knockout wrote: ↑22 Mar 2021, 16:33
Not specific to Haider Ali situation , but back in late 90s early 00s , the promoter in question had probably the best TV contract in Europe.
Yet was still totally obsessed with the “you need to sell tickets” ... as if he was a small hall promoter with no tv money.
Granted it’s a business at the end of the day but at that time the obsession with only pushing Ticket sellers was an over sight and a longer term business model should have been applied.
Plenty of quality foreign fighters over here who could have gone places if they had been given a bit of a push and would have given a return on the investment.
I am sure you know the type of people I am talking about guys like Peter Oboh , Glen Johnson even Nick Valuev and John Ruiz’s fought over here a few times early in their career.
The German market was ahead of the game , they realised you didn’t have to be a huge ticket seller immediately and you didn’t even need to be a local fighter... but if they built you right and if you are good enough people will come and watch.
Kovalev / GGG could have easily been signed up by FW, they wouldn’t have sold out York hall in their early fights but they would go on to sell out arenas.
I’m not so sure. I can’t remember many foreign fighters that have based themselves in the U.K. and have eventually been taken to heart and sold loads of tickets.
Germany had several overseas fighters crack it there but I don’t think it’s as easy over here regardless of how good they are.
Coco wrote: ↑21 Mar 2021, 20:41
Ali was 24 going pro, not selling any tickets, it was only worthwhile investing in him if he was going somewhere.
After taking on 3 of the usual suspects he was given Steven Bell, another one who turned over late and wasn't ripping anything up.
It was thought to see whether these fighters would sink or swim. Bell got past Ali, sold a few tickets but little more.
The same with Burns, neither was being particularly looked after and they were thrown in together to see who could hold onto their contract.
It is how it is done, you get a contract from a promoter, they give you a few of the usual suspects, but if you aren't selling tickets you will then get stuck in against one of your promoters other boys to see who is worth investing in.
Ali came up short against Bell and Burns. Bell came up short in other fights, Burns ploughed on and while losing a couple of domestic showdowns he persevered and ending up winning the important ones.
In reality Ali wasn't good enough to win the important ones and didn't selling enough tickets to be kept on given opportunities..
Same old, same old, this is the business of boxing.
Yes. And fwank thought he could tap into the Indian market.... not a lot of ticket sellers are Indian. Pakistani, yes.
Who was the other Pakistani welterweight?
Went on a decent run. Won the IBO belt, says he couldn’t get the big fights.
