When you’ve been in boxing as long as Alex Morrison has been in boxing, you think you’ve seen it all.
Then comes the call: “There’s a wee girl from Kiribati who’s competing in the Commonwealths and wants to train at your place. And have you got any women she can box? She’s never fought one of them before.”
Not only had Taoriba Biniati only ever boxed men, until she arrived at Morrison’s Glasgow gym last Monday she had never been in a ring. The Kiribati boxing club consists of a punch bag hanging from a breadfruit tree.
Morrison is the manager of former two-weight world champion Ricky Burns and has been promoting boxing in Scotland since the 1970s. In short, he is made from girders. Albeit soft ones. When he first saw Biniati, he wanted to adopt her and take her home.