Marvin Rees has paid tribute to young Bristol boxer Jude Moore who died suddenly aged 19 last month. The city mayor said he would attend a memorial service at Bristol Cathedral on Wednesday, April 12, to celebrate the teenager’s life.
Jude, who grew up in the city where he joined Downend Boxing Club, was considered by many as a future world champion. Speaking at Bristol City Council cabinet on Tuesday, April 4, Mr Rees said: “I know the head coach up there, Craig Turner, who’s an incredible guy who had known Jude since he was a really young man, and Jude sadly lost his life in March.
“There is a memorial service for Jude at the cathedral on April 12 which I shall attend. It’s just an incredibly sad story but obviously we do also want to celebrate Jude as a young man who was a double national champion in boxing, coming out of Bristol.
Read more: Bristol boxer Jude Moore remembered at community event following his sudden death
“I was with Glenn Catley, our own former super-middleweight WBC world champion, on Sunday and Glenn was saying he saw in Jude one of the most talented young boxers that he had ever seen coming out of the city, so it’s a really sad loss of life. We will be remembering Jude at the cathedral.”
Jude joined Downend Boxing Club in Fishponds aged 10 and later left Bristol to train at Hoddesdon Boxing Academy in Hertfordshire. He was a national schools champion in 2017, becoming a national juniors champion two years later, and represented the Three Lions at the EUBC Junior European Championships in Romania in 2017.
The boxer was also a GB Three Nations champion and five-time Western Counties champion. A Go Fund Me page set up by Craig to help pay for Jude’s funeral has raised more than £10,000.
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