From the Ring to the Gym: Carlos Moreno’s 38-Fight Journey & Why Boxing is a Beautiful Art

From the Ring to the Gym: Carlos Moreno’s 38-Fight Journey & Why Boxing is a Beautiful Art.

So I’m originally from Cape Verde and I was born in Lisbon. Okay. So Moreno comes from like the Moors, my background’s like from the Moors.

Basically means brown, brown skin. How many fights? That’s a good question, I’ve had 38. 38? Yeah.

38 fights. You’re experienced in the game. I’ve always felt pulled towards martial arts.

So I remember being quite young and playing fighting with my brothers and kicking their ass, man. And I’d see, I’d copy what I’d seen like Bruce Lee films and like actually have pretty decent form like when I was kicking and punching. One thing about me, I’d always been very technical and because of all the kung fu movies I watched and things I’ve always appreciated the art of it and the form.

Yeah. And one thing that people used to notice about me was that I was very technical, very proficient with my moves I think. You have your own boxing club? Yes, I have Moreno Boxing.

Moreno Boxing? Moreno Boxing. Where is it? It’s in Dalston, Hackney. It’s okay.

Yeah, yeah. You guys need to come down and check it out, man. So you’re on Right to Fight? Shout out Right to Fight.

Shout out to your Jess and Lisa. So you’re on the car? Yeah. This is a big car.

Yeah. It’s a beautiful car. It’s one of the biggest cars you’ve ever seen.

Yeah, I would say so. Right. Welcome back to our podcast.

In today’s episode, we have a boxing fanatic. We have Moreno Boxing. Come on, champ.

Moreno, tell us a little bit about yourself. How did you pronounce your name right? Moreno. Moreno, yeah.

So I’m originally from Cape Verde. And I was born in Lisbon. Okay.

So Moreno comes from the Moors. Backgrounds are from the Moors. And Moreno basically means brown.

Brown. Brown skin. Okay.

That’s my surname. My first name is Jose. And then middle name is Carlos.

And then surname Moreno. But Moreno is just stuck. So my close friends would call me Carlos.

Officially, like a teacher or like a doctor or someone will call me Jose. And then people like within the boxing circle call me Moreno. Okay.

So I’m known by three, depending on how well you know me, is what you’re going to call me. You’ll get there, man. You’ll go through the process.

So Moreno, you’re a boxer? Yes, I am. Yeah, I’m a boxer, man. How many fights have you had? That’s a good question.

I’ve had 38. 38? Yeah. 38 fights, yeah.

You’re experienced in the game, yeah? Yeah, I’ve been boxing. I started… My first fight was in 2000 and… 2008. 7, 2007.

Oh, that’s a long time. Yeah. Were you boxing ages? Ages, man.

I started as a teenager. How many of them fights were professional? Uh, I had mostly amateurs. I’ve had, so far, in the semi-pros, three fights.

Yeah. No. Yeah, three fights, yeah.

Yeah, because we actually saw you fight. Yeah. How many weeks ago? Two, three weeks ago? Yeah, it’s been about two weeks.

Was that a semi-pro battle? Pretty much. It’s an interesting one because the guy actually was a top amateur and he actually had four pro fights. Yeah.

But he stopped boxing pro for quite some time now. And he decided to go into the semi-pro ranks. Okay.

So I consider it kind of like a pro bout, but it was only three rounds. Yeah. If it was like five rounds, then maybe.

Okay. Okay. And you, uh, you have your own boxing gym? Yes, I have Moreno Boxing.

Moreno Boxing. Moreno Boxing. Where is it? It’s in Dalston, Hackney.

Dalston, Hackney. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You guys need to come down and check it out, man.

I actually, I was going to say it to you, but being around so many boxers now, I actually feel like I want to train a little bit and get fitter than that. Calm down, man. Come get some work, take you on the pads.

Definitely. Get a bit of bag work. Is that your full-time job? Yeah, so full-time job.

Yeah, I would say so. Yeah, I’m director, sole director of the company founder. Um, and I just pretty much like got my staff members, clientele, and I’ve just been doing that for, for quite some time now.

