It has been a busy year for boxer-turned-trainer Anthony Crolla, with his ever growing stable of successful professional fighters and a busy amateur boxing club, Fox ABC in Oldham. But the former WBA lightweight champion is especially proud of the gym’s Operation Warrior programme.

The Maverick Stars Trust initiative delivers free boxing sessions, team building days, guest speakers and mental health first aid for former service men and women. The project has proved hugely successful throughout the country and is being delivered in thirteen amateur boxing clubs.

The sessions proved so popular at Fox, that armed forces vets are now competing for the club, most notably Ashley Shaw, who was victorious in his bout at the ‘Hard Hitters’ event in Liverpool earlier this year.

Along with all the amateur activity, Crolla trains his band of fighters, including Rhiannon Dixon, James Moorcroft, and Jake James at his gym on the Limeside estate.