The Newbridge Boxing Club is a boxing gym operated by Enzo Calzaghe and based in Newbridge (Tre Celyn) in South Wales. The club has been one of the most successful of recent years, at one point in 2007 boasting three genuine world champions in

Joe Calzaghe Joseph William Calzaghe ( ; born 23 March 1972) is a Welsh former professional boxer who competed from 1993 to 2008. He held world championships in two weight classes, including the unified WBA (Undisputed), WBC, IBF, WBO, '' Ring'' magazin ...

(WBO super-middleweight),

Enzo Maccarinelli Enzo Maccarinelli (born 20 August 1980) is a Welsh former professional boxer who competed from 1999 to 2016. He held the WBO cruiserweight title from 2006 to 2008. At regional level, he held the European and British cruiserweight titles betwe ...

(WBO cruiserweight) and Gavin Rees (WBA light welterweight) . Other fighters of note who have won belts at the club include former Commonwealth light middleweight champion

Bradley Pryce Bradley Pryce (born 15 March 1981) is a Welsh former professional boxer. He held the British welterweight title twice, the Commonwealth middleweight title, and has challenged for the European light-middleweight title. Professional career Pr ...

and former

WBU The World Boxing Union (WBU) was a boxing sanctioning body. The original WBU was founded in January 1995 by IBF European representative, boxing journalist, actor and former holder of the title of Britain's heaviest man Jon W. Robinson. It sa ...

champion and world title challenger Gary Lockett who retired in Sept 2008.

The clubhouse

The club itself is in its second generation, as the original clubhouse, deemed unsafe by the local council, was demolished in 2002. Following the demolition, Joe and his father Enzo bought another clubhouse just a mile away in

Cwmcarn Cwmcarn is a village situated in the Ebbw valley in south Wales, in the historic boundaries of Monmouthshire. It grew with 19th-century coal mining, but is now known for its extensive mature forestry and greenery, that attract thousands of visi ...

and set about transforming an old rugby club into a boxing gym. The club is situated near an industrial park next to a rugby pitch and reached by a set of wooden steps on which the boxers use to train. The sign greeting people is hand painted and trash dots the weedy yard. This impression of the club does not meet expectations when people think about it being the training HQ for a World champion. According to a reporter from the LA Times who visited the clubhouse prior to Joe's clash with

Bernard Hopkins Bernard Hopkins Jr. (born January 15, 1965) is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1988 to 2016. He is one of the most successful boxers of the past three decades, having held multiple world championships in two weight clas ...

, ''"in places, it’s just a few notches north of squalid"''. One reporter during the same press trip is alleged to have spotted a dead mouse floating in a sink. Despite appearances

has described the place as feeling ''"like a palace"'' compared with the previous gym which had a ring made out of carpet and held up by broom handles. Prior to the move to the new clubhouse boxers had trained for years in what Joe describes as ''"the mangiest little building you could possibly imagine"'' with no heating, no showers, bad toilets and buckets to trap the rain.

World champions

Notwithstanding its seemingly unglamorous reputation, the Newbridge Boxing Club has produced some of Britain's best boxers, most notably the former WBO super middleweight champion

whose victories over

Jeff Lacy Jeffrey Scott Lacy (born May 12, 1977) is an American former professional boxer who competed from 2001 to 2015. He held the IBF super middleweight title from 2004 to 2006, and the IBO super middleweight title from 2005 to 2006. Lacy rose to p ...

Mikkel Kessler Mikkel Kessler (born 1 March 1979) is a Danish former professional boxer who competed from 1998 to 2013. He held multiple super-middleweight world championships, including the WBA title three times between 2004 and 2013, and the WBC title twic ...

and Roy Jones, Jr were all achieved by training in Newbridge. Joe's friend

won his WBO cruiserweight title whilst training there, and defended against challenger

Wayne Braithwaite Wayne "Big Truck" Braithwaite (born August 9, 1975) is a Guyanese former professional boxer who competed from 1997 to 2012, and held the WBC cruiserweight title from 2002 to 2005.. Retrieved November 26, 2016. Professional career The highlight ...

before being stopped by

David Haye David Deron Haye (born 13 October 1980) is a British former professional boxer who competed between 2002 and 2018. He held multiple world championships in two weight classes, and was the first British boxer to reach the final of the World Ama ...

. Light-welterweight Gavin Rees shocked the world when he beat Frenchman Souleymane M'baye to win the WBA title before losing it to Andreas Kotelnik. Middleweight Gary Lockett held the lightly regarded WBU belt but achieved fame when he unsuccessfully challenged world number one Kelly Pavlik in Atlantic City for the undisputed middleweight crown. Two time World Light-Heavyweight champion

Nathan Cleverly Nathan Cleverly (born 17 February 1987) is a Welsh former professional boxer who competed from 2005 to 2017. He is a two-time light-heavyweight world champion, having held the WBO title from 2011 to 2013, and the WBA (Regular) title from 2016 t ...

trained at the club as an amateur and during the first three years of his professional career but left in 2008. The Newbridge Boxing Club, considering its location in such a small town, has had a disproportionate influence on the global boxing scene.Eastside boxing , The Welsh Connection Calzaghe, Maccarinelli and Rees
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References

{{reflist Boxing clubs in the United Kingdom Boxing in Wales