, home of sport and friendship.” I could not agree more.
As I entered the famed gym I was welcomed by boxing trainer Babatunde Ajayi. There was a relaxed feeling about the place. Cheerful jokes and smiles were exchanged by all. However, by no means is that to say the fighters were not training hard. I was standing in a cauldron of activity.
What immediately impressed me about the gym, aside from the quality of the sparring, was its family-like atmosphere. After watching many of the fighters going hell for leather inside the ring, I was amazed to see how friendly they all remained with one another.
The first fighter that I had an opportunity to speak to was Harrow’s Akash Bhatia, who at the time was going through a training task set by Ajayi. Bhatia recently fought on the David Haye vs. Giacobbe Fragomeni undercard against the tough Youssef Al Hamidi. An ABA runner up, he is best known for stopping Kevin Mitchell’s younger brother Vinny. “Currently I am not training too hard,” said the unbeaten featherweight. “Hopefully I will be fighting early next year and once the fight is finalised I will resume full training.”
Other fighters who were busy at work were cruiserweight Junior McDonald, young light middleweight prospect Nathan Weise, unbeaten light heavyweight Michael Bolton and super-middleweight Dwayne Lewis. Lewis, who makes his pro debut early next year, is the cousin of legendary former undisputed heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis. He had two rounds of sparring with the much bigger Junior McDonald, which brought the gym to a standstill. “He’s a super middleweight but he punches like a heavyweight,” said Ajayi. “He knocked out all his opponents to win the novice championship.”
McDonald only recently resumed training after being stopped by Tommy Eastwood in his last outing. “As soon as he came back to the gym I put him in the ring to spar,” said Ajayi. “Boxing is an unforgiving sport. He needed to get over the loss, get back in the ring and fight his demons.” A few minutes watching McDonald fight and you can see that he is a classy fighter. He sparred with Nathan Weise and Dwayne Lewis and was strong against both men. Not bothering to rest, all three fighters then moved on to the heavy bags and continued punching.
The training routines the fighters went through were very intense but with their experienced trainer guiding them, it surely will not be long before a few start making some noise on the domestic scene.
Courtesy www.frankmaloney.com