In this episode of Getting Raw, host Richard Mark Deteringi interviews Christian Marchegiani, the founder of Thump Boxing. Christian recounts how Thump Boxing began as a simple boxing class he offered at a local Sydney gym, later moving to a rented space and expanding into a brand that now operates in six countries (Italy, UK, New Zealand, Australia, Thailand, Taiwan) with plans to reach ten. He explains the strategic shift from public classes to trainer‑certification courses after a chance Google ad generated a request from a gym 12 hours away, leading to a business model that has trained over 10,000 trainers—70 % of whom are women. Christian also describes his side projects, notably the Underdogs.tv anti‑bullying campaign, which he launched from personal experience with bullying and leveraged his media contacts to secure free TV airings. The interview covers his recent role as a trainer‑coach on Channel 9’s “Excess Baggage – Celebrity Overhaul,” detailing the five‑month filming commitment, the acting and voice‑coaching he undertook, and how the exposure fed back into his core business. Christian shares his philosophy on balancing multiple ventures: prioritising survival, building a reliable team, and allocating time (e.g., one month per year) to passion projects. He reflects on failures, highlighting an ego‑driven attempt to host a fitness convention that cost $50 k and taught him to avoid revenge‑driven decisions. He emphasizes perseverance, the importance of personal motivation rooted in his own bullying and health struggles, and the work ethic inherited from his parents. Looking ahead, he aims to expand Thump Boxing to ten countries, broaden merchandising and equipment offerings, and continue growing Underdogs through school visits. The episode concludes with practical contact information: Twitter @theboxingcoach, website thumpboxing.com, and a reminder that the brand remains accessible to trainers and enthusiasts.
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Hello, it's Richard Mark Deteringi and welcome to Getting Raw. Today I'm at the head office of Thumb Boxing. I've got Christian Markajani with me. Is that correct?
That's correct, Richard.
Excellent. Or Christian M. Or Christian, or the man behind Thump Boxing, as some of you may know it. And I'm sure everybody's seen this brand around over the last, what, 10 years?
10 years, yeah. Look, the concept was devised about 12 years ago, but we've really been strong the last 10 years.
And where I've been seeing Thump is you've got 6 locations around the world, is that right?
That's correct.
So Italy, we've got UK.
We've got Italy, the UK, New Zealand, Australia, we've got Thailand. Taiwan, and we're about to go into Indonesia.
Okay, so we're talking about a brand that started in Australia, started with a concept, started with an idea, and what I'm interested in talking about Getting Real today is how you've expanded like that and how you've— you told me you've trained over 10,000 trainers over the last 10 years. That's huge. And for those who are thinking, I've seen this guy before, I don't know his brand, You may have seen him recently on Excess Baggage, and he's been in the media quite a lot. So I'm going to touch on that as well, but I really want to know more about Thump Boxing and its heritage and where it's getting to now. So tell me a bit more about that.
Look, Thump Boxing was a concept of just your basic boxing class to do at a gym, and that's how it started. I was working for a local gym that needed some boxing classes run. I put my hand up and said, look, I can easily teach a boxing class. They said, great, give it a name.
Yeah.
So I gave it the name Thump Boxing. And people were coming, they loved it.
Yeah.
I did that for a couple of years and then I really wanted to expand my classes and the gym wouldn't allow me to. So I went and hired a room on top of a mechanic's workshop.
Right.
Just in Sydney's inner west. And I started running Thump Boxing classes. The people were just coming.
So you were just running these classes for the general public?
Just for the general public, yeah. Whoever came in the door, it was simple, it was basic, it was something that everyone could do.
And I guess boxing, if you take it back 10 years ago, I mean, sure, everybody's done a bit of boxing in the gym, but 10 years ago it was probably an uncommon thing or a very stereotypical sort of sport.