I’ve started, officially launched the company in 2015. Okay. So what made you, what made you go into boxing then? Considering you’ve done it for a long time.

Actually, Maydu is correct here. So I just felt pulled. I’ve always felt pulled towards martial arts.

So I remember being quite young and play fighting with my brothers and kicking their ass, man. And I, and I, and I would see, I would copy what I’d seen, like Bruce Lee films and like, actually have pretty decent form. Like when I was kicking and punching and I just kind of felt really drawn to fighting.

Um, initially I didn’t understand why I felt like I probably just had too much energy. Or maybe I was just like naughty. But then when I started becoming aware of the philosophy of what it takes to be a fighter, what you learn from it, the discipline, et cetera, it just, I was really drawn to that.

And I felt like I needed that in my life because there was a time that I wasn’t living the right way, you know, doing, doing such, you know, we all been teenagers and stuff. Um, so I needed to kind of stay out of like trouble, stay out of the roads and things like this. I wouldn’t say it just kind of.

It occurred you. Yeah. Just, it just woke me up.

Yeah. Woke me up. Made me more conscious, conscientious.

And basically you’ve had numerous amount of fights. Yeah, man. So my record is 38 fights.

Uh, I think 29 or 30 wins. Oh wow. Yeah.

Like I started, I had my first fight was crazy. Like I just kind of, I don’t even remember what happened. I just remember the referee going one, two.

And I’m like, what’s going on? Like the guys get an account. I don’t even know where to go to. My coach is like, go to the neutral corner.

And yeah, it was just a blur. And then from there I just started settling into my boxing and started, uh, one thing about me, I’d always been very technical. Um, and I’ve, because of all the Kung Fu movies I watched and things I’ve always appreciated the art of it and the form.

Yeah. And one thing that people used to notice about me was that I was very technical, very, uh, proficient with my, my moves and things. Are you southpaw or orthodox? I’m orthodox, but sometimes I get caught in a southpaw position and I’m okay with that.

Like I tend to have success with that as well. Uh, it happened by accident and I just kind of like, it was okay with it. So I can do both.

So when you say you’re very proficient and technical, and then you mentioned about you growing up, watching Bruce Lee and stuff like that. How come you never chose martial arts or Muay Thai? Yeah, that’s a very good question. I actually did karate as well.

So it’s like, that’s something probably a lot of people don’t know. Uh, I actually did, uh, practice full contact karate. I think I was probably nine, 20, 21, something like that.

And, uh, it was called Kyokushinkai. Uh, and it was originated by, uh, the one that I was practicing was Masayama karate, which was originated by, uh, Masayama, who was a Japanese, uh, instructor, not instructor, but master. And, uh, with karate, they had, I think it was like 12 to 13 masters that had different versions of karate.

And then they kind of like open schools. And then a lot of people began to learn. Uh, I liked the concept because, um, I did do a bit of Kendo as well, which is like the samurai, um, but I actually like karate cause karate actually means empty hand.

So it’s about fighting. Yeah. Karate empty hand.

So it’s about having no weapon. And even if your opponent has a weapon, it’s the idea of disarming them using that against them or pacifying the situation, but doing it with an empty hand. And I liked this quote that I saw in a Kung Fu movie where the master said to the student, if you always angry and you always have a tight fist, you can’t grasp anything.

You’re just going to be closed heart. But once you open your hand, you can grasp as many things as you can actually grasp the entire world. Okay.

Um, so I like the idea of like empty hand, you know, it’s like formless. I didn’t even know that for a minute. Yeah.

I don’t know. I don’t know. So you like a little bit of wisdom too.

I’m all for the wisdom. I, I say wisdom first, boxing second. So I do it.

I do it more because of the development that goes on in the mind. The boxing for me, there’s been times I didn’t really enjoy it. Now I’ve learned to kind of enjoy it a lot more than before, but the discipline was horrible when I first, the first 10 years of boxing and they say it takes 3000 hours to become a master.

