Marketing venture ClickOut Media donates £5,000 to Liverpool boxing club that former boxing champion Tony Bellew says saved his life. Tony McDonough reports
Marketing agency Clickout Media has made a £5,000 donation to the Rotunda Amateur Boxing Club in Liverpool after chatting with former champion fighter Tony Bellew.
Now working in sports media, Bellew competed in the ring from 2007 to 2018 and rose to become the WBC Cruiserweight Champion. He still trains at the Rotunda in Kirkdale which he claims “saved his life”.
Britain’s first ever female boxing Olympian, Natasha Jonas, also spent her formative years training there and other fighters such as the Smith brothers – Paul, Stephen, Liam and Calum have gone pro after growing up in the Liverpool gym.
Rotunda ABC is a registered charity. It relies on donations from donors in order to continue to offer a place for youngsters to start their careers, train and gain a sense of self and belonging through sport.
Since his retirement, Bellew has worked closely with Malta-based ClickOut Media as a boxing analyst and pundit and the donation from the firm will help Rotunda ABC fund more champions.
“It’s an amazing gym, without those four walls and without Jimmy Albertina coming into my life when he did I would never have achieved what I have,” said Bellew.
“It’s a cliche but boxing 100% saved my life. I don’t know what else I would have been doing. I was doing anything to make ends meet because I had this dream of one day becoming a world champion boxer.
“Apart from that dream I only dreamed of having nice things and let’s be honest I didn’t have the education behind me or the brain power to achieve those nice things and a kid coming from where I come from – that was only going to end one way.
“That’s the way it goes but thankfully I found Rotunda, I found Jimmy. I had good parents behind me and it worked out in the end. But without those four walls I don’t know what would have happened with my life.”
He added that all the amateur boxing coaches are unpaid and do it “out of the kindness of their own heart”. He said: “They’re doing it because they want to help kids, develop kids. And also they want to make national champions.
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Owen Fulda, head of press content at Clickout Media, said: “Rotunda Amateur Boxing Club is synonymous with boxing champions and we are delighted to play a small part in funding more.
“The donation is the first of a series we plan to make and he (Tony Bellew) suggested the Rotunda as it is a place that is dear to him. It’s helped keep kids off the street and has trained numerous former champions including Bellew himself.”