The manager of a popular youth boxing club is ready to jump into the ring with council bigwigs who have threatened to close him down.

Kingston Council wants to recover full ownership rights on the sports centre where the club is based but champion trainer Freddie Barr said he will not go down without a fight.

The club, a former car park on Kingstons Cambridge Road estate, carries out important community work with some of the boroughs most needy youngsters.

The site had been leased to Surrey Sports Club (SSC) since 1990, however, the leaseholder has recently ran into financial troubles and has not paid the rent since March 1998, and owes £12,000 in total.

Mr Barr, who took over the running of the club as an unpaid caretaker five years ago, now finds himself caught in the middle of the councils dispute with SSC, which comes to a head in January at county court.

But he has vowed to fight to save the club, which has provided boxing and other indoor sports to about 50 boys and girls, aged six to 19, for more than two decades. The 68-year-old has trained top fighters, including 1984 Olympic bronze medallist Bobby Wells and former WBF middleweight champion Cornelius Carr.

As he prepares to square up to the council, Freddie is mustering support from the community to save the club, which has raised tens of thousands of pounds for charity.

Mr Barr said: If the council wanted rent money then I would have talked with them. Im not going to take this lightly. Im going to set up a petition and will try to get people to sign it who are opposed to the idea.

The threat of closure has put into doubt the clubs participation in the Amateur Boxing Association event in February, the National Association of Boys Clubs meeting in March and the London Youth Games.

Michael Chandler, aged nine, who lives in the Cambridge Road estate and has been going to the club with his brother and sister for the last two years, said: I would be very angry if they closed the club down. Id not have anything to do. Id probably just sit down and watch TV.

In the last two years, the club has raised £30,000 from boxing matches for the Star and Garter Home for ex-servicemen in Richmond.

The council is going to county court on January 22 claiming forfeiture of the licence.

A council spokesman said their intention is not to shut down the boxing club but to recover the leasehold on the property.

He said: Once the lease is returned to the council we will then be in a position to start realising some income from it and being aware of its current community youth work we will be mindful of that.

Councillor Steve Mama, who is meeting Mr Barr today (Friday), said the club was vital in channelling young peoples energy.

He said: Freddie has been doing a wonderful job training these kids and keeping them off the street. If the club closed down, kids would be rummaging round the estate and indulging in a lot of anti-social behaviour.

By.Steven Shukor