♪
Oh, what do I love boxing?
Um... I think it reveals
character of who you are.
I wake up every morning,
just, I can't wait to start.
Working with the boxers,
you know,
and working with people
I used to watch on TV.
Announcer: There's a
straight left hand...
Lomachenko fires away!
(match bell)
Great fight!
Vasyl Lomachenko, he's a
three-weight world champion.
He was my favourite boxer,
you know,
somebody I looked up to.
So working with
him now is a dream.
He's gonna be fighting
in Madison Square Garden,
which is known as
the Mecca of boxing.
We've got a partnership
in a clothing brand,
so if he wins,
it increases our exposure.
♪
I owe the sport a lot,
and I think that's
the reason why I work so hard.
Loma winning is
part of that journey,
it's just the start.
♪
Radio: See, that's the
thing with time.
Money, it'll come and go,
but time, time is...
(radio volume down, indistinct)
(toothbrush buzzing)
(quiet) ...once it's gone,
it is gone.
(clear) And so, when you
think of every hour,
every minute you
wish you'd had back,
you'll realize why our
mornings are so important.
You gotta hit the
ground running.
I think waking up early
gives me a mental advantage.
I just feel like while my
competitors are sleeping,
you know, I'm up, working.
And it just gives me a
better outlook.
I was never the smart kid,
or the, you know,
the strongest or fastest kid,
but I always--
I had the mental strength.
I was always willing to work
harder than anyone else.
(exhales)
(exhales)
Started boxing
at the age of 12.
You know, I was getting into a
little bit of trouble in school,
and definitely realized
that I needed to be able
to look after myself.
I think it comes down
to just not fitting in,
as a kid, you know.
One, because of the
colour of my skin.
And two, because we
just didn't have a lot.
♪
My neighbourhood wasn't--
I wouldn't say it
was a poor hood.
It was definitely
sort of working class.
But I think the difference
was that the kids,
they had a lot
more than I did,
in the sense of, you know,
what they get for Christmas,
the sort of clothes they'd wear,
the trainers, the backpacks.
(exhales)
So, I always grew up
with a chip on my shoulder,
you know, wanting
to fit in and that,
that feeling of not quite
having what other people had,
and I couldn't really
do a lot about it.
Or, at least that was my,
you know, mindset then.
My neighbourhood
was all white.
Me and my brother, we were
the only brown people there.
That definitely helped
me gravitate
towards boxing, you know.
It made me less of an easy
target if they knew that
I wasn't prepared to
sort of back down.
(exhales)
I started purely to try
to learn how to fight.
And, within, you know, a few
weeks of being in there and
then going back to school,
I realized that it wasn't
about being able
to actually fight.
(exhales)
It was the confidence
it gave you, you know,
being the bigger man.
(grunts)
You know, and it's the
same in business:
you put the work in and then
the results will show.
♪
And BOXRAW,
you're missing BOXRAW.
BOXRAW has seven
employees here in Coventry.
And, around three or
four in the States.
When I first realized that
I needed to launch BOXRAW,
I thought it would take me
three minutes to launch.
You know, I was so
delusional thinking that
I'd just create this clothing
brand and people
were gonna come there.
Well, I was very
much a one-man band.
I was doing everything from
the Photoshops,
the website, to the
designing of the clothes,
the pick and packing.
Pick it up to this.
You know, we only had
our first employee
about seven months ago.
I think BOXRAW
filled a void.
We looked at boxing as a journey
rather than a destination.
Nobody was fixated
on the journey.
They were more just
fixated on the fight night.
Why aren't you talking about
the struggle, you know?
The 5 am runs?
Why aren't you talking about
the mental strain it has on you?
It didn't represent boxing
as what I knew it to be.
♪
♪
What's going on?
I just want you
to make sure...
(indistinct speaking)
Then do it this way
instead 'cause that's
the most important information.
That way.
♪
Can we get some of
these boxes made up...?
There are so many orders.
I don't even know
where to start.
♪
This is an order, right?
I think so.
♪
So, this is the new
Loma line dropping
in preparation for his fight.
So...
These are the new bad boys.
