How hard is life for your average pro boxer?

[REEVE]

Who makes it and who doesn't make it in boxing isn't always down to ability. If one person has a sponsor and is able to train full time he will improve at a greater rate than someone who is holding down a full time job.

I work a full time job and train 6 days a week. I also do my morning runs and spend around 3-4 hours a week prepping my food. Yet I don't mind most of this, I'd prefer to be sponsored to work less and train more. The main hassle is around all this I have to sell tickets to be in the home corner.

Getting people to part with £35-£40 which seems to be the extortionate rate tickets go at the moment is hard enough. When your average day consists of a run at 6:30am, shower breakfast then leaving for work to start at 9, finishing at 5 before getting to the gym for 7 not getting home until 9 then it become difficult to drop these off and get the sessions in.

I feel for you having to sell tickets mate it’s a nightmare - that’s the reason I’m on the road....if I could change one thing in boxing it would be to scrap the ticket deal and make sure every boxer got a wage for a fight

[bripez]

Who makes it and who doesn't make it in boxing isn't always down to ability. If one person has a sponsor and is able to train full time he will improve at a greater rate than someone who is holding down a full time job.

I work a full time job and train 6 days a week. I also do my morning runs and spend around 3-4 hours a week prepping my food. Yet I don't mind most of this, I'd prefer to be sponsored to work less and train more. The main hassle is around all this I have to sell tickets to be in the home corner.

Getting people to part with £35-£40 which seems to be the extortionate rate tickets go at the moment is hard enough. When your average day consists of a run at 6:30am, shower breakfast then leaving for work to start at 9, finishing at 5 before getting to the gym for 7 not getting home until 9 then it become difficult to drop these off and get the sessions in.

I feel for you having to sell tickets mate it’s a nightmare - that’s the reason I’m on the road....if I could change one thing in boxing it would be to scrap the ticket deal and make sure every boxer got a wage for a fight

I know its easy to criticize promoters, but from the outside it does seem that a promoter gives a boxer a load of tickets and if they cant consistently sell 100 tickets at £40+ a pop, then they just don't get fights.

Unless you are an Olympian (or, from a large and popular family!) it seems that the only other way is what they did with Hughie Fury.

He doesn't have a job so trains full time, he boxes for no purse and the Fury's pay the opponents purse and a few quid in the pot for the show - however, this does require a lot of money and most people cannot do it.

[smiling assassin]

I feel for the boxers who have to do it the hard way fighting on the small hall shows. Where let's be honest most people who attend only go to see one fighter. £40 a ticket to watch one fight is a lot of money especially when let's say 8 fights out of a 10 fight card are local ticket sellers boxing journeyman where you know the outcome before the fight even takes place

[bripez]

I feel for the boxers who have to do it the hard way fighting on the small hall shows. Where let's be honest most people who attend only go to see one fighter. £40 a ticket to watch one fight is a lot of money especially when let's say 8 fights out of a 10 fight card are local ticket sellers boxing journeyman where you know the outcome before the fight even takes place

I agree.

Also, how many times are you going to fork out £40-£60+ to watch your mate in a 40-36 blowout?

[Cazelo]

there are fighters who get the same deal as fury. They are sponsored and the sponsors pay for them to train full time and a wage for opponent.

It's a who you know world I guess.

The thing with being in home corner is I will take a fight in home corner for no wage hoping later on down the line that it will open up an opportunity for me to contest a title for a decent wage. It's sacrifice and it's a risk.

I know what your saying reeve. It's probably the worse thing in boxing. It's the one thing that outsiders don't understand. Educated posters and fans know but majority will understand trials of making weight but not the tickets. Maybe someone could make a tv series or movie to add the one thing all have missed before them.

[leejonesjnr]

Who makes it and who doesn't make it in boxing isn't always down to ability. If one person has a sponsor and is able to train full time he will improve at a greater rate than someone who is holding down a full time job.

I work a full time job and train 6 days a week. I also do my morning runs and spend around 3-4 hours a week prepping my food. Yet I don't mind most of this, I'd prefer to be sponsored to work less and train more. The main hassle is around all this I have to sell tickets to be in the home corner.

Getting people to part with £35-£40 which seems to be the extortionate rate tickets go at the moment is hard enough. When your average day consists of a run at 6:30am, shower breakfast then leaving for work to start at 9, finishing at 5 before getting to the gym for 7 not getting home until 9 then it become difficult to drop these off and get the sessions in.

I feel for you having to sell tickets mate it’s a nightmare - that’s the reason I’m on the road....if I could change one thing in boxing it would be to scrap the ticket deal and make sure every boxer got a wage for a fight

I know its easy to criticize promoters, but from the outside it does seem that a promoter gives a boxer a load of tickets and if they cant consistently sell 100 tickets at £40+ a pop, then they just don't get fights.

Unless you are an Olympian (or, from a large and popular family!) it seems that the only other way is what they did with Hughie Fury.

He doesn't have a job so trains full time, he boxes for no purse and the Fury's pay the opponents purse and a few quid in the pot for the show - however, this does require a lot of money and most people cannot do it.

Small hall promoters don't really do a great deal of promoting or building a boxer and a following on the whole, however without a substantial investment of outside funding it is very difficult for them to even break even on a show let alone make enough profit to start creating stars.
Small hall promoters are really just providing a platform for blue corner boxers to get out on and it is then down to the boxer to make that work.
It is nobodies fault really, there just isn't any money in boxing for the vast majority of people involved.

[JamieM]

Small hall promoters seem to do it for the love of the sport but the managers etc are all feeding off the crumbs from hearn and allegedly table. I think that they need to have a backbone and say no and tell them it isn't gonna be all on there terms. They should all stick together to change things cause end of day 99.9% of time there fighters are being manipulated and used as cannon fodder to platform full time boxers. They should be campaigning for notice for fights, an equal opportunity to perform and if the home fighter is that good they will prevail. It's meant to be a gentleman's sport and i have met about 4 gentleman in the whole time I have been around it. All so fake and corrupt. I have witnessed corruption with my own eyes at a weigh in so know for a fact the people heavily involved are witnessing this each and every show. I'll never say what happened but opened my eyes big time.

[spudder56]

Small hall promoters seem to do it for the love of the sport but the managers etc are all feeding off the crumbs from hearn and allegedly table. I think that they need to have a backbone and say no and tell them it isn't gonna be all on there terms. They should all stick together to change things cause end of day 99.9% of time there fighters are being manipulated and used as cannon fodder to platform full time boxers. They should be campaigning for notice for fights, an equal opportunity to perform and if the home fighter is that good they will prevail. It's meant to be a gentleman's sport and i have met about 4 gentleman in the whole time I have been around it. All so fake and corrupt. I have witnessed corruption with my own eyes at a weigh in so know for a fact the people heavily involved are witnessing this each and every show. I'll never say what happened but opened my eyes big time.

If you have evidence of corruption at weigh ins you should expose the perpetrators coz if every body adopted your attitude of not saying anything how the hell do you expect things to change ?

[JamieM]

Because the person involved in it refused the exception and done the moral thing so it was not required. But if he was a cheat like most people in this sport they would have took the advantage. The said person who made attempts to influence the weigh in would deny it so why waste my time? There was around 6 people at this weigh in but it showed me how easy it can be.

[blade02_02]

its a hard life you have to loved it and enjoy it, numerous times I worked 12 hour shift then travelled to fight, once completing a night shift and sleeping on way up to Scotland to box. training 6 days a week 10-14 sessions a week whilst work 50 hours a week and balancing family life its hard