Shaun Cooper’s camp find a home

Dudley’s Shaun Cooper believes the sky is the limit for his band of professional boxers now they finally have a home to call their own.
The former pro, along with his camp of fighters and fellow trainers, have moved into ‘Coops Boxing Camp’ in Brockmoor, Brierley Hill.
Now the 43-year-old is planning to throw open his doors to the public for boxing lessons and fitness in the on-site studio, which opens this month.
Cooper co-owns the gym with local businessman James Lane who wants the most for his money – the 33-year-old plans to lose 4st by December.
Three ex-boxers will be showing newcomers the ropes in Ray ‘Razza’ Campbell, Lindon Scarlett and Micky Warbey.
Cooper, Campbell and Scarlett all hold pro trainers licences while Warbey – who acts as timekeeper in sparring – is also applying for one.
It’s the same team that work in the corner when the stable’s two leading lights, Midlands light middleweight champion Jamie Ball and highly-rated featherweight Chris Male, are in action.
Both are unbeaten in their first 11 pro fights and are targeting a crack at their respective English titles, while Ball was named Best Young Boxer at the Midlands Area Council’s yearly boxing awards on Saturday night.
Male has his shot, on November 26 he will climb into the ring with Olympian Joe Murray for the vacant belt in a fight promoted by Ricky Hatton.
Ball, meanwhile, is expecting his six-round fight at Walsall Town Hall on Saturday night to be his last before taking on champion Brian Rose.
Cooper came out of a 17-year exile from pro boxing to lead them into the paid ranks three years ago and is pushing his fighters to their limits.
He said: “We do a 12-week camp, the first two or three weeks are gruelling hard, with 40 minute bursts of bang solid training, with a lot of groundwork like press ups.
“We do a lot of strength training, which is like weights but with loads of repetitions of different exercises. Then we start sparring, three-and-a-half minute rounds with a minute or half a minute break.
“The pros have their own time at the gym, so we can put a lot more time into them.
“But, for the general public, we do a boxing circuit on the bags and pads, with shadows and skipping, and they will love it.”
For Cooper, Ball really is one of his own – he’s the 27-year-old’s uncle.
Leading his nephew into the pro game was what brought him back and Male followed months later.
Today, another two hopefuls have joined the ranks in welterweight Kyle Spencer and light welter Steven Pearce, who have the potential to walk the road Ball and Male are on.
Stourbridge’s Pearce has previous, winning an ABA Midlands title and reaching the national semi-finals as an amateur last year.
The 26-year-old and Brierley Hill’s Spencer make their pro debuts alongside Ball in Walsall on Saturday night but Cooper insists neither will be rushed along.
He said: “Boxing is a cut-throat game, you have got to look after your kids and that’s why our lads are all here.
“We take the right fights at the right time and don’t push them, making them run before they can walk.
“I am there for them, it’s not about money for us and we tell people not to ring us with short notice fights, because we are not doing it.
“Jamie and Chris are good fighters, both 11-0, and for them to get English titles wouldn’t just be great for them, but for the gym as well.
“Hopefully, then people would start to recognise us and more fighters will come to us.
“I want winners in my gym.”
‘Coach’ has another reason for wanting to see his fighters do well – he is living through their eyes after failing to hit the heights he was tipped for during his own career.
Cooper, himself, was one of the brightest domestic prospects of his era when he turned pro in the late 1980′s.
That had come on the back of a 96-fight amateur career that saw him reach the junior ABA finals, face Robert McCracken in the seniors and box alongside former world champion Richie Woodhall for England.
It looked equally promising in the pros, too, with 16 straight wins and eight knockouts but Cooper abruptly retired – while still undefeated – in 1991.
He said: “It would have been nice to show people where I could have gone, Richie Woodhall has always said to me that I would have been a British, Commonwealth and European champion.
“I wasn’t with the right people and I didn’t get the fights I should have got, I’d had enough of the game so I packed it up.
“I will always regret it, but that’s the way it went.”
For tickets to see Ball fight and the professional debuts of Pearce and Spencer, call Walsall Town Hall on 0845 111 2900 or promoter Paul ‘PJ’ Rowson on 07976 283 157.
 Source www.expressandstar.com/