David Haye and fellow pugilists take a swing at world record

DUBAI // Fight fans were hoping to box clever on Saturday to claim the world record for the largest boxing class yet held.

Helped by former heavyweight champion David Haye, about 500 pugilists were expected to take part in the class at Dubai Sports World at the Dubai World Trade Centre.

The event focused mainly on techniques, with budding boxers of all ages and fitness levels taking part.

“I started getting into fitness recently and I’ve always watched David Haye’s fights and my brother is involved in it,” said Emily Wilcox, 24. She said that people would become interested in health and fitness after taking part in the class.

“It will [get people into fitness] because it’s David Haye and a lot of people look up to him and it should really be inspiring,” she said.

Rick Lambert, 42, is more of fan of rugby than boxing, but decided to join the class because it was all for a good cause. Participants were asked to donate Dh30 to Dubai’s Rashid Paediatric Therapy Centre to take part.

Sasa Obradovic, a 35-year-old fitness trainer, said he was not hopeful that the world record had been broken.

“I don’t think they will be doing it, I think they will be short of people,” he said, although he applauded the efforts of the organisers.

Officials at Guinness World Records will verify soon whether the record has been broken. The current record was set in Sydney, Australia, where 498 people took part in a boxing session.

People were not allowed to leave the lesson or stop training, because that would lead to their disqualification from the count.

Euan Megson, senior manager in the media and PR corporate office at the Dubai World Trade Centre, said that even if the world record was not broken, they were hoping to at least set a record for the largest boxing class in Dubai, or even the world’s largest indoor boxing class.

nbaksh@thenational.ae