Among the 60 sports studied in depth by cable sports channel ESPN, boxing is the most demanding, exhausting, exhausting, bruised and bruised.
The key to surviving what’s known as ‘the beautiful science’ – except for having your face exactly where the opponent’s gloves fall – has been and always will be ‘conditioning’.
Middleweight champion Floyd Mayweather, who has racked up 50 fights in five divisions in his undefeated boxing career, has refocused his winning ways on the world of fitness and business, perhaps just as competitively bruising in his own way.
With some of the more than $650 million in prize money, the boxer three years ago launched Mayweather Boxing + Fitness nationwide, and the latest franchise was his 2,000-square-foot studio in a Newport Coast shopping mall.
The only real contact there is with friends and punching bags. Only push fists out, not back oh. The result is a conditioning opportunity found in few other exercise settings.
Fifty-four-year-old Newport Coast resident Borrell Lee Wilkes III, vice chairman and co-founder of the fitness chain, loved the concept of “boxercise” so much that he wanted to own his own studio.
A product of tough inner-city neighborhoods in Chicago, Wilkes earned his undergraduate degree in self-preservation at a young age. At the age of sixteen he had been called the “chief” of one branch of a well-known gang.
“I ran through the streets as if I were in the army,” he told me during an interview in a boxing studio.
Although necessarily useful with a grip, he opted for a somewhat more sober interest.
“Gambling was my game,” Wilkes admitted. “I bet on games, but don’t report my winnings.”
To protect these gains, Wilkes worked – a lot.
“The streets made you run, to understand the importance of physical fitness.”
Soon after ascending to the chiefdom, Wilkes “retired” to focus on gambling. By the age of 23, he had made enough to leave the hood, or, as he likes to say, “from neighborhood streets to executive suites.”
Naturally social, ghetto Batwa still flows with ease, color, and is full of street wisdom—the wisdom of success taught in an entirely different language at Yale or Harvard. You served him well
He has gone from gambling to “the life coach of many athletes, celebrities, and more.” Given the client’s confidentiality, Wilkes declined to identify his clients, but emphasized that many famous actors who would have run out of money in no time had it not for his ailing advisor.
One of his clients was Floyd Mayweather – now a friend and co-worker.
In the three years since they started their gym business, Mayweather and Wilks have sold 209 franchises (the last Wilks franchise). By the end of the year, he said, there will be at least 100 opportunities open across the country.
Like many of his decisions in his five decades, opening the Newport Coast facility was via his “guts instinct” versus market research.
Living there, “I’ve seen people work hard, but they don’t work hard. Exercising not only makes you look good, it makes you look good when the bills are paid,” Said Wilkes.
The new gym is built around Mayweather’s mission and system: clean living, hard work, and a good diet. As Mayweather was quoted: “Don’t smoke, don’t drink…just think! Your body is your temple.”
All exercise sessions are high intensity (although the degree of intensity is up to the individual), and usually last 45 to 60 minutes. They include a combination of boxing, strength and cardio exercises. Wilkes said members can attend as many classes as they want, and can use the gym when there are no classes running.
To encourage conditioning in young adults, the gym offers a free afternoon program called Gloves for Greatness for children ages 13 to 17.
For those who don’t want to sweat profusely, the sport that ranks 60th on ESPN is fishing. Fortunately, both boxing and fishing are readily available within the Newport boundaries.
For more information, it is not difficult to go online at https://mayweather.fit or call (949) 945-9607.
