My name is Jordan Lynch and I'm an ex-professional local Sutton Coldfield Boxer and now owner of The Lions Den Gym.
My love for boxing began at a very young age. My Dad was a boxer in Ireland where he originated. He loved to watch boxing too. I can remember when I was around 6 years old and my Dad used to ask me what I'd like to watch on the television and my answer was always the same... Boxing! We had lots of videos of boxing at that time and whether I'd already watched it or not, I wanted to watch it again and again. As I got older my love for boxing grew; although I had never had any official training or entered any boxing classes, I was always fighting and training. Dad had boxing magazines ordered in at the local corner shop in Yorkshire where I grew up especially for us to read together and we used to go every Sunday together to collect them. On my 10th Birthday, he bought me my very first pair of gloves. I will never forget that day!
My Dad never wanted me to go into boxing because he himself suffered memory loss due to the sport in his amateur career, but my love for boxing was unstoppable.
I moved to Italy for a couple of years in my teens where I practiced unofficially in my spare time. It was a quiet village and there wasn't much opportunity in the boxing world there, but I made the time to fight and train wherever I could.
When we moved back to England, we moved to Birmingham. Just a few years after moving here, my Dad sadly passed away of Cancer. I was just 18 years old at the time and when I lost my Dad, I felt I had lost boxing too. So I unconsciously moved away from the sport, possibly to avoid the pain of losing my Dad. And so, I turned to Body Building in the view of entering competitions. During my training, I steered clear of boxing. One day, my trainer at the time asked me to do some pad work during training. From then on, the more I trained, the more I wanted to do pad work again and the less I wanted to lift weights. It was then that I realised what I truly had a love for. I decided to go back into boxing.
I started training again and sparring, but I was too big due to the body building and so had to get my weight back down, which I did quickly. I went on to have four fights with a record of 3- 1. My loss was a title fight and I started training towards a rematch. I was coming up to my fifth fight which was set to be held in Essex. I had my medical and it indicated an abnormality with my heart beat. My fight was cancelled as I needed clearance from the doctor and so I had to go through the process of getting the clearance I needed to get back in the ring and resume fighting. It took around 6 months to get clearance as it turned out that I had a heart murmur. Following various checks at the hospital, my heart murmur was determined normal and was eventually cleared.
Finally, after waiting for and receiving clearance, I had another fight booked in. I was just getting back into my training and putting the work in, becoming increasingly excited to finally get back into the ring again when just a few weeks before my fight was due, I felt a very strong pain in my abdomen during sparring. I was rushed off to hospital where I was told that I had a hernia. I was told not to train and put in for an operation. My fight was cancelled. After this, my friends and family didn't want me to return to boxing and I felt at that time that it was in my best interests that I didn't. I took three years out of boxing and never thought I would return to it again.
Coming up to my 27th Birthday, still following the boxing on television but never taking part; I had been following one of my idols UFC fighter, Conor McGregor. It was in watching his growth and transformation coupled with new influential figures who came into my life in 2016 that I finally re-found inspiration to go back into boxing. I realised that nothing can stop me. Not a loss, not a hernia, not a heart murmur, not what people tell me I should or shouldn't do... This is what I am destined for! Boxing is in my heart and this is my last chance!
With that, I joined a gym in Birmingham called FightDen where I began training with Shaun Cogan. Within the first day of entering the gym, Shaun asked me to enter a white collar event which would be held three weeks later. I had to drop a stone in three weeks to meet the weight which I did no problem. I won the fight and entered another one just three weeks later which I also won. Another two fights on and an SPBF Championship Belt in the bag, my boxing career progressed.
Since then, I went on to train and spar at Eastside with professional boxers including World, European and British Champions. I was signed to be managed by John Pegg and turned Professional in September 2016 after just 4 months of getting back into it. I won my Professional Debut fight in October 2016 against Grzegorz Semik, after which, myself and my partner Jessica opened our first private gym on the 1st May 2017 offering one-to-one private personal training sessions full time to the public, which became very popular just before my next bought which I then fought on 24th June 2017. Unfortunately, I lost this bout against Lewis Van Poetsch leaving me heart broken but eager to get straight back on the horse. I wanted to fight the very next month however as it was a technical knock out I had been signed off by the medic to say I would not be allowed to spar or enter any fights for 80 days and so I then focused my energy and kept myself occupied upon building clients at my new gym in the meantime.
Since then, The Lions Den Gym has thrived. We have moved to larger premises in Drayton Bassett where we now have a large team of personal trainers offering their services alongside me. We are concentrating now on growing the gym in size as well as our team.
In my Fathers memory, although he never wanted me to fight, it is one of the things which connected us the most and it makes me feel close to him being in the gym and in the ring every day.
