John Oliver Interview: "Ringside Rest and Care is needed in boxing!"

I recently spoke to John Oliver - former professional boxer, trainer, and one of Anthony Joshua's discoverers - about an organisation he is one of four trustees of: Ringside Rest and Care. He talked me through their aims, activities, and future endeavours. Their primary goal is to provide a place for retired boxers to recuperate once their career has ended due to unfortunate circumstances. John's own nephew, former European super bantamweight champion Spencer Oliver, had his own career cut short due to an injury sustained in the ring, so this is a topic John knows much about.

No Holds Barred: Who came up with the idea of Ringside Rest and Care?

John Oliver: It started in January this year by Dave Harris, who is the President of the Hastings ex boxer’s association. Dave was a former manager/promoter, back in the day. He also started the British ex-boxer’s Hall of Fame, which many people said wouldn’t last; well, that was four or five years ago, and that’s a fantastic association, putting all the British ex-boxers into the Hall of Fame. They had to cap it this year to four hundred; as soon as we put it out there, it sold out straight away. So, those who said it wouldn’t last were wrong.

No Holds Barred: Where is the British ex-boxer’s Hall of Fame held?

John Oliver: It’s down in Essex this year, in Orsett Hall Hotel. They’ve got new inductees this year. We’ve got all sorts of inductees: former world champions like John Conteh, Frank Bruno, and many who have passed away. All the Welsh ones like Johnny Owen, Howard Winstone; they’re all there.

No Holds Barred: Does it have an official home or is it held in different venues each year?

John Oliver: It started off in Hastings, and the idea is to move it around the whole country, so each ex boxer’s association gets an opportunity to present it and promote it. Non-members can go too. The idea is for it to get better and better, and to grow every year; and that’s exactly what has happened. In the five years it’s been running, it’s got bigger every year. As soon as it’s advertised, it sells out completely.

No Holds Barred: So, what are Ringside Rest and Care’s aims?

Ringside t-shirt

John Oliver: Well, this should have happened ages ago; this type of thing should have happened fifty years ago. Dave knocked it around and asked various people and said, ‘yeah, let’s run with it’. I’m doing the collating of people who have been injured in boxing and now need help. Not only injured, but also people who have suffered from mental health issues, and people who are struggling with alcohol and drug problems, that type of thing. And, they might not just have problems caused by boxing, but other things like life problems outside of the ring. We’ve got nowhere to put these people: they’re just left on their own to deal with it. The idea is to get our own home up so we can look after them ourselves; they’ll have their own environment. We’re looking for a thirty-six-room home where they can have their own TV room, can have a non-alcoholic bar, where they can watch and discuss their fights on film, and have short-term and long-term care. It’s a big thing; it’s taken off since January, getting bigger and bigger. We’re initially talking about a thousand licensed professional boxers here, but then we’ve got thousands of amateur boxers too; just because they’re amateur doesn’t mean they won’t get hurt.

No Holds Barred: What sort of things are you doing to get things moving forward?

Ringside calendar

John Oliver: We’ve got a fundraiser going on every single week with massive amounts of money pouring in.  We haven’t had our charity status confirmed yet, but it’s been applied for and it’s imminent. Hopefully we should get it before the end of this year. Once that happens, it will really take off. We have to prove to the various companies we have on board, and the charity commission, that we can do this. I think we’ve done that for the charity commission by the money we’ve brought in so far and the interest in it. We’ve got thirty-eight people injured or need help with mental health problems, that sort of thing, going back thirty odd years. We have roughly a thousand licensed boxers in the UK, but we’ve got nothing like this for our boxers. When you look at boxers over the years who have had to retire for various reasons, nobody has been there to help them. Even when I retired myself back in the 1970s, there was nothing; no support from managers, promoters, nothing. We’ve got the British Boxing Board of Control [BBBoC] on board; we're independent from them, but they’re supporting us. We’ve got a calendar coming out in 2020, with champions on every page.

No Holds Barred: What sort of things have the ambassadors for Ringside Rest and Care and others done to contribute to the cause?

Charlie Edwards signing poster

John Oliver: We’ve got ambassadors like John Conteh, Ken Buchanan, Frank Bruno, Duke McKenzie, John Lyon, Dick McTaggart, James Cook, Michael Watson, Alan Minter, Charlie Edwards, Terry Waller, Andy Brace, Lee Pullen, Matt Christie, and so many more. We’ve had a team of boxers jump from three miles up in an aeroplane; Scott Welch is going up Mount Kilimanjaro; Matt Christie of Boxing News mentions us every week. We’ve got so much support.

No Holds Barred: I presume the wait for the charity status to be confirmed is so that they can be sure everything is legitimate?

