“It’s a big step up for me”
Former professional boxer Chris ‘Skemer’ Winters, left, his son Duane ‘The Gasman’ Winters, right, a former Southern Area Champion who fought for the British title live on TV, and in the middle, grandson McKenzie ’The Ghost’ Hand, 19, whose first professional fight is in Swindon, November 2025(Image: PAUL GILLIS / Reach PLC)
The third generation of a Bristol boxing dynasty is preparing to take on his first professional fight next month, with coachloads of supporters heading out of the city to cheer him on. Mckenzie Hand is just 19, and will step into the ring for the first time as a pro on a Fight Town bill at the Mecca venue in Swindon on November 22.
And cheering him on will be the entire family, and scores of supporters from South Bristol, where his family are well known boxing stalwarts, so much so that his grandfather even has a housing development named after him.
Mckenzie had a promising amateur career as a teenager, but admitted he didn’t really dream of following in his family’s footsteps. “I didn’t think about being a professional boxer when I was a kid, it was more just in the last couple of years or so when I started really training and fighting competitively, that I thought this could be something I could do,” he said.
People started noticing Mckenzie’s junior career when he was around 16. He won amateur titles in his age and weight category and represented England in an international bout against Israel. He impressed in his junior fights and earlier this year was signed up by manager Matt Brennan, whose gym over in East Anglia produced up-and-coming heavyweight world champion hopeful Fabio Wardley.
While Wardley fights WBO interim heavyweight world champion Joseph Parker next Saturday at the O2, Mckenzie’s first step into the professional ring will be at the slightly smaller – but still one of the key venues for boxing in the south west – the Mecca in Swindon.
“It’s a big step up, of course,” said Mckenzie. “I’ve got a good team supporting me, and I’ve been sparring and training hard. I’ve always been in boxing, obviously, but it was when I started competing and started winning that I knew it was a step I could take.”
Mckenzie is speaking upstairs in an industrial unit on the Novers Hill trading estate, between Bedminster and Knowle West. Downstairs is a weights gym called 81 Gym, run by Edwin Reed, who offered the upstairs to his good friend Chris ‘Skemer’ Winters to convert into a boxing gym.
On a regular Wednesday evening, the place is absolutely packed with aspiring boxers of all ages, and parents dropping off or picking up their children.
Mckenzie Hand, aged 11, training with his grandfather Chris ‘Skemer’ Winters, at Skemer’s Gym at the Park Centre in Knowle West, in 2017
(Image: Dan Regan)
Skemer is Mckenzie’s grandfather. Injury curtailed his professional career, so he turned to training, and for years ran a boxing gym in the grounds of the Park Centre in Knowle West that became far more than just a place to train boxers.
When the transformation of the Park Centre forced him out, then Mayor Marvin Rees stepped in to secure Skemer an empty community hall at Wedmore Vale, at the bottom of the hill between Bedminster and Knowle West, where Skemer’s Gym blossomed even more.
A move last year to the other side of the Northern Slopes and Novers Hill has meant Skemer’s Gym has been able to expand, and earlier this year, he talked to Bristol Live about how, in a South Bristol community he hoped he was continuing to provide a safe haven for young people in a world of knives and postcode rivalries.
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Like many boxing gyms across the city, Skemer’s gym has always been about more than just boxing, and the community in Knowle West recognised that. Back in 2023, Skemer said it was ‘nuts’ that the flats built on the site of his first gym at the Park Centre were named after him
Skemer’s son Duane – Mckenzie’s uncle – turned pro and won the Southern Area Championship, before fighting for the British title live on TV, one of only two defeats in a 13-fight pro career. He famously trained by doing shuttle runs up Vale Street in Totterdown – the steepest residential street in England – encouraged by his trainer father.
Duane was known as ‘The Gasman’ and had a passionate following from the blue and white quartered half of the city. Mckenzie will go into his pro career with the nickname ‘The Ghost’.
Despite growing up in South Bristol, Mckenzie is a Rovers fan too – a family legacy from Skemer’s origins in Lockleaze. “I couldn’t really be anything else, could I?” the 19-year-old laughed.
November 2023 – South Bristol boxer McKenzie Hand is the third generation of his family to step into the ring. Grandfather Chris Skemer Winters runs a boxing gym on Wedmore Vale and McKenzie’s uncle Duane Winters was a regional champion. McKenzie is pictured after the national semi-finals, in which he was beaten by Connor Mitchell(Image: Skemer Winters)
Skemer and Duane have high hopes for Mckenzie. He’s been preparing for the fight by visiting other boxing gyms in Bristol and going up against seasoned pros. “The feedback we’re getting is that he’s got it, but you never know until he gets in the ring for that first fight,” said Skemer.
“He’s very versatile, he can box on the front foot, he can sit back and box off the back foot. He’s a very creative fighter who can mix it up,” he added.