News

19 year old boxer funded by council wins two world champion titles

By Lauren Monaghan, Junior Local Democracy Reporter

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A 19-year-old boxer supported through Broxtowe Borough Council funding has won two world championship titles this year.

Taylor Brown, from Eastwood, won two world titles in the super lightweight and welterweight divisions at the WFC Hungary Open World Championships in May.

This isn’t the first time he has won a title, also winning the lightweight world championship title last year.

Broxtowe Borough Council provided Taylor with grants totalling £2,300 over the past two years to help fund training, equipment and travel for the young boxer’s trip to Hungary.

His boxing career started in 2022, training in Revolution Gym. He had his first fight in November 2022 and says the full dedication to the sport started in June 2023.

But Taylor’s path could have been very different if it wasn’t for boxing and support from his family, friends and coach.

After working with an old coworker and family friend, who introduced him to Revolution Gym, he managed to kick old habits.

He said: “At 16 I always had trouble going out, basically doing what a young kid does, hanging round with the wrong crowd, making the wrong decisions.

“The gym put me on a different track of smashing everything in life and doing well, that led me to doing boxing.

“Boxing has showed me that side of life, that you’ve got to work hard for things, to care when you do well and you get the reward putting the hard work [in].”

His mother, Laura, added: “He was at a crossroads in life, and he had two choices – living the life he was living or carry on doing what he did and he absolutely smashed it.

“He got his driver’s license, he got a car, he got a different view on life. I couldn’t wish for anything better. It makes me so proud every day.”

She added: “[Children] need a little bit of guidance, a bit of love goes a long way and if it is possible you can turn it around. Taylor is that inspiration.

Taylor’s coach, and head coach of Revolution Gym, Neil Huntley, said: “It’s sort of a boy grown into a man, he just needed that guidance. He had blips at the start when he was in and out.

“I want [the gym] to give somewhere where there’s somewhere that the doors are open seven days a week… [people] have somewhere to go if they need to come and train or need to just get away for an hour.”

Taylor says his goal is to go professional wit boxing. He added: “I’ve been disciplined, kept it consistent, not stopped, so if I can do that in the last two years, imagine what I can do the next two years.”

Speaking on Taylor’s achievements, Milan Radulovic (Brox Alliance), Leader of Broxtowe Borough Council, said: “It’s an inspirational story of a young man who completely turned his life around and he’s hoping his story will become an inspiration for other young people.

“The council is not a grant-aided authority. All thee grants we give comes from taxpayers money, so we always try to look at how that story and the support we give can help not just towards changing one person’s life but [others too].

“It’s important for us to channel those creative aspects of peoples lives into helping them fulfil their career, their aspirations and to give them that inspiration.”