Interview with Tex Woodward
Interview and photo
by Mary Ann Owen of BILV

(OCT 23) Mary Ann Owen interviews English Boxing Trainer / Manager Tex Woodward. The seventy plus trainer is still going strong training at the Spaniorum Farm Gym in South Gloucestershire, England.

BILV: How did you start out in boxing?

TW : I started boxing in 1947 being trained above the village pub. by an old bare-knuckle fighter. I have always said I did the training to be extra fit for my , then, favorite game of football. However I have always been competitive so that may have been the real reason.

BILV: Did you fight in the amateurs, if so what was your record and did you win any titles, Golden gloves etc..

TW: As an amateur I think I had a 100 or so fights and believe I won about 80% of them. In 1951 at seventeen and a half years old I joined the RAF and became a Physical Training Instructor. At 18 years old I trained the RAF Hednesford boxing team to win the Wakefield Trophy (Novices Team Championships) 

I later won RAF Group and Command Champs myself and boxed for the RAF team. My greatest success was winning the “Britannia Shield” which was competed for by all Air Forces in Europe, including the American and Canadian teams.

BILV: Were you a Pro Boxer, if so when did you turn Pro and were you a contender?

TW : I turned professional in 1956 having nine fights and winning seven. In 1957 I stopped boxing, got married and rejoined the RAF ( Royal Air Force). I was almost immediately involved with training boxers, working with the Ghana Boxing Team for The Commonwealth Games in Cardiff. After this I taught boxing full time to RAF Boy Entrants for 4 years during which time the station team RAF St. Athan won the RAF Junior Team Champs twice and on one occasion the two teams entered winning first and second place.

During my stay at RAF St. Athan I had over 40champions ranging from RAF Juniors to Welsh A.B.A. heavyweight champion In 1962 I was coach to the Welsh ABA team at the Commonwealth Games in Perth Australia
As I was fit and sparring with my trainees every day I started pro-boxing again. This time I had eleven fights winning six.

BILV: When did you start training fighters?

TW: In 1963 I moved to RAF Northolt (London Area) for a year, during which I worked evenings as a coach at the famous West Ham ABC. I also coached at Ilford Youth Club.

In 1964 I left the RAF and came to live in Bristol, West of England area, with the intention of opening my own gym. I soon learnt that civilian life was very different from ‘service’ life, exchanging a pleasant married quarters house for a caravan in the corner of a field. With a wife and three children to accommodate I slept in my truck. I worked nights for the local paper and in the day did removals and whatever else I could do to make money. I was still boxing and trained at whatever time of day or night I could manage. Within a year we moved from the caravan to a flat and then to a house where we all had our own bedrooms - luxury!

Through my removal work in the daytime I learnt a little about antiques and heard one of the dealers I knew was selling a small shop. I borrowed money from the bank and bought it. As soon as I had repaid the bank I gave up my night-time job and started an early morning job collecting churns of milk from local farms. The shop went well and I progressed to a bigger shop where we lived. Dealing was taking a lot of my time but I was always looking for somewhere I could open a gym. To keep fit I played and coached squash for a couple of hours each day.

My antique/second-hand dealing progressed and I wanted a bigger property with more storage space and pleasant living accommodation. I found a farm in the nearby countryside where I had pinched apples from when I was a boy and could never have dreamt of owning it. My wife, Pat, a born and bred “townie” was apprehensive about the move from Bristol but, as usual, supported me and we moved into Spaniorum Farm with it’s large spacious barns. I was still looking for space for a gym in town when I realized an old army hut, that had been used as a chicken shed and storage, was the same size as one of the gyms I had had in the RAF. It had no side wall or floor but that was quickly overcome, and with a boxing ring, punch bag, speed ball and a top and bottom ball, the farm gym was opened to local villagers and amateur, and the occasional professional, boxers. 27 years later the gym had expanded from what was once an old cider factory, now housing three boxing rings, numerous punch bags, a weights room, sauna, changing rooms and showers - and more recently a sports memorabilia and clothing shop.. Pictures of the gym can be seen on the website: www.spaniorumboxing.co.uk

BILV: Who was the first female fighter you trained?

TW: Over the years many boxers have used the gym, good amateurs and top class professionals including Lennox Lewis and Frank Bruno plus the UK’s first and most successful woman boxer Jane Couch. Male and female boxers from many different countries have trained at Spaniorum. Over the years I have trained several female boxers. Two with outstanding potential were Claire Cooper and Sandra ‘Midget’ Rouse. Both these girls could hit very hard. Claire didn’t lose as an amateur or pro’, but after a very brief career turned to ‘punk rock’ singing. Midget showed great ability in the gym, sparring countless rounds with Jane Couch, however the thought of performing in front of a crowd did not appeal to Midget. She has always kept an interest in the sport as a close friend of Jane and is an asset to me as an assistant second.

BILV: How many fighters are you training now, and who are they?

TW: At the moment I am only working closely with three professionals and one good amateur. Jane Couch and Danny Butler, an eighteen year old light-middleweight who has started his career with three straight wins. Also Chris Long, a light welterweight and competitive battler. It is better I don’t mention the potential star amateur, as there is still a lack of acceptance by the ABA of England that amateurs and pros should mix. My thoughts on not using professional coaches? “You wouldn’t go to an amateur dentist for treatment”.

BILV: In your opinion what is the difference between American trained fighters & English trained? Does the English fighter have an advantage or the American?

TW : I think that with so much boxing from different countries being shown on TV the styles are beginning to blend. Having said that the Eastern Europeans are still very upright, maybe they don’t see so much TV.
I would suggest that the main advantage the American boxers have over the Europeans, is that they have a far larger number of competitors, and those who get to the top have had a much longer ladder to climb, and are therefore more experienced.

BILV: Compared to all the other fights that Jane has had, how does her last fight with Holly Holm compare as far as being competitive and tough.

TW: In the ten years or so that I have been training Jane, the hardest fight that she has ever had, and will probably be the hardest she will ever have, was with French girl Sandra Geiger, Jane’s first fight with me as a trainer in 1996, in a brutal war in Copenhagen when Jane was taken as an opponent, but through sheer fitness and determination, belying her lack of skill, she won the WIBF title. Such was the surprise result we weren’t even invited to the after-celebration party! Comparatively, Holly Holm was not so dangerous.

Tex can be contacted at TexWoodward@aol.com 

©Courtesy Interview article by Mary Ann Owen - BILV