Kai
I was angry for ten years. The gym gave it somewhere to go.
Where it started
Kai grew up on an estate in Camden with his Jamaican mum and his English grandad, a retired boxer who still shadowboxed in the kitchen.
What they wanted
He wanted to get out. By fifteen he was fighting in the street more than he was at school.
The wall
At seventeen he was arrested after a fight outside a chicken shop and spent a night in a cell.
The moment it clicked
His grandad picked him up from the station and drove him straight to an old gym under the railway arches. He made Kai hit the bag until he could not lift his arms. Walking home, Kai felt calm for the first time in years. He had never needed to get away from himself. He needed something to put it into.
The new path
He trained at that gym every day for six years and boxed as an amateur for England.
The hard part
A detached retina ended his career two fights before the Commonwealth Games trials.
The breakthrough
He took over the arch when the old owner retired and turned it into a free gym for kids from the estates.
Today
Kai coaches six nights a week in Camden, and three of his kids are on the national squad. The Camden frame is the one he wears on the morning runs along the canal.
This is Kai's locked face. Every photo and video of his starts from it, so his look stays the same everywhere his appears.
Amara
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