The excitement, tension and surreality of the backstage-at-the-boxing experience.

I’m backstage in the Cardiff Arena, hovering at the threshold of a professional boxer’s dressing room door. I’m quivering beneath the x-ray stare of a former Olympic bronze medallist, cursing myself for having the temerity to knock. 

The good news is she’s not gloved up. Not in tonight’s role as head honcho of Lauren Price’s management team. The bad news is that she’s now wearing an unmistakable who the fuck are you? expression. Mercifully, she edits that back a little, when she says:

“And you are?”

Much as I wish I hadn’t been the one asked, it was a fair question. It was Kariss Artingstall’s job to know; her job to fend off anyone who might break the focus of her boxer (and gf), who was busy preparing for her world title shot on the other side of that door. That she didn’t say Who the hell are you? was a small mercy, narrowly avoiding a layer of confusion I really didn’t need. 

Possibly stammering, I say I’m working for HELL Energy Drinks and had been told it would be okay to come in and get some footage ahead of the fight. She looks deeply unconvinced, scowling in that way that only staredown-seasoned boxers can. Being neither staredown-seasoned or a boxer, I’m teetering on the edge of losing my nerve when someone from BOXXER arrives in the nick of time. 

They explain the situation. Her scowl lessens slightly. My arse unclenches. Our videographer and I are allowed through the door in time to watch Price get her hands wrapped and thud a few combinations into the pads. I try my best to stay out of the way.

If this all sounds tense, it kinda was. But at the same time, it was also… genuinely great. Not just because I was already a fan of the sport, but because of how sudden, unexpected and surreal even being in this situation was.

It was January of this year when ilk started working with HELL Energy Drinks. Soon after, we discovered that it had signed a four-fight sponsorship deal with UK promotor BOXXER –  and, consequently, part of our social remit would be to create all sorts of content in and around those events. Not only would a team need to attend each fight, but we’d need to work and film with featured boxers in the lead up to them.

Personally speaking, this was quite the turn of events. Could it be that visiting boxingscene.com 15 times a day might actually prove to have some semblance of professional worth? The answer, quite wonderfully, was yes. 

In a microcosm, this is the single best thing about working at an agency that doesn’t specialise by sector. The eternal possibility the that thing you’re into, however unlikely it might seem, might just be a project in waiting. Although it’s very easy to post-rationalise the past into seeming like an obvious course of events, in the course of my 13 years at ilk I’ve undoubtedly assembled a pretty eclectic gang of experiences in the line of duty.

Like seeing the inner workings of an abattoir (a couple of times, actually). Like attending an Octoberfest shindig in Munich dressed in the full lederhosen. Like flying to Philadelphia in order to research coffee (because, um, we don’t have coffee here in the UK, do we?). Like wandering around the House of Parliament peering into chambers, or indeed having a mega-nosebleed during a client dinner in Athens while trying to understand a very strange version of fantasy football betting. 

All work stuff. Even in hindsight, some are more explicable than others. But it’s a list to which I can now add being screwfaced by Kariss Artingstall, going to a stadium fight at Selhurst Park, and visiting McGuigan’s Gym to interview Caroline Dubois. That would be an interesting enough state of affairs for most (I think?) but for someone whom boxing is their favourite sport, it’s borderline ridiculous.

Which is not to say it wasn’t stressful at times. We – by which I really mean our crack team of social specialists on the HELL Energy Drinks account – had plenty to do, plenty to coordinate, plenty to plan and plenty to create in order to make sure that HELL made the absolute most of the partnership.

The events themselves, as all big events are destined to be, had an element of unavoidable chaos. For all of our careful preparation – like setting up punch machines in fanzones, crafting all sorts of potential vox pop themes and questions, and ensuring we had videography on hand at ALL times – we still knew that we’d be working with a) the public (as live and unpredictable as always), and b) athletes, who, quite frankly, have got other things on their minds. So there was always going to be some dashing around, the odd frantic phone call and some quick-fire trouble-shooting along the way.

And there was. But there were also all those unexpected moments that you can’t plan for, but you can absolutely make the most of. Like Johnny Nelson being so keen to be involved in our videos, or rival mascots duelling on our punch machine. Like Jessica McCaskill inviting us into her dressing room pre-fight to tell us about how she dines post weigh-in (starter, main and dessert served all at the same time, if you’re interested), or catching a restless Richard Riakpohre staring right down the camera lens in the final moments before his ring walk.

It’s the thing that can only happen if you’re in the right place at the right time, ears open, eyes wide. Fortunately, the HELL team at ilk can sense a backstage content opp from a mile away, and those moments all got captured.

@hell_energy_ukGetting HYPED for the next fight ???? | @johnnynelsonboxing #ChelliSimpson | 03.08.24 | @callumsimpsonboxer #HELLEnergy #GiveEmHELL♬ original sound – Hell Energy UK

But the stuff that makes it social is only ever one part of the story. That’s the bit of the iceberg that you can see. The other stuff – those myriad experiences beneath the visible surface of the vox pops, reels, stories, and carousels that we create – won’t get reach or engagement or indeed hit any of the metrics that might show up in the project evaluation down the line. Nonetheless, those experiences will make you better at your job. How can they not? It’s more wisdom in the bank; more expertise to call on when you need it. Who knows, maybe next time that awkward conversation is a little less awkward, or that thing you hadn’t considered is considered, or maybe that content idea is just that little bit tighter and better tailored to your audience.

In my case, maybe I’ll now know what to say when trying to talk my way into a boxer’s dressing room pre-fight. 

I’ll get back to you on that.