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Day after day, just lately, Andrew Tate has been parading himself around in tight-fitting boxing shorts, employing all his usual swagger to convey an image of himself as a legitimate participant in a venerable and sacred sport.
Tate, the self-described ‘Top G’ (gangster) who has made big money from a deeply misogynistic brand of toxic masculinity, has been filmed on the pads during a private flight to Dubai, on a gym cross-trainer and then sparring in a ring, followed around by a camera crew shooting for the rambling Tate Confidential show on his weird Cobratate website. A few of Tate’s friends are on hand to relay how wonderful he is.
Tate tells the many impressionable boys and young men who follow him that the subjugation of women and the flaunting of excessive wealth are the only way to male self-respect.
‘Once you’re rich and famous and can have any girl on the planet, you realise they’re all scum and you don’t want a single one,’ he told his followers on Sunday.
Yet in Dubai next month, he will be given the full glitz and viral spectacle of Misfits Boxing, the promotional ‘influencer boxing’ brand which pitches random YouTubers, OnlyFans creators, TikTok stars and fighters against each other in the ring.
Misfits, which has a five-year streaming deal with DAZN and links to global sports, music, and entertainment agency Wasserman, is giving Tate a platform to fight trash-talking former American footballer Chase DeMoor, 29, and the chance to present himself as some kind of sportsman.
Despite his vile views on women, Andrew Tate will be given the full glitz and viral spectacle of Misfits Boxing when he takes on Chase DeMoor in Dubai next month
Tate has been parading himself around in tight-fitting boxing shorts, trying to convey an image of himself as a legitimate participant in a venerable and sacred sport
Mere conjecture about whether Tate, a former kickboxer and Big Brother contestant who has advocated for 'bring(ing) back the Nazi salute', had been in talks with Misfits was deemed a newsworthy story by BBC Sport, who ran it on the boxing section of their website in August.
The piece described him as a ‘controversial social media personality'. There was no mention of the fact that the Crown Prosecution Service has brought 10 charges including rape, actual bodily harm, human trafficking and controlling prostitution against Tate. It did record that four women in the UK are suing him over allegations of sexual violence. Tate, born in Washington DC and raised in Luton, has been living in Romania and denies all allegations against him.
The lead company behind the Misfits Boxing brand, music talent management company Proper Loud, has not responded to requests from Daily Mail Sport to discuss its platform’s association with Tate, who has spoken publicly about hitting and choking women, trashing their belongings and stopping them from going out.
Wasserman says it provides purely logistical services to Misfits and has no say or influence over whom it chooses to perform. Wasserman has declined to say whether it has any kind of financial interest in the brand.
DAZN, the subscription-based sports streaming service, has not responded to our request for comment about its own contractual relationship with an outfit employing Tate. It is understood that DAZN will not be broadcasting Tate’s Dubai fight.
Misfits Boxing seems to consider Tate, whose videos have included a description of how he would physically attack any woman who accused him of cheating, to be a big-ticket asset.
The 38-year-old recently claimed he has ‘ousted’ rapper and YouTuber ‘KSI’, who co-founded Misfits, to become its new ‘CEO’. It is unclear whether this is true – Proper Loud has not responded to that question from us, either - but the mere possibility enhances the pre-fight hype.
Platforming deeply unpleasant characters is nothing new to boxing. Mike Tyson, Tony Ayala Jr and Rolando Navarette all returned to the ring after rape convictions.
The Crown Prosecution Service has brought 10 charges including rape, actual bodily harm, human trafficking and controlling prostitution against Tate. He denies all the allegations
Misfits Boxing seems to consider Tate, whose videos have included a description of how he would physically attack any woman who accused him of cheating, to be a big-ticket asset
But Misfits Boxing is something more toxic: a form of entertainment which monetises provocation and controversy and doesn’t care if misogyny and malign influences on susceptible young men are part of the appeal. It’s all about eyeballs and clicks in the digital space, so trash talk, lewd gestures, and staged controversies are rewarded.
