The East Midlands boxing fraternity chose not to wallow. Less than twenty-four hours after grim headlines splashed across the Daily Mail amplified by the Warrior Facebook page, the region gathered at the newly revamped Leicester Lightning Boxing Gym and staged one of the liveliest sparring days in recent memory. Nearly a hundred boxers turned up, a living refusal to be dragged into the doom-and-gloom mood that had settled over the sport overnight.

The transformation of Leicester Lightning was striking. The gym has been given a new coat of paint and brighter lights, the old den like feel replaced with a clean, business-like atmosphere. As Chris put it, “less like a youth club and more like a boxing gym.” The fresh walls  with only one poster remaining, that of the recently departed former world champion Ricky Hatton and the gleaming new rings were more than cosmetic: they signalled a determination to raise standards, to remind people what a serious amateur gym can look and feel like.

When I arrived at ten this morning, Vinny and Chris were already at work laying out water and checking ropes, moving with the singular aim of men who wanted everything right before the first call (time). By little after eleven,  everyone was weighed in and ready the place was alive with the sound of leather on leather, the new lighting glinting off gloves as if to underline the day’s purpose.

Particular credit is due to Chris Slatcher and Pete Robinson, who pushed hard to make the event happen. Their aim was simple but necessary: to give the region’s boxers and coaches something worth showing up for, a focus beyond the scandal and the recriminations. It wasn’t an attempt to deny the seriousness of the revelations everyone present understood how grave they were but rather to show that the community would not be defined by them.

The coaches in attendance were unanimous in keeping their distance from the controversy. Asked about the headlines, one summed it up bluntly: “We can’t help who is appointed by the national governing body, and nor do we condone any of it. We are only here for the boxers.” That refusal to be dragged into the politics said as much about the day’s resolve as the sparring itself.

Coaches arrived from every corner of the East Midlands, many with their own boxers in tow, and the atmosphere felt less like damage-control and more like a rally: disciplined, purposeful, and defiantly cheerful.

Whatever reforms and reckonings may follow from the Mail’s exposé, this weekend proved that the East Midlands can keep its focus on the ring, on the craft itself, and refuse to be dragged under by the failures of others.