damianhucker1 wrote:Just to stick my pennies worth in to those slating promoters ....
I know its not the same with me being an "unlicensed " promoter but i still feel i can offer a point of view in opposition .
Its seen as if Promoters are all there to just make money and that they do make a fair bit of it ...
Well that in itself is garbage , Do people not realise just how hard it is to make money in boxing ? wether it be as a promoter , a boxer or a trainer , its not an easy living .
With a promoter they are in theory (when its all done ligit ) the only person not guaranteed to be paid at the end of a show , yet they put up the financial risk , its their money used to make a show and when things dont work out its them who lose money .
Put it this way ... without promoters who exactly is going to put on the shows and thus pay the boxers and everyone else who needs paying for their work from the drs and the mc down to the whip or the lady at the printing shop who designed the posters ??
get rid of promoters and theirs no shows , so someone would need to replace them and put shows on , might be managers or the boxers themselves , but wheres the money coming from ? all they then do is take on the role of the promoter themselves .
Simply put boxing cannot survive without promoters .
We dont always agree with them , when things are in the public domain etc , but they dont squeze the life out of boxing in the way some think , if anything they breath life into it .
And way i see it is those at the top who are making money were at one point at the bottom struggling to make ends meet like the rest of the small hall promoters , except for eddie Hearn the rest have earned the right to earn money by working hard , no different to if you become top of the field in any other profession , you work hard and take a few risks then if you get to the top you earned that right to make a good living .
Its just something that irritates me , even i get people saying things like " i bet your minted doing the boxing " i really wish i was but im not , and its easier to make money from unlicensed than in the pro game , so from my point of view i can appreciate how hard it is .
At least a musician is perfectly capable of booking themselves a gig and earning their money without a promoter taking a cut , in boxing that simply isnt the case unless your at the top as it would be destined for bankruptcy
This thread is primarily about Matchroom and some extent FW.
In the case of EH and MR, the bottom line is, they aren't doing what you're talking about - they're underwritten by Sky Sports and taking relatively low risk for guaranteed rewards. To a large extent they've earned that position through years of involvement in other sports (and boxing) - but to lump Fast Eddie in with people like Hard Knocks, Coldwell and the many people who give blood, sweat and tears to this sport for a pittance is just pointless.
The show in Bolton at the weekend had maybe 3000 people at it - without Sky money does that show even go ahead? Of course not, and I'm assuming that Matchroom made their built in % despite not even selling the show particularly well tickets wise.
They are in a position different to anyone else, and that's kind of the point. There's people who give their life to a very unforgiving sport that involves possibly harder work than any other sport for very very little rewards. As you say, there are promoters who are literally putting their arse on the line every time they run a promotion and if tickets don't sell, they are screwed. Not so with Matchroom.
Given that, for me, the smugness and superior attitude is well out of place. Fighters of course have to go where the money and exposure is and have to believe that those people have their best interests at heart, but Matchroom barely hide the fact that the most important thing is Matchroom. They're businessmen. And in many ways, you can't argue with or question that, but you can question their attitude and arrogance about the position they've been handed by Sky.
Even FWP who I realise arent the most popular people here, the investment comes from within, rightly or wrongly, and whatever has been done, BN and FW aren't funded by Sky and given a platform.
The kind of promoter you are describing Damien is a Promoter in the traditional sense. Puts fights on - sells tickets - runs logistics and tries to make a business for everyone out of it.
In the modern day at the higher end, being promoter has become more than ever about what TV deal you have - and that's where the money is. Floyd / Canelo gate reciepts won't even pay 1/3 of Floyd's guaranteed purse for that fight and its the richest gate of all time.
If you've got a monopoly on TV and the money that comes with it - that's what gives you the real power.
Just to answer you on musicians - they cant just book a gig and play. Similarly, there are a whole load of logistics and people have to somehow be told about the gig to turn up and pay. Boxing promoters have a brutally hard job.
People with a TV budget and a few dates to fill and decent profit margins - not the same. Massive difference.
