FORMER champion fighter Brian Stevenson says he is coming to terms with life outside the ring after getting involved in coaching at the MXP in Stirling.

The ex-European Muay Thai champion was forced into retirement in 2013 after injuring his shoulder, and admits that he initially struggled to accept no longer being able to fight.

Stevenson told Advertiser Sport: “I had just stopped fighting after 15 years in a sport for which I trained everyday. My last fighting memory was my 51st Professional Thai fight in front of a home crowd in Alloa. I remember being in the fourth round of the fight, and then the next thing was my shoulder popping out. This was the second time it had happened in two fights, and right there I knew that my time inside the ring was over.

“If I am being entirely honest looking back at the time after my last fight, I was having a hard time accepting the transition between fighting myself to now only coaching, and this was having a negative impact on the atmosphere within the team. I felt a bit depressed with it all. I now understood the emotions of when a footballer or Rugby player retires. I was lost and I thought about walking away from the sport entirely.”

However, Stevenson says being asked to help out at the MXP changed his outlook.

Having been impressed with the facilities on offer, he is now delighted to be playing a part in helping the stars of the future find success in Thai Boxing.

He said: “When I was invited to come check out the MXP Training Centre in Stirling before it opened last year, I was just interested to see what the guys had planned. I had heard they had big visions for the place, a full centre based on martial arts and sports performance training, something which I never had access to all through my own fighting days, so I was excited to see what they had come up with. The owners of MXP have sponsored me over the years while I was fighting and also taken numerous tables at our Thai Boxing shows in the Alloa Town Hall, so I was happy to pop up to check the place out and give them some feedback.

“When I visited MXP the first time, I understood straight away what the guys were trying to create. It caters for every Martial Art you could think about under one roof. In all honesty it was some of the best facilities I had ever seen. I actually remember thinking to myself that I wished the place had been built when I started training Thai Boxing 15 years previously, as I used to have to travel up and down the UK train, moving regularly from Glasgow, Liverpool, Darlington, Newcastle.

“I remember leaving MXP that afternoon with a renewed buzz about me, a spring in my step, a new vision in my head of where we could take the club for the youngsters of the future. When I spoke to the rest of the team about the facilities and opportunities at MXP, I got a very positive response.”

Now Brian says that although he misses fighting, he loves being a part of the new setup, and he revealed that he has high hopes for the future.

He added: “It has been a very testing and rocky road for me over the last two years, and of course I will always miss stepping out into the ring myself, how could I ever let that go.

But I now feel that we have the team and facilities around us to sculpt some of the future champions in this great sport.

I know I can dedicate my time to the team, and not to myself, and that makes me feel alive again.”

SMTC Alloa are holding a home show in Alva in November this year, sponsored by HM Surfacing.

Thai Boxing coaching sessions are held on Mondays and Wednesdays at 6.45 at MXP Fitness, Borrowmeadow Road, Stirling.

Women's classes are held on Tuesdays and Thursdays while junior sessions are on Mondays and Thursdays, and advanced classes are held on Saturday mornings. Beginners are welcome.