London underground given Vegas makeover
A young Irishman folds his work clothes into a suitcase, kisses the family so long and turns his face towards the airport road. In a new home, he works hard, learns plenty, makes friends and builds a successful life.
But Graham Boylan’s story has a modern flourish.
His life, it seems to an outsider, has more sides than the octagon around which he has forged his reputation and built a thriving business.
The 36-year-old Cork man is now, essentially, the top man in mixed martial arts (MMA) in Britain and Ireland. The fastest growing sport in the world — beloved of young men in particular — the sport is reviled by those who think ‘cage fighting’ barbaric. He runs eight companies, shrugging off the need for sleep — (he echoes Warren Zevon: “I’ll sleep when I’m dead”) — and devotes parcels of time during the week to each of his many enterprises.
“I’m from the north side of Cork — I moved to London in 1994 or 95 and ended up hanging around gyms. I trained with professionals and trained professionals.
“I eventually got into MMA and the gym we had did a lot of that in the end. And because there wasn’t a lot of that around at the time it filled up pretty quickly.”
The portfolio — if you’re asking — currently runs at four gyms, including one on Leeside as well as three more on the way, and one in Perth. Then there’s the Cage Warriors company he acquired 10 months ago. I may have missed a gym here or there.
But after karate chopping the ceremonial ribbon on these new gymnasiums, he decided to take the chance running big-production shows.
“The opportunity arose to acquire Cage Warriors which was the biggest UK MMA operation. We completely revamped it and boosted it and we have 160,000 hits a day on the website. So 10 months later we’re flying.”
He announced this week, he’ll bring the circus to Dublin soon. I spent a week inside the ropes with the Ultimate Fighting Championship roadshow when they visited Dublin in 2009.
It’s a no-nonsense, brash but very well-executed operation, which reflects its owner —charismatic, young Dana White.
The Boston southie is someone who built his empire from the ground up having moved from to Vegas to work in hotel lobbies and casinos. Now, innumerable rounds of MMA on, he and his sport are at the very top; put it this way — if he and Don King entered a busy restaurant at the same time, the boxing promoter would face a wait for a table.
Is the Leesider then, on his way to being Europe’s equivalent to UFC’s top dog?
“Paddy White is what they call me,” admits Boylan into his hands-free kit from London, “we’re a stepping stone to the big shows in the States, the UFCs out there — we’re seen all around the world and if you want to get to UFC or Strikeforce or somewhere else you want to win one of our belts — the guys know that, let me tell you.”
If he does ultimately come to fill major arenas (the UFC recently sold out a 50,000-seater venue in Canada he tells me) then it will be a journey which began on the chlorine-scented hardwood of Parochial Hall in his home town.
His was an athletic career that started swinging a hurley and throwing a basketball rather than an elbow or a punch.
“I played hurling for Na Piarsiagh and basketball with the North Mon and Cork and Ireland elite squad for a bit too, actually.
“I’m 36, when I was a kid all you could do was GAA or boxing — and maybe a bit of karate or tae kwon do or something.
“Now kids can do all of it. It’s great opportunity for kids coming up.
“The sport [mixed martial arts] is growing like wildfire and it’s just a lack of education that puts people off.”
A lack of education?
“Up to a few years ago the sport was underground and had a bad name but now it’s all above board, all the health checks are there and it’s very well regulated.
“I personally — and the people who work with me — hate the term ‘cage fighting’. You play football on a pitch but you don’t call it ‘pitch ball’ do you?
“Those who don’t know — those who aren’t educated about the sport — think that it’s barbaric.
“But these guys train 20 hours — 40 maybe — per week in all these different disciplines, like karatejujitsu, wrestling , boxing etc. They have to be highly-skilled athletes. This is a proper sport.”
* Contact: adrian@thescore.ie. Twitter: @adrianrussell
