Forest Fighting Fit's Boxing Ring Condemned as Unsafe

The ring at Forest Fighting Fit has finally given up.

After years of patch jobs, flood damage and relentless use by a tight-knit community, the boxing ring at the Parkend gym in Gloucestershire has been condemned as unsafe by its head coach, Michelle Gardiner. She calls the state of it “diabolical” – and she is not exaggerating.

Boards wobble underfoot. The ropes won’t hold their tension. The corner posts stand bare, with no padding to protect young fighters. For a gym that has quietly produced national and international competitors, the heart of the room is now a hazard.

“It’s at the end of its life,” Gardiner said, reflecting on more than a decade of repairs, patches and heavy community use. Two separate flooding incidents have battered the structure, both times pooling around the ring. Storm Bert, which swept through the Forest of Dean in November 2024, delivered the latest blow.

The ring is elevated, but the damp has crept in. Over time, water and wear have done what no opponent could: forced the gym to pull the plug on its main stage.

A replacement will cost £3,500. For a small, newly registered charity that serves everyone from four-year-olds to pensioners in their late sixties, that is a serious sum. Grant applications have come back empty. So the gym has turned to its community, launching a crowdfunder that has drawn crucial backing from Suntory Beverage and Food in Coleford, which has agreed to match all donations.

The stakes are more than cosmetic. For young fighters, the absence of a ring is a roadblock.

Emma Morgan knows that better than most. Her daughter Lily, now 10, started at Forest Fighting Fit as a shy four-year-old, clinging to her mother’s leg. Today, she competes in front of thousands, a World Kickboxing Organisation World Championship gold medallist with two Grand Prix events and a European campaign already on her record.

The pathway that transformed Lily’s confidence runs straight through that ring. Without it, Morgan says, other children cannot make the same leap from kickboxing to boxing.

“[A new ring] would bring their confidence up; it’s all about confidence,” she said. The gym floor, when the ring is in place and the ropes are tight, becomes more than a training space. It becomes a stage, a place where nervous children step between the ropes and walk out different.

There is a wider community at stake too. Forest Fighting Fit has built a reputation as a welcoming, mixed-ability hub, recently securing charity status. Gardiner says the youngest member is four, the oldest 69. A new ring would not only restore the core of its boxing programme but also improve accessibility and safety for disabled participants, opening the door to more tailored sessions and inclusive classes.

The current structure cannot offer that. It creaks, shifts and threatens to undo the trust the gym has spent years building. For a place that trades in resilience, discipline and belief, the symbol of all that – the ring – now sits as a reminder of how fragile grassroots facilities can be.

If the funding drive succeeds, Forest Fighting Fit will gain more than new canvas and steel. It will get its platform back – for champions in the making, and for those simply looking for the confidence to step through the ropes for the first time.