And that’s the equivalent to 10 years. So if you think I’ve been boxing for 21 years and I’ve got a business. 21.

21 years. 21 years. Yeah.

And you started when you were 17? Yeah. You look young, man. Yeah, I look young.

Yeah. Yeah. I started at 15 pretty much.

Yeah. My first fight was at 18, but I started training at 15, but I quickly learned that I didn’t have the discipline that was necessary because, uh, I would kind of like get into bad habits, go partying, et cetera, then come to the gym and be exhausted within a round and get beaten up. And I realized very quickly that regardless how much talent I had, I just didn’t have the discipline to be able to channel that.

So I quickly had to give up the life of like partying and being out and about and stuff. Discipline. Yeah, exactly.

Yeah. I love that. So you’ve had 32 fights.

38 fights. You’ve won. 29, 30.

29, 30. Have you had any KOs? I haven’t. Ah, this is a crazy one because I’m fighting soon.

I thought I don’t really like, I’ve had one knockout, but I had to do it because like, um, I went to an international tournament, uh, and it was against Cyprus, Greece, Scotland. So we turn up and I quickly noticed that the English fighters were getting robbed. Like they were not being given the win, even though they were performing really well.

So I made the decision. That was the first time in my career that I made the decision to actually go and get the stoppage to go and knock my opponent out. It was a conscious decision.

And it was the first time I said, I’m actually going to do it. I didn’t, I said it in the van with all the fighters and everyone laughed as if to say like, Oh, you’ve never knocked anyone out. How are you going to do this? I said, well, let me not say anymore.

But in my head I was thinking I’ve got no choice because I didn’t fly all the way here to not go home with a gold medal. Yeah. So yeah, the round started.

I flew straight at this guy and just battered him. There was blood everywhere. They just said, Nope.

Oh, I’ve had enough. It’s my rental time. But since then, like, but I don’t even know if I should be saying this, but just for a little bit of transparency, I fight according to what my opponent does.

So I go as much as I need to, to get the victory. Um, but, so, so, well, you’re going to see some things, but if you can’t take me to that level and I’m like, yeah, you know, I can be, I can be whatever I need to be to win. So you just adjust, like you said, depends on the situation.

So I’ve, I reckon, yeah. For my 30 wins, I haven’t had to like, do certain things. So I’ve been okay.

So you need to fight bigger people. Uh, I don’t think size is the issue. Not bigger, but better people.

You need them to challenge as well. Or you need a match that’s just as technical. Cause then that would, that would probably really push.

That might not make a difference. Cause the thing is, if you’re technical, I can very quickly turn into an animal and fuck technique, we’re going to go to war and I’m coming after you. That’s true.

And the funny thing in that mentality, in that super aggressive state, I actually am able to hold onto my technique automatically because of so many years of practice. So I don’t actually lose composure as much. And the times that I do lose composure is actually on purpose.

Cause if I become disorganized, I want you to become disorganized. Once I’ve infected you with being disorganized, I can then tidy up and create this contrast. So I can manipulate a lot of things in the ring.

So you’re right to fight. Shout out right to fight. Shout out to you and your great friends with Armstrong.

Yes. Shout out Armstrong. Shout out Mr. Armstrong nation.

Good afternoon. So you’re on the card. Yeah.

So this is a big card. It’s a really big card. It’s a huge card.

It’s one of the biggest cards you’ve ever been on. Yeah. Yeah.

I, I would say so. There’s some big fighters on that. Yeah.

Uh, I don’t really like pay too much attention to like what card I’m on, like anything like that. I don’t, I mean, considering, I don’t know if you know as well, I’ve got, uh, I’m a professional coach. So I actually have a pro coach’s license and I’ve cornered like fighters in massive fights, like in bigger arenas.

So I’ve actually, yeah, I’ve been on Sky Sports. I’ve walked up to the ring, been in the corner. I’ve seen the blood.

I’ve seen stuff that you can’t see on the cameras. Like you see the blood on the ring and you see like how messy it is and you’re like, it looks so good on TV, but man, this is brutal. Exactly.

