White Collar Boxing

‘White Collar Boxing’ is a strange phenomenon – think ‘Fight Club’ with bored-bankers and city types wishing to let off steam and perhaps fix a work rivalry or two. This is of course done in the time-honoured fashion of smashing each other in the face with padded gloves while your friends urge you forwards from the side. Of course there is more to it than that, including a fair smattering of controversy. A good article can be found HERE

I recently got a call from a fellow photographer and good friend Anders Birger to shoot on a fight-night hosted by ‘White Collar Boxing’ in London. Anders got the pre-fight training shoot and I got the sweat, blood and gore. Thanks!

I was warned there may be blood and it proved to be so. The fighters aren’t joking around and come out of their seats with menace in their eyes and fists ready. Three rounds doesn’t sound like much but I could see the tiredness in the arms after just one. The fighters defence starts to drop and the punches land regularly. Photographing this stuff is difficult. The fights are hard, swift, haphazard and frenetic, luckily I got a good vantage point: right by the ringside and on the ropes. I worked with ‘Status Magazine’ from Brazil and you can read the story (in Portuguese) HERE: STATUS MAGAZINE 42