1. SIMON MCDERMOTT/CHAMPNEYS/BOXING
You study hard, you make the grade, you get the job. You spend the next 30 years of your life
staring at a screen working for a faceless international. The highlight of your day-week-year is
winning a new account, or saving a bundle on a cost-cutting exercise. Is this what you really
wanted with your life? Probably not. Face it, your life lacks excitement and your commitment
to your Excel spreadsheets doesn’t exactly pack a punch.
Abdul Sebbak, 32, is a CEO of Treasury International Ltd, based in the City. He began boxing
again last January and now trains at Champneys City Point gym. “I started to box again
because I wanted to see if I had any guts left,” he says. “I fight every day with the markets.
Boxing is a stress buster for me. It’s boosted my confidence, and doubled my fitness”.
Last November Abdul took part in his first fight at the “Hedge Fund Fight Night”, organised by
the Real Fight Club – an organisation formed by a group of businessmen boxers in order to
raise money for charity. “Going into that ring that night gave me a huge boost of confidence,”
he says. “People wear a lot of masks in real life. At work, you don’t know who people really
are. I did the fight because I wanted to know what I was able to deal with. It was a great way
to know who I was. In the second round he knocked me down. But I got up and carried on. It
was a great to know that I could come back and continue. You don’t know who you really are
until you are confronted with a very tough situation,” he adds.
Martin McKenzie has been working at Champneys for 4 years and is Abdul’s trainer at
Champneys City Point gym. His boxing classes have been increasing in popularity in recent
months, with new training nights introduced to satisfy the growing demand. “I used to box
myself, my father was a boxer, so I’ve always been around it,” he says. “For me personally, if
you box, you are fit, because it is a combination of aerobic and anaerobic exercise. This is
how you work in boxing. You develop both stamina and fitness.”
Currently there are 12 members of Champneys City Point gym whose main goal is to fight in
one of the charity boxing events. “Of course not everyone who comes to the classes will want
to box fully,” says Martin. “There are ladies who come as well, and guys who just want to get
fit. But I would say that there are about 40% who are going for gold – those who at the end of
it want to be able to get into a ring and fight,” he adds.
Nick O’Kane, 31 is an Energy Trader at MacQarie Bank, and has been training with Martin at
Champneys City Point for 3 months. He too is aiming to box at a charity Fight Night. “I come
to this class because it’s active, it pushes you and it isn’t boring. Martin sets goals and stages
to achieve, and focuses us on our fitness. It’s up to you what you want to achieve at the end
of the day,” Nick says. Emma, 37, is an Investment Banker in the city and has been training
with Martin at City Point for 4 months, primarily to get fit. “I am very cynical about fitness
classes. I get bored very easily and they don’t usually work for me. But boxing here is the only
class that has kept me motivated,” she adds.
Martin’s classes are non-contact, with emphasis on sharpening boxing techniques, building
muscles, and cardio-vascular workouts. “I don’t like to see people exercising and not sure
what they are doing,” says Martin. “Whether they are doing press-ups or sit-ups, what I look
for is technique,” he adds. Abdul trains with Martin three times a week. “The classes work for
me because Martin brings the spirit of boxing into them. In my experience, gym trainers either
know boxing, or they know fitness. Martin knows both, and has put them both together. It’s a
very explosive work out,” adds Abdul.
Despite the obvious physical benefits of boxing, Martin emphasises the mental benefits that
come with it too. “These guys are driven people – they need to set goals for themselves,”
adds Martin. “I’ve had people who have come to this class and they judge themselves as
wimps – but they have had that thing inside them that makes them want to change
something. People come back to me and thanked me for the difference the classes have
made. You can tell even in the way they walk – their posture changes and they walk with their
heads high”.
Martin stresses that it is when you receive your first punch that you really find out what boxing
is all about. “When Abdul was hit for the first time at the charity Fight, he was shocked for a
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2. SIMON MCDERMOTT/CHAMPNEYS/BOXING
split second. Then he got back into it,” he says. “Even if you don’t want to go into a ring to
defend your self, it will be worth having a few rounds sparring with someone. It is a challenge.
You have learnt the techniques, and you need to put it into practice. That is when your
confidence begins to soar”.
At present, Abdul is training for his next fight. “The charity fights are for a great cause. They
raised £150,000 at the last event – so its something that not only benefits myself in terms of
personal gains, but it benefits other people as well,” he says. “After sparring at the charity
night, my confidence grew, both in fitness, and professionally speaking,” he adds. “If you can
step into a ring, life after that is pretty easy”.
If you want to get involved Fight Fit takes place at Champneys City Point Gym. Contact
Champneys City Point on 0207 920 6200 for further details.
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