Welcome to Wednesbury fight club

Blood stains spatter the worn wooden floors, there are no showers and the paint is peeling off the walls.

A ghetto blaster pumps out music, but it's almost drowned out by the slap of skipping ropes and the sound of hard work.

Welcome to Wednesbury Boxing Academy.

Surroundings may be spartan but this small gym tucked away in a small corner of the Black Country is home to the busiest fight gym in the country.

Some 48 professional boxers now fight out of this vibrant establishment.

Two weeks ago, 17 of them fought in a manic 48-hour period on shows in Wolverhampton, Birmingham – the Amir Khan NIA bill – and Derby.

It would have been 23 but for the cancellation of a show in Coventry.

Current leading lights in the gym include West Bromwich's Young Mutley, who is hoping to regain his British welterweight title, and Wolverhampton's Dean Harrison, one of the top light-welterweight prospects.

Current champions include Marcus Portman (WBF light-middleweight ruler) and Steve Bendall (English middleweight) train here as well.

Also on hand are a smattering of Midland title holders and the West Midlands' first female pro boxer, Wolverhampton's Lyndsey Scragg, who is now ranked No 2 in Europe.

Testament to their growing success and reputation in the fight game, 13 different titles were won by boxers from this gym last year.

In the light-welter and welterweight divisions, the one 16ft square boxing ring is where you will some of the best sparring in the UK, with around a dozen boxers in those two categories trading 16oz punches.

The sheer scale of the growing organisation is in stark contract to the spartan surroundings.

Mutley, who has been boxing in Wednesbury since the age of nine, insists the fighters wouldn't have it any other way.

He said: "It's like a big family. I would prefer to have a shower here but you get used to it."

This is First Team – "You don't get much for coming second and we are a team" is promoter Paul 'PJ' Rowson's description of the collaboration with gym owner, trainer and matchmaker Errol Johnson.

The pair lead a team of dedicated trainers in Bob Plant, Paul Dyche from Stafford, Jay Harris from Halesowen and Paul Gough from Priory Park, Dudley.

With so many boxers, it can be impossible to keep them all active at the tiny gym.

That's where Johnson's exhaustive book of contacts goes into overdrive.

First Team have excellent links with Ricky Hatton's gym in Manchester and all the leading promoters – Mick Hennessy, Barry's Hearn and Frank Warren.

First Team now have fighters scattered around the country, including Middlesbrough – where they promoted professional boxing for the first time in 17 years last year – but their roots are firmly in the West Midlands.

Such has been their success, enquiries are flooding in from places as diverse as Ireland and Ghana.

Johnson, 39, has been boxing in Wednesbury since he was 10 years old, rising from amateur to one of the most respected trainers and matchmakers in the country.

Five years ago he and Plant bought what was a shell, with no roof and three walls missing, for £18,000.

Builder Plant, 46, a retired fireman who has been part of boxing in Wednesbury for 29 years, put up a roof and two walls and a hotbed of fighting talent was born.

Johnson, who by day works for Sandwell Housing, has spent more than £30,000 of his own money transforming the place with equipment.

Thriving

A satellite business called TKO run by Jackie Coyle, daughter of Wolverhampton's former world-class referee John Coyle, supplies the boxers with gloves, shorts and gowns for their fights.

But the gym remains what it is – a thriving sweatbox of human activity housing up to 30 boxers a night.

Rowson reckons they are proving a saying doing the rounds right now that "London was, Manchester is, the Midlands will be", in reference to the shifting hotspots of the fight game.

As boxers skip with blinding speed, Errol is on his mobile, trying to get them fights.

Wednesfield's Steve Saville, who recently returned to the ring after a near six-year absence, is suddenly told he could be in action on Friday night at a show in Liverpool.

The workrate steps up when Mutley enters the ring. He is preparing for his latest fight – later this month – and spars alternate rounds with light-heavy Jonjo Finnegan and lightweight hope Scott Evans.

Straight away it is apparent that Mutley is in fine shape and the trainers are left silently nodding in agreement that the 32-year-old means business, as he unleashes a flurry of blurring combinations.

Apart from the sweat and workrate, it is also impossible to ignore the camaraderie and respect the boxers have for Johnson and Plant.

Harrison said: "If I won the Lottery, I'd buy Errol a car and Bob a house.

Plant added: "When people knock boxing, I could point to countless examples of how it has helped people. It's a beautiful sport."