Is that right? Yeah, that's right. Boxing's had its ups and downs. It was very popular actually in the '80s. And then it kind of died out in the '90s. You didn't really see it anymore in the gyms. So when I started it, it was kind of like a bit of a taboo thing. You know, not many people would come to the gym and do it. So we had to come up with a way to make it popular, to make it colorful. We had to brand it and we had to really make it user-friendly for everyone. You
had to make it sexier, had to appeal to everybody.
You did, yeah. Because the gyms, the group exercise classes, were full of women. So we had to appeal to the women. And 70% of trainers that have done our courses are actually females.
Really? Yeah. So in the early days, you were appealing to the mass market, then you went down the courses. Was that because, what, people were coming to you and saying, listen, I need to learn this?
Is that what happened? Well, it's actually a great story the way it started, the courses. You know, the gym was popular, but it still wasn't making enough money to pay the rent. So I had this girl that was working for me She did marketing at uni and she said, look, why don't you put an ad on Google to teach a boxing course to trainers? So we did that and we put the ad in Google and believe it or not, we got a call from a gym in Toowoomba, which was a 12-hour drive from Sydney. And they said, look, we've got 16 trainers here. Do you think you could come up and train them? And I said, yep, no worries. Got in the car, drove 12 hours.
Straight to Australia, yeah.
And spent the weekend there and ran the course, came back, and I said to this girl, you know what, we've got something going on here.
Awesome. And so that just came purely from out of desperation for cash, needing money, and saying, okay, what's the opportunities, what's next? And that's where you've done a lot of projects over your career in the fitness industry, one of them being Underdogs.tv, and that's all about bullying campaign.
That's right.
And what I see from you, you're doing different projects and they're always expanding or they're moving to the side and they're growing, going to the top. So Underdogs is all about— it's a bullying campaign. Tell me a bit more about that and why you went down that avenue for.
I felt that I really wanted to do something that was close to my heart, and bullying was something that I experienced for many years at school. Yeah. So we set up this anti-bullying campaign. We didn't want to raise money, we're not a charity, we just thought we're going to raise awareness about bullying and what it is. So I called on a few friends that, you know, are athletes or they're in TV and I said, look, let's make this TV commercial and basically telling people, stop bullying, it's not cool. So we did and we rang up all the TV stations, we rang up Foxtel and we said, look, we've got this community announcement, can you play it? And they did for a month for free.
And you got some amazing media coverage if you just go to— what's the website again?
Underdogs.tv.
Underdogs.tv, you can see all the media coverage you got. And what I like to see about that, why I've gone on that topic is because here you got this Thump Boxing, it's going, it's progressing, it's growing, yet then you go, okay, how can you give back? And you go down the side and you go, okay, let's focus on this where it's really close to your heart. What I sort of want to get across too is sometimes doing those things with a close heart is actually bringing more credibility to you, more credibility to the company, but that's exactly not the main purpose. But it's a, you know, it's a triple effect which is always good as well.
Yeah, I think I always said to myself, when I get to a point in my life where I've grown a successful business and I'm happy where it's at, I want to give back. And I think, you know, people should find something that is close to their heart and not just jump on the bandwagon. for what everyone else is doing. Just find something that you're really passionate about and fight that battle. Because you'll always just want to keep fighting it because it is something that you may have experienced. And that's— and it's not something that I can do all the time. You know, I may have just one month out of the year which I can devote to Underdogs, and the rest has to be towards Thump Boxing or any other projects. It all depends on how much you can give.
And tell me about that. You're saying 1 month off a year, projects. How do you balance? Because with trainers, with gym owners, we love just to put ourselves in there and get it going and get our hands dirty. How do you balance a career in— you're doing Thump Boxing, you're doing Underdogs, you've got some other projects on the side, as I'm sure you have. How do you balance it all? Because it's the same issue trainers have out there. They're balancing boot camps, they're balancing personal training, they're balancing Aerobics. And how— what's the best way you do it? What's the strategy you've come on board to do?
