Author: BOXEOMUNDIAL.COM
Photos: Gianluca (Rio) Di Caro
Date: 10/26/2009
ROONEY’S BOXING GYM
Marianne
‘Golden Girl’ Marston
Women’s boxing has justifiably been receiving a lot of
attention recently, firstly with the announcement that it will be included in
the London Olympics in 2012 and then the first live broadcast of an all female
professional bout, between Big Brother star Angel ‘The Artist’ McKenzie and Lana
Cooper, on British network television. In some ways it shouldn’t come as any
surprise that Boxing gyms up and down the country are suddenly beginning to take
female participation in the sport seriously. What may surprise some though is
that there is a gym in London that
not only has actively supported women’s boxing but has also been training female
fighters for a number of years.
The gym in question, Rooney’s Boxing Gym, formerly
Gleason’s London, has had many of
the best known female boxers, including five time World Champion, the late,
great Gisselle Salandy, Laura Saperstein, Angel ‘The Artist’ McKenzie, Marianne
‘Golden Girl’ Marston etc, train at their world class facility close to the
famous London landmark,
Tower
Bridge.
Now gym owner, top Irish boxing trainer and manager, John
Rooney Jnr. has taken his commitment to women’s fitness and boxing a step
further by adding a female personal trainer to his already exceptional coaching
team, which is headed up by Great Britain’s most successful coach ever, Terry
Edwards MBE.
In keeping with the high standards he has set for
his flagship gym, John Rooney Jnr. has recruited none other than the
aforementioned Marianne Marston. Going by the ring name 'Golden Girl', Marianne,
a prodigy of the legendary Heavyweight Champion of the World Smokin’ Joe Frazier
and Cruiserweight Champion of the World Steve ‘USS’ Cunningham, has spent
extended periods of time in America being coached by some of the biggest names
in the sport including Smokin' Joe Frazier, who is credited with discovering
this major talent, and his son Marvis at their landmark North Philadelphia gym
until it closed early in 2008.
She has also had the privilege of being personally
coached by ‘Trainer of the Year’ Freddie Roach at his Wild Card gym in LA and
Francisco Mendez at his NYC gym when she spent time in those cities. Marianne,
who is trained in London by Terry Edwards MBE, and John Rooney Jnr., is part of
Cruiserweight World Champion Steve 'USS' Cunningham's professional boxing team
and, when in America, is trained by Steve himself and famed female coach
Shar'ron Baker at the James Shuler Memorial Gym in West Philadelphia.
The training techniques of the world class coaches, and
those of her London based
conditioning coach Choleton Senior, Marianne has trained under have clearly
rubbed off on her. Her transition to coaching has been highly successful and has
led to her devising various boxing based fitness programmes, to suit people of
all levels of proficiency. In addition to personal one-2-one training Marianne
has recently started offering boxing based fitness classes for women.
The classes Marianne has developed, loosely termed
as Boxercise but not to be confused with the basic ‘glove wearing’ aerobic
classes of that name offered by general fitness centres, feature a combination
of core conditioning exercises and genuine boxing techniques. Following one of
these classes Marianne briefly spoke of her new role as a trainer.
“I feel honoured that a great coach like John
(Rooney) feels that I have what it takes to be one of his trainers. I mean, he’s
trained no less than 8 World Champions and has attracted top boxing coaches,
such as Terry Edwards, Darren Hamilton, Ben Day, Karol Ozimkowski and Ben
Doughty, for his gym. To be considered good enough to be part of such a great
coaching team is a true honour. I am so used to being the pupil that it felt a
little strange at first, being the teacher, but now I’m in the swing of things
I’m really enjoying every minute”.
“I remember what it was like when I first started
out and can relate to what my clients are going through. I must admit I do get a
kick out of seeing someone I’m working with develop, it makes me really pleased
for them, and proud at the same time. I also feel that it is helping me with my
own boxing training. This may sound strange but I find that I am now more
analytical on the ring-craft and boxing technique due to this. I honestly
believe that this is helping me to be a more technically minded fighter”.
On the subject of Marianne’s boxing career, if all
goes according to plan British boxing fans should see her in action later this
year on the undercard of Hammerin’ Hank Lundy’s UNBC Light Welterweight title
defence at the Trans-Atlantic Challenge event in London and American fans will
get the chance to see her early in 2010 when she will be on the undercard of
Brian ‘Bionic Bull’ Cohen’s WBC Continental Americas title defence in
Philadelphia.
Besides those times Marianne is in training
camp or competing she will be available at Rooney’s Boxing Gym for personal
one-2-one training (male or female) and her women only boxing fitness classes
are on Tuesday (7.30pm), Wednesday
(5.30pm), Thursday (7.30pm) and Saturday (2.00pm). Rooney’s Boxing Gym, Arch 895/896 Holyrood
Street, London SE1 2EL. Tel: 020 7403 6113 see www.rooneysgym.com for further
details.
(1) Votes 
Uruguay
Venezuela