Glyn Rhodes: A Lifetime in Sheffield boxing
Tomorrow it will be 45 years to the day since Glyn Rhodes pulled on a pair of professional boxing gloves for the first time.
It's been a rewarding if sometimes turbulent career for a fighter who earned the nickname 'Showboat,' knocked out 20 rivals, was himself stopped 14 times, earned an MBE for the then-Prince Charles for services to his community, and now runs the thriving Sheffield Boxing Centre, in Hillsborough.
As characters go, there aren't many bigger than him on the South Yorkshire boxing scene.
Today, he looked back at a rollercoaster career as a boxer and trainer with mixed emotions.
After he absorbed the jaw-dropping fact that he had been in the pro game for so long, we posed the question: "What advice would you give your younger self?"
"Train! You have got to train, I was an idiot and didn't think I had to train" he replied.
"I had no discipline and one of the things I say to the kids in our gym is that a guy who is fit often beats a guy with ability, and I can vouch for that," he said.
"Some of the kids who bet me weren't better than me, they were just fitter."
Rhodes had a Won 33 Lost 27 and Drew five record in the pro ring until retirement in 1993.
"I boxed 35 amateur fights for Brendan (Ingle) and I had 65 pro fights - that's 100 fights!
"That's a scary number. It is difficult to get my head around that and the fact it's been 45 years, to me it seems like a dream" said the 65-year-old.
It all started with a defeat, on his debut to John Lindo at the Adelphi Hotel, Liverpool.
"I had gone from three rounds in amateur to six rounds pro and just ran out of steam and lost on points.
"When I retired from boxing (1993) I was broke, I didn't have a pot to p*** in.
"But I became more successful as a trainer than I ever was as a boxer.
"It is humbling, to tell the truth.
"The things I have done, the places I have been, and the people I have met make me very fortunate.
"Boxing has been good to me and still is to this day. I was lucky enough after finishing boxing to be a full-time trainer and make a living out of it.
"Maybe it is easier for people like Naseem Hamed, Johnny Nelson, Ryan Rhodes to go on and achieve great things after finishing boxing because they were champions. I never did that.
"But I have been involved in the corner at world title fight events, with people like Bomber Graham and Richie Wenton in historic places like Atlantic City.
"And of course I loved being involved with Sheffield's very own legend and world champion Clinton Woods.
"These days? What I love now is working with young kids, who aren't necessarily going to be championship boxers. Getting the best out of them.
"I take as much pleasure in that as going to Atlantic City or Miami Beach."
