Ex-fighters gather to celebrate Anfield stadium’s boxing hey-day

Feb 26 2008 by Liza Williams, Liverpool Daily Post

BOXING was brought back to Anfield for a day as ex-fighters gathered to celebrate the sport’s history in Merseyside.

The Merseyside and Wirral Former Boxers’ Associations organised a conference at the football ground, which attracted crowds of 40,000 for boxing bouts in the 1930s and 1940s.

The history of boxing arenas in the region was discussed as well as topics relevant to the sport today, including the reintroduction of boxing in schools.

Former fighter Carl Wright, from Everton, attended Friday’s conference. Wright fell into a coma in 1997 after a fight, but has made a significant recovery since and thinks the sport offers many social benefits.

He said: “It was brilliant, it is a pity we can’t do more events like this because the history of boxing in Merseyside is so significant and interesting, it is steeped in it.

“You just do not realise until you go to a conference like this.

“The topics discussed were very relevant and I completely agree that boxing should be brought back in schools.”