Boxing: Noble art is child's play again as Audley effect kicks in

Say what you like about Audley Harrison – and plenty have, especially himself – but you cannot challenge the big man's charisma. It is coming up for three years since he won the Olympic super-heavyweight gold medal in Sydney, and whatever the merits of his professional progression, there is no doubt that his personality has made a major contribution to the resurgence of boxing among the nation's youngsters.

In those three years the membership of amateur boxing clubs has jumped from 5,000 to 8,000, nearly all teenagers and most still at school. Harrison regularly visits the schools and clubs to give pep talks to the kids, a couple of fistfuls of whom he invited to watch him win his 10th successive fight, against Serbia's Ratko Draskovic at Wembley last week. Afterwards, at his post-fight press conference, they sat adoringly at his feet, lustily cheerleading his every word.

"Write what you like about me,'' he declared. "It doesn't bother me. Slag me off again, I don't mind. It's all good for business. Whatever you say, the message is getting through to these lads that boxing is back. They are the future.''

"Yeah, yeah, yeah,'' came the shrilling endorsement as Audley smiled and raised a fist. You can fault his style in the ring, but not out of it.

His words rang even truer 24 hours later in Barnsley, where the future of the sport was convincingly evident as almost 100 sawn-off scrappers contested a superb Schools ABA National Championship.

Unfortunately the best fight of the night came afterwards in the bar of the Barnsley Metrodome, when the families of two contestants clashed over a disputed verdict. The police had to be called to break it up, which only underscores a belief held by many that parents are the bane of any school sports day.

Thankfully the fracas did not involve the best boy on the bill. The one-round win by Bury's Emir Kahn was beyond any controversy. They are calling the 16-year-old "The New Naz'', and he looks the part, although he is not as flashy as the former world featherweight champion.

Although he will probably end up as a light-welterweight, Kahn is already an Olympic prospect – not for Athens next year, but Beijing in 2008 – if he can wait that long. A posse of pro promoters is already sniffing around. Kahn's power punching forced opponent Tom McDonough, of South Norwood, to take the first counts of his career, before the towel came in at the end of the first. This was Kahn's third successive schoolboy title, and Boxing News describes him as "simply sensational''.

A similar label has been applied to 18-year-old Kevin Mitchell, from West Ham, who on Friday night emerged as the star turn of the senior ABA championships on their return to London's now-reprieved York Hall. Featherweight Mitchell decisively outscored Oxford's James Couch, no slouch himself, to install himself as a contender for both the world amateur championships later this year and next year's Olympics. The standard was high enough to remind us of the glory days when the ABAs packed Wembley on the eve of the FA Cup final.

Boxing's comeback in schools, clubs and, to some extent, the pro game, stems from role models such as the two Harrisons – Audley and Scott – and Ricky Hatton. Tony Burns, who runs Audley Harrison's old club, Repton, in London's East End, says the biggest danger now is that establishments are having to turn the kids away because so many want to join.

Most of these wannabes are white, a few are Asian but hardly any are black; the last group, it seems, remains more attracted to football and athletics. Yet under Audley's influence this trend, too, can be reversed. Meanwhile, negotiations continue to renew his BBC contract and a deal is imminent, according to adviser Colin McMillan. No kidding.