Call for "Unity" in the boxing ring after Rotherham riot

Jamie runs the Millennium town centre gym, along with a parallel business guiding other children who have been in trouble with the law and have been excluded from school.

Now he is planning to tackle the misguided beliefs of youngsters attracted to public disturbances like the one that recently happened outside a Manvers hotel used to house asylum seekers.

The boxing boss believes the kids involved are too young to have been politically motivated.

And he wants a crack at inspiring them to a better life before they go on to become fully influenced by extremist views.

Jamie (54) was one of several club owners who met up at Unity gym in Aldwarke on Wednesday, where there were discussions about how racial harmony inside their buildings can be spread across their wider communities.

He told the Advertiser: “A lot of young lads who were balaclava’d up and throwing bricks were not racist - that's something many of us agreed on.

“They were tearaway kids wanting excitement. They wanted to be thugs because as they see it, being a thug is cool.

“They will have gone there because it was exciting, to them, to be near trouble."

Jamie who was brought up in the racially-mixed gym run by the late Brendan Ingle in Sheffield, said: “If we could work with these kids then maybe, as they grow up, we'll get them to one day ask themselves: 'Why did I throw bricks at a hotel with immigrants inside it?'

“Those involved who are 25 years old and above, they know why they have gone, we could call them idiots or whatever, they are making choices to be there for a racist reason.

“But the youngsters can learn from boxing environments. They can walk the same path into the gym as people of different colour and beliefs, knowing it doesn't really matter what the other person is or believes in. It would be nice to think we could turn them around."

Jamie established his Millennium gym in 2000.

“Running alongside that, I am involved in helping a youth custody programme, they (the authorities) have already spoken to me and potentially I could be getting kids who were caught doing this."

He said his building was big enough to house two gyms, and "disengaged" children would be mentored in one specific area initially, he said, with the eventual aim of full integration.

The gym boss explained that he offers “alternative provision” for Rotherham Council, using “boxing as a tool".

“I work with kids who are in and out of trouble all the time. They are magnets to trouble; they are bored.

“Kids like that don't know the reason why they were there (in a riot situation.) But by being there will have made links, what is this EDL, they might say?

“They could go the wrong way but we want to get them early in an environment where they are working alongside Christians, Muslims, Africans, Serbs; there is every national in our gyms and across Rotherham itself.

“Next time somebody wants to set fire to a hotel because there are immigrants in it they are probably not going to do that because they have learned better."

Dinnington Community Boxing Club played a leading part at the Unity event and posted: “Huge thanks to all our colleagues from clubs across Rotherham and Sheffield for answering our call in showing solidarity in the wake of the recent unrest.

“I am a true believer that boxing can unite and take a lead in positive change in our communities, by educating our young people and setting an example.”

They said the event: “Was a good first step in the process of closer working and potential new partnerships.

“DC Boxing was born out of the community, we are more than just a boxing club, and will ALWAYS stand up and lead so nobody is left behind."

Independent Councillor Jodi Ryalls was also at Unity and thanked gym leaders Abdul Majid and Atif Shafiq for hosting it.

“No matter what is going off in the world today together at Unity we stand united.

“What you do for our children and adults within our communities is absolutely amazing and you have been inspirational men on many people’s lives with the positive impact you have made on many across the Rotherham area.

“Boxing gyms from across our borough joined forces as well as the police and other local councillors to come together and say we all stand as one regardless."