(Audio only) From the Streets to the Sanctuary_ Boxing vs. Knife Crime

Pick up gloves, not knives."

In this heavy-hitting episode, hosts Richard and Mark are joined by Darrel McLeish, founder of the Christian Boxing Alliance (CBA). Darrel’s journey is one of radical transformation—from facing the consequences of street violence firsthand to becoming a leading voice in youth intervention through the "Sweet Science."  

With knife crime continuing to impact our communities in 2026, Darrel explains how the CBA uses boxing as more than just a sport. It is a tool for discipline, emotional control, and spiritual growth. We dive into the "why" behind the violence and how a boxing ring can provide the "gang" and sense of belonging that so many young people are searching for in the wrong places.

In this episode, we discuss:

Darrel’s Journey: How faith and boxing turned a life of aggression into a life of purpose.

Emotional Regulation: Why "acting on emotion" is the biggest threat to youth today and how boxing fixes it.

The CBA Mission: Bridging the gap between the church, the gym, and at-risk youth.

Real Solutions: What Richard, Mark, and Darrel believe is actually needed to stop the knife crime epidemic.

cboxingalliance@gmail.com 
ajollygoodnatter@gmail.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

We are live on TikTok. A very good afternoon to all of you fantastic TikTok followers. Now, we're doing this live on TikTok at the same time as we're doing a recording for the podcast, a Jolly Good Nature over coffee and biscuits. So you're either watching this live as it happens or you're watching it after the event, but either one is fine. As you know, my name is Richard Story, and I am joined as ever by my firstwhile friend and co-presenter, the fellow who never forgets his name. This is the thing that we're always astounded about, and he's just about to prove it once again. Go on, tell them your name.

SPEAKER_05 0:33

Is he looking it up?

SPEAKER_03 0:34

Yes, he has to look it up.

SPEAKER_01 0:37

Mark Cameron.

SPEAKER_03 0:40

Yeah, you're right. He's right. He's right. He's right. Although I'm a bit disappointed you had to look it up, but still. Um now, you may think, and you may think, that having Mark and I to co-present this little section is enough. Well we do. We do. However, in an unceasing attempt to give you the TikTok listeners and you the podcast followers, uh unceasing video and audio experience, we have today a special guest. We do. We do. Uh someone who, and now you'll know as well if you're a loyal follower of these things, but most of the things we talk about are utterly superficial and in aims. We tease each other. Well, he teases me. I don't tease him, I just I just tell the truth. But anyway, um today is going to be a bit more serious, all right. We shh behave, behave, see what I have to work with. Right, we have with us today uh a special guest who is involved in um a community activity, I think we can call it that, which is uh the least I can do to call it a very noble pursuit, a very noble uh pastime. And we're gonna find out all about it. So, ladies and gentlemen, I give you the one and only and incredibly indefatigable Mr. Daryl McLean.

SPEAKER_00 1:49

Thank you for having me. It's very honestly, thank you. It's great to be here um as friends together. Um, it's a pleasure. Uh by the way, just before we even get going, Mozart Bar, Annalie Roads, top coffee. It's amazing.

SPEAKER_03 2:04

There you go. That's what we like. That's what we like.

SPEAKER_00 2:07

It's blinding, and he never told me to say that neither. I'll promise you it's banging coffee really good.

SPEAKER_03 2:13

Um right. Well, Daryl, since you're our guest for the day, I mean I could just tell everyone what it is that you're involved with, but why don't you tell us yourself? Yeah, it'd be great. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:21

I don't know, there's so many kind of angles that I could sort of start from. But um, yeah, um, I'm involved in a boxing ministry, particularly a Christian boxing ministry, um, and it's where we get the church to set up boxing clubs, and we preach the gospel of Jesus at the end of it. Um, reason for this, um, we want to help people um learn discipline and let out their aggression in a controlled way through the sport of boxing. Um, and we believe that Jesus is the answer for everything. Um, so boxing's great, it's amazing, fantastic, it's proven to help people get out of knife crime and gang violence, but we believe that without Jesus it's all going to come to an end. And we, yeah, so we want people to know Jesus. So we do boxing and Jesus at the same time.

