• Inside Boxing

Kell Brook and Naseem Hamed: How champions are made

Kell Brook has been inspiring young fighters at the Wincobank Gym in Sheffield © Getty Images

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Brendan Ingle - who trained reigning IBF world welterweight champion Kell Brook and former world champions Prince Naseem Hamed, Junior Witter and Johnny Nelson - tells ESPN about his boxing philosophy and the tradition of his highly-successful Wincobank Gym in Sheffield:

Our gym has been going over 40 years and is still going strong. Brook is our latest champion and if he defends his title in Sheffield [on March 28] then a fight against Amir Khan would sell out anywhere; it would be the biggest fight in the country this year if it happens.

Kell winning the world title in America last year was one of the highlights we've had since I set it up [in 1964]. He had been with us since a kid. Kell was never out of trouble but coming to the gym straightened him out.

My son Dominic controls all the training at the gym now and he's very strict with them all. Kell was in the gym when Naz was champion; Nelson and Ryan Rhodes were also there at the time and it has rubbed off on him. Now he's the one the younger ones in the gym aspire to be.

We had Brian Anderson and Herol 'Bomber' Graham, then we had the Naz fella. I always thought he would win a world title. He has been voted in [to the International Boxing Hall of Fame] recently and deserves it. He only lived up the road from where I live and he was always in trouble at school and out of it. He changed British boxing but could have done much, much more than he did.

Nelson was one of the most outstanding ones because if you had seen him when he came into the gym, you wouldn't have thought he would have done what he did [Nelson won the WBO world cruiserweight title and defended it 13 times, after losing his first three professional fights]. A lot of people said to me at the time, why are you wasting your time on him? He'll never do anything, they said.

Johnny gave me the most satisfaction. His amateur record was nothing special, but I told him we would get there one day. He would come in every day to the gym and he developed.

They all learn the same way. I get them to learn their footwork from lines on the gym floor. My wife originally drew the lines in chalk in different colours on the floor they would sing the colours of the rainbow while they did their shadow boxing. We still have the lines on the floor.

Brendan Ingle has been awarded the MBE for services to boxing © PA Photos

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I also got them to learn and sing the national anthem because it shows a bit of respect for the whole country. I've always been unorthodox. There's a sign on the wall that says 'boxing can seriously damage your health' - and it's there to remind them that they need discipline in this game. It's there because they are not playing marbles and it warns them they have to discipline themselves, or get out.

When you get kids off the street from broken homes, damaged lives, you are having to start all over again with them. Their parents and school teachers aren't there in the gym with them. But they want to be there. Some of them are at the gym on a Saturday morning at 8am, which means they may have had to get up at 7am or 6.30am to get there.

If you have kids who have problems at school, you are better off getting them to control their energy and aggression through boxing. They go on to get decent jobs and are better human beings because of the boxing.

You can get them somewhere when you inspire and give them motivation. It keeps them off the street and gives them self-discipline. You see it now with the kids we have got in the gym like Brook, Kid Galahad and Richard Towers.

You've seen the marvelous boxers that have come out of places like Mexico in the past and when I said it's going to happen like that in Sheffield years ago, people thought I had lost the plot. But it has happened like that.

Years ago, Barney Eastwood was one of my greatest inspirations with the champions he brought through, like Barry McGuigan, with the trouble in Northern Ireland. What was the key to it all? I worked 12-hour days down the years to get it right.

The sport in Britain is doing really well and we have arenas that are sold out, world champions, Olympic medallists and TV coverage. I still go over to the gym and I hand out the keys to lads who want to go in, but my sons Dominic and John run it now and they are getting results all the time.

We are still churning out champions and the place is packed at 8am every Saturday. Kell's the star but we've also got Kid Galahad in the gym and he's going to be outstanding - our next world champion.

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