There was a time, not that long ago, that Manchester did not have much of a boxing heritage. 

That might seem unbelievable now for, after all – Ricky Hatton, Tyson Fury, Anthony Crolla, Anthony Farnell, Carl Thompson, Pat Barrett, Terry Flanagan, Scott Quigg, Maurice Core, Lyndon Arthur, even Amir Khan and Jamie Moore – it doesn’t take long to reel off a list of top boxers from Greater Manchester.  

But it wasn’t always like that and one of the key figures that brought about the revelation in Manchester boxing is remembered in a BT Sport documentary, M14: A Moss Side Story, produced and directed by James Bentley. 

As a boxer, Phil Martin once fought for the British light-heavyweight title. But it was as a trainer and a mentor that his name is steeped in Manchester boxing legend. It was Martin who established Champs Camp, a gym he and his potential boxers built, and through Moss Side ABC he tapped into a deprived area and created some heroes. 

Go along with the mantra of “hard work and dedication” and you were invited into the gang. It was a club – as the film narrated by Lemn Sissay explains well – that one people were proud to associate with, as shown by the string of former fighters, some who became champions, many of whom did not, come on with their recollections. 

In recent years Martin has become a mythical figure, but what M14: A Moss Side Story does is quite get across what Martin meant to those around him. He died at 44 from cancer, but got across a can-do attitude in a city that had been very much in the shadow of its neighbour Liverpool in the sport. That he produced four British champions at one time – Thompson, Core, Frank Grant and Paul Burke - at a time when the British champion was probably the best in the country and also a fulfilled career goes some way to showing how big an impact he made in such a short period of time. 

There were others too, with Ensley Bingham, Tony Ekubia, Mario Culpepper, Ossie Maddix, Fred John, John Green and Joey Jacobs among them. 

It's not only the boxers he helped that ensure Martin’s memory has not faded. Trainers Billy Graham and Joe Gallagher appear to show their gratitude for what he did for them. 

The film does a fine job at putting what Martin was doing into context, both with rising crime and general sense of hopelessness in the area and, to a lesser extent, a burgeoning Manchester music scene. 

These were different days, where not many boxers earned purses in four figures and only a few came to the ring to any music. The two Steves – Lillis and Bunce – take you back to those times. 

It does a good job at piecing together some fabulous old footage, whether from BBC and ITV, complete with commentaries by Harry Carpenter and Reg Gutteridge, or the smaller hall stuff, filmed by Martin himself or Steve Holdsworth. 

But where is does well is by not presenting a past that is too rosy, nor pretending that the likes of Martin were able to fix everything. These were days when gang disputes and guns were becoming common for the first time.  

One story told is of Benji Stanley, a 14-year-old shot dead in the queue at a takeaway, a brutal murder that was believed to be a case of mistaken identity. We are told it was the youngest boy murdered in Manchester gang violence “at the time”, a cold statement that reveals that things have got worse in the three decades since rather than better. 

“Since he was shot dead over 500 lives have been lost,” says Geoff Thompson, the former world karate champion and father of unbeaten cruiserweight, Jordan Thompson. “Every single one of them had an ability and a God-given talent.” 

People like Martin, though, who take pride in their neighborhood and the people in it, do make a difference. 

M14: A Moss Side Story premieres on BT Sport 1 on March 24 at 10pm. 

Ron Lewis is a senior writer for BoxingScene. He was Boxing Correspondent for The Times, where he worked from 2001-2019 - covering four Olympic Games and numerous world title fights across the globe. He has written about boxing for a wide variety of publications worldwide since the 1980s.