A MALMESBURY boxer who recently competed for the European Super-lightweight title, endured nine and a half hours of boxing to raise money for charity.

Joe Hughes, 27, raised over £3,000 for Erbs Palsy Group, a condition he has himself by completing a gruelling 142 rounds of sparring and while he was at it beat the current world record on Saturday, December 16.

Erbs Palsy is a condition which, mainly due to birth trauma, can affect one, or all of the five primary nerves that supply the movement to an arm. Each injury is individual and the paralysis can be either partial or complete. Some babies recover on their own, but some require specialist intervention.

“The Erbs Palsy group are a group that help kids that have the problem and put fun days on for the kids and get them to meet others with the condition”, Joe explained. “They are really helpful for the families, putting them in touch with the right surgeons and doctors.

“They have been really great to me and my family, but they are running a bit low on funds. They are struggling to keep going so I thought I’d try and pay back a little bit if I could do this fundraising to raise money for them.”

142 rounds of sparring sounds like a random number, but Joe, who is a professional boxer was looking for something that would seriously challenge him in a bid to get people to donate. The world record for the number of rounds of sparring stands at 141. Unfortunately, the Guinness Book of World Records no longer monitor it as an official world record, but Joe wanted to beat it anyway.

He said: “Originally it was going to be eight ours of sparring. I had to think of something that would be challenging enough to get people to sponsor me for it, being a professional boxer. I thought, why not do eight hours of sparring, it would work out at 120 rounds, that will be a challenge.”

A friend told him about the world record, and he was eager to beat it.

“I spoke to Guinness World Records about it but they said they don’t follow it as an official world record anymore, but I thought that is the highest record and I still want to break it, even if it won’t be official”, Joe said.

Nine and a half hours, 142 rounds, and 43 sparring partners later, Joe smashed the world record and raised an amazing £2,021, going way over his target of £1,000 at his gym in Bristol.

“It went really well, it was difficult, obviously, it was a long old day but I managed to get through it in the end to do the target rounds for the world record,” he said. “I sparred with amateurs and little kids from the gym, professionals from my gym and a few of my friends.

“It was a good day, a lot of people brought their family it had a really good atmosphere.”