During a recent official stop in Nassau, The Bahamas, King Charles III was overcome with hearty laughter when presented with a custom illustrated T-shirt that reimagined him as a undefeated boxing champion, complete with a royal crown, padded competition gloves, and a glittering title championship belt woven with the national flag of The Bahamas. The whimsical gift, crafted by Jermaine Gibson, vice-president of the Bahamas World Boxing Federation, was handed to the monarch during his guided tour of the newly established Bahamas Boxing Academy, hosted alongside a high-profile contingent of local and international dignitaries including Bahamian Prime Minister Philip ‘Brave’ Davis, U.S. Ambassador to the Bahamas Herschel Walker, Minister of Sports Mario Bowleg, and academy founder Nick Maughan, who received a CBE from King Charles last year in recognition of his extensive philanthropic work across Caribbean communities.
Far from rushing through the scheduled appearance, the king took ample time to interact directly with the cohort of young athletes training at the facility, pausing first to observe two 19-year-old sparring partners, Mario Goddard and Shantao Fernander, as they demonstrated their in-ring skills for the assembled guests. The two teen boxers later shared that the unplanned, warm conversation with the king, who asked detailed questions about their personal love for the sport and long-term athletic goals, had exceeded all their expectations and left them feeling newly motivated to pursue their competitive dreams as the Bahamas works to elevate its international profile in amateur and professional boxing. Before concluding his tour, King Charles joined Prime Minister Davis to unveil a permanent commemorative plaque marking the historic royal visit to the site.
The state-of-the-art training hub, situated at the Thomas A Robinson National Stadium Sports Centre in Nassau, was fully funded by Maughan following a formal request from Prime Minister Davis to create a structured, positive outlet for at-risk and sport-focused local youth. Open to girls and boys aged 8 to 18, the academy is designed to do far more than teach boxing fundamentals: its holistic programming roadmap includes professional athletic coaching, one-on-one mentorship from former national team boxers, nutritional counseling, academic tutoring, targeted mental health support, and practical life skills workshops, alongside plans to host sanctioned national and regional boxing tournaments in the coming years. The facility has also partnered with UK-based non-profit BoxWise, co-founded by Rick Ogden, to draw on proven international models that use combat sports to drive social mobility for young people in underserved neighborhoods.
Academy founder Maughan shared his deep gratitude for the king’s attentive, unscripted engagement with the young attendees, noting that the athletes spend most of their days at the facility training, studying, and building supportive community bonds with their peers. Gibson added that the academy had flown in a full team of young boxers from Grand Bahama to participate in the historic visit, a milestone that followed years of grassroots advocacy to put Bahamian youth boxing on the global map. Beyond his time at the academy, King Charles also held a private closed-door meeting with residents of the Ranfurly Homes for Children, the largest independent non-denominational children’s charity in the Bahamas, which has provided stable, nurturing care for hundreds of orphaned, abused, neglected, and abandoned local children since its founding in 1959.