Boxing Gym Faces Fight for New Ring After Flood Damage

The old ring at Forest Fighting Fit has taken its last punch.

After more than a decade of repairs, patches and relentless community use, the boxing ring at the Parkend gym in Gloucestershire has been condemned as unsafe by its head coach, who says flooding and age have left it in “diabolical” condition.

“It’s at the end of its life,” said head coach Michelle Gardiner, who has watched the ring carry hundreds of rounds, thousands of rounds, and now finally give way.

The problems are everywhere you look. The posts have no padding. The boards underneath are loose and wobbly. The ropes refuse to stay tight for long, sagging when they should be snapping fighters back into position. For a sport that lives on sharp footwork and firm footing, that’s a risk too far.

Storm Bert delivered the latest blow. When it hit the Forest of Dean in November 2024, the gym took on water again.

“We’ve had two flooding issues in the gym, both of them have been around the ring as well,” Gardiner said. “It is elevated but I think a lot of the damp’s got into it.”

The damage has pushed Forest Fighting Fit into a corner. Without a ring, the gym cannot run full boxing sessions, cannot simulate fight conditions properly and cannot move its young kickboxers on to the next level.

For some, that’s more than an inconvenience. It’s a roadblock.

Rising talent, stuck on the ropes

Few stories capture the gym’s impact better than that of 10-year-old Lily.

When her mum, Emma Morgan, first took her to Forest Fighting Fit at the age of four, Lily clung to her leg, shy and unsure. Now she competes in kickboxing in front of thousands of people on national and international stages.

She has already won WKO World Championship Gold and has appeared at two Grand Prix events as well as the European championships. All from a small gym in the Forest of Dean.

Morgan, a trustee of the gym, knows exactly what the missing ring means for the next wave of youngsters.

Without it, she says, children who start in kickboxing cannot properly progress into boxing. They can train on bags, they can shadowbox, but they cannot step through the ropes and learn how to move, manage distance and handle the pressure of a ring.

“[A new ring] would bring their confidence up; it’s all about confidence,” Morgan said. “It’s a really good team atmosphere when we’re all there.”

The ring is more than four posts and some ropes. It is a stage, a classroom, and for many, the place where they first prove something to themselves.

Community gym, big ambitions

Forest Fighting Fit recently secured charity status, formal recognition of the role it plays in the local area. The age range alone tells its own story: the youngest member is four, the oldest 69.

On any given night, the gym pulls in children learning discipline, teenagers chasing titles, adults trying to get fit, and older members staying active and connected. The ring sits at the centre of that space — or at least it did.

Gardiner wants a new one not just to restore what they had, but to expand. A modern, safe ring would allow the gym to grow programmes for different ages and abilities and to improve accessibility and safety for disabled participants. It is a chance to open the ropes to people who have never previously seen a boxing ring as a place for them.

The price tag is £3,500. For a small charity gym, that is a heavy hit.

Grant applications have gone nowhere. Gardiner says Forest Fighting Fit has “had no luck” securing formal funding, forcing them to look closer to home.

So the gym has turned to crowdfunding, and the local business community has stepped up. Suntory Beverage and Food in Coleford is matching all donations, doubling every pound that comes in from supporters.

It is now a straight race: can the community raise enough, quickly enough, to get a new ring in place before momentum stalls and another generation of potential boxers drifts away?

In Parkend, a battered ring sits silent, its boards creaking, its ropes slack. For a gym built on resilience, this is just another fight — but this time, the decision rests not with judges, but with everyone who believes a small charity club in the Forest of Dean still deserves a ring in the middle of the room.