Boxing legend Nigel Benn was in Arbroath on Saturday to put the next generation of fighters through their paces.
The former middleweight and super middleweight World Boxing Champion took part in a training session at British Military Martial Arts (BMMA) on Lindsay Street.
”The Dark Destroyer” is touring the various BMMA groups in Britain and visited all three Scottish BMMA branches in Angus, Edinburgh and Glasgow to raise awareness of the work the group does with ex-service personnel.
Benn, veteran of many a skirmish in Northern Ireland, was enlisted by BMMA, an organisation run by ex-Paratrooper Lee Matthews, to spearhead a project that recruits ex-servicemen and women to be trained as martial arts instructors.
When qualified, they are encouraged to open their own fitness academies or gain employment in some of the BMMA establishments throughout the UK.
Benn said he thinks this project is great for ex-service men and women.
”So many come out wondering what they can do with themselves. They’ve got so much left in them, but can’t get to grips with civilian life.
”This gives them something to burn up that energy and use their combat knowledge.”
Although Benn is known as a boxer, he was also a martial artist in his youth but took up boxing in the army because there was no money in martial arts back then.
Benn is now working as a preacher based at the Vineyard Church in Majorca.
Photo by Steve Parsons/PA Archive