Got matching orange print
with the metal ends.
And then, same sort of
detailing on the back.
Vasyl Lomachenko, he's a
three-weight world champion.
Two-time gold medalist,
and arguably the best and
greatest boxer to
have ever lived.
The guy has had
397 amateur fights.
He's lost once.
He's statistically got the
greatest amateur record
in history.
I reached out to his
agent to see if they were
interested in a
sponsorship deal.
I think I offered him $700 a
month for a sponsorship and,
to which the agent
laughed at me. He said,
"He's turning down millions of
dollars a year in endorsements
and you want me to get back
to him with a deal of 700...
$700 a month?" I said,
"Man, that's all I've got."
(laughs)
So, I said, "Can I
send the gear to you?"
He said, "Yes."
Um, sent it in a
few weeks later.
I woke up to a photo of him
wearing the gear.
His Loma range
is similar to the sort of
initial early days with
his Nike Jordan partnership,
or at least, that's how
I've envisioned all this.
He's fighting for
unification belts
against Jose Pedraza.
I'm just happy that the
world are able to see
what he's capable of.
♪
Him winning naturally
increases our exposure.
(indistinct speaking)
- Please don't forget.
- Yeah, I know, Dad.
When did you say you're
going to New York again?
I'm leaving on
Wednesday morning.
- This Wednesday?
- No, next Wednesday.
Next Wednesday. And what are
you going to do there?
Ah...
- Loma's fighting, isn't he?
- Huh?
- Loma's fighting.
- Yeah.
- On the Saturday, so...
- Uh-huh.
Ben started working with me
when he was in the
high school, basically.
He used to come here to
clean and do odd jobs.
I remember working for my
dad every summer holiday.
Purely because I wanted to
buy the nice shoes for
the next year, and I worked
for the whole summer,
from 8:30 to 5:30,
six days a week.
After getting the wages,
it worked out so
I got less than a pound an hour.
I think it was at that point
I realized that if I wanna,
if I want anything,
I'll have to do it myself.
(indistinct speaking)
He always had a bit of a
hustling streak on him.
He was... little business man
from the, from school time.
If I leave anything
on the side, it will--
he'll sell it on eBay.
I set up an eBay account
at the age of 15 and
I started buying things in bulk.
I'd buy watches
for about £6,
sell them for £40 in school.
I'd call phone shops and say,
"I'm a business owner,
I'm interested in buying
a hundred phones.
I'm gonna send my
son to the store.
He'll pick up the phones."
I'd be buying
clothes in bulk.
DVDs, MP4 players, actually.
I used to get damaged cars,
repair them and then sell them.
It's as simple as that.
It's a horrible trade.
A customer called me
once and after a
long conversation he said,
"Oh, you know what,
it's really great just to
speak to an English person
on the phone.
I hate going to all these Pakis
and they're selling
these dodgy cars."
I said, "Sir, I need to tell
you I'm brown," and ah...
Yeah, he hung up the phone.
(laughs)
So when it first started...
The boxing was
run out of here.
So I'd be changing oil filters
by the day and then
packing orders by the night.
And all this area here we
converted into a warehouse.
The roof used to leak
and all these beams,
when the rain used to come,
there was holes in the roof,
which he had to fill.
And then,
we couldn't even fix the
roof because of asbestos,
so we had to just keep
filling it, as you can see.
But it did the job,
you know.
There was enough
space and fortunately,
six months ago,
we grew out of it.
Everyone said I was
crazy in the early days.
You know, "You're making so
much money with the cars,
why are you gonna go
into selling clothing?
Who's gonna buy a boxing
clothing brand?" But...
I realized, okay,
I made, you know...
over a million in my second
year with the car sales,
putting decent effort in.
Why don't I put 100%
into this and see,
see what I'm capable of.
♪
Ben, the food's ready.
I live with my mum.
It's just me and her.
If I wasn't there, it would
be very hard for me to
sort of work at the same rate
that I'm working
just because she,
every single day,
there's dinner on the table,
washing's done,
you know, I'm very
fortunate in that regard.
There's not many 27 year olds
living with their mum,
having them cook
and clean for them.
