![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/0_BR_PG_260226kennedy-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n“The biggest success is seeing the smiles”<\/p>\n
It was just after 6pm on a drizzly night in South Bristol. Sitting on the edge of a boxing ring was Ricky Leach, a 36-year-old journeyman boxer and coach. He smiled as he explained what was about to happen.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are all going to come in now. It\u2019s going to be manic, chaos. But a good manic. It\u2019s great,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Sure enough, through the doors came a steady stream of young kids, each with a combination of enthusiasm and steely-eyed determination. This was a new boxing club attached to the Sartan Club, and the buzz was palpable.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been going since December,\u201d said Ricky, before the mayhem ensued. \u201cOne week I think I counted we had 70-plus kids in here – that was a big success.\u201d<\/p>\n
This week it was slightly more manageable, but still the small boxing gym was full of kids as young as five, each finding their space to warm up with heel-taps, star jumps and knee lifts. Most importantly for everyone involved, the sessions are completely free.<\/p>\n
This part of Bristol, on the Withywood side of the South Bristol ring road, is among the most socio-economically deprived in the city, and indeed, in the country. It\u2019s a situation not lost on Ricky, who moved from his native Kent a few years ago and said he was initially surprised at what life can be like in BS13.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s important that we can do something like this and keep it free, so parents don\u2019t have to worry and kids can get to do something they like without being stopped because of money,\u201d said Ricky, about the \u2018From the Streets to Success\u2019 initiative he\u2019s started.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A community session at Kennedy’s Boxing Club in Withywood, South Bristol – club manager Ricky Leach(Image: PAUL GILLIS \/ Reach Plc)<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to make sure everyone can take their boxing to the level they want to get to. When they go a bit further, we\u2019ve had kids who can\u2019t afford the gloves and the boots and the kit, so we\u2019ve made sure we\u2019ve got a supply here too,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Ricky\u2019s passion for boxing and his journey to this point is evident even in the name of the new club – Kennedy\u2019s. \u201cIt\u2019s my granddad\u2019s surname. He was raised in a home run by nuns, he suffered terrible abuse there, but he absolutely loved boxing,\u201d said Ricky. \u201cHe always did love boxing, it was the thing he loved most of all but he was never allowed to do it or get involved in it.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo this club is named after him, in honour of him, and I hope what we do here will be about providing opportunities that he would have loved,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/0_BR_PG_260226kennedy-14.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
A community session at Kennedy’s Boxing Club in Withywood, South Bristol – club manager Ricky Leach(Image: PAUL GILLIS \/ Reach Plc)<\/p>\n
Ricky himself grew up in the care system, and it wasn\u2019t until he found the Kennedy family and the love of boxing that his early life turned around. After he came to Bristol, he worked over in Whitchurch and was mentored by the South Bristol boxing legend Wayne Bridges, whose death last month sparked a wave of tributes.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cWhen I was younger, I was brought up in the fostering system,\u201d he said. \u201cI didn\u2019t have what every kid has to start in life, and I think boxing saved me, as well as my family now. It saved me a huge amount. So I want to give that sort of chance to the children who haven\u2019t had a great start in life, to find something they actually enjoy doing,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n READ MORE: Bristol boxing community mourns legendary figure Wayne Bridges<\/a>READ MORE: Homeless Bristol boxing club’s incredible international success<\/a><\/p>\n In the room outside, Charlotte Baker is looking after her youngest daughter while six-year-old Anayah is in the gym, on the skipping ropes and doing press ups as good as any of the boys around her.<\/p>\n \u201cShe only started this year,\u201d said Charlotte. \u201cBut she absolutely loves it. Of all the things I try to get her into and to do, this is the first one that\u2019s stuck, that she loves to do.<\/p>\n \u201cI can tell that because she normally comes with some of her friends, but they aren\u2019t here tonight, so I gave her the option not to come because she wouldn\u2019t have them here, but she was like \u2018no I\u2019m going\u2019.<\/p>\n A community session at Kennedy’s Boxing Club in Withywood, South Bristol(Image: PAUL GILLIS \/ Reach Plc)<\/p>\n \u201cThe fact It\u2019s free, makes a difference – we come Mondays and Wednesdays and I don\u2019t know if I would be able to afford it otherwise. It teaches them self confidence, you want them to have a bit of self defence and be resilient.<\/p>\n \u201cFor her birthday she\u2019s already asking for boxing gloves, and it\u2019s just nice because here\u2019s something she loves,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n Running a boxing gym is always something of a hand-to-mouth existence, as any of the many boxing clubs around South Bristol will confirm. \u201cPutting on sessions for free is only possible because of the sponsors,\u201d said Ricky.<\/p>\n The main backer of the sessions is the Sweet Projects, a Slough-based infrastructure firm, with other sponsors including Care Gas, Therma Mech, Trojan Fitness and LS Design-Manage-Build.<\/p>\n \u201cWithout them we wouldn\u2019t be able to do any of this,\u201d Ricky acknowledged. \u201cAnd we\u2019re always looking to do more, to get more sponsors and to help provide something for the kids around here.<\/p>\n Kennedy’s Boxing Club’s free community gym sessions are only possible thanks to the club’s sponsors (Image: PAUL GILLIS \/ Reach Plc)<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve got junior boxers now going through the grades, and getting up to national competition level, so even though we\u2019ve only been going a short while, it\u2019s working.<\/p>\n \u201cBut most of all the biggest success is seeing the kids smile when they come in, and they are still smiling when they walk out at the end,\u201d he added. \u201cEvery kid that comes through, they give it that hundred per cent of what they can do. Seeing them smile going out of that door, to me that\u2019s my success.\u201d<\/p>\n For more information about Kennedy\u2019s Boxing Club, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Want to see more of the stories you love from BristolLive?<\/p>\n Making us your preferred source on Google means you\u2019ll get more of our exclusives, top stories and must-read content straight away. To add BristolLive as a preferred source, simply click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/0_BR_PG_260226kennedy-13.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/0_BR_PG_260226kennedy-5.jpg\")
<\/p>\n