Forest Fighting Fit Boxing Ring Faces Closure Due to Damage
The ring at Forest Fighting Fit has taken its last punch.
After more than a decade of repairs, patches and relentless community use, the boxing ring at the Parkend gym in Gloucestershire has been condemned as unsafe by head coach Michelle Gardiner, who describes the damage as “diabolical”.
The problems are everywhere you look. The posts stand bare with no padding. The boards underfoot wobble. The ropes won’t hold their tension for long. For a sport built on balance and control, the platform at the heart of this gym now works against both.
Storm Bert, which swept through the Forest of Dean in November 2024, landed a heavy blow. The gym has suffered two flooding incidents, both centred around the ring. Even though it is raised off the floor, damp has crept into the structure and weakened it further.
“It is elevated but I think a lot of the damp’s got into it,” Gardiner said, accepting that the ring has simply reached the end of its life.
Replacing it will cost £3,500 – money the gym does not have. A new ring would not just plug a gap; the club says it would open the door to expanding programmes across ages and abilities, while improving safety and accessibility for disabled participants.
Grant applications have come to nothing. After “no luck” securing formal funding, Gardiner and her team have turned to the community they serve, launching a crowdfunder. Local firm Suntory Beverage and Food in Coleford has stepped in to match all donations, doubling every pound that comes in.
For families like the Morgans, the stakes are personal. Emma Morgan’s daughter, Lily, first walked into Forest Fighting Fit at the age of four, clinging to her mother’s leg. Now 10, she competes in front of thousands in national and international kickboxing events.
“She's won the WKO World Championship Gold, she's done two Grand Prix, the European,” Morgan said, reeling off the achievements that grew from that nervous first session on the mats.
Lily has a path. Others are stuck.
Without a functioning ring, Morgan says, children at the gym cannot make the natural step from kickboxing into boxing. Sparring, ringcraft, learning how to move in the corners and along the ropes – all of it depends on having a safe, solid ring.
“[A new ring] would bring their confidence up; it's all about confidence,” Morgan said. “It's a really good team atmosphere when we're all there.”
That atmosphere stretches across generations. Forest Fighting Fit, which has recently achieved charity status, draws in people from four to 69 years old, Gardiner said. For many, the gym is more than a place to train; it is a routine, a support network, a way to test themselves.
Right now, the heart of that space stands damaged and unusable, the boards and ropes telling their own story of storms, sweat and time. The next chapter depends on whether the community – and the businesses around it – can help the gym climb back through the ropes.
