Tyson Fury versus Oleksandr Usyk embroiderer on fashion fight

Alongside the hype, heated press conferences and razzmatazz that accompany top level boxing, there is the battle to outdo each other in the fashion stakes.

Tyson Fury didn’t get the better of rival Oleksandr Usyk in the ring when they first clashed in May – the Ukrainian winning to unify the heavyweight titles.

But an embroiderer from Cardiff played his part in the battle to look the best, designing the waistband Fury wore during the fight.

As the two heavyweights prepare to square up again in Saudi Arabia, Suliman Khan, 27, describes his journey from family carpet shop to the glitzy world of heavyweight boxing.

“It’s about selling a fight isn’t it,” Suliman told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast.

“I think the person to come out in the most extravagant-looking shorts or outfit, it definitely does, it turns heads.

“So I think that’s kind of the idea behind it.”

Suliman is the owner of Cardiff-based streetwear garment manufacturer Ice Cream Embroidery, with the business evolving over 40 years from the family carpet shop.

Through a tailor contact, he worked with another Cardiff-based company, Bespoke Boxing, to create the shorts worn into the ring by Fury in May.

“I personally made the embroidery for the waistband on the front and on the back, and then Bespoke Boxing, the business that created the shorts, then handmade everything and pieced altogether,” he said.

“It kind of revolves around that centrepiece, he had there Gypsy King (Fury’s nickname) on the front in big metallic gold font, it kind of suited the (big) occasion actually.

‘It (the shorts) was giving a little bit of a Viking feel.”

While the fitness levels and punching power are two factors seen as helping to decide the outcome of fights, Suliman believes what the boxers decide to wear before and during the bout plays a part as well.

He points to Fury’s victory against Deontay Wilder in 2020 – where the American blamed his ring-walk costume for losing the heavyweight title fight, saying it was too heavy.

Wilder said the costume, which featured armour, a mask and a crown, weighed at least 40 pounds (18.1kg) and was a tribute to Black History Month.

Fury was carried to the ring on a throne, while also wearing a crown.

“I remember Fury fought Deontay Wilder, and he came out in a big suit with a big like electronic mask on, and that was his excuse for losing,” Suliman said.

“I think in the end, and that second fight (between the two), he said it was his kit was too heavy for him and it kind of puts strain on his legs.”

From about 11, Suliman would help out in the family carpet shop in the Grangetown area of Cardiff.

When he was 15, they started printing designs on T-shirts and hoodies, before his dad saw a gap in the market and bought an entry-level embroidery machine.

“I quickly caught the bug and soon started my own embroidery brand with one of my friends,” he said.

“We made 2,000 sales in two years. I was making it all in the studio, and then my friend was marketing it.

“When you’re young kids, everyone wants to support you. That really gave me the buzz for manufacturing and making clothes.”

Even while studying at Loughborough University, he was selling hundreds of T-shirts, by sending designs back to his dad to create in the studio.

He takes inspiration from different cultures, including Japanese, and uses techniques of embroidery from Pakistan.

“It was crazy and to see my work on the screen, on someone like Tyson Fury was unbelievable,” is how Suliman describes his small input into the last fight.

While he hasn’t been involved in Fury’s outfit for the rematch, the fight will still dominate conversation in his house on Saturday.

Suliman added: “I am a big fight fan. My brother’s a professional boxer, so my family around the kitchen table, we’re always talking about boxing.

“I think we’re going to have, I hope we will have, a trilogy (a third fight between the boxers) on our hands.

“I think for Fury, he has got a couple of levels he can go up.

“Maybe for the last fight, I think Usyk fought maybe his best fight earlier this year… but I might be made to look silly there.”