SPEAKER_01 3:11

Do you want to tell us how you started the what what's it called by the way? Just saying.

SPEAKER_00 3:18

This is that is it's called Christian Boxing Alliance. You can get these hats, they're coming out soon online, and it's got the boxing club on the side, and it says time to worship Jesus. Um, so uh I'll let you know anyway. If you if you anyway, we'll come to that later. So I'll run ahead of myself.

SPEAKER_01 3:32

Yeah, so yeah, tell us how how you started this, so and how long has it been going. Yeah, if you just give us a an outline of that, that'd be great. Because I I know personally, because obviously we'll get into it later, but yes, I know personally how it all started. But for the listeners and viewers, just let us know.

SPEAKER_00 3:49

Yeah, yeah, it all kicked off in in a nutshell. Um part of my own journey um when I was when I was a teenager, I used to get up to no good, um, try and at the big man, carried knives, stabbed people all the time. Um, would never fight someone face to face, was a complete coward. Um, I end up taking someone's life, spending time inside. Um, very look cut a very long story short. I I come to know Jesus, and um when I when I got released, I was like, there's a big problem in our nation. Um, life crime's out of control, there's family breakup, it's it's horrendous. Um, and I felt as a Christian, I felt called to do something about it. So I was having conversations with a pastor saying, What you know, why don't we set up a boxing ministry um where we can let particularly young people because you know life crime's gone up 81% in a decade, it's it's crazy, you know. Um, particularly young people, we can help them learn discipline through the sport of boxing and then preach the gospel of Jesus. Um and we was engaged in those sort of conversations, and then really sadly, um, there was a guy uh called Michael Jonas who was sadly killed in Betts Park, um, a stone's far away from our church. And it was really then that we said, this is on our patch, you know, we really need to get involved and do something. And then it was then that we said, why don't we go for it now? And then the pastor was great, he just got the got the church, you know, presented to him the idea of what we wanted to do. They just threw money at it and said, Let's go. We set up sessions in Annalie Town Hall. Um, um, we put the sessions on free for teenagers. Annalie Town Hall had been fantastic, they didn't charge us, we didn't charge them uh because they want to help the young people of the community as well. So, and then now we get to the Christian Boxing Alliance because it's been really successful in one area. Um people are saying, well, why don't you get other churches on board? Um so we've had messages from all over the place, people wanting to get involved. North Wales, Ireland, Scotland, Tanzania, would you believe it? Um, so yeah, we'll see what's going to come of it.

SPEAKER_01 5:49

Can I ask a couple of questions about so you've got your your young boxers? Can you tell us have any of your boxes actually competed, uh running run any belts, anything like that? Can you just let the listeners and viewers know?

SPEAKER_00 6:03

I just yeah, we we're very we're very early stages with it all. Um yeah, really early stages with it all. Um yeah, if you um yeah, what really interesting, there's a really in a nutshell, this guy came to us, he was getting into fights on the street. He he thought, I want to go to boxing to get on top of my aggression, um, say, or get on top of the aggression that was affecting his life. So he came down, um, got stuck into the training, he he won three bouts, and then he just said the next day, well, not exactly the next day, but he said, I've had enough, I don't want to do it anymore. He said, Boxing's helped me to get where I need to get, and it's helped me to reset and refocus my life again. Um, and he also said about the club, he said, I I don't just love you know the club, the boxing. He said, I love the message behind it. Um, I'm not saying he's a Christian or nothing like that, but he he loves the fact that sometimes after the session we've sat down with you know some of the some of the kids and and that we allow them to talk about things that are important like mental health, drugs, knife crime, bullying, all these things that we don't like talking about as blokes. Um we have we create this space. Um so yeah, one's uh three. There's there's been probably there's but probably been about seven or eight gone through the club, yeah, yeah, which have had a few bouts, yeah, a couple of wins and a few losses, yeah. So but I'm really I'm really proud of every single one of them. Like to get into a box, to walk into a boxing ring or into a boxing gym, let alone getting into the ring itself, takes a lot of courage. You know, you're going in there, you've got these people going bang, bang, bang, bang, bang on the bags, and it's like yeah, and so to get in there and then to leave everything, all the pride out of the door, to get in the ring and do it properly, like I've got so much respect from with boxing with when I was doing it uh with you there, Daryl.

