This is one outlet's own report from Forbes — the article as it was filed.
AIPROPX ReportForbes · 5h ago
BOXR Gym: The Real-Life Miami Location That Feels Like It Should Be In GTA 6
Gaming BOXR Gym: The Real-Life Miami Location That Feels Like It Should Be In GTA 6 By Brian Mazique ,
Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Brian Mazique has covered combat sports and video games since 2011. Follow Author Aug 31, 2026, 09:39pm EDT Sep 01, 2026, 12:28am EDT --:-- / --:-- This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more . This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more . Summary BOXR Gym in downtown Miami, founded by former boxing champion Mateo Attalla, has rapidly grown into a 50,000 sq ft facility with 4,000 members in just four years. Known for its celebrity clientele like Israel Adesanya and Floyd Mayweather, the gym offers extensive training options including boxing rings, an MMA cage, and CrossFit. Despite its high-end appearance with luxury cars and vibrant art, the gym intentionally lacks air conditioning in most areas to foster a strong community atmosphere. Attalla, who started teaching from his penthouse, emphasizes building culture over profit. CMO Daniel Abreu, a cancer survivor, crafts authentic content, contributing to the gym's unique identity. BOXR also hosts weekly Bible studies, drawing large attendance, and has even received the Key to the City of Miami, reflecting its significant impact. The gym's distinct blend of elite training, community focus, and unconventional offerings like Bible study and a desire to be in GTA 6 sets it apart.
Ever gone to a gym and become instantly inspired to work out or train? That happened to me this past weekend as I took a tour of BOXR Gym in Miami . I was in town covering BKB 58 , a bare knuckle boxing event at James L. Knight Center on August 29, but this place grabbed me.
The facility is run and operated by Mateo Attalla, a former 5-time national boxing champion in Australia and a bronze medalist in the World Championships with more than 200 amateur fights.
The facilities are everything you’d expect from a location in downtown Miami. There’s celebrity clientele like Israel Adesanya, Floyd Mayweather, Jake Paul, Ryan Garcia, Steve Stoutte and others.
Yet I found there’s another layer rooted in the connection shared between Mateo, his Chief Marketing Officer, Daniel Abreu, Chief Financial Officer, Jonathan Calvo, and master trainers like Fareed Samad, Alissa Rae and Jason Ingwaldson.
When you walk through the doors, the first thing you see is a Wall of Fame. It is littered with images of Mateo with a who's who in combat sports and other walks of entertainment, politics and law enforcement. It tells you before you've touched a weight, climbed through the ropes, stepped inside the cage or struck a heavy bag, this is a real gym with esteemed clientele.
A few steps further there’s a luxury sports car. It was a black, old-school Mustang on my visit, but I'm told the cars are routinely rotated out. Couple that with the neon lights, murals on the wall and standout art pieces and I immediately said, 'this place should be in Grand Theft Auto 6.'
Mateo heard me and said, "it’s funny you say that. We’ve been trying to reach out to Rockstar to make that happen." He was dead serious and it’s not a crazy concept.
I can almost picture Jason (one of the GTA 6 protagonist) busting in, stealing the car in the walkway or even climbing in the ring and taking on different fighters in the gym in some sort of boxing or MMA mini-game. Everything is there.
Attalla was stuck in Miami when COVID closed the flights home, put his savings into a friend's business and lost it. What he had left was boxing.
"If I'm not going to get back in the ring, let me trial out from being a coach," he said. "Let me see if I can actually teach it."
He started teaching out of his own condo. The furniture went out, the bed went out, an ice plunge went on the second level.
"I turned that into the first ever boxing facility in the world in a penthouse condo," Attalla said.
The pricing was equally unusual. "Rather than me putting a price point, you pay me what you think my value's worth," he told clients. It started around $50 a session. It ended at $600 and retainers.
The name came from home. BOXR was his fight name in Sydney, spelled without the E — his old MSN handle, his old Hotmail. He turned it into a brand.
"I currently own the biggest boxing facility probably in the world," he said, as he credits Rae, the first coach at BOXR and someone who has been with him since Day 1. "Fifty thousand square foot gym space with four thousand members. It's taken four years, started with zero."
Abreu has a knack for shooting in-ring and training footage in a style that seems almost cinematic, but not so devoid of the grind associated with training that it creates a disconnect or kills the immersion. In this day and age when the content on social media says a lot about your overall worth, Abreu’s work ensures BOXR is being displayed honestly, but also in the best light.
He describes the approach plainly. "We don't do marketing that is trendy. We don't make content that the world is going to like. We do what we like."
The room itself is doing work too. There is no air conditioning across most of the floor, which Abreu treats as a filter rather than an oversight.
"Most gyms that are always climate controlled, there's no vibe," he said. "Everyone's on their headphones. Nobody's talking to anybody."
I noticed it before he said it. I don't think I saw a single person wearing earphones.
"Why would you want to be isolated in your own world when you're at home?" Abreu said. "Our members look at BOXR as their home."
Attalla’s brief was theatrical from the start. "I’m going to make this an MGM Grand Fight Night," Abreu said, describing Attalla’s original vision. "When you come in here, you're going to feel like you're a champion walking into your fight."
Abreu was in chemotherapy when a friend told him about a guy running content for five bare knuckle fighters.
"I showed up to his small gym at the time," Abreu said. "I s...
AIPROPX is an independent multi-source news index — we track, compare, and connect coverage from across the web into one place you won't find anywhere else.
