Joe Ainscough said that he was lucky to have a fall back option when his boxing career came to an end
20:00, 26 Jan 2026Updated 20:23, 26 Jan 2026
Joe Ainscough has called for more support of boxers (Image: Andrew Teebay Liverpool Echo)
A former boxer from Liverpool has called for greater support for fellow boxers who are forced to leave their careers in the sport behind. Having recently opened his own boxing gym, Just Fight L4 in Walton, as a child, Joe Ainscough, 46, had ambitions to become a boxer, but they were derailed significantly in his teenage years when he “took the wrong path”.
He told the ECHO: “I was literally on the wrong path, I’d been to jail already at 16 for selling drugs and I look back on it and I’m not embarrassed of it, but if I look at myself at that age, I think ‘what were you doing?’ I’ve got a son coming up to that age now and I was already in jail [at his age].”
However, it was thanks to walking past the same shop everyday in Walton that his life eventually started to take a turn for the better. He said: “A fella nine years older than me, Mick Garvey, had just opened a small tile shop on Walton Road and it was about 100 yards from where the gym is now and I was just passing by a few times and I kept asking for any work and one time I asked him, he said ‘go on, you can start on Monday’.”
Joe has recently opened his own gym(Image: Andrew Teebay Liverpool Echo)
He added: “From there I was working for him, just labouring and watching, learning and picking up the trade that way. So eventually, I decided to go out on my own and started advertising in the ECHO, I would just put ‘Joe, quality tiler!’ I’d go along to private jobs and I bought myself a little van, it was always a way for me to earn good money.”
Alongside his time working for Mick before going out on his own, he also started to continue his childhood dreams of becoming a boxer. Despite some setbacks he managed to have spells in both amateur and professional boxing, with highlights coming when he reached two ABA [Amateur Boxing Association] finals before he called time on his career when he was 33.
But, despite forging a successful career in the sport, Joe said that it is his time working as a tiler when he was a teenager that has set him up for where he is today. He said: “I was always still working alongside that [boxing] and I always kept up my work and I even set up my own tiling business when I was 23. That eventually transpired to working in full-time construction, which we do now. I own a building firm now, Uniquo Construction and we do a lot of student homes and we have a good team working for us.”
He had previously reached two ABA finals(Image: Andrew Teebay Liverpool Echo)
He added: “That’s enabled me to be in a position to fit the new gym out and ultimately buy the building in the future.”
After working in construction throughout his time as a boxer, his career after retirement was seamless, however he said that it is a very different situation for many others once they leave the sport. He said: “Every fighter looks at the bigger goal, which is being a really successful world champion with a lot of money, but it’s less than 1% that ever achieve that, so there’s 99% [that never achieve that]. Of those that come out [of the sport], I’d say two thirds of them don’t have any qualifications or skills to take into later life. They give everything to boxing, they put everything into it.”
He now runs his own construction firm(Image: Andrew Teebay Liverpool Echo)
He added: “I started boxing at eight-years-old, so I had been boxing for nine years before I started getting a trade behind me, but I was just so lucky that I did, because that is what has now enabled me to bring this gym to fruition first of all, but also, [it has enabled me] to have a good productive life.”
With so many retired boxers struggling when their careers are over, Joe thinks that more can be done by the British Boxing Board of Control to support boxers. He believes there should be an official community set up for ex-fighters, to share experiences and maybe to also help young boxers coming through. He said: “For me, I think a trade college is ideal because if you come out of your career at 30, you’re still a relatively young man, and you’ve still got 25 or 30 years of work left in you and the job opportunities for someone with no skills at that age is slim.”
He added: “That’s why I want to step in and try and upskill them and have a college where they can learn a decent trade and earn decent money.”
In response, Robert Smith, the General Secretary of the British Boxing Board of Control, said: “We have a charity that assists licence holders, which includes boxers should they fall on hard times. We have tried many avenues in the past, but uncontrollably licence holders, during the course of their careers have been unwilling to contribute. Should any boxers or any ex licence holders have any difficulties we are more than happy to assist and advise them accordingly.”