BoxRec

People are not stupid and boxing fans do not have football fan style loyalty to the sport - whatever happened to
'value for money' People are not going to fork out good money they earn the hard way by watching below par quality
performances from fights where they know the winner from the off.

One day boxing will be smashed down to a minority sport. People are going to stop watching it if it carries on. Its happening
now where boxing is hardly reported on in most media outlets.

This isn't knocking any of the boxers on this bill at all, but it is no good boxing in front of crowds of just your friends and
family because the average fan has wised up on one sided cards up and down the country and have stopped attending.

And thats why I don't attend live shows in the UK anymore - no value for money - I think a few more crap quality cards
should be named and shamed on here. There is no need for it.


light middleweight Alex Matvienko 14(4)-1(0)-3 W Geraint Harvey 7(3)-44(7)-0 RTD 5 10

light welterweight Stephen Jennings 3(1)-0(0)-0 W Kristian Laight 6(0)-72(4)-5 PTS 6 6

middleweight Austin Hornsby debut W Andrew Patterson 0(0)-5(1)-1 PTS 6 6

light welterweight Joe Collins debut W Damien Turner 0(0)-4(2)-0 PTS 6 6

light middleweight Chris Johnson 10(5)-3(2)-0 W Danny Dontchev 2(1)-16(6)-0 PTS 6 6

super featherweight Jon Kays 10(2)-1(0)-0 W Dale Hutchinson 0(0)-1(0)-0 TKO 5 6

super middleweight Warren Tansey 1(1)-1(0)-0 W Lee Nicholson 3(0)-18(14)-3 TKO 3

super bantamweight Paul Economides 7(0)-1(1)-0 W Shaun Doherty 2(0)-2(0)-2 PTS 4 4

welterweight Nick Quigley 4(0)-0(0)-0 W Carl Allen 18(5)-87(15)-7 PTS 4 4

light welterweight Shayne Singleton 3(2)-0(0)-0 W Daniel Thorpe 23(9)-97(22)-3 PTS 4 4

welterweight Patrick Liam Walsh debut W Jason Nesbitt 7(5)-104(11)-2 PTS 4 4

I wouldnt expect you to find VFM in it if you have to travel from China, Carlos!

HEAR HEAR!

SACK THE MATCHMAKER!

I used to love the "manchester fight night" on Channel M - shame its died, but I do have to say it was very very rare for a fighter in the right hand column to score a win.

Don't mean to have a pop at VIP promotions - they don't have much TV backing so they were catering for a different audience - in small venues where the main crowd seemed to be family members coming to see their fighter win.

We've had some rediculous mismatches throughout the bill on TV cards also.

Carlos a little conundrum for you

say you are a promoter with a 7-0 prospect quite a good ticketseller locally.

lets say you step him up and he loses, twice. then lets say he sell shalf the tickets next time out, that he used to sell.

the next time you have a 7-0 prospect what would you do?

Counter-puncher wrote:Carlos a little conundrum for you

say you are a promoter with a 7-0 prospect quite a good ticketseller locally.

lets say you step him up and he loses, twice. then lets say he sell shalf the tickets next time out, that he used to sell.

the next time you have a 7-0 prospect what would you do?

Yes, good point. Its a different situation for these promoters without TV backing.

reason i say that stu is our 'local' promoter PJ Rowson had a card yesterday, and Dean Harrison who was formerly his best ticketseller, after 3 defeats, even though he was fighting for the Mids title, had i would estimate 50-60% of the fans he brought when he was unbeaten.

it just hammered home the point to me that for small hall promoters selling tickets must surely be the only priority, and if that means giving your lad another 3-4 gimmes before the dangerous step up fight, then i totally understand that.

Most small halls rely on the fighters to sell tickets and fill the place.

They dont have people wandering in off the street and no TV backing.

I think it's a good point about bad shows, but picking on the little promoters is wrong.

The big promoters who bring in unknown codswallop from Belarus and Africa are the ones to blame.

Hi Carlos ,

Agrre with a lot of things stated above and you are right , we do match our kids to win - im an idiot loosing money and hair on these shows but would soon have non if my lads all got beat. We try and step them up a bit fight by fight but it is not that easygetting the matches we want., these kids are not Olympians or ABA champions.

