“IF YOU DON’T BELIEVE THEN YOU CAN’T COME.”
We are going to manage World Champions” said CTB founder Brandon Stump in the back of a dimly lit restaurant in Newport Beach California. The year was 2021 and the confidence in his voice echoed in the ears of his future business partners. Chad Steinetz and Robby Morse sitting across from a man who had conquered unimaginable heights in his business career but also incredible lows with his own battle with addiction. Journeys traveled together on so many intertwined paths between the three men that were dotted with dizzying success’s as well as deafening struggles. It was with this proclamation of certainty that Came to Believe would not only begin but represent something entirely revolutionary in the space of athletic management.
Brandon began to fight with the disease of addiction during his early days of high school. This addiction would take him down dark roads in life. Homelessness and illegal activities quickly became everyday issues in a world turned upside down. Seeking recovery in 2011 he would move from his hometown in Ohio to Southern California. It is here he would achieve the recovery from addiction that eluded him for many years. He finally got sober and turned around a life that, for years, was heading towards certain doom.
It was in a recovery meeting that he would meet Robby Morse; a fitness instructor and boxing coach who himself had struggled mightily with drug addiction in his life. Robby was from Texas and had traveled to a sober home in SoCal almost a decade prior to this chance encounter. A lost young man filled with fear had found salvation through the local recovery community and competitive boxing. He had trained under the great Jesse Reed and the discipline of combat transformed the mindset that had kept him captive for his entire life.
When he and Brandon met it would set into motions events that would transform both of their lives. Brandon finally had a mentor to guide him. A person who had walked through the flames of struggle in the same ways he had but also had persevered to the other side of it all.
Robby became somebody for Brandon to finally believe in. The two would grow together on their journey of recovery. The drug addicted friends Brandon had in Ohio came to notice the miraculous transformation Brandon made. Soon they all moved out to a home to live with Brandon and learn the ways of healing that Robby had imparted upon him. They jokingly called it “The Ohio House”. Within a year The Ohio House become a full-fledged business that accepted struggling addicts from across the USA. People from every imaginable background began to seek the refuge of the multiple homes Brandon now operated and would travel from all over the country for a chance at redemption.
In 2017 a 23 year old boy by the name of Chad Steinetz would travel from New Jersey for that very opportunity. Coming from a world of pain and wreckage himself, Chad found exactly what he had been looking for his entire life. His first day there he was introduced to the coach of “The Ohio House Boxing team”. A man with 14 years of Sobriety under his belt by the name of Robby Morse. Chad began competing in the SoCal Amateur boxing scene and being taught how to recovery by Robby, just as Brandon had. As Chad forged a new path in life and the boxing ring, Brandon was building a business empire in the arena of vape juice. Starting by making e-liquid in motel bathtubs, Brandon started bottling and selling products across orange county. Within several years “Charlies Chalk Dust” had become a publicly traded company worth hundreds of millions of dollars. This was accomplished through Brandon’s innate ability to establish premium branding for his products and an uncanny knack for sales.
With Brandon being CEO of such a successful organization, his time was focused solely on Charlies. He stepped away from his place in the recovery community and The Ohio House. He handled off the operations of the recovery homes to Chad Steinetz who had worked his way up through the ranks building his own life.
It wouldn’t be long with Brandon stepped away from his foundation of recovery that the madness would begin again and he would relapse after ten yeas in recovery. With the idle mind being a devils playground for the entrepreneur, he spiraled out of control and had to step away from the companies he built to focus on once again reclaiming his life.
With no end to his misery in sight, Brandon set his sights on a new project that he hoped would give him something new to believe in and help with his recovery. He wanted to start a smoothie company called “shake addict” that would serve super food infused shakes to the community in orange county. He looked towards The Ohio House boxing team to help with the promotion of this new company.
He scheduled a boxing event to gather attention for the new venture and set bouts for professionals and local amateurs alike. Utilizing his deep connections in the boxing community thanks to The Ohio House boxing team, he was able to gather talent from across the country. Ryan “Blue Chip” Martin and the legendary Soto Koros traveled to attend and put on a display of their abilities. Fans poured in from all Southern California to attend.
The fight was a sold-out show and a resounding success.
It was a young pro by the name of Avious Griffin who stole the show with his lightning speed and crowd rattling power. This performance would open the door to the future of his career as well as the creation of Came to Believe. Realizing that his career was in desperate need of strong mentorship and management, Avious began a relationship with Brandon following this fight.
It was the spark of this relationship that would set fire to the organization now known as CTB. Brandon would band together would Chad and Robby to utilize their varied skillsets and offer fighters unparalleled management services.
“We are going to manage World Champions” said CTB founder Brandon Stump in the back of a darkly lit restaurant in Newport Beach California. And so, what began with Avious “Tha Underdog” Griffin has put the boxing world on notice. Now with Kurt “Scoob” Scoby and Ryan “Blue Chip” Martin signed to CTB, the family has begun to grow. Brandon has found something new in his life to believe in and since has regained the magic of recovery he had found in Southern California so many years ago. Together with Robby and Chad, CTB has become an organization founded upon the belief that anything is possible.
A company inviting the next generation of fighters to come join and find a place to call home.
If you don’t believe, you can’t come.