Life goes on for Darren McDermott

Dudley's Darren McDermott is looking to the future after opening his own amateur boxing club – but Gerald McClellan's plight made him realise how lucky he is.

The former Midlands and English middleweight champion, who also challenged for the British and Commonwealth titles, saw his career come to a sad end in September of last year.

McDermott was training for a shot at the British super middleweight title against Paul Smith when a stray blow to the head from Nathan Cleverly, now a WBO world champion, left him in real danger.

Brain surgery saved his life but ended his career at 32, leaving a huge void in his life that could only be filled by staying in the sport.

Today, the 33-year-old is content again after opening his own amateur boxing club, Brooklands ABC, named after his house and ran out of his home gym in the back garden in Woodsetton, Sedgley.

His first five fighters have been cleared and carded and the club already has ABA club status, with McDermott getting back the amateur trainer's licence he had from his days with Priory Park ABC.

On Saturday, 'the Black Country Bodysnatcher' threw open his doors to welcome the friends and family of his fighters, so it's just as well there's a barbeque and pub in the back garden as well.

That said, the amateurs of Brooklands ABC had better not get used to it, parents are banned from the gym!

But all of it pales into insignificance to the moment McDermott really realised how lucky he was to be alive, after watching the documentary marking the aftermath of McClellan's war with Nigel Benn.

Some 16 years after the fight, viewers watched on ITV4 this month the extensive brain damage McClellan suffered from boxing, left blind, almost deaf and unable to work without assistance.

McDermott may not be boxing anymore but he is still in control of his faculties, able to work for a living and get about as he chooses, leaving him very grateful for short mercies.

He said: "Watching that programme made me realise just how lucky I was, because I didn't know how bad Gerald McClellan had got.

"Somebody phoned me straight after and said 'someone was looking after you, Darren, when that happened to you.'

"The things that he was doing in the ring that night, that was exactly how I felt. Like when he was touching his eye as if it was bleeding.

"When I had bleeding onto my brain, it popped something in my eye. It felt as if there was blood running down the front of my eyeball.

"I kept touching it and looking in the mirror and there was nothing there, but it looked as if my eye was bleeding.

"To see him now and this is me, I have just got to thank my lucky stars that someone was looking after me."

What's past is past in McDermott's eyes 13 months on from his dice with death and the amateurs of Brooklands ABC represent his future in boxing.

There's no way he won't be looking after his fighters – after all, the jewel in the crown is his younger brother, Jason.

The light middleweight, 28, turned pro but didn't fight and has gone back to the unpaid ranks, hoping to bring one of the best prizes in the domestic game, the ABA title, to the stable next year.

Cradley's Jacob White and Wednesfield's Dean Taylor, both 16, will be in the ABA Juniors while Sedgley's Jack Griffiths, 16, and Wolverhampton's Ethan Collins, just 14, are works in progress.

Running the show is McDermott, who insists they will be "looked after."

He said: "At the minute, the pros isn't interesting me, I am getting a buzz from watching these kids because that's where I started off.

"I can't wait, I have got five kids now signed up who have had their medicals and, after Christmas, should be out and about.

"I am there for it and I will put 100 per cent in with them. If they put it in, I will put it in, and nobody let me take shortcuts.

"It's a hard game but I was looked after, like I think all kids should be. You don't want get to 18 and 19 and be burned out.

"You seen them kids all of the time that get put in, they are above themselves, they get hurt and it knocks the stuffing out of them.

"Then the next time they fight, they beat by an easier kid because it isn't there anymore, once you get beat in the amateurs it's hard to take.

"If you want a long journey to the pros, you don't need hard fight after hard fight as an amateur."

The professional boxing career of the younger McDermott ended before it had started, after he pulled out of his debut fight in March of last year citing a family emergency.

His busy life has seen him follow big brother back into the amateur game, a decision that the elder McDermott believes is the right one.

He said: "I have told my brother that if he can't put 100 per cent in of his time, don't turn pro.

"He's got his own business as an electrician and never knows when he can get to the gym. He does it to enjoy it, he doesn't do it as a job.

"All of these people who think that boxing is a hobby have got the wrong impression, because being a pro is a full-time job.

"And it's the hardest paid sport in the world."

By Craig Birch

Follow Craig Birch on Twitter @Craig417