Two old friends meeting by chance at a supermarket check-out has led to a new boxing partnership.
Darren Flatt, 39, and Danny Mcintosh, 42, were friends as young adults but had not seen each other for two decades before running into each other at Lidl in North Walsham.
Mr Flatt, from Great Yarmouth, said: “I literally hadn’t seen him for 20 years. I wanted to do some training, so I asked Danny and, after about eight weeks, I said ‘look, this works for anyone’, so we decided to set up a gym along the same lines.”
After they had fallen out of touch, Mr Flatt had a career in property and then oil and gas, while Mcintosh became a professional boxer.
He held the European light heavyweight title in 2011 and was ranked sixth in the world by the World Boxing Council.
Around 60 people were at the opening of their gym, called Box Lively, in Gaymer's Way, North Walsham, earlier in November.
But Mr Flatt said the idea was not for people to get in the ring and immediately start throwing punches at each other.
He said: “It’s non-contact - it’s boxing for everyone. We’ve taken the sting out of it but kept the fitness and well-being and mental health benefits.
“There are different stations - cardio, free weight, different types of bags, skipping. You spend three minutes on each before moving on to the next exercise.”
And Mr Flatt said the benefits were not just physical.
He said: “It works massively. It has helped me lose weight and realise what you can achieve just through a bit of training. You can take your stresses and pressures and leave them there.”
The business partners have employed one trainer and are planning to take on more, including, hopefully, a woman to lead all-female training sessions.
Mr Flatt said they were also launching a programme called Learn Lively, whereby they donated boxing equipment to schools through a partnership with RDX Sports.
They will also visit schools across the region for training sessions.
Mr Flatt added: “Danny will also do a motivational talk about the effort that it takes in life to get the output you want.”
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