Meet the Sussex kickboxer who says Andrew Tate helped build his business
Daniel Knight, from Peacehaven, founded Sidekick Boxing in 2010 with just “£3,000 and an idea”.
The 42-year-old grew up in Woodingdean and says he “always had a big passion for martial arts”.
He began kickboxing as a child before becoming more serious about the sport in his twenties.
Over the past 15 years he has worked with and sponsored champion fighters like Jonathan Haggerty and George Jarvis as well as Katie Price’s ex-husband Alex Reid and controversial figure Andrew Tate.
A former kickboxing champion and online influencer, Tate's views have been described as misogynistic and capable of radicalising men and boys to commit harm offline.
He has been banned from several social media platforms.
Tate is also facing criminal and civil legal proceedings in several countries – including the UK – over alleged sexual and human trafficking offences, all of which he denies.
Daniel’s business began sponsoring Tate back in 2012 and he worked with him until his retirement in 2016 - although he did not train in Sussex.
“He was quite easy to work with,” Daniel said.
“The old Andrew Tate I knew was happy-go-lucky and up for a bit of laugh; he didn’t take much seriously.
“I think that towards the end of his kickboxing career he realised it wasn’t going to make him money, so he created a character. He’s not my cup of tea now; he’s become someone he wasn’t.”
Although Daniel says Tate would often engage in “trash talk” against opponents and had an “arrogance”, he didn’t express misogynistic attitudes.
“He had world champ status, and he could have that arrogant attitude, but he wasn’t talking about women, he was just saying I’m better than most men.”
Daniel saw a huge increase in traffic to his social media accounts due to growing interest in Tate following his arrest in 2022.
Sharing content on social media and on a blog where he comments on the sport is how Daniel generates “most of his traffic” and has boosted the business, he said.
“It blew up and my videos started going crazy because people were looking [Andrew Tate] up," he said.
“Sometimes I feel that people blame everything on him, but I do feel that social media has got out of hand and it’s quite a concern for me as I have two small girls.”
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