Young fighters and their head coach wore black T-shirts depicting the King as a boxing champion, complete with a crown, gloves, shorts and a belt when he visited a Bahamas boxing academy on Wednesday.

Charles, shown with rippling muscles on the shirts, met the pugilists as they showed off their skills in the ring.

The shirts were the work of Jermaine Gibson, president and chief executive of the All-Out Boxing Club, who was wearing one of his own creations. His club is based on the neighbouring island of Grand Bahama.

“Ha!” said the King, pointing and laughing at the shirts.

“We made one for you, I had it made last night,” Mr Gibson told him.

Accepting the gift, Charles, still laughing, replied: “How generous.”

Afterwards Mr Gibson said: “He loved it, he loved it. He said it was really good and we gave him one of his own.”

The King was visiting the Bahamas Boxing Academy at its base in the Yellow Elder district of the capital Nassau. The academy opened in April to develop the next generation of fighters.

Charles is a few days into a tour of the Caribbean. He was joined on the visit by sports minister Mario Bowleg and Prime Minister Philip Davis.

Mr Davis has championed the academy and described boxing as being deeply rooted in the “Bahamian DNA”. Clubs from other areas were invited to the event. The academy trains boys and girls aged eight to 18.

Charles saw primary school age children working on their punching skills and older boys sparring in the ring. Jayda Burrows, 16, stopped hitting a punch bag to speak with the King. She told him she does two hours of training after school most days.

“And are you getting better and better? It looks like it,” he asked her.

When he chatted to a group of children, Charles joked about their gym sessions, asking: “It’s not an excuse to get out of school?”, before adding: “I might see you at a Commonwealth Games.”