Two-time world champion Bernice ‘The Badger’ Ferrera received a warm welcome home at Brixton’s Hugenote Amateur Boxing Club on October 8, reconnecting with the trainers and facility that shaped her career.

Ferrera, who holds both the WBC and IBO super featherweight world titles, trained alongside fellow boxers at the venue she still regards as home. She said the club played a fundamental role in her development, teaching her the skills and discipline that laid the foundation for her professional success. “Everything that I know, I learned in this gym. I would not be the boxer that I am if I was not here for the time that I was here,” she said.

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Having spent many years training at the club on and off, Ferrera said she remained grateful for the welcome she always received. She described Hugenote as a place where she grew up and where the doors were never closed to her.

Although returning to the gym might have been expected to stir memories of her early days, Ferrera said the experience felt more like coming home than revisiting the past. She explained that she still visits the club regularly, making the surroundings familiar and comfortable.

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The visit included a gesture of appreciation, with Ferrera receiving commemorative memorabilia, including a jacket and framed photographs celebrating her achievements.

She said the photographs were particularly meaningful because she had long wanted to print pictures of her career rather than keep them on her phone. Ferrera expressed gratitude for the gifts, adding that the recognition meant even more because the people at the gym witnessed her journey from a young boxer to a world champion.

She singled out her coach, who has known her since she was young, as someone who understands the struggles she faced along the way. “He knows everything that I’ve been through and how I grew through the years and what I had to go through,” she said.

For Ferrera, the return was also an opportunity to acknowledge the role the club played in her success and to encourage the next generation of boxers coming through its doors. Reflecting on what she would tell her younger self, she said the most important lesson she learned was to keep going, even when circumstances made giving up seem easier.

Now a two-time world champion, Ferrera hopes her journey will show young boxers that success is possible when talent is supported by perseverance, belief and the right people.

Her visit to Brixton served as a reminder that while championship belts may take a boxer around the world, the foundations of a career are often built in a local gym, among the people who believe in them before the wider world takes notice.

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