In memory of Martin Lynch, a great Father, Boxer and role model.
My love for boxing began at a very young age. My Dad was a boxer in Ireland where he originated. He loved to watch boxing too. I can remember when I was around 6 years old and my Dad used to ask me what I'd like to watch on the television and my answer was always the same... Boxing! We had lots of videos of boxing at that time and whether I'd already watched it or not, I wanted to watch it again and again. As I got older my love for boxing grew; although I had never had any official training or entered any boxing classes, I was always fighting and training. Dad had boxing magazines ordered in at the local corner shop in Yorkshire where I grew up especially for us to read together and we used to go every Sunday together to collect them. On my 10th Birthday, he bought me my very first pair of gloves. I will never forget that day!
My Dad never wanted me to go into boxing because he himself suffered memory loss due to the sport in his amateur career, but my love for boxing was unstoppable.
I moved to Italy for a couple of years in my teens where I practiced unofficially in my spare time. It was a quiet village and there wasn't much opportunity in the boxing world there, but I made the time to fight and train wherever I could.
When we moved back to England, we moved to Birmingham. Just a few years after moving here, my Dad sadly passed away of Cancer. I was just 18 years old at the time and when I lost my Dad, I felt I had lost boxing too. So I unconsciously moved away from the sport, possibly to avoid the pain of losing my Dad. And so, I turned to Body Building in the view of entering competitions. During my training, I steered clear of boxing. One day, my trainer at the time asked me to do some pad work during training. From then on, the more I trained, the more I wanted to do pad work again and the less I wanted to lift weights. It was then that I realised what I truly had a love for. I decided to go back into boxing.
I started training again and sparring, but I was too big due to the body building and so had to get my weight back down, which I did quickly. I went on to have four fights with a record of 3- 1. My loss was a title fight and I started training towards a rematch. I was coming up to my fifth fight which was set to be held in Essex. I had my medical and it indicated an abnormality with my heart beat. My fight was cancelled as I needed clearance from the doctor and so I had to go through the process of getting the clearance I needed to get back in the ring and resume fighting. It took around 6 months to get clearance as it turned out that I had a heart murmur. Following various checks at the hospital, my heart murmur was determined normal and was eventually cleared.
Finally, after waiting for and receiving clearance, I had another fight booked in. I was just getting back into my training and putting the work in, becoming increasingly excited to finally get back into the ring again when just a few weeks before my fight was due, I felt a very strong pain in my abdomen during sparring. I was rushed off to hospital where I was told that I had a hernia. I was told not to train and put in for an operation. My fight was cancelled. After this, my friends and family didn't want me to return to boxing and I felt at that time that it was in my best interests that I didn't. I took three years out of boxing and never thought I would return to it again.
Coming up to my 27th Birthday, still following the boxing on television but never taking part; I had been following one of my idols UFC fighter, Conor McGregor. It was in watching his growth and transformation coupled with new influential figures who came into my life in 2016 that I finally re-found inspiration to go back into boxing. I realised that nothing can stop me. Not a loss, not a hernia, not a heart murmur, not what people tell me I should or shouldn't do... This is what I am destined for! Boxing is in my heart and this is my last chance!
With that, I joined a gym in Birmingham called FightDen where I began training with Shaun Cogan. Within the first day of entering the gym, Shaun asked me to enter a white collar event which would be held three weeks later. I had to drop a stone in three weeks to meet the weight which I did no problem. I won the fight and entered another one just three weeks later which I also won. Another two fights on and an SPBF Championship Belt in the bag, my boxing career progressed.
Since then, I went on to train and spar at Eastside with professional boxers including World, European and British Champions. I was signed to be managed by John Pegg and turned Professional in September 2016 after just 4 months of getting back into it. I won my Professional Debut fight in October 2016 against Grzegorz Semik, after which, myself and my partner Jessica opened our first private gym on the 1st May 2017 offering one-to-one private personal training sessions full time to the public, which became very popular just before my next bought which I then fought on 24th June 2017. Unfortunately, I lost this bout against Lewis Van Poetsch leaving me heart broken but eager to get straight back on the horse. I wanted to fight the very next month however as it was a technical knock out I had been signed off by the medic to say I would not be allowed to spar or enter any fights for 80 days and so I then focused my energy and kept myself occupied upon building clients at my new gym in the meantime.
Since then, The Lions Den Gym has thrived. We have moved to larger premises in Drayton Bassett where we now have a large team of personal trainers offering their services alongside me. We are concentrating now on growing the gym in size as well as our team.
In my Fathers memory, although he never wanted me to fight, it is one of the things which connected us the most and it makes me feel close to him being in the gym and in the ring every day.
In memory of Martin Lynch, a great Father, Boxer and role model.
My Father, Martin Lynch holding me as a young lad.