The newly established Billy’s Boxing Club at Nawaka, Nadi apart from producing future amateur boxers hopes to keep youths occupied and using their time wisely.

Club founder Faiyaz Ali who is involved in the sport for more than 35 years hopes to also keep youths away from drugs and criminal activities.

“There are 20 children registered whose ages range from ten to 21-years-old,” Ali said.

“Getting children involved in sports activities keeps them away from trouble,” he said.

“We need to have a pool of boxers whom we can train and develop before we can give them the opportunity to box.”

“With positive life skills children can have positive social interactions with their peers and those around them.”

“The training programme is structured in such a way for children to enjoy.”

“Through this programme young adults gain the experience to be amateur boxers. These include instruction, training, sparring in Fiji Amateur Boxing Association (FABA) sanctioned competition.”

“Promoters should be encouraged to continue to bring boxers for exhibition bouts.”

“We have to train village youths to keep away from drugs and criminal activities, we hope to see the programme roll out in five years .”

“We can produce new boxers to join Jonny ‘Machine Gun’ Singh, Farzan Ali and Siliveni Nawai to name a few,” he said.

Ali is a former Western Amatuer Boxing Association president under the FABA banner.

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