Legendary Scottish boxing world champion Jim Watt MBE paid a visit to a city club to help them celebrate moving into a new gym.
Argo Boxing Club welcomed the sporting legend to their new home in Drumchapel to celebrate their new place and 50 years since being founded.
Having been described as the "lifeline" of the community in the north west of the city since 1973, the club found themselves homeless in 2021. They were forced to move out of their base at St Mark’s Church on Kinfauns Drive due to safety concerns.
READ NEXT: Work starts on new recycling facility in Glasgow's East End
But now, after securing funding from Sports Scotland and transforming the basement of an establishment on Drumchapel Road, the gym is thriving once more says head coach Eddie Wilkie.
Mr Watt, who was raised in Possilpark, was a member of the Argo boxing club when he was coming through the ranks and described the new area as "simply stunning".
Speaking to the Glasgow Times, he said: "The place is fantastic and you can see a lot of work has gone into it.
"I came down early as I was told the young ones train before the senior boxers come in so it was great seeing the place thriving. People say boxing is dying but when you look at places like this it certainly isn't.
"And seeing it all has taken me way back as 61 years ago I would have been in the same position as many of these athletes.
"I take my hat off to people like Eddie who do what he does. I love boxing, put everything I had into boxing and got so much more out of it during my career.
"But people like Eddie are in the game because they love what they do and the buzz they get is helping little kids through the sport."
The 75-year-old boxer also signed a photo of him that was donated to the club by a close friend, which it is now hung on the wall beside the club founder Jim Harvey's boxing photo.
Work began on the gym in late 2022 and was completed with the doors opening in late October of 2023.
And since opening up their doors, they have welcomed an additional 25 members to the gym.
The volunteer-run club has been described as "busy as ever" by Eddie and he says that having someone like Jim come down and speak to the people at the gym was brilliant to see.
He said: "He is dead inspirational and everyone loved it.
"When Jim walked in we had a conversation and I asked him where the first place he ever boxed was and found out we both started out at the same place, in terms of the club.
"He has done everything in the boxing world and for him to come down and get his photo taken and sign the photo was incredible.
"It is every coach's dream to be the head coach of their own gym and it was made possible by the six women who help run this club
"We are excited to see where the club goes from here!"
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here