A FATHER whose trainer son has been suspended by the British Boxing Board of Control for his part in the sparring incident which left Nick Blackwell fighting for his life for the second time in a year has distanced his Devizes club from the controversy.

Paul Wilkins, who is chairman of Devizes Boxing Club, insisted this week that the club had nothing to do with the sparring session involving his son Liam. He said: "We rent the space on Mondays and Wednesdays only from Devizes Football Club. Other people rent it at other times. We wish Nick Blackwell all the best.”

But his comments confused Devizes Football Club bosses who said that the boxing club was the only one that it rented to. A spokesman said: "If someone else was using it must be the boxing club that has sub let it to them. This has nothing to do with us."

Former Devizes School pupil Liam Wilkins, 21, from Chirton, near Devizes, only received his trainers licence in February. It emerged at the end of last week in the boxing press that Mr Wilkins had been suspended after Mr Blackwell, 26, from Trowbridge was hospitalised after taking part in a four round sparring session with light-heavyweight Hasan Karkardi overseen by Mr Wilkins at the Devizes Amateur Boxing Club.

Back in March Mr Blackwell suffered a bleed on his skull during his defeat to Chris Eubank Jr at Wembley Arena, and spent seven days in an induced coma.

He was told he could never box or spar again. This week his father John Blackwell spoke about the news of the suspension of Mr Wilkins and Mr Karkardi saying: "I’m not going to have a go at anyone. My main concern is making sure Nick is OK, nothing else is on my radar.

“In my opinion 50 per cent of the blame lies with Nick and the other 50 per cent lies with the people involved.

“I have never heard of Liam Wilkins and didn’t know Nick had been sparring at the gym in Devizes, or sparring full stop. I wish someone had told me.

“Everyone involved should have known better. They all knew who he was and what had happened, but as I said before my attention is now on Nick’s welfare. He’s badly injured and we have to hope he pulls through."

The board is due to hold a hearing into the incident in January.