From his fashion studio on the Welsh coast, Imtayaz Qassim creates some of the most distinctive outfits worn by the world’s most famous boxers – like WCB World heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, who will take to the ring Saturday night in Saudi Arabia to face off against undefeated Oleksandr Usyk.
It’s being billed as the biggest fight in history, and with both fighters at the top of their physical game, what they wear can influence their mindsets going into the fight.
“I like to tell people’s stories through the garments,” Qassim told CBS News. His business is called Bespoke Boxing, and each outfit begins with a client consultation.
“We would talk a bit more in-depth and discuss why we would use certain colors. Do they mean something to you? Do you feel better in them? Do you prefer to fight from the hip, so do you need a lot of movement? Tyson Fury, for example, has a lot of issues around [movement], with shorts rising and falling,” Qassim said. “So what we’ve done for the Usyk fight is we’ve removed that by doing a skort style as opposed to short style.”
The scene a boxer creates when they enter the arena is known as a “ring walk.” Former cruiserweight world champion and sports commentator Johnny Nelson says this walk can affect the fighter’s headspace going into a match.
“When you’re a fully accomplished fighter and you believe in yourself, the ring walk is everything,” Nelson said. “This is your peacock moment. This is that time. This is what you’ve trained so many weeks and months for. This attack.”
Ranging from intimidating simplicity – like Mohammed Ali in his white robe – to the deliberately flamboyant, ring walks project a boxer’s personality to the audience. British boxer Prince Naseem Hamad created a global spectacle in 2000 when he flew into one of his fights on a magic carpet.
“Everybody’s looking at you. Everybody’s judging you. They either love you or hate you… The outfit to me is just as important as a walk,” Nelson said. “I want them to judge me and think, ‘oh my god, what’s he got on? Who’s he think he is?’ That’s how you want to be. That’s how you want it to be, all about you. And if you really, truly believe you’re dressed like a gladiator, it puts you in that gladiatorial mentality.”
Qassim understands that gladiatorial mentality because he is also a boxer. He started training multiple times a week when he was 8 years old.
His unique arena designs include a fisherman outfit for boxing superstar Terence Crawford, when he faced Errol Spence, nicknamed the “Big Fish,” last year. He’s made a fully functional bulletproof vest for boxer and YouTuber Jake Paul and a manga-inspired outfit for British fighter and anime enthusiast Ben Whittaker.
“I’m proud to see my work out there on the biggest stages in the world,” Qassim said, adding that it makes him “inspired to do more and to do better.”
“Boxing fans are actually, in reality, very small in the big picture,” Nelson told CBS News. “So if you can capture the imagination of people that aren’t normally boxing fans, that’s when you become a global superstar.”