Yeah. So it’s, uh, I wouldn’t say it would phase me up like or anything like that. But in terms of, am I, am I happy to be on it? Of course.

Yeah. Very happy. Like, oh, I want to be around the fighters, kind of get the sense, the energy, see what it’s like to be around a champion like Shane Mosley, uh, Victor Ortiz, uh, see how they prep, see how, how cool and collected they are.

Um, I could, I feel like I can, can absorb a lot into my game as well, into my mind state in terms of like being on the platform, in terms of like the entertainment side of it. Of course, man, like, you know, it’s part of the game. Like I want to entertain, I want to go there, look good.

Um, I’m going to go there, show my skills, show the level. Um, and I always say to myself, I fight to attain victory. I don’t fight to avoid defeat.

Like, so yeah, I fight for victory, not to avoid defeat, but to gain victory. So I want to take the victory, you know, in style as well. I wanted to ask you, do you like the idea behind the right to fight? Yeah.

The image of the right arm and stuff. It’s a great story. Okay.

So since you want to kind of like, uh, compartmentalize it a bit, do you, so specifically, are we talking about the philosophy of the fighters and things? So on that, on that note, I would say, yeah, like philosophically, it makes a lot of sense. Um, I feel, I do feel, uh, that if people do feel they want to compete on a certain platform and they want to be, uh, rewarded fairly as well. And they want to have the coverage that’s necessary to help them progress, uh, as athletes, as entertainers, as boxers.

I think they do have the right to do that. Um, I do also want to add that. Boxing is a very, to me is a very serious art and, and it’s a, it’s a discipline.

So for people who do feel they do have a right to be on these platforms, they just have to put in the work and the opportunity will come. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

You gotta do the work. I love the slogan to it, the right to fight. Yeah.

It’s got good meaning to it. I love it. And you know, what comes up for me with that is like, um, the right to fight is so much bigger than just fighting in the ring.

You know, with, when we think about boxing, we always just think about the boxers, but I see it as like this huge organism of like, you know, you’ve got the corner man, you’ve got the trainers, you’ve got the promoters, managers, athletes, you’ve got the doctors behind the scene. You know, and I’m always grateful to these people that make, make it possible for us to have these shows, you know, that ensure our safety as fighters. So shout out.

I mean, obviously you see corner men, you see the fighters in the ring, but they don’t understand what actually goes into it sometimes, how much goes into it. I don’t understand all of it, even myself. Yeah, we understand it to a certain level, but we’re not really, like the fact that you, for example, you know way more because you’re a fighter that’s involved with all of this.

So you see, do you get what I’m saying? Does that make sense? But like people watching on TV, they don’t, they don’t see all that that goes behind big events like that, you know what I mean? Yeah, I get it though. You’re not going to like, you know, it’s not entertaining it. Of course.

Like checking what the nurses and the ambulance people are doing and guys in the background drunk and talking nonsense. We want to see a fight. My opponent.

Yeah, well, my opponent. Mate, I don’t know anything, man. I don’t know anything about this opponent, bro.

Like I actually don’t like, you know, I don’t even remember his name. Like I said, I’ve been so honest. It’s a fight, man.

Just like any other fight, bro. Like you’re going to win. That’s funny.

I’m definitely going to win. I have zero doubt that I’m going to win. The question for me is not whether I’m going to win.

It’s the performance that I’m more focused on. So for me, it’s not a case of like just going in there and just winning the fight. For me, it’s going in there and like truly from the heart, giving what I know I can give and like being prepared for anything.

So regardless what level he is, I want him to bring his best and I’m ready for his best. And if it’s enough, then so be it. You know, we’re going to go to town.

We’re going to work. If it’s not enough, then it’s unfortunate for him. Oh.

Yeah, I can’t help it. After all the work I’ve done in my career, I can’t help but be confident. So do you want to make your name a big name on this card here that in future you can have more fights or let’s say better fights and better fighters? Yeah, I feel like that journey is inevitable.