SPEAKER_01 7:50

There's certain kids that I saw that were very shy when they first came in. Yeah, you know, that confidence when I worked with you, yeah. You saw kids developing in front of your eyes, they you know, they became you know young men, you know, overnight, as I say, didn't they? And it's really good to see them have confidence, speaking up, asking questions. So it builds confidence as well as control and aggression, which is fantastic. As you said, it redirects it in the right direction itself, as you mentioned, night crime and the gangs, which at the moment is soaring at the moment. That's the problem, and you're being a massive help in the not just in this area, but all over Kent area, isn't it? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 8:33

So what would uh what would a typical boxing session consist of?

SPEAKER_00 8:38

Oh bit of pad work, you know, they hold the mitts, pads, um pads, skipping, do a little bit of fitness, shadow boxing. Um, for those that are more advanced, taking it a little bit more seriously, turning up to training on time and not you know, like this when the coach ain't looking, um, they'll be put in for sparring. Um, and when they get a handle on in-club sparring, they'll go to out-of-club sparring, and then when they're ready to go into competition. So that didn't answer your question, did it? I went on a big tangent.

SPEAKER_03 9:08

No, no, that's all right. Now listen, I've got one of your flyers here. Right, yeah. Here's one of the flyers.

SPEAKER_00 9:13

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 9:13

You see? And I've had a look at it, and uh, there's one particular point I really want to highlight, because I think this is crucial. Um, obviously, when you're running something like this, you already said that um people have been very generous financially and that kind of thing. Um, but of course, there's elements of cost involved in something like this. And I see here that uh for seven to twelve it costs three pounds. I assume that means one pound, right? And for adults at the other end of the spectrum, it's five pounds. But crucially, for teenagers, it's free. Now, I've got to say, I think that is an absolute stroke of genius because they're the ones who you're really focusing on, like the ones who are at that very um impressionable time of their life, the ones who are probably uh are more vulnerable to peer pressure than any other age group. Um so to let them come in for free, I think is fantastic. Um so are there any you know particular instances from that age group where I mean you don't have to say names, obviously, but anything that's been really heartwarming where they've come in, shall we say, in a bad way, but they've left in a good way, thanks to their experience there in the boxing cup.

