How boxing hero Phil Martin restored pride to the streets of riot-torn Moss Side
manchestereveningnews.co.ukAs Moss Side burned during the riots of 1981 Phil Martin was already thinking about how he could restore some pride in the shattered community.
Amid the broken glass and rubble he built a boxing gym - Champs Camp - above a burnt out Co-op, painted a 20ft mural of Mohammed Ali on the side and waited for the fighters to come.
And come they did. Drawn by the retired fighter's charisma, presence and fearsome sense of discipline, young lads from the streets of Moss Side and South Manchester walked up the stairs in their droves. READ MORE: "They should build one on every estate": Inside the Manchester boxing gyms teaching kids 'how to deal with their s***' Success in the ring was in many ways secondary to shaping the lives of the fighters in his charge.
But after 10 years of hard work, Phil, a car mechanic by trade, had four professional British champions. They included light-heavyweight title holder Maurice Core, who'd walked into the gym few years earlier as a cocky 16-year-old with a cig hanging out of his mouth. "I was trying to be cool, but I was just pretending," said Maurice. "Phil really was cool.
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