Wirral CP Boxing Club has 10 months to raise £80,000 or risk losing its home, which could spell the end of an Ellesmere Port sporting staple.

Paul Lloyd, who challenged Mexican legend Marco Antonio Barrera for the WBO world super bantamweight title, and ex-IBF world bantamweight champion Paul Butler are the most famous products of a club which has coached thousands of youngsters since its creation in 1981.

Previously Vauxhall Motors ABC, the club is Cheshire’s most successful amateur boxing gym but now faces a fight for survival as its base on Station Road, Little Sutton, has been put up for sale.

Chairman Peter Phelan said the club has until December to raise the £80,000 needed to purchase the property and a campaign has been launched to ensure the future of the club.

Phelan said: “For 34 years this club has played a vital role in the lives of many young people, both in and out of the ring, and despite the huge amount required to save the club, we are determined to succeed and secure our future so that we can continue to serve the community.

"However, to achieve our goal we need the support of the local community, which is why we are appealing to individuals and businesses to help in any way they can.”

As well as producing a number of champions and Great Britain representatives, the club, whose motto is ‘we never turn anyone away’, undertakes a significant amount of work to engage with young people and uses boxing to promote fitness, respect, discipline, confidence, friendship and fair play.

Since 2008 the club has been involved with the ‘Gloves Not Gangs’ initiative targeting youths at risk of anti-social behaviour associated with gang culture, and in 2012 the club signed up to the White Ribbon Campaign to help raise awareness of domestic violence, and now has more than 50 female members.

At present the club has near 300 active members from a wide range of social, ethnic and religious backgrounds, and offers tuition from qualified coaches, who work as unpaid volunteers, six days a week.

It is hoped the club can become a registered charity in the near future, however Butler, who fights South Africa’s Zolani Tete next month for the IBF world super flyweight title, has set up a Just Giving page in the interim to raise funds.

You can pledge by visiting: www.justgiving.com/yimby/wirralcpboxingclub .