Despite your attempts gaining fame and fortune on television, it was in the kickboxing gym that the brothers truly thrived. They attended Storm Gym in Luton, a well-equipped facility in a former warehouse on commercial property, under the tutelage of Amir Subasic, an ex-military kickboxer, who became close to them and his family.
Gym staff declined to comment on Andrew or Tristan, and the gym’s website was recently updatedremoving descriptions of Andrew as “one of the most devastating fighters” and Tristan as “a war machine”.
Johal, the Leicestershire gym owner, thought Andrew was a skilled kickboxer and admired the way he fought hands-down, a high-risk strategy that allows fighters to swing quickly but exposes them to danger. from a knockout punch.
Johal suspected that Andrew learned his talent for self-promotion during his years as a wrestler. “Andrew has always been a bit controversial. Sometimes you have to be the bad cop,” Johal said, explaining that big money and fights go to the loudest boxers.
“Andrew learned that a long time ago. He has always said things to get people to support them, to get attention. As a person, he’s nothing like that,” Johal said. He added that Andrew used to go on online kickboxing forums and write controversial things to draw attention to his fights.
Ibrahim El Boustati, a Dutch kickboxer who defeated Andrew for his championship belt in 2016, told the Mirror that the alpha male persona is quite an act. “He is lying to a lot of people, he is not the person he says he is,” he told the tabloid. “I know him very well, Andrew and his brother Tristan. I talked to them the whole week before the fight doing interviews, and he is a very nice person.”
Andrew also took an over-the-top approach in marketing his fights to the fight press, narration an interviewer for Love 2 Fight, a combat sports magazine, in 2013 who came from a mystical land called Wudan and was trained by a figure named Master Po. This story would later be incorporated into Tate’s misogynistic training materials, illustrated with elaborate manga-style cartoons, and embraced by his followers.
“His fights sold themselves,” Johal said. “He literally called himself ‘the Cobra.’ Because like a cobra, his right hand, straight from behind, would knock out most people.”
Both brothers were successful in the ring. Andrew won several world title fights and Tristan won two British titles. Although it was not a lucrative business, it did generate some money. Andrew finally got a sports car, an Aston Martin DB9, when he won £10,000 in a fight.
“That was a pretty weird thing because it was a one-bedroom apartment with an Aston Martin DB sitting outside,” O’Halloran recalled. That led to the origin of Andrew’s infamous nickname “Top G.” “We always used to say when we were younger, ‘What a big G,’” O’Halloran recalled. “The guy’s a top-notch gangster here, he drives an Aston Martin.”
