Maree's stable looking very strong

The walls at Maree Leisure are adorned with pictorial collages of the sporting greats which have visited the Ribble Valley hub and it’s pretty impressive.

Mike Tyson, Tommy Hearns, Sugar Ray Leonard, Roberto Duran, Marco Antonio Barrera, Roy Jones Jr, Barry McGuigan, Steve Collins, Carl Froch, Joe Frazier, Joe Calzaghe, Nigel Benn and Chris Eubank all form part of the shrine – each one a world champion.

And there’s room for one of the newest global kings - Carl Frampton - whose perfect professional record was ignited by the Gisburn venue’s owner and coach Kevin Maree.

Now the dream is to propel his current stable towards those dizzy heights of boxing’s hierarchy with Mark Heffron, Qasim Niaz, Alex McCloy and Ben Chapman all benefiting from his expertise.

Maree, who has trained Yassine El Maachi, Kenny Anderson and Luke Blackledge in the past, said: “We’ve had some unbelievable talent here. We’ve got so incredibly close but not quite made the mark. Yassine El Maachi won Prizefighter and was about to set the world alight before a freak accident ended his career.

“Kenny Anderson won a British title and then his whole world fell apart. Luke Blackledge got caught with a freak punch off Rocky Fielding and Carl Frampton moved to Shane McGuigan.

“We’ve been so close. To keep getting all these named fighters to the little town of Gisburn is a credit to us. We must be doing something right.”

Maree added: “Because of what we do here in this gym–unless I think the lads can go very far – I don’t have the time to do it. With all my lads we’re building towards the minimum of a British title. That’s the basic requirement.”

Heffron is currently Maree’s biggest hope of going the distance. The 24-year-old younger sibling of Ronnie, who possesses model good looks and crippling power, caught the eye of Freddie Roach as a teenager when helping Amir Khan prepare for his WBA World super lightweight title defence against Paul Malignaggi.

Heffron, who has 11 wins with nine knockouts, has previously trained under Joe Gallagher and Anthony Farnell but his development was stunted by a couple of debilitating hand injuries.

“I love the super-middleweight division – I had Kenny and Luke – and now I’ve got Mark,” said Maree. “He’s an unbelievably rounded fighter with frightening power. Mark hits you with such rapid speed and he sends his opponents spinning. He’s ready to step up now.

“We struggle to get him an opponent because of his record. People just don’t want to fight him. He’s got ferocious power and a bit of a nasty streak but he looks like a Hugo Boss model. If Mark didn’t win a world title then