Boxing: Welsh's bid to turn wayward teenagers around

The surroundings of Holyrood Boxing Gym are of a battered and bruised style that will endear watchers of Rocky films, not dissimilar to the Mighty Mick's gym frequented by Sylvester Stallone's heroic celluloid pugilist.

Two rings, an exercise area, and a forest of punch bags form the raw ingredients that Bradley Welsh "begged and borrowed" in order to establish his project, but - deliberately - there is little comfort to offset a hard workout.

He asks if I want the heating on. "This is the central heating," he says, as he starts to run furiously on the spot.

Welsh is taking a break from teaching the rudiments of the sport to a London-based professional on business in Edinburgh who is due to contest a white collar boxing event in the coming weeks.

It's a shift away from his staple diet of encouraging and cajoling younger Capital boxers who drift in and out these doors every day in their hordes.

"People gravitate here throughout the whole day," says Welsh. "We get 40-50 people here every day, making it the busiest boxing gym in Edinburgh." Welsh's aim for the gym in Craigmillar is to lead local teenagers onto a path different, and more disciplined, to the one he walked earlier in life. The 39-year-old is a well-known former football casual and, after a time spent in jail, became a Scottish amateur lightweight champion.

He is appreciative of the steadying hand that boxing has lent him.

"Boxing should be up there with football and rugby," he argues. "It is the most pure sport, and teaches control."

His target market is made up of people from all walks of life, including those who merely want to keep fit. It is obvious, however, that Welsh would like to turn things around for young locals who aspire to be "gangsters with a fancy car and a gun, and cash under the bed", and he praises the actions of MSP Kenny MacAskill, the cabinet secretary for Justice, who helped push through legislation that is designed to redistribute the profits from crime.

Welsh describes professional boxing as "barbaric" but extols the benefits of training and competition to hundreds of youngsters. He insists he has not set out to find the next child prodigy and explains that Holyrood is not designed as a champion-making factory.

"We've put 60 novices through the novice championships in the past three years. The main aim for people here is to keep fit, but if they go on to do boxing competitively, great."