SPEAKER_00 10:14

Yeah, we we had we had a mother turn up with um I won't go I won't go into personal names, nothing like that, because I don't want to come on camera. But we had we had a mother turn up, she she brought her son with her, did very distraught. She said, the um his family member's been murdered. And she said, I'm really frightened that he's gonna go out and get revenge. She said, Can you help him? I said, Yeah, no problem. So he came down to he came down, um got stuck into boxing, did really well actually. First of all, we were you know kind of competing on a bit of a level. I was doing a little bit of moving around, sparring with him, then he just elevated. One day I got an uppercut out of nowhere. Where did that come from? So he was starting to get right into the boxing, which was brilliant. Um, he ended up competing, winning a few fights. What was really amazing, he had some mates that may have been getting up to no good, let me just say it like that. And he he would actually invite them to the club. Uh sorry, he'd invite them to competitions when he was going um on competition. So that was a really good, a really good witness like for all these mates to to see that happen. Um, yeah, and he he ended up uh winning some um cup within London as well. He got he did so well. Um, really, really, really I'm honestly so so proud of him. And um yeah, he's completely out of that lifestyle now. Um, yeah, just amazing. Um, there's another one as well, a kind of one I've just mentioned to you, but there was this other guy, I've got to tell you about his other keys uh um he was around about 18, I think. He loved the boxing. He he said it was great, he said, he said, this is amazing. Your your church really, you know, listens to young people, really gets alongside them. You've created a safe space for us. They said, like, they said it ain't even safe to walk down Crystal Palace Park or Bet's Park, like you know, people talled up all the time. But they said, This is safe, we feel cared for, feel safe. But he said to me at the end of the session, he said, Jesus ain't who he said he is. He said, That Bible is corrupt. He said, Jesus is just a bloke and that's it, you've got it wrong. And I said, Well, you know, we continue to love him, you know, he was coming. I said, You can still come to the session, that's absolutely fine, no problem at all. Um, but anyway, we had a bit of a back and forth, you know. I was challenging him on what he believes, he's challenging me on what I believe. We you know, kind of he was a maybe I upset him a couple of times as well, but you know what, we've got to get used to things like that in a day and age where we need to be able to disagree with agree to disagree with love and respect, right? Anyway, so he he didn't just leave the stallmart, he actually he went away, he was doing college and stuff like that. A few months later, he messaged me, he said, Where are you? I said I was a bit worried. I thought, where am I gonna get a kick in or something? He goes, No, I want to help set up the boxing tonight. He goes, I've got some good news for you. And he goes, Um, anyway, so he came down and helped setting up. He goes, I just want to let you know I've become a Christian. I was like, Oh wow, and I'm not joking. Uh I'm I'm in the session doing pad work with people. He's he's got tears in his eyes. Lit he says, I promise you got tears in his eyes. He's talking to me about Jesus. He said, I've never seen the world like this before. He said, I did, I had no idea that Jesus had done all this stuff for me. This is incredible, and he's crying. I'm sitting there padding someone thinking, mate, can you just turn it in? We'll have a chat afterwards. But but in my heart, I'm crying in my heart, like this is amazing, anyway. But just like little stories like that. I'm not saying I directly led in to the Lord, but this is what we're here for. We're here to kind of let people let out their aggression in a controlled way, let them have them difficult discussions, and if we can help out on the way we can. But there's that, and then there's others that have come to know Jesus as well. I mean, and just one more. There was last week at one of our other sessions up in Stroud. Um, we've got a session in St. Francis Struth. Um, yeah, uh, no, yeah, just time and time again, there's there's been kids turning up that are struggling, they don't want to come in, they're a bit fearful coming into the session, and they're pushing through it, they're getting on, they're responding. And uh at the end of the session, there was a couple of youngsters. The mum, the mum is already helping out, doing a fantastic job there. She said, Come on, lads, we've got to go home. They refused to leave until everything was put away because they want to they want to help, you know what I mean? Just setting and it's been it's been amazing. It really has amazing.

SPEAKER_01 14:34

That's a good point there. Uh me and you have spoken about this. I'm fortunate there isn't enough fathers around kids these days, so that's where the the discipline and respect has has sometimes been lost. So by coming to boxing, men when they get to teenage, you know, when they get to a teenager, they need their father around to control that aggression as well and help them guide them through those difficult years. And unfortunately, there is a lot of single um mothers which are bringing up young men, which can lead to the violence because mothers obviously working sometimes, doing the best she can, but she can't work and look after a son or sons and whatnot. Mention that as well, women do come to the session as well. Yeah, they do, yeah. That's the thing. So I know we've mentioned a lot about young boys and things like that. When I was working with you, there was a lot of you know, young girls coming in, they were like, you know, little teenagers, and they were doing really well as well. So it's really it's really it's not just a male-dominated gym or you know, a boxing alliance, it is much involved with women, young, young women as well, and yeah, it's just nice, it's really, really, really, really good.

SPEAKER_03 15:46

So, not only like on the face of it, you could all say, Oh, what a lovely thing this is, but you've actually got cast iron evidence that it's making a positive difference. And and that you can point to people who would be in a far worse place than they are had it not been what you're doing.

SPEAKER_05 16:01

So that's good.

SPEAKER_03 16:01

So suppose there's someone watching this recording or watching on TikTok on live live right now.

SPEAKER_01 16:07

Um a little bit because you're covering it with your hand, so you may start to hear the sound. Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:13

Um that's a bit of a swipe there, wasn't it? Yeah. I've been doing it all the time.

SPEAKER_03 16:21

For those of you watching recording. I I worry about him, I do. Um yes, if you're watching him on here or on here and you've got any questions, so if you're watching live and you've got any questions about this, please do type them in on the text and we'll read them out. If you're watching on the recording over there, uh you can send us an email to ajollygodnatter at gmail.com. Uh and with any other suggestions you have, we always like uh your suggestions about what we what to talk about, what topics, or what what guests to invite. But in particular today, if you've got questions about the Christian Boxing Alliance, now's your chance to find out all about it. So um, if someone was watching this and they did want to find out more, how can they contact you?