It's all about prioritizing. You know, if you're a one-man gang, as I call it, then you've got to prioritize. You're the only one that can do it, and you've got to put up there what is important. Now look, the first thing that is important is surviving, you know, putting food on the table, paying your rent or paying your mortgage. So if it's work, if you've got to build a business and a career, That's the first thing that you've got to do. When you find that you're sustainable enough where you can actually then go on to another project, be it a charity project or maybe another business, then I would advise to go on to that. But I'm fortunate enough that over the years I've managed to build a great team around me. So I've got actually staff that can help me if I want to try a project. I can say, look, I'm going to put you on this project for the next month. Do a bit of research on it, tell me what you think, and then come back to me.
Good. It's about growing and it's about— I think it's very key. It's about not taking your finger off the pulse in the important stuff like putting food on the table, for example, where people can go sidetracked and they come back and they go, oh my gosh, I've let the finger drop and I need to get back to it.
It's one of those things in business people don't like to admit. I'm doing it for the money. You know, you need to do it for the money at some point. You've got to because you need to survive. You need to buy clothes. But it all depends how much money do you want to make then. And if you're comfortable and you're happy and then you think, you know, I want to actually give back. I'm going to get a sense of purpose by giving back. Then that's when you can, I feel, try something out where you're doing it for free.
Talking about trying something out. So you've just finished up on the film set of Excess Baggage. Celebrity Overhaul, I think it was called, full name. And so tell me a bit about that journey into more of the media. I know you were in media before, but now it's really— I think it was 5 weeks, was it? Or 5 months?
5 months. 5 months. 5 months of filming.
5 months of filming. That's pretty intense, running a business as well. Tell me about that experience and how it came about as well.
Well, I got a phone call from Channel 9. Obviously they'd seen me in the in the media with Underdogs, and they said, look, we've got this new TV show coming up, we think you'd be great for it. We need a trainer who's more than a trainer, kind of like going to take the coaching mentoring role. Would you be interested? So I said, yeah, great. Went and did an audition, and an hour later they rang me and they said, look, come in again, you know, we'd love to give you the job. So I basically had to put 5 months of my life on hold, you know, be it social, family, you know, business-wise, even Underdogs. It's just 5 months and I thought, yep, this is an opportunity that comes once in a lifetime.
Yeah.
I had good staff that could take care of Thump Boxing while I did this. And I just threw myself in there. I actually went and got some lessons on, you know, being in front of the camera. I got some voice coaching lessons.
Okay.
Some acting lessons. Just
You had acting lessons too, eh? So there is a bit of acting in there.
Yeah, yeah, well, you want to present yourself in the best possible way, you know, and you don't want to be on— turn up to your first day of filming and the director's there telling you where to stand and what angles to use. Sure, yeah. You know what it's like.
Mine was just a big blur, big rush. But it's interesting because you said that they found you from Underdogs, right? And so Thump Boxing started, and then Underdogs, because You wanted to give back. And isn't it amazing because it's full stream around and then somebody's knocking on your door and saying, we want you for that. So I think that's really a key point.
It is. And it gives back to you. If you look after your business, your business will look after you. If you then give to the community or you're doing something for charity, it gives back to you. It may not be with money. It may not be You know, there and there on that day, but it may be with opportunities down the track. So you've just got to keep
in there. And then I think that's your whole philosophy around your business as well, is just driving through the tough times and keeping in there and keep it going. Now that you've had your TV career, you've had your businesses going well, where do you see yourself going in the next 6 months, 1 year? Where are you heading to?
The goal with Thump Boxing is to expand it globally. 6 countries
is not enough?
6 countries is not enough. The aim is 10 countries. 10 countries is our goal, and then from there, hopefully we get more. But we also want to expand on our merchandising, on our equipment. We want a total business solution. for trainers that just love their boxing. So that's the goal with Thump Boxing. And in terms of Underdogs, we're going to keep raising awareness. I visit hundreds of schools every year talking about bullying and the effects of bullying and violence. There
was a bullying campaign just last week, I'm pretty sure. Is that correct?
