The man behind Dubai’s Round 10 Boxing Club intends to shape a future Olympian from the United Arab Emirates after relaunching the gym in Al Quoz.

No Emirati has ever competed in boxing at the Olympics but Ahmed Seddiqi, founder of Round 10, believes there is a promising future in store for the sport in the UAE.

“Our inspiration is to build champions,” Seddiqi said. “We see a lot of events happening in Dubai but not many participants are UAE nationals so for us, being passionate about boxing, we thought about opening 10 boxing clubs and building kids to be future champions and Olympians."

Round 10 is the first of its kind in the Gulf Region to offer structured boxing classes and Seddiqi feels the gym’s high quality-boxing guidance makes it stand out from its competitors.

“This club is different to any normal boxing club because of the quality of training we offer our customers which is extremely important,” Seddiqi said. “We don’t have any treadmills or bikes. For us the cardio is skipping, running or hitting the bag- that’s the attitude we have here.” 

There have been rumours that boxing superstars Manny Pacquiao and Amir Khan could fight in the Middle East and Seddiqi believes his club could play a major part if boxing showdowns of such calibre come to the UAE.

“A lot of champions have already heard about this gym through the power of social media, so I think it could be used for training and assistance if the likes of Manny Pacquiao or Floyd Mayweather come to Dubai.”

The ambitious founder hopes Round 10 can expand in the future and perhaps be a worldwide hub for boxing, adding: “We are planning to open in Abu Dhabi and other Emirates so once we see it going in the right way we will think about going international.”