Jake Bostwick talks about growing up in the fight game, training with Timbaland and sparring with the Pauls

The glorious thing about ‘cene Mag is that the creative community engaging with us are often the dictators of what ends up in print. I’ve lost count of the number of people we have randomly come into contact with while out on a photo shoot who in-turn then end up on the pages themselves.

Chatting to us over Zoom from the living room of Timbaland’s house (yes, that Timbaland) is one such character. And he really is a character. Jake Bostwick (@brutalbostwick) is a scary-looking f*cker, but we can assure you he is really easy to talk to!

Hailing from the Kent borderlands of Kidbrooke and Greenwich, Jake is a career Mixed Martial Artist, having competed in cages and boxing rings since he was a nipper, eventually moving from south-east London to Miami, Florida, to pursue his dreams. Having first come across the fighter in Harvey’s Barbers in Bexley, we have been following his progress inside and outside the ring only to see him pop up as the personal trainer to hip hop legend Timbaland and sparring partner to international YouTube-stars-turned-boxers Jake and Logan Paul. We knew it was time to give him the ‘cene treatment and find out what the fudge was going on.

Growing up on the notorious Ferrier Estate, Jake accepts he was something of a brawler in his school days… to put it lightly.

“Yeah, I was. I’ve always been against bullying, so I’d always end up standing up for people, fighting kids a couple of years older than me. I’d always step in and separate stuff,” he explains. “I was always getting into trouble, but I didn’t mind it as I always got a buzz from fighting. Not hurting anybody, just that interaction of madness.”

Taking Taekwondo lessons from seven years old before moving into an MMA class as a teenager, contact sports were in his sights from a young age and he didn’t wait too long to start looking to make a name for himself in the fight game.

“I remember it so well, we trained in a church on Wednesdays,” he remembers. “Anyway, a fight opportunity came up and I thought that maybe it would be a good idea. I was 16, doing my GCSEs. To think back now, that was crazy.”

A professional fight for Cage Rage Contenders 1, with full pro rules, fighters are meant to be 18. If you watch the video of the fight on YouTube, to be fair, Jake could have passed for his age now, 31.

“Yeah, I blagged my date of birth and changed it so I could compete,” he says. “I was only getting £100. I could have made £5 on a ticket sold, but I couldn’t charge anyone. I didn’t want to take their money, I just wanted the support!”

Jake, 5’9’’, fought the 6’4’’ 24-year-old Tory Groman, who was coming off the back of a professional win of his own, and lived up to his nickname ‘Brutal’.

“I knocked him out in nine seconds. And that just set me off. I couldn’t even believe it. That was on a Sunday and I went to school on Tuesday for a science exam. I didn’t even wear a uniform, I was wearing a Cage Rage top.”

Registering two more wins in quick succession, there was a buzz about the teenager and Jake admits things happened quickly, a little too quickly perhaps.

“I ended up fighting back-to-back and I lost a few fights on the spin, but I still wanted to keep fighting,” he says. “In the early days of my career I was taking crazy fights, like John Maguire for example. I had no background in jiu-jitsu, I just used to come out banging – he took me down and heel-hooked me, you know, and I was getting submitted and sh*t.

“People win and people lose, it happens. It’s very rare that someone has never had a loss, for example Mayweather. There and then, dealing with that sucked and most people would have quit by then. But it’s fuel for me now.”

And while, for a time, his record was more losses than wins, Jake wasn’t afraid of the hustle to get back on an even keel.

“I’ve put myself in shit waters and I know what it’s like not to make money, but I still chase that dream and I believe my hard work will pay off,” he says. “I’m on the right route, I’m around the right people and doing the right things.”

“I knocked him out in nine seconds. And that just set me off. I couldn’t even believe it. That was on a Sunday and I went to school on Tuesday for a science exam.”

— Jake Bostwick

COMING TO AMERICA

Working with the infamous Team Titan in London, which has nurtured a string of MMA stars such as UFC fighters Nathaniel Wood, Brad Pickett and Jason Young, Bostwick was invited out to a training camp in America to work on his wrestling and jiu-jitsu skills.

