PZ: Tell us what you did before opening the Ringtone Gym?
BD: I used to be a carpenter for about eight years on a building site. Work was drying up, and I was suffering from the lack of income. I used to drink too much on the building site, and in fact got done for drink driving. So I decided to join a boxing gym and started knocking people out!
PZ: What inspired you to set up the gym?
BD: Having the building skills helped when physically constructing the gym, but having worked at John Rooney’s boxing gym for a fair while and being part of the development of the gym, I knew I could carry those skills over. I proved myself right and many wrong, and made the place a huge success.
PZ: Why did you call it Ringtone? No offence but it sounds like it could be a one stop shop for mobile phones and fitness.
BD: Ha! That’s exactly why I called it that. A huge number of people look for ringtone’s on Google and whilst typing that in that word, come across the gym website. Quite a few have come along out of curiosity and are still with us now as a result of that initial web search.
I didn’t want to call it Ben Day’s boxing gym, as I didn’t want it to be too intimidating. There’s a massive market white collar boxing and office staff, and in fact anybody who wants to get fit in a boxing environment. I wanted everybody to be welcome.
Also, from a commercial perspective, the majority of professional boxers are skint and they don’t want to pay £50 per month, whereas as white collar boxers will pay £50 per hour. I know which customer I would prefer when having to pay the business rates!
PZ: Tell us about the team you work with.
BD: It’s myself and Jordan Sullivan. At this point in time that’s the perfect staff ratio. We are both good fun, have good personalities and build good relationships with the people who train here.
PZ: Jordan – tell us a bit about yourself and tell us how you ended up working with Ben.
JS: I studied sports science at college and then went onto football coaching. I coached for a few years with QPR, and then living literally round the corner from the gym I walked in and thought I’d like to try my hand at boxing. I initially entered the gym as quite an angry individual, with a bad attitude and walking around like I had a chip on my shoulder. I used to come in whenever I could and train, even when the gym was empty. Ben started to do some pad-work with me and not only started to teach me how to box but also taught me about life and how to conduct myself outside of the gym. I picked the boxing up fairly quickly and Ben then asked me to join him and help with training other people who came to the Ringtone, and the rest is history.
I love it.
PZ: Why inspired you to want to get into pro boxing at such a late age? Why not just have a go as an amateur or white collar?
BD: I was too good! Only kidding. I lot of people can’t believe I took such a leap of faith with the Ringtone. Took on the place without planning permission, not an extensive amount of knowledge and limited finances. But it worked out well.
I get a lot of young lads and journeyman who want to take me on due to my lack of amateur experience, my age and number of pro fights, but then are surprised when they get in the ring with me! I was good at school when playing at football and with judo and have never been one of these people who looks over their shoulder in resentment wondering afterwards ‘what could have been’. I set myself the target, and am living the dream out now.
Boxing has changed my life.
PZ: Give us an idea of your client base on a daily basis.
BD: We do classes every day. We have a great number of office staff who in their day to day work want to achieve their goals and use the gym to help them achieve those goals. They feel comfortable here as it’s a family environment and people are also able to build up social relationships. Attendance is good. We have about 25 people on average attending the classes and the return trade is very good.
PZ: Jordan – after arriving in the morning, give us an idea of what your day would consist of.
JS: A working day can start as early as 6am, when we will train some clients before they go to work. Tuesdays and Thursdays we have lunch classes and 1pm, and this is attended by regulars and people who simply want to come out during their lunch break and get a massive sweat-on!
People who use the Ringtone Gym tend not to want to become a professional boxer, and we stress the fun element and also the fact that any ability and background is welcome here. We teach them the correct techniques, and ensure the time they spend with us as productive as possible, but also as enjoyable as possible, so they look forward to it on their return.
PZ: You’ve worked in disability sport before which was very challenging yet very rewarding. Give me an example of an equally challenging part of your job since joining Ringtone.
JS: There’s a guy called Jonesey who is a cab driver and was jumped on in his cab and the experience really shock him. He was shy, distant and very scared. He started training with us and we started showing him how to box, but also worked on his confidence by showing him a lot of love. Day by day he started to improve with his boxing but more importantly started to grow in confidence. He progressed nicely over time and even entered a white collar boxing bout! That was a massive achievement for all of us.
PZ: You have a Cabbie class. How did you identify the need for this?
BD: If you look at cab drivers in London, there seems to be a bit of a trend when they reach about 45 years old where they put on a bit of weight, mainly due to inactivity and the wrong diet. Not saying this is all the cab drivers, just a trend with some!
So we started to promote the cabbies only session and we get up to 20 of them coming along. They feel more comfortable from the beginning with each other as they are in the same trade, and can chat about what how their day has been, and they have the added bonus that there’s a free taxi rank round the corner for them to park. They love it!
PZ: Name any big boxing names you have had in this gym – apart from yourselves obviously!
BD: Joe Calzaghe. He came down and put a quote on the wall and said it’s the cleanest gym he’s ever been to! Not sure if that’s a bad thing though!
PZ: You recently went to Vegas. Tell us more about the trip.
BD: I went over to Vegas and then over to Floyd Mayweather’s gym three times. It was quite intimidating in the Doghouse, but after a while everybody was very friendly. I didn’t do any sparring, simply because I didn’t want to be a human punch bag! The thought of simply training there and absorbing the energy of the place was incredible.
J’Leon Love was being taken on the pads by Floyd Mayweather senior was great to watch. I asked him if I could have a photo taken with him and he replied ‘I don’t have pictures taken with anybody!’ That’s fine. If he comes to my gym I’ll tell him the same!
PZ: Tell us about some success stories of individuals who have come to the gym with targets in mind, whether it be fitness, weight loss, self defence or confidence building.
BD: The Ringtone Gym is not about making money for me primarily. I’m concentrating on the people, and if the passion is first, the money will follow after. It takes time, but I’m aware of that.
I raise I lot for a mental health charity called Mind, as I’ve suffered from depression before, but funnily enough we encounter a lot of clients who have either a mental health issue or some part of their life which is incomplete. Coming to the gym can either help to fill that void, or act as a platform to work through issues. That’s more rewarding than anything or any amount of money. It’s almost like a little hospital sometimes where we mend people and then send them out into the real world.
PZ: Congrats on your last win at the Camden centre. When do you fight next?
BD: 1st June. However, it’s been so busy at the gym that I’m a little sceptical as to whether I will be in a position to fight on that date. I’ll need to chat this through with Mickey Helliett as I need to be 100%.
PZ: Jordan – are you looking to get into competition fighting?
JS: I was initially, but my background is football and that’s still my first sporting love. I fought in a white collar boxing show and really enjoyed it, but my dedication is with football.
PZ: Any fighters coming through your gym that you see potential in becoming pros?
BD: Jordan! He could if he wanted to. He has a similar style to myself with great reflexes, but I’m not going to force him. There’s a couple of fighters who could be pro. We just need to see how things develop.
PZ: If somebody is reading this article and is on the verge of wanting to join a gym, give them a couple of reasons why they should visit Ringtone.
BD: Ringtone is open to everybody. The atmosphere is friendly, you can meet new friends, lose weight, get fit and defend yourself.
PZ: Any big plans for Ringtone for 2013/14?
BD: I was considering opening a second branch, but I need to find staff who are as dedicated as Jordan and I. I’m going to continue with my boxing career and let Ringtone expand its success by possibly putting on a few white collar boxing events.
PZ: Big thanks for allowing us inside the gym Ben and for the valuable insight.
BD: Cheers for taking the time to come and see us Paul.
