Can Christophe Boeckx’s new Gentbrugge boxing gym bring more people into the ring?

Christophe Boeckx has moved his Beats Per Minute Boxing club from a school in Destelbergen to its own gym in Gentbrugge, giving the 78-member Belgian club a permanent base before an open evening on 3 September 2026. The new venue at Leo Tertzweillaan 58 is already advertising English boxing, kickboxing, circuit training, personal coaching and boxing therapy, according to the club’s website.

For people in and around Ghent, the practical change is straightforward: another dedicated training space has joined a city whose official sports directory already lists several boxing clubs and venues. Boeckx’s proposition is more specific, however. He is presenting Beats Per Minute, or BPM, as a recreational gym without the competitive machismo that can discourage newcomers, while retaining the technique, discipline and physical demands of boxing.

Boeckx, 38, told Het Nieuwsblad that he began boxing at 14 and has practised the sport for 24 years. He established BPM five years ago in a Destelbergen school and runs it alongside his work as a physical-education teacher at a primary school in Ghent’s Muide district. His wife, Lies, is the club’s main contact, while a wider coaching team delivers the group sessions.

The move matters less as an isolated business opening than as a test of who now feels entitled to enter a boxing gym. BPM accepts members from the age of 12 and says classes are intended for different experience and fitness levels. Boeckx told Het Nieuwsblad that his oldest personal-training client is 78. The club also offers a free trial lesson, reducing the commitment required of people who are curious but uncertain about the sport.

BPM’s emphasis on accessibility sits within a broader Flemish rise in organised sport. Sport Vlaanderen reported that more than 1.462 million people belonged to a recognised sports federation in 2024, representing over one in five Flemish residents. Growth was particularly visible among teenagers and people aged over 60, while participation by girls and women also increased. Flemish Sports Minister Annick De Ridder described clubs as important not only for health but for social cohesion.

Boxing nevertheless carries two public identities. Boeckx foregrounds recreation, confidence and enjoyment: members come to improve, he said, but also to have fun. The City of Ghent’s description keeps the sport’s competitive architecture in view, identifying boxing as an Olympic discipline built around technique, strength and weight categories. Its directory includes clubs offering both competitive and recreational programmes, including Golden Gloves, Boxing Woest and Royal Gym. BPM is therefore adding a distinct entry point rather than introducing boxing to a city without an established scene.

The physical case for trying the sport is familiar. Ghent’s sports service says English boxing trains endurance, reflexes, agility and coordination through footwork and punches such as the jab, cross, hook and uppercut. BPM adds a mental and social claim, describing boxing as an outlet and a form of community-building. Those benefits remain the club’s own framing; no independent evaluation of its boxing-therapy programme or member outcomes was identified.

The new gym also arrives amid wider investment in active leisure around Gentbrugge. At the nearby Arsenaal redevelopment, operators have been adding indoor padel, skateboarding and climbing facilities to former railway workshops. That project’s managers have cited local demand for sporting activities, although there is no stated organisational connection with BPM.

The story is consequently local and Belgian rather than international or EU-institutional. Neither the City of Ghent nor the Flemish government appears to have issued a specific response to BPM’s move, and no European institution has a direct role. The relevant policy setting is Flanders’ organised-sport network and Ghent’s attempt to maintain a varied club offer.

Attention now turns to the open evening scheduled from 17:00 to 21:00 on 3 September. Prospective members can meet the trainers and sample the club’s approach, with or without previous boxing experience. What remains unclear is how much the permanent premises will expand membership, whether the timetable will broaden beyond people aged 12 and over, and how successfully BPM can preserve its intimate, recreational culture if the new bokszaal in Gentbrugge attracts a larger crowd.