And while training went well, Jake also encountered his future wife and made a permanent move to Miami. Four years on, and single again, the fighter is now a resident of Hialeah – a Miami suburb with a large Cuban population.

“It has been a crazy ride, with many ups and downs,” he says. “Moving from home, where I know everyone, my family and friends, to Hialeah, everything was brand new. It’s a beautiful town full of great people, but the culture change was crazy.”

But anyone who watches Jake’s Instagram stories and live chats – he’s now at 52k followers – will know that his character and desire to better himself is infectious. It wasn’t a coincidence that his move to America was followed quickly by exciting developments in his ‘side hustle’: personal training and coaching.

“I got a phone call... and got offered a VIP client the next morning,” explains Jake. “I didn’t care who it was, work is work, and then I heard it was Timbaland and I was like ‘Not the Timbaland? It can’t be’. I rock up at the gym and he’s there. He’s super-polite, we had a wicked session and I told him how much it would be for the week and the dude paid me double, and he really enjoyed it.

“We’ve been training together for nearly five years now. We have a great vibe. He’s chilled as f**k.

“He just spits knowledge to me and I absorb everything because he’s a legend. He’s been there, he understands the hustle and the grind, and look where he’s at now... and I’m sitting in his house right now and vibing out. It’s crazy. He’s a proper good guy.”

SPARRING WITH THE PAULS

Currently operating in the BKFC (Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship), with his next fight due in November, Jake’s reputation both in the ring and during training recently led to an extremely high-profile hook-up with Jake and Logan Paul.

“He was sparring with some guys in Miami not far from me and I was hearing that he was lighting some people up and giving out some really good work,” says Jake. “He needed some more sparring partners and they were feeling out some guys – this was for the Ben Askren fight – so I got a couple of messages saying there was a good opportunity to come down for some sparring with Jake Paul.

“So I was down for it, but the guy said ‘Listen, the guy can box, please don’t think he can’t’. And this was coming from a professional coach, a guy I know.

“I was driving down there and I was nervous, it’s like an hour drive, and I was thinking ‘Oh, there’s gonna be all these cameras and all his boys, I really need to show up. We did three solid rounds and he caught me with some shots!

“He hit me with an uppercut and detached my top lip! Bruv! He caught me with some shit!

I was like ‘What the fuck?’!”

Bostwick and Paul sparred five times before the latter went on to win the fight by knockout.

“I was telling everyone he was gonna knock him out with a right hand,” says Jake.

After his own bare-knuckle bout against Julian Lane in which he took some 20 stitches, Bostwick was again approached to spar with Paul ahead of his fight with Tyron Woodley and ended up going into camp to help with the preparations.

“They are such an interesting group,” he says. “What you see on social media is what you see on social media, but I got to vibe with these guys in person – chilling, training and getting to be myself and we all fitted together really well. It was dope. They’re really smart, intelligent people and I like what they’re doing. They’re putting eyes on sports.”

Bostwick was flown out to the fight in the Pauls’ hometown of Cleveland, Ohio, to be part of the team and saw Jake Paul win again.

“He’s 24 and he just fought a legit legend. Hats off to the guy, bro, that did just happen!” he says.

With his own career in fighting moving into a new chapter, he says working with the Pauls has had a profound impact on him.

“That feeling of ‘When I win, everyone else wins’. And that’s one thing I took into account when I was with Jake, the opportunity for me was beautiful, it really opened my eyes to see how much it meant to everyone else and to see how much drive that gives you,” he explains.

“I get a lot of time on my own, meditating and it helps me think about where I’ve come from and what I’ve accomplished, and that really drives me. I think about how my career started and it was good, but it was bad, too, because I really jumped in the deep end. But I now have a lot of experience behind me, over 40 professional bouts.

“I’ve cut weight and I’ve missed weight many times. I’ve been knocked out, I’ve been cut, I’ve fought through very uncomfortable situations, deep waters, and I’m so ready for the next step in my life.”

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