John Oliver: Yes, that’s right. We’ve got four trustees: Dave Harris, Paul Fairweather, Karen Knight, and myself. We all have to liaise with each other to make sure everything is right and above board. We’re all working hard every week to bring more money in and to prove to the charity commission we can do this.

No Holds Barred: How is the BBBoC involved?

John Oliver: Well, we're independent from them, but we all have to work with the same intentions to get this to work. They can’t not help us; they’re our bosses, if you like. They’ve got to support everything we do, and we’ve got to support everything they do. Financially, they’ve helped us too. The situation is that when boxers are hurt or fallen by the wayside in years to come when they’ve retired, the BBBoC can’t be on their own to finance these people because they just don’t have enough money; that’s just the situation. Also, Simon Block - the former general secretary of the BBBoC - he writes songs. Our intention is for us at Ringside Rest and Care to have a song, similar to Live Aid. We already have the song; it’s just being tweaked. All the champions - British champions and World champions - will be singing that song. The song just needs some alterations and then it will be released. We’ve already got the backing of Abbey Road studios, where the Beatles recorded, so it’s really getting bigger and bigger. Once we get charity status, the official record launch will be in one of the big hotels in London; that’s our aim.

No Holds Barred: Is the government involved?

John Oliver: No. But, once we get charity status, who knows? We don’t know if the National Lottery would be interested maybe too. It’s not just boxing, there are all sorts of sports that need this sort of help. I can’t really speculate if the government will help in future though.

No Holds Barred: Do you know what happens with athletes in other sports who need care once they retire?

John Oliver: As far as I’m aware, each sport has their own individual set-up. There was an idea in an initial meeting that we go along with the Football Association and let them help our injured boxers. The thing is though, their association, which is to help footballers, aren’t going to turn around and say, ‘look there are some boxers who need help, let’s get on board’, because they’re interested in their own sport.  

No Holds Barred: What is the current situation for care for ex-boxers?

John Oliver: Basically, they leave the arena, they have to retire because the BBBoC take their licence away or they fail a medical, and that’s it: you’ve got no licence, can’t fight, end of. Then, you’re unemployed, you can’t get a job, some have mental issues, and that’s it, there’s no help for them. We want our own home so these people can get the care they need. We’ve got people in wheelchairs who have parents in their eighties who can’t cope with it really. If we had our own home, they could have a week off so we could look after their sons; it gives them a break, and they know their loved ones will be cared for.

No Holds Barred: How have the BBBoC helped on the safety front in British boxing?

John Oliver: The BBBoC are constantly looking to make our sport safer: they’ve introduced the reduction of rounds from fifteen to twelve for championships; they’ve introduced two-minute rounds, from three minutes, in some areas; referees are now stopping fights sooner than what they were - letting boxers live to fight another day. So, they’re looking at these things. I mean, if you look at Michael Watson and Mark Goult when they got injured, they never had a doctor at ringside in those days. So, the BBBoC have looked at improvements with each injury and death; they’ve got doctors and paramedics ringside now, for professionals and amateurs. What happens now when somebody is injured and looks bad, during what’s known as the ‘golden hour’ - from ring to operation room - boxers are more likely to be saved from injury. This is what happened to my nephew: he was knocked out in a title fight, and within the hour he was operated on for a blood clot on the brain and was saved. Now, he’s walking around normal, he’s working for Sky TV, training boxers, and doing well. That was thanks to improvements by the BBBoC.

No Holds Barred: Is there anything else like this in the world?

John Oliver: No, nothing. I mentioned that to one of the trainers in America, because I go to Las Vegas quite often, and they said it can’t happen out there because it’s too big. I mean, when you look at America, they’ve got thousands and thousands of boxers, because they’re such a vast country. Not only that, they’ve also got so many states, so it’s really complicated to do something like this. So, this could be the start of something really huge in boxing. If we can make a success of this in the UK, there’s no reason to say it won’t work in other countries.

No Holds Barred: Is there a call for something like this to happen in other countries?

John Oliver: No. Dave Harris thought this up and we’re backing him as a family and as a group. This is going to be the first one of its kind anywhere.

No Holds Barred: In the long-term, do you think you might receive help from the various world boxing organisations out there?

John Oliver: It could grow, I can’t see why not. The BBBoC support us, and there’s no reason the various boxing organisations shouldn’t back us once they get to know about it. But, let’s get this off the floor first.

Bushey Boxing Club raising money

No Holds Barred: How can people get involved?

John Oliver: They can join us on Facebook at our group Ringside Rest and Care, or go to our website at www.ringsiderestandcare.com where they can go to the shop and buy t-shirts, key-rings, caps, stuff like that, or just donate money to us for our cause. They can also do fundraising if they want to get involved that way: contact Dave Harris or Paul Fairweather for more information. All the information is on our website.

No Holds Barred: Thanks, John. It’s been a pleasure talking with you and I wish you all the best for Ringside Rest and Care.