SPEAKER_00 17:04

Uh do you know what? They can call me on my mobile. Um, that's my most preferred way. Um, I love speaking to people just in person, but um, yeah, they can go to our our TikTok, Christian Boxing Alliance. If you if you private message me there, I can you know answer it that way. Or um if you go to our we got a gmail account, cboxingalliance at gmail.com. You remember? Yeah, I said that up. Yeah, the cboxingalliance at gmail.com and then our website, um, which is Christian Boxing Alliance. So the website at the moment is just just going through a bit of um renewal. So probably the the the the easiest way is through TikTok um and through the gmail account. Yeah. So once again, the so the gmail account uh you can contact us is cboxingalliance at gmail.com and our tick tock is Christian Boxing Alliance.

unknown 18:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 18:03

And is there a limit to how many people you can take?

SPEAKER_00 18:08

Oh, we don't worry about that. Just no, what it is, we're we're just calling kind of um churches to to get involved. So if if you're someone who I don't know, you could live in Tanzania, for example. Well, yeah, you you can live anywhere, right? And and you if you think, actually, I'd love this to run in my church, I'd love this. Um, reach out to me and and we can hook that up. Um, you know, we've got a safeguarding policy in place, um, we've got a code of conduct, um, all our coaches and all that are DBS, safe checked, and all that, um, and we can help you get set up, and then you can start this in your own your own place. We've got we've also got a lot of professional boxes. Well, we've got a couple of professional boxers on board as who love it as well, and they're you know, hopefully more will be joining soon. So, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:56

And and they don't have to be Christians, just to let you know, you don't have to be Christians to be part of this, just uh uh clarification because me and you've had questions over this in the past, but anybody can actually join. If you you're more than welcome, just go to it, you will have the time of your life, believe me.

SPEAKER_03 19:13

So yeah, you're based here in Annaly, yeah, but you mentioned that there are lots of other locations all over the place, and so I mean how how many are there in the UK at the moment?

SPEAKER_00 19:23

Uh at the moment, actually physically up and running, we've got three at the moment, but we uh so we've got uh Stroud, Annalie, and Harlow. Um but yeah, there's there's several, there's one starting in Chatham soon. Um, there's one starting in Dartford soon. Um, and yeah, there's set there's several more, but we it's just time resources at the moment, just getting there. We just got given um a van um and pop-up boxing ring, so we can you know focus on kind of not you know, we can branch out a little bit, but um yeah.

SPEAKER_03 20:02

So at the moment it's kind of London and the southeast.

SPEAKER_00 20:04

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 20:05

All right, so you heard it here first. If you are in that area and if you're even remotely interested in uh finding out more about this, you know what to do. You come and find the Christian Boxing Alliance site on TikTok. Is that what it's called? Christian Boxing Alliance. Yeah, uh, send a direct message to Mr. Darrell McLeish, um, ask him your question, whatever it is, and uh I'm sure he'll be able to point you in the right direction. Splendid, splendid. And now, dear listeners, we come to that part of the podcast which we know you all know and love so well. The thing which has taken us all by surprise in terms of terms of how popular it's become, and that is our taste test. Uh, and as our special guest, Daryl, would you be willing to participate with us in our taste test this time?

SPEAKER_00 20:46

Definitely.

SPEAKER_03 20:46

Thank you so much for being so willing. And the object under scrutiny on this occasion is this packet of MS, not just any old thing, MS mark you, MS Pick and Marks, you see Mark, pick and marks, marks and spenses again as pick and mix. Pick and marks Belgian milk chocolate malt balls. Ooh. So what we're gonna do is we're gonna try because someone has thoughtfully opened the packet already to save time, because it's nice to save time sometimes, isn't it? Okay, so we're gonna try these and give it marks out of ten. So the trick is we take one each, hold it in our hot fingers, hoping it won't melt too much, and then we're gonna try it all simultaneously at the same moment. So help yourself. That's a good job as a generous helping, isn't it? We might need more. I know.

SPEAKER_01 21:34

Okay. Hope you're gonna be alright with the boxing with uh all these topics. Uh starting out. Yeah, I think you are.

SPEAKER_03 21:41

I was thinking about joining your boxing club, but I'm not now.

SPEAKER_01 21:46

Ready?

SPEAKER_03 21:47

Right, here we go. Three, oh, oh, Kenneth. So lovely I dropped it.

SPEAKER_05 21:53

Oh, second roll.

SPEAKER_03 21:54

Right. Three, two, one.

SPEAKER_02 22:08

Well, surprisingly good. Consider we've never tried one of those before. So, Daryl, what's your first impression? Well, he obviously enjoyed it. I want to spill the paint so badly.

SPEAKER_03 22:23

Go on. Go on, tell us did you like that MS uh malted milk chocolate ball? The first time or the third time? Should we go there or not? Well, you want me to go there or not? Your overall impression, let's put it that way.

SPEAKER_00 22:39

They're lovely, they taste really nice. Um big and crunchy. Who to get your teeth into? Lovely and chocolatey. I'd definitely give them a 10 out of 10, 100%.

SPEAKER_03 22:50

Very good. And Marcus, what's your score?

SPEAKER_00 22:53

Nine.

SPEAKER_03 22:54

Okay. Well, my score is 9.705. What? 9.705? I thought you heard me. 9.705.

SPEAKER_01 23:10

Imagine you did this three times and your scores kept getting higher and higher.

SPEAKER_03 23:15

Well, that's because you you know sometimes you have to acquire a taste for something and you appreciate it more as time goes on.

SPEAKER_01 23:20

Yeah, imagine it was 9.5, then went up to 9.6 and 9.7. Imagine that.

SPEAKER_00 23:27

I'm feeling a bit sick as well. That's inflation for you.

SPEAKER_02 23:30

Really?

SPEAKER_00 23:31

Not for the reasons that you might think. I'm gonna have to say, I think the audience might want to know what I'm talking about.

SPEAKER_03 23:40

Well, anyway, there you have it. I think I think we'll probably can average as nine, can't we? 9.328. Yeah, gorgeous.

SPEAKER_01 23:50

Very loud watering.

SPEAKER_03 23:52

You're very kind, Kevin. I didn't know you cared. Right. Well, strangely, there aren't many left.

unknown 23:58

Anyway.

SPEAKER_03 24:00

Right, well, listen, folks, we have reached the end of this extraordinary episode once again. We'd like to say huge thank you to our special guest, Daryl McLeish. We wish you every success uh with your boxing club. Um, if you have been in any way touched or or uh impacted by what's no pun intended, by what you've heard him talking about, you can go to the Christian Boxing Alliance page here on TikTok and send him a direct message and he'll be able to be in touch with you and answer whatever questions you may have. Okay, so thank you very much. Thank you also to the wonderful Ken who's allowed us to uh come here to the Mozart Bar, uh Mozart London, 69 Annally Road SE19, where incidentally you can also buy signed copies of my books. But um changes um thank you for subscribing to our channel. We're desperately trying to get to 500 subscribers so we can go live on here instead of just uploading uh pre-recorded stuff all the time. So please consider subscribing to our channel. Thank you very much for all your kind attention. So, Mark, do you have any closing comments for um what you want to say? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:57

Yes, so contact Daryl at cboxarlines at gmail.com as well if you need to, which that is uh another form of communication and our email address there, Richard.

SPEAKER_03 25:08

We also have an email address, yes, which is a jollygoodnatter at gmail.com, where you can uh suggest to us any topics of conversation you'd like us to embark on and any special guests you'd like us to consider inviting. So there you go.

SPEAKER_01 25:22

Yeah, brilliant. Well, yes, be nice to each other.

SPEAKER_03 25:24

Be nice to each other, and as we always say at the end of these wonderful shows, don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened.

unknown 25:33

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 25:34

So you want me to smile because of a editorial blunder. Just saying, Mark, I have to get you back.