Like as long as I stay focused, as long as I keep doing the work that I’m doing and stay present minded when I’m in that ring and do the job, I don’t need to worry about anything because I’m confident that with my skill level and ability, like any card would be lucky to have me compete on their show. So I’m not worried about it. I’ve got a question for you.

So you obviously started boxing when you were young and having these fights and stuff. And then in 2015, you said you opened your own gym, right? So would you say you prefer training people or would you prefer fighting? Yeah. I mean, it might be a case of you like both.

But if you had to choose one to do for the rest of your life, one you couldn’t do when you’re 18, let’s say, well, hopefully you can. But what gives you more of a, you going in that ring and having that fight or you being in the gym and training people how to box? I think the two, I would argue that the two for me are not mutually exclusive. Yeah.

And they feed into each other and it’s one and the same. So I could be, I could fight someone and in that fight, I’m educating them. Yeah, true.

So I’m like, bang, bang, bang. Maybe you should keep your hands up. Do you know what I mean? But the only difference is when they’re in my gym, before I hit them, I’ll probably say, look, these three punches are coming your way.

You might want to block them and show them how to block it. And then before I do it, but in competition, I can’t do that. I have to punish them first and then they have to go away and watch the video and they have to learn from it.

So it’s the same thing, like the same way that I analyse an opponent and kind of assess their strengths and weaknesses and break them down is the same way that I would teach someone by doing the same, analysing whoever comes into my gym, seeing their strengths and weaknesses. And so the only difference is in a fight, I educate them by the stick and in the gym, I educate with the character. Yeah, that’s good.

I respect that. That’s fair enough. Okay, okay.

Go on, Christian. Yeah. What do you think of the influence of boxing? Which one, who? In general, in general, overall, overall.

Because there’s a lot of influence of boxers that are not on the right to fight. There’s some that are on misfits. There’s even some over in America, you said.

It’s a rapidly growing. I mean, you’ve been boxing way before that, I think it was even a thing. Yeah.

I mean, I’ve cornered a fighter on the card. It was, it was coach Richard versus JMX and I cornered coach Richard and that was on the card of Logan Paul. Yeah.

So, so from then till now, yeah, there’s been a lot of progress. What do I think about? Initially, yeah, I have to say when it first started, it kind of like, I was a bit dismissive about it. I was like, ah, it’s not real boxing.

And, you know, you must admit some of the fights were just scandalous. Like it was awful, but I was always curious about it. I followed KSI and people like that.

Some of them are really good. Yeah. I think now it’s, the lines have been blurred.

So now I just saw highlights of Jake Paul’s last fight against Chavez. And that was amazing. Like he put on a very good performance and he’s looking very dangerous.

And to think that he’s ranked in the WBC now, it’s, it’s pretty good. It’s very good. So I do take it a lot more serious now.

And like myself coming from the amateur background and being an amateur champion and then coming into the influencer scene, it says something. And then even my last opponent, Julio, he was one of the top amateur fighters as well. Him coming into the scene says something as well.

Obviously, like, because of our background and training as amateurs, we’re not coming to play. Like we’re actually coming to do justice to the sport. And I feel that’s just going to take it to a whole other level as well.

Yeah, of course. So I like it. I like it.

I don’t know if it’s me being older now and just kind of thinking, hey, why not? What’s the harm? But I like it, man. I’m all for competition. Yeah, let’s do it.

Message for the audience. Come on, drop some of that Moreno wisdom. That Moreno morale.

The Moreno morale. What about, what do you want me to say, man? Who do you want me to address it to? Just to the people listening. Also, let the people know that you don’t just train adults, you train kids.

All right, listen. First thing, the most important thing is make sure you come to Moreno Boxing. If not, at least check out the website morenoboxing.co.uk. Like you said, we train kids.

We have women’s only classes. We have boxing classes for everyone. We love boxing.

We study the sport all the time. Even my trainers that work at the gym, you know, I say to them, look, make sure you research drills every week, learn new stuff, switch up your playlist and whatnot. We’re very passionate about what we do.