Tate is by no means the platform’s only deeply unpleasant misogynist. Misfits has also been a helpful stage for a vile individual they call ‘Tate-lite’ - TikTok influencer Harrison Sullivan, known to his followers as HSTikkyTokky, who claims to be an elite trader earning £20million a year and leading a lavish lifestyle but who is actually a low rent attention-seeker from Essex.
Sullivan has built a following by posting images of himself with women — some of whom he jokes about ‘owning’, as a self-described ‘pimp’. This has sucked the impressionable into two elements of his business model: dodgy financial advice and an account on OnlyFans, the online subscription service known for explicit content.
The UK Financial Conduct Authority has warned the public against the use of Sullivan’s unauthorised services and to ‘beware of scams.’ Several of his platforms have been closed down.
After winning his debut bout in under 80 seconds last year, Sullivan became involved in a chaotic post-fight brawl – spitting and punching a fan and hurling a chair before being restrained by security. At the weigh-in, he headbutted his opponent, influencer and former Love Island contestant George Fensom, calling him a ‘b***h boy.’
Post-fight violence is a pattern of behaviour for many of the Misfits hires and also accepted as part of the show. Natan Marcon, a Polish self-styled ‘freak fight’ influencer who thrives on controversy and spectacle, was involved in backstage brawl after losing a Misfits fight in August. Footage shows him kicking down security boards and needing to be restrained by security.
Sullivan and Marcon’s fights have been streamed by DAZN, as have those of Dillon Danis, an American trash-talking fighter who has been involved in two of the Misfits platform’s most disturbing episodes with women.
Misfits has also been a helpful stage for a vile individual they call ‘Tate-lite’ - TikTok influencer Harrison Sullivan, known to his followers as HSTikkyTokky
HSTikkyTokky claims to be an elite trader earning £20million a year and leading a lavish lifestyle but is actually a low rent attention-seeker from Essex
Sullivan, seen here in the blue shirt during a violent brawl in Magaluf earlier this year, has a history of violence outside of the ring
Elle Brooke, an OnlyFans model, influencer and female Misfits fighter asked Danis to choke her during a Misfits Boxing ‘open workout’, ahead of Danis’ fight with Logan Paul in 2023.
Danis was also involved in an alleged revenge porn campaign against Paul’s fiancee Nina Agdal, a supermodel, who is suing him. The case is ongoing, but Agdal has been granted a temporary restraining order preventing Danis from posting sexually explicit photographs of her without her consent.
Ms Agdal’s distress did not lessen Paul's willingness to engage with Danis, though Paul has courted controversy, too. In 2018, the American, who has 23.6m subscribers on YouTube, posted an image of the body of an apparent suicide victim in Japan and joked about how he had discovered it. This was a rare Misfits indiscretion deemed abysmal enough to justify an apology.
Misfits was once viewed by some as a step up from white-collar boxing dinner events but it’s fast become a representation of everything that has become skewed and twisted in our society. Computer fighting games spewing into real life with odious characters who represent little more than the school bully or thug on street corners.
It is where ‘KSI’ crudely brought up John Terry’s alleged affair with Wayne Bridge’s former partner Vanessa Perroncel in trash talk, which prompted Bridge to pull out of a bout in January. The business model monetises individuals whose actions in most walks of civilised life would render them unemployable. But challenging influencer boxing carries risks.
In an episode of the recent Netflix series Matchroom: the Greatest Showmen about promoters Barry and Eddie Hearn, it becomes clear that Jake Paul, an ‘influencer boxer’, co-founder of a boxing promotional outfit and Logan Paul’s brother, has a grievance with Hearn Jr, whom he attempts to bar from a fight involving Katie Taylor, a boxer from the Hearn stable. Hearn Jr has said Misfits and other influencer boxing promoters should be ‘booted so far away from professional boxing’.
This week’s announcement that Anthony Joshua will enter the lucrative influencer boxer fray to fight Jake Paul illustrates how this brand of fighting is seeping into the world of pro boxing
In a disturbing episode, Elle Brooke, an OnlyFans model and Misfits fighter, asked Dillon Danis to choke her during an ‘open workout’, ahead of Danis’ fight with Logan Paul in 2023
This week’s announcement that Anthony Joshua will enter the lucrative influencer boxer fray to face Jake Paul illustrates how this brand of fighting is seeping into the world of pro boxing. Joshua will earn a minimum of £36.9m plus bonuses from the fight and half the boxing world will be hoping he stamps out Paul’s cabaret act. Paul’s fight against Mike Tyson last year earned Netflix 300 million streams and Paul £31m.
It is in the grassroots of the sport, where coaches are using boxing to engrain codes of mutual respect, discipline and sportsmanship in young men, that the lawlessness and malign messages from Misfits are most loathed.
‘They say it’s entertainment and different from our sport, but while we are trying to instil a code and a right way of living into our boys, some of these people are luring them with messages which are an abomination,’ says a coach at one well-established amateur boxing club.
‘They’re stealing our sport, wrapping themselves in our cloak. They can’t touch the commercialism of proper pro boxing but that’s not the point. They are taking the name of the sport down into the gutter. People with a casual interest don’t disassociate them from us. I despise this.’
Concerns have also been expressed about the safety of putting people with limited boxing experience into the ring. Rod Stewart’s son, Sean, was knocked out within 15 seconds in his debut Misfits fight against a streamer called ‘BDave’ in the United States, earlier this month.
Jake Paul, a man who lost to Tyson Fury's younger brother Tommy in 2023, will be fighting well above his usual weight against former world heavyweight champion of the world Joshua.
The Professional Boxing Association (PBA) has suspended Misfits Boxing promoters’ licences, citing ‘repeated rule violations, concerns surrounding boxer safety … and bringing boxing into disrepute’. A string of Misfits controversies includes a fight between Danis and Logan Paul descending into chaos when Danis attempted a jiu-jitsu choke, prompting security to intervene and a brawl to ensue. The PBA suspension has had no effect on this seemingly untouchable brand.
HSTikkyTokky this month received a suspended sentence for crashing a supercar at 71mph in a 40mph zone in Surrey and failing to appear in court for nearly a year, having left the UK for Thailand, Dubai, and Spain. He had been extradited back to Britain from Spain to stand trial. His release from prison, where he had seemingly been briefly held on remand, produced a glut of gleeful new TikTok content from him.
The build-up to Logan Paul's fight with Dillon Danis was disgusting. Danis was involved in an alleged revenge porn campaign against Paul’s fiancee Nina Agdal, who is suing him
And the fight between Danis (left) and Paul descended into chaos when Danis attempted a jiu-jitsu choke, prompting security to intervene and a brawl to ensue
Rod Stewart’s son, Sean, was knocked out within 15 seconds in his debut Misfits fight against a streamer called ‘BDave’ in the United States earlier this month
Tate has a promotional ad for his Dubai fight pinned to the top of his X feed with the world ‘Justice’ and has posted an image of himself in training captioned ‘Weakness is Death’. The cigar-chomping narcissist ruminated this week on how ‘women will never understand dishonour and men will kill for it’.
One wonders what his mother, Eileen, thinks of the warped views he is engendering in young boys – a process vividly portrayed in the award-winning Netflix drama Adolescence earlier this year. It was his father, Emory Tate, a chess master, who seemingly passed down the narcissism and hate.
Misfits president and co-founder Mams Taylor defends Tate’s supposed recruitment as the brand’s chief executive, claiming that many allegations about him are ‘from social media and AI… whatever else’.
For his own part, Tate has declared that he will make Misfits ‘the largest disruptive force’ in sports entertainment history.
‘Considering that I’m the largest name on the planet, if I’m gonna fight on an organisation, why not fight on an organisation that I own a percentage of? It makes a lot of business sense,’ he concluded, taking the hijacked name of a noble sport deeper and deeper into his toxic swamp.
