SOME young stars of the future got to meet their hero when Carl Frampton watched a Bridges Beyond Boxing training session at his old club on Sunday.
The former two-weight world champion posed for pictures and signed autographs after arriving at Midland Boxing Club for the group’s penultimate session before heading to Boston next Tuesday.
Bridges Beyond Boxing is a charity organisation which brings young boxers to the United States for a series of shows every year, with American teams making the return trip as part of a cultural experience that goes far beyond the ring.
Last September, Irish boxers stayed with families in Detroit and Cincinnati during a 12-day trip, before the US team came to Belfast in November. This time around they will stay with host families in Milton, Boston before moving on to fight in Buffalo.
It is an opportunity of a lifetime for the group, and Frampton was only too happy to show his support – with fellow Midland boxer Gary McCombe among those heading Stateside.
“It was great - I had said to all the clubs to bring a few extra kids, and the gym was bunged,” said Joe Lowe, one of the key men behind Bridges Beyond Boxing.
“Carl’s very good with the kids, very humble, he got different photos taken and chatted away to them all.
“This started out as a cross-community project but it has got bigger than that through time; there’s kids from all over Ireland, all different backgrounds, so it’s a really good mix.
“It’s not just your usual boxing trip where you’re stuck in a hotel and taken to weigh-ins and you don’t even see around you. It’s like the Olympics for some of these kids, and something they’ll remember for the rest of their lives.”
Alongside McCombe on the team bound for Boston are Jude Reilly (Immaculata), Carl Killyleagh (St Paul’s), Aoife Dougan (Armagh), Jamie Graham (Clonard), Billy Boyd (Scorpion), Kelly McLoughlin (St Catherine’s, Dublin), Lee Hanna (Townland), Ciaran O’Neil (Scorpion), Bobbi Flood (Cabra, Dublin), Liam Weatherall (Star of the Sea, Faughanvale) and Richard Cunningham (St Joseph’s, Derry).
Joe Lowe is joined by Alan Martin (Scorpion) and Cahir Duffy (St Joseph’s, Derry), with Barry Tucker R&J.