And yeah, listen, thank you for watching this interview. I’m fighting on the 25th of July at the O2 Arena. Make sure you get your tickets.

Okay, these guys are going to put my link in the description. Okay, make sure you hit that button and come and watch me put on a masterclass. Where’s my soap, man? Where’s my soap? First of all, the Fight Club, give me my soap.

I just wanted to say as well, I respect the fact you’re opening the gym, you know why? Because there’s not, for kids especially, there’s no youth clubs no more. There’s nothing for kids no more. That’s why kids are out here doing stupid stuff, especially in London Hackney.

We all know Hackney is not the greatest of areas for people to grow up in, but that’s proper respect. So essentially, you’re a superhero. Yeah, like you’re proper helping.

I appreciate that. Yeah, that’s proper stuff, man. I appreciate that more.

Like a superhero. It’s true, though. My mum tried to get a gym opened.

We’re from West London, so not far from here. My mum tried to get a gym opened in my local area, and instead of them using the money to have a gym, they made a knitting club. His eyes! Yeah, bro.

He just didn’t say anything. You know what I’m saying? There’s a lot of kids running around on this thing that we’re from. Doing all types of stuff, because they don’t have nothing, bro.

Do you get what I’m saying? It’s true, bro. I’ll be honest with you, a lot of people are like, oh, how did you open a gym? It was genuine grind, because I started literally from nothing. I was training people in the parks, in the local parks, and buying hand wraps and stuff from the shop, trying to sell it at a bit of a markup, saving every penny I was making.

I managed to rent out a sports hall in a university, and I was paying a rental fee for that. Luckily, the persistence paid off. More and more people started attending, and then I literally saved enough to buy a gym, to buy a business that was already a gym, and I bought it off the shareholders and stuff.

That was all just literally from hard work. A lot of people are like, oh, did you get any grants? No, I was a little bit jealous of community clubs and stuff that got grants. But one of the things that I noticed, the difference between me and a lot of these other businesses, that a lot of them have failed as well, is that it’s built an incredible level of resilience, resourcefulness as well, knowing how to invest and how to create profits, and reinvest that back in, and having good communications, and good reports of customers, and making sure that your team’s really disciplined.

All of that stuff, I believe, probably I wouldn’t have cultivated as much in a work, professionally and also personally, that allowed me to bec

these things. Had it been easy for me, had someone just written a cheque and said, look, here you go, I probably would have been like, yeah, money does grow on trees, man. I probably respect that, and I appreciate you coming down and shedding light.

I was supposed to be here like a couple of weeks ago, was it? Yeah, two or three weeks ago. And listen, the training for that, listen, shout out my previous opponent, Chavez, you guys saw that fight. Yeah, we saw that.

This guy was very good. He was supposed to come down to the bar. He’s working.

I offered him a lift. He said he’s working. But we’ve been actually, he’s come down to the gym, and we’ve been sparring and working together.

Oh, wow. And my last opponent, my first opponent, Manisi, he was down yesterday and we sparred. So anyone that I fight, I keep my friendships.

We talk every day. I love that community, bro. 100%, 100%, yeah.

And shout out Chavez. But like going back to the interview thing, like the training for the fight was so challenging, that I actually like woke up and I was like, damn, I was supposed to be on a podcast. I just needed to take a nap, but I thought it was going to be 20 minutes.

And the next thing you know, That’s the worst thing to do. And I’m saying, allow it, bro. Allow it, bro.

I’m saying, allow it, bro. What do you want? I check it and they’re saying, where are you? I’m like, I’m in bed, bro. Took me a while, like 10 minutes to realise.

But I made it. And I’m glad I didn’t fall asleep because this couch is very comfy. Yeah, that’s it, man.

That’s the wrap, man. Thank you for tuning in today to our broadcast. Make sure to like, comment, share, subscribe.

We’ll drop all the links to his boxing gym, his socials and the O2 Indigo fight next month. Make sure you check out my YouTube channel, Moreno Boxing. Been there since 1998.

Shout out Moreno Boxing. Thank you for watching. Bye, bro.