So what did you
do this morning?
Ah, this, what
did I do this morning?
The warehouse,
it's crazy.
We still haven't
finished packing.
I'm sorry I can't help.
Not that you'd
want me there anyway.
So, have you
booked your tickets?
Yeah, I booked them last week.
I'm leaving on Wednesday.
So, when you
get to New York,
what meetings have you got?
Influencers,
boxers, managers...
Some business owners.
Um, it's gonna be
a tight schedule.
So these people,
have you met them before?
Some of them...
But a lot of them
over the internet.
So, are they sort of
like positive about BOXRAW,
or have you got to
try and persuade them?
Yeah, it's not so much that I'm
going there to sell something,
but just see what
can be done.
Mhm, so where
are you staying?
- Opposite MSG, actually.
- Where?
- Opposite MSG.
- What's an MSG?
MSG, the Madison
Square Garden.
- Oh, I see.
- Where the fight is.
I don't know all
these short term lingo.
I was surprised to learn
that Ben was going down
the route of sort of a
boxing clothing line, but...
I thought it was a
brilliant idea, as well, that,
you know, he, he found a
niche in the market and
was sort of going for it.
And that's Ben.
Ben is one of these people
that just seems to have a
knack to know what the niche--
You know,
find an opening, and he's
not afraid to have a go.
Gonna go up and
get some work done.
Okay.
I'll do this; don't worry.
Alright, cheers.
♪
Ladies and gentlemen,
we welcome you to the
Hulu Theater here at Madison
Square Garden in New York.
(cheering)
Now, ladies and
gentlemen, here he is,
the WBA world champion
from Ukraine,
a three-weight division
pound-for-pound star.
Crowd: (chants)
Loma! Loma!
...two-time Olympic gold
medalist in his
12th world title appearance,
ladies and gentlemen...
And we're actually
finally working with
ESPN and Top Rank,
and all these big players.
It's completely new to me.
In BOXRAW, the
relationship with Loma is...
one of a partnership.
♪
Our success is tied to
him winning, for sure.
If he wins, he naturally
increases our exposure.
♪
(indistinct crowd chatter)
♪
New York's all about hustle,
man, and I love that.
Yeah, I love that.
Everyone seems to be
working towards something,
trying to better themselves.
The ruthlessness of it,
I love, you know.
I think I thrive in
that environment.
America is just a, it's a
bigger market, you know,
there's so much more
chance and opportunity
to scale there.
I'd love to move to America.
I think about taking that
final flight, all the time.
I plan to relocate the
whole business there.
In five years' time,
BOXRAW will be
competing with Nike and Adidas.
That's the goal.
♪
I've envisioned all this,
you know.
It's not completely
new to me,
where I'm like, "Wow,
I wasn't expecting this."
If I wasn't expecting it,
it wouldn't have
happened, you know.
This is what I've
been working towards.
(sirens & car horns)
♪
Announcer: It's show time!
(cheering)
♪
That's the creator and
the founder of BOXRAW.
Yo, ciao, guys.
Yeah, some of the best
boxing clothes in the world.
- Not some, the best.
- The best, oh yeah.
♪
People would think
I'm crazy if they knew
all the sort of ideas,
and dreams,
and goals that I've got,
but I didn't do this,
to be the small boutique
boxing clothing brand.
I did this to compete
with the big boys.
(cheering)
Crowd: (chants)
Loma! Loma!
Announcer: (indistinct speaking)
Crowd: (cheers & applause)
Announcer: Place is
buzzing and we are underway.
Lomachenko got through there
with a straight left hand.
There's a
straight left hand...
It's all or nothing...
A big upper cut
by Lomachenko.
Pedraza hanging on
for dear life...
(cheering)
Lightweight champion
of the world...!
Vasiliy Lomachenko!
(cheering & applause)
I owe the sport a lot.
But I think that's the reason
why I work so hard at
this business and trying to
pioneer this boxing lifestyle.
I'm aware of what it's
done for me and
I'm fully aware of what it
can do for other people.
Loma winning is...
Part of that journey,
it's just the start.
♪
