I was a Team GB star who won a medal after being inspired by tragedy – but then my life fell apart and now I’m a builder

An ordinary man who won an Olympic medal after being inspired by tragedy now pays the bills as a contractor after his life fell apart.

Welterweight Fred Evans became the first Welshman to win an Olympic medal in boxing since Ralph Evans took bronze in Munich in 1972.

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Fred won silver at the London 2012 Olympic Games, after Kazakhstan’s Serik Sapiyev was denied the gold.

Bu Fred’s journey from the backstreet gyms of Cardiff to Olympic glory was marked by tragedy.

In 2006, his mother Tracy and sister Scarlett were killed in a car accident.

The proud Welshman said the trauma and pain of the accident revived his boxing career.

He told Wales Online: “The accident gave me a huge drive. Whether it was qualifying for the Olympics, or competing in the Olympics, her
“My memory was the only thing that kept me going.”

The local boy grew up in a family that was crazy about boxing and at the age of four he put on boxing gloves.

He said: “My father has loved boxing since I could walk. When I was four years old, he took me to the gym.

“He said to Nigel Davies (the man who would later become his coach), ‘Take him on the pads’, and that was it.

“Then Nigel said he had a show coming up and I could come along. I was four, the boy I was fighting was about seven or eight.

“I don’t remember much of it. Just some spots. It’s only really when I had my first real amateur fights, when I was about 10. I can remember them.

“For me it was always going to be boxing. I played a bit of rugby in primary school but it was always the same. I couldn’t wait to get out of school and go to boxing school.”

As a schoolboy who was an advocate, in 2008, at the age of 17, he was invited to travel to Beijing and experience what life behind the velvet rope might be like.

He mentions a brutal training camp on a Russian mountain, where he was beaten by local fighters.

This regime saw the Welshman achieve success at the 2011 European Senior Championships, when the Olympic Games beckoned.

He took silver by beating top scorer Taras Shelestyuk by one point.

But Serik Sapiyev was too strong for the player from Cardiff in the final, meaning Fred had to settle for silver.

Like many young fighters, Fred struggled with the success and fame that came with his Olympic medal.

He was fined for his role in a brawl at a Birmingham lap dancing club and was fortunate to avoid prison when he broke a friend’s jaw in a pub brawl.

The judge who sentenced him at the time said: “To get to where you are today in the boxing world you must have shown great dedication, self-discipline and self-control.

“But there is no excuse for what you did and you absolutely deserve a prison sentence.”

Fred, looking back on this chapter in his life, said, “Have a few beers and hang out with the wrong people.

“I may have been in a daze from the Olympics. Maybe I was easily influenced and off the track where I should have stayed.”

The amateur turned pro in 2017, but his troubles outside the ring have deterred some promoters from working with him.

He said: “I think promoters used it against me. It was all ‘forget the deal you could have had back then.’

“It’s the deal you got now, using that wrong and what I did to myself. Making me fight for less money.”

Fred won eight of his nine professional races, although Covid forced him to hang up his gloves and earn money elsewhere.

Today, the 33-year-old local hero is the manager of a construction and roofing company, but he wants to make one more breakthrough.

He said: “I have absolutely not closed the door on a return. Absolutely not. “I am in great shape.”

“But it’s something I have to make a decision about now. It has to happen pretty quickly. It’s just the timing with work. I’d love to say yes and get back to it right away.

“But then there are the bills you have to pay. People don’t realize that. They only pay attention to the night of the fight. They don’t see the 12 weeks or so beforehand.

“I turned pro. I had nine fights. I won eight. That was all going well until Covid hit. So I put my head back into the business world. I started my own company. I haven’t gone back to boxing since.

“Right now I’m just the local builder.”