Double title hopes for Wolverhampton boxers

On Saturday, April 4, Gully Powar meets Rhys Edwards for the vacant British featherweight title in front of the BBC cameras in Cardiff.

And later this year, Lexie Walker should be going for gold at the World Under-19 Amateur Championships.

Powar and Walker both train with Richie Carter at Wolverhampton Boxing Club on Willenhall Road.

He predicts Powar will silence the Welsh crowd and says: “I can’t see anyone stopping Lexie.”

Nobody could stop her at the prestigious Golden Girl tournament in Sweden earlier this month.

The event is the biggest all-female boxing tournament in Europe and Walker – who celebrates her 18th birthday on February 10 – was named Best Under-19 Boxer after powering to three wins in three days to take 60 kgs gold.

“I set my standards high,” said Walker, “and to come away with the Best Boxer award was the icing on the cake.  

“They were tough opponents. They were all national champions and I didn’t lose a round on any of the scorecards.”

The scorecards weren’t needed in her semi final against Elma Barry, the 2022 European Schoolgirl Champion from Ireland.

The Penkridge teenager set about her from the opening bell and overpowered her in the first round before dominating Vilde Nostdahl (Norway) in the final.

Walker says working with Carter and Andy Owen over the last 15 months has “brought me up a level.”

Carter says she has benefitted from sparring Callum Harvey – “He has got Lexie moving her head” – and her next target is to conquer the world.

The World Under-19 Championships are pencilled in for this summer.

“I have already won the Europeans (as a Schoolgirl in 2022) and this year will be the year I become world champion for the first time,” said Walker, whose father Rich is the under-18s coach at Molyneux.

“I want to have a good run in the amateurs and then turn professional and become undisputed world champion at multiple weights.”

Carter says Walker has an all-action style that is made for professional boxing.

“Lexie boxes like a professional,” he said. “There’s no tip tapping with Lexie !

“She lets them have it.

“Lexie is hard to hold off and if they can hold her off, she can dig deep as well.”

That style has taken Walker to 30 wins in 35 bouts since she started competing six years ago.

She said: “As a little girl, I was angry, frustrated and overweight.

“I remember watching David Haye against Tony Bellew with my dad on television and loved it.

“I begged my parents to let me box – and it took me a couple of years to convince them.

“I loved it from the start.

“I was happy, lost weight and gained confidence.”

Carter knows boxing as well as anyone having spent more than four decades in the sport as an amateur and professional boxer and now a coach and he describes Walker as “a golden one.”

Carter has rebuilt Wolverhampton Boxing Club over the last eight years since Gary Bates invited him to join following the closure of Carter’s Golden Gloves Amateur Boxing Club.

The colourful Jermaine Osbourne-Edwards became Carter’s first professional champion when he won Midlands honours two years ago and Ollie Cooper has emulated him, winning and defending the Midlands Area super-middleweight championship.

Boxing bosses have paired Cooper with James Osbourne for the vacant English championship.

Next for the 25 year old from Cannock is a match at Aldersley Leisure Village on Saturday, March 21.

The show also features Wolverhampton Boxing Club gym mate Lewis Morris.