Boxing bow for Paige, aged 11 (From Dudley News)

Boxing bow for Paige, aged 11

12:50pm Thursday 1st November 2012 in Sport

A DUDLEY youngster has landed her first blows in the world of amateur boxing.

Paige Goodyear is just 11 years old but has already spent time training with Team GB at a training camp in Sheffield.

That followed a convincing victory in her first ever fight for Brooklands ABC, the club run by former Dudley favourite Darren McDermott.

Fighting at 45kilograms, Goodyear got the better of a hometown fighter at a club show in Congleton and won the plaudits of her coach.

McDermott said: “Paige is the first girl I have trained and she has really impressed me.

“I must admit, I was always a bit sceptical about women’s boxing, when I was an amateur and pro it was a very male sport but I have been won round.

“I think I was more nervous than she was before the fight, in the end she won quite easily.

“She also got the chance to train in Sheffield with Team GB last week and it is great experience for her.”

McDermott, who fought for both the British and Commonwealth titles during his career, set up Brooklands last year when he was forced to retire after suffering bleeding on the brain during training. The club is run out of his own home and things have been going so well McDermott has had to expand the premises. He said: “Things are going brilliantly, I have just had to put an extension on. “I’ve got around 40 training with me at the moment and 11 have been carded to fight.”