FOR MY CHILDREN
BEING in a boxing gym for the first time since Covid turned the world upside down was both a weird and completely normal experience. David Avanesyan had invited Boxing News over to former pro Eric Noi’s gym in Oldham to watch him spar ahead of his EBU welterweight defence against Middleton’s Liam Taylor. By way of a thank you, I’d set up a reservation for him afterwards at the Armenian Taverna in central Manchester in order to give him a taste of home.
The 33-year-old was dubious at first. As he got ready for sparring, he said: “Is this going to be a real place? One time, I go for Armenian food and they were Greek. It was not the real food.” After assurances were made, he continued to go about his business of warming up and prepping for the rounds to come.
Boxing gyms have a living, breathing life of their own. On sunny days like the ones we have recently enjoyed as part of the now traditional September Indian Summer, shafts of sunlight filter in from the windows and you can see clouds of dust motes drifting their way through them.
Gyms are inherently dusty places, and that makes sense when you consider that scientists claim that a third of dust is made up of human skin.
