BRENDAN INGLE, one of Britainโs most renowned trainers, has passed away. He was 77 years old.
He set up a boxing club in Wincobank, Sheffield for young people in the community. The gym would become an institution in British boxing. He developed his own unique training methods and in the process produced some of Britainโs most successful boxers.
He guided Naseem Hamed from childhood to the heights of a career which saw him become one of the most famous boxers in the UK. Herol Graham, regarded as Britainโs best boxer never to win a world title, was a product of his gym as was cruiserweight world champion Johnny Nelson and many more.
โBrendan was a good teacher. He gives you confidence and self-belief. He makes you believe you can do anything you want, that youโre able to win a fight without the opponent touching you. I was in his household for two-three years, so I had that influence regularly. He taught me loads,โ Herol Graham has told Boxing News. โItโs a discipline he instilled. If thereโs none at home or in the gym, you get unruly children and unruly boxers.โ
โBrendan got you dancing and singing in the gym, to give you a bit of confidence. Youโd be in front of your mates so you werenโt bothered how embarrassing it was. Then, in interviews and stuff, youโd be confident because youโd been doing it for years. There was a method behind Brendanโs madness, we came across well and spoke well,โ Ryan Rhodes, another of his fighters has recalled. โWeโd be cleaning streets! Down Newman Road, where the gym was and in the Wincobank area, in the morning after training, during the school holidays, weโd be up and down the streets, cleaning, talking to people outside their houses,picking up litter, pulling weeds out; we got respect for that. It was Brendanโs way of getting us interacting at an early stage.โ
His gym continues, run by sons Dominic and John Ingle, and continues producing quality fighters like Kell Brook.
Brendan Ingle has a unique place in British boxing history. He will be fondly remembered and sadly missed.