Bobby Miltiadous used to spend his days selling theatre tickets in Vauxhall until he decided to swap his desk job for a pair of boxing gloves. Here the 25-year-old father of one and Afewee head coach discusses his bold career move.
“I used to work in an office. A friend I worked with, a brilliant guy called Tyrone Williams, introduced me to Afewee Boxing Club. One day we were sitting in the office chatting about boxing and the fact that this was what we wanted to do with our lives.
“I then decided to get into coaching and I absolutely love it. I’d been boxing in my spare time since I was 15, and had my first bout when I was 22.
“For me it was sort of a natural progression moving from boxing into coaching. Then I got involved with a few clubs as a volunteer. My involvement grew and I started to enjoy the sport even more, especially seeing the changes and progression in the individuals I train. So I took a risk and left my ticket sales job without having any other work lined up and got into coaching.
“Recently I was invited to Portsmouth where they have a really good gym – the Heart of Portsmouth Boxing Academy. It’s full of champions and is run by an England international coach, Q Shillingford. They were doing an open talent day for female boxers, all from London and south England.
“He invited me to help them do some coaching. It was the first time I got to work with female boxing talent from all sorts of different levels, from novices to women who were competing for England. I’m a big believer in female boxing. Look at what we did in the 2012 Olympics with Nicola Adams becoming our British Olympic female gold medallist in the sport.
“What we want to try and do at Afewee is to bring as many female boxers through as we can. Obviously it’s a male-dominated sport but hopefully that will change because of what competitors like Nicola Adams have achieved.”
For more information about Afewee’s boxing classes follow @AfeweeBoxing or @boxingbobby.