That's correct, yeah.
So, you know, what you're doing, and more people are going to get on the bandwagon and Promote it and you're going to really change a lot of lives.
And we want people to jump on the bandwagon but we want them to do it for the right reasons, not just to be popular. That's the thing.
So tell me, this is getting raw and I like to really know, I like to delve in and understand about the business, not just the good things but I like to know your successes we've talked about. What about your failures? What about the really tough times? I know obviously at the start you said it's hard to put food in the house. Hard to put food on the table. What are some mistakes growing a business of this size? What are some key mistakes that you've done in business that you've turned back and changed?
The biggest mistake I made was ego. And this is a big thing that a lot of people can get stuck with is they have an ego. They want to prove someone wrong. They want to start something out of revenge. So I remember one thing, one year I got rejected Oh,
as a presenter?
As a presenter.
Don't we all, eh?
You know, I presented before and I thought, oh, you know, there's politics involved and I'm gonna show them. I'm gonna actually organize my own convention. So the year later, I'm trying to put together a fitness convention at the Australian Technology Park.
I remember that, actually.
You know, it cost me like $50,000, you know, which I didn't really have. I had to scramble the money from credit cards and Borrowing money. I just thought, wow, this is an expensive lesson. Ego is an expensive luxury. That was a big lesson for me. That's one thing that I tell a lot of trainers. Don't get ahead of yourself. Don't try and compete with anyone else. Don't get emotional. Don't take out revenge. Just stick to what you know and do it right.
That is a huge, huge tip. I've got some information out of that as well. Yeah, we've all been there, haven't we? We've said, let's do it, let's do it better, let's create this. I think we all do it. So that's an awesome tip.
Anything else? Look, don't give up. You know, I think people give up too easily when they think it's not working. We're in a tough industry. The fitness industry is tough. It's not glamorous. It's not all this glory that they make it out to be. But if you really believe in it, then there's no reason why you can't be in it. And Winston Churchill had a great quote. There's a great saying, if you're going through hell, keep going. But make sure it's for all the right reasons.
And I guess the early times at Thump, has that sort of been you? Where should I continue, should I stop, should I change careers? Have you been through that part?
I must have thought I'm going to give up 100 times. Just so many roadblocks. The biggest thing you're going to come across is people saying to you, oh, you can't do it. Oh, it's not going to work. Oh, that's impossible. I don't believe that. As soon as someone says that to me, I stop listening.
Where do you get your motivation from? Where do you get your drive from?
It probably comes from, you know, when I was young, you know, struggling, you know, as a boy and as a teenager, being bullied, being overweight. So I thought, you know, I really want to live a life of fitness. I want to live by my health. I love health and fitness and I want to die by it. So that's where a lot of my motivation comes from. And seeing how hard my parents worked as well, that gave me the work ethic to really achieve.
To get back to the roots.
Yeah, that's right.
Awesome. I could talk all day, but let's wrap it up there. But where can people— I know actually I saw your Twitter the other day. My gosh, you've got 90,000 followers, I think. Is that right?
Yeah, yeah.
So he's definitely on Twitter. So you can catch him there. What's the Twitter?
So it's @theboxingcoach.
The Boxing Coach.
So you can just type in The Boxing Coach.
Excellent.
That's my personal one.
Your personal one. The website's
thumpboxing.com.
thumpboxing.com. International .com, I like it. And I know you're on Facebook as well. So it's pretty easy to get in contact. And this is what we love about getting— we're always like, here's Christian, built up an empire of boxing, and you can still contact the guy. You can still email him. You can still connect. And I think that's really what's important about the fitness industry as well, is that everybody is connectable. And contactable and just a tweet away or a Facebook away. So if this is something that inspires you, you know, check him out, have a contact, see if your business can fit in there as well. So thank you so much for
your time. Pleasure. No worries. Thanks for having me. Thanks, Christian. Great. Thank you.
