Manchester Box Cup: Amateur boxing tournament will be streamed live on Sky Sports on May 25

boxing Tuesday 3 December 2024 17:31, UK

The finals of the Manchester Box Cup will be streamed live on Sky Sports on May 25.

The amateur tournament will be looking to showcase the talents of future stars from the region and further afield.

Manchester, home to popular world champions like Ricky Hatton and Anthony Crolla, has long been at the heart of the vibrant British boxing scene in the amateur and the professional sport.

Boxers from the city's renowned amateur clubs as well as from across the country and abroad will all be competing in the 2025 edition of the Manchester Box Cup.

"It's a great platform for North West boxing," tournament organiser David Pownall said. "This is the fourth year but it's going to take it to the next level.

"Sky Sports will be a massive help. They'll help promote it and produce it and take it to the next level."

Former WBA lightweight world champion Crolla is now a trainer and works with amateur boxers at Fox ABC.

He'll have athletes competing in the Manchester Box Cup.

"It's growing year by year," Crolla said. "You have people coming from all over, you have people coming from all over the UK, some flying over for it. It's an event that's growing and it's good to see. The standard's really high.

"You have kids who struggle getting fights outside of championships but they get them at the Manchester Box Cup and other Box Cups because the best want to test themselves.

"You go to an amateur show, and most of the fights on the card are matched as 50-50 fights. You're bound to get a handful of belting tear ups. It's packed to the rafters, bouts that could have swung either way, and they'll have returns, they'll have rematches. I wish people got to see that side of amateur boxing a lot more.

"They'll see a lot of good comes from it.

"The boxing gyms help kids get off the street," Crolla explained. "That's one of the great things about amateur boxing. Amateur boxing gyms are special places, from the volunteers to what they do for kids from the estates.

"You'll always get a good crowd," he added of this tournament. "Manchester will always be a fighting city."

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