I grew up in the Frankviertel in Linz, third kid of Bosnian-Croatian parents. We didn't have everything. We had parents who stood behind us no matter what.
Then we moved to Traun. New school, new faces, and wherever I went, I was the smallest. Thinner than everyone. Pushed around like a sack of potatoes. I couldn't stand up for myself, physically, verbally or mentally.
My dad saw it and took me to taekwondo. It started to help. Then I broke my shoulder, my friends quit, and so did I. Six months of nothing. Hours on YouTube, watching other people grow while I stood still.
Then came Muay Thai.
The first session was hell. Twenty-five minutes of skipping, then technique, bag work, partner drills. Twenty push-ups were my limit back then. We did 250. I couldn't get out of bed for three days. A friend who started with me quit straight away.
I stayed.
At school we had to write down our goals. I wrote WORLD CHAMPION. My teacher laughed. Because I was small, thin and looked weak. And I started to feel ashamed of my own goals.
The day I wanted to say no.
I won my first fight on points. My dad filmed it on his old Sony Ericsson. Terrible quality. It meant everything.
My third fight, I lost. TKO in round two. I was fourteen, and all of it came back: the doubt, the fear. When my coach asked if I wanted to fight again, I said no. Because I didn't want to lose again.
He kept believing in me. So I kept training, and I won my next five fights. Then a TV production wanted to film my camp and my fight. I was scared to lose again, this time on camera. I said yes, and I won.
“The lesson wasn't that I'm good at fighting. It was that I can keep moving forward while I'm scared.”
Four years. No plan B.
When Corona closed the gyms, I trained outside and started uploading videos. 100 views. 1,000. 10,000. Then one video hit 30 million, and my channel went from 300 to 30,000 subscribers in a few days.
For four years I worked full-time shifts. Up at 3am, train, work, gym again at night, plus content, coaching and family. In 2023 I quit my job with €3,000 in my account. No safety net. All in.
In 2024 I became a father. No fight has shaped me like that. A year later I fought for the European title, and won it.
Why FIGHTSHAPE
I know what it feels like to be the smallest in the room. I know what it feels like to be ashamed of your own goals. And I know what it takes to keep moving anyway.
That's what I've built FIGHTSHAPE on. Not a week of motivation. The mental and physical foundation, built over years, put into a system you can follow.
– Anto