Leeds boxing coach writes gangster film starring fighters from his club

Former boxer Lee, 46, said the film called 'Straight'ner' is based on a true story after he was asked around three years ago to referee a boxing match to settle a long running argument between two men.

Lee said the bout never happened, but it gave him an idea for a story.

He added a gangster twist to the story and his film has the adversaries as members of rival gangs.

Self-proclaimed former gangster turned author Dave Courtney makes a cameo appearance in the film.

Lee said the feature length film was made by Global Media during lockdown, mostly at Bethlehem Boxing Club in Richmond Hill, Leeds.

He has helped hundreds of youngsters at the club, which doubles up as a boxing training and keep fit venue and a youth club.

Lee, who is the son of Irish parents, was the first Leeds-born winner of the Irish light middleweight title, which he won in Belfast in July 2012.

He was just days away from his 40th birthday in 2013 when he had his final fight in a baseball stadium in Rochester, New York.

Lee fought and narrowly lost on points to Hector Camacho Jnr, whose father Hector Camacho Snr was a multiple world boxing champion in the 1980s.

Lee was filmed over ten days in the build up to that fight, which was made into a movie called Fighting Down in Bethlehem by Leeds filmmaker Ronald Wright.

Lee said the experience never left him and he has wanted to make his own movie ever since.

Lee said: "This is not a low budget but a no budget film. There are no actors in it, it's all people from the gym."

Lee said he told the boxers what the story was for each scene and let the action flow.

He said: "There was no script so there were no lines to learn and no lines to fluff - everything was ad libbed."

Ex-Leeds boxer Ashley Crawford - a three time world title challenger - appears in the film along with World Boxing Union champion Tasif Khan, of Bradford.

And it features the world's oldest boxer - heavyweight Steve Ward, 63.

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Laura Collins