He was an unbeaten professional boxer for three years until financial and mental health struggles forced him to retire, but Billy Long Sr went on to punch well above his weight in saving disadvantaged youths with mentoring that has now inspired a successful British film-maker.
When his son, Billy Long Jr, was facing the challenges of autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and bullies linked to local gangs, Long feared the worst. He decided to protect him by home schooling him and created a boxing gym in a garden-shed on a council estate in Chelmsford, Essex.
It was barely bigger than a portable building but, in that space, he coached him. After three years of training, he watched him become the junior national boxing champion, before being picked to represent England, and guided him with the England coaches to win the European Junior Boxing Championships in Bosnia in 2024.
Not only did Long Jr win gold, but he made history by never losing a single round, which is considered extraordinary.
Perhaps his greatest fight was showing that autism can be a “superpower” rather than something “negative”, his father says.
Long Sr’s coaching began attracting local youths, inspiring them to stay away from juvenile delinquency, drugs and knife crime. He opened Longs ABC, a club with three rings on a small industrial estate, and created a boxing powerhouse that has produced four national champions, including two female ones.
Now Long Sr and 15-year-old Long Jr are working with Nick Moorcroft, whose films include Urban Hymn, an acclaimed coming-of-age story about a young offender, played by Letitia Wright in her break-out role.
The idea of seeing themselves on screen seems “surreal”, Long Sr says.
But Moorcroft was inspired by their “powerful and uplifting, triumph-over-adversity story”, describing Long Jr as “one of the most gifted athletes in the world, whose autism actually helps him with a hyper-focus”.
Ironically, Long Sr says that, initially, his son had not seemed “naturally talented” as a boxer. He and his wife, Samantha, ignored those who cast doubt on whether he had the mental and physical strength to compete.
But he soon knew his son would become a champion, he says: “I saw something in him and, over time, the hurdles that we’ve crossed are nothing short of a miracle … When most kids would quit, he would go one more round.”
Long Jr feels that boxing has saved him from going off the rails “100%”.
“When I’m outside the ring, I have my struggles,” he says. “But when I’m inside the ring, I feel in control.”
Long Sr, now 36, understands the challenges faced by disadvantaged youths today. His own teachers never gave him a chance, dismissing him as “stupid”. He got in with the wrong crowd, experiencing street fights with knives and trouble with the police, until his own father got him into boxing, giving him “self-worth” and leading to a professional career.
But he abandoned his boxing dreams in 2016 for the sake of his son: “My son has never been in trouble with the police. But at school he had severe learning difficulties and no one looked at him as I look at Billy. Now he’s got respect in the right way.”
Long also coached his two other sons: Mason plays for the youth team at Tottenham Hotspur and is a two-time boxing national champion, and Harry is emerging as a talented coach in his own right.
The film, titled Long Shot and shooting next year, is as much about boxing as overcoming adversity. The cast will include kids from boxing clubs across the nation. Long Sr and Jr will have cameo roles.
Moorcroft also co-wrote and produced Fisherman’s Friends and Finding Your Feet, two of the most successful British independent films of the past decade, but Long Shot is a particularly personal film.
When his parents’ marriage fell apart, Moorcroft was a troubled youth in that same area of Chelmsford, being expelled from school, diagnosed with ADHD, becoming a young offender and repeatedly being arrested as part of a street gang – until, aged 19, a chance encounter with a Hollywood screenwriter changed his life and led to a career in film and television.
He hopes that a film about amateur boxing will highlight the desperate need for government support. It was the ITV drama on the Post Office scandal, Mr Bates vs the Post Office, that had a real impact, despite an inquiry and years of campaigning for compensation payments.
“Gyms like Longs ABC provide havens in tough communities, offering discipline, mentorship and purpose through structured training,” Moorcroft says. “They channel aggression into positive outlets, build self-esteem, and foster community ties, significantly reducing youth delinquency and knife crime. Without financial support, many such gyms struggle to operate.”
He adds: “Knife crime and drug use are out of control. This sports transforms lives.”
Long Sr says: “In my gym, I’ve got Muslims, Christians, people from the Traveller community, Chinese, black, white – and we’re all friends. We’re all one community. That doesn’t happen anywhere, not in schools. There’s no divide in boxing – and we really want to show that in the movie.”
He adds: “When people join boxing gyms, they become part of something – and that’s a family. Boxing saves so many lives.”
Moorcroft is writing the script for Long Shot, having just finished directing his next film, Mother’s Pride – a comedy drama about the Great British Beer awards and the plight of British pubs – that will be released next spring.
