Ipswich college lecturer and boxing referee meets former heavyweight world champion Lennox Lewis at Boxam 2025 in Spain

An Ipswich boxing referee with a dream of one day officiating an Olympic match crossed one of his heroes at a tournament in Spain.

Simon Mullan, 47, was called out to La Nucia, near Benidorm, for Boxam 2025, which ran from February 3 to 9.

While there, he oversaw nine fights, including two finals, bringing his Olympic dreams closer to reality.

It was at this event that Simon ran into three-time heavyweight world champion and current commentator, Lennox Lewis.

Simon described Mr Lewis as one of his personal heroes and how much of an honour it was to meet him.

He said: “I got to chat to him and talked about Lewis Richardson and the Olympics and also discussed how I saw him fight Frank Bruno in Cardiff.

“We had a joke and then he grabbed my hand and he started shaking it firmly.

“He then said, ‘now you can tell everybody that you shook the hand that shook the world’.”

Mr Lewis was also attending the tournament, Simon said, working on a training camp to teach amateur boxing, while also presenting some medals.

Simon, a former boxer himself – even facing off against Joe Calzaghe in his youth – now works as a welding lecturer at Suffolk New College in Ipswich.

In addition, he also took up coaching and has helped shape the careers of many, including 2024 bronze medallist, Lewis Richardson, of Colchester.

While refereeing, he represents Team GB.

Regarding his refereeing exploits, Simon said: “It was a great experience and an honour to represent Team GB.

“It was a really good tournament for me personally and for our boxers who collectively won 14 medals.

“I was delighted for Team GB and it was another step along the way to me achieving my dream of being at the Olympics as a ref.”

Simon is set to referee more tournaments this year as he keeps his eyes on his Olympics dream and hopes to plan a college visit by Mr Richardson.

Craig Shimmon, head of marketing at Suffolk New College, said the whole college was behind him as he chased his dream.

Craig said: “Simon is a tremendous character, a fantastic teacher and his boxing exploits really help the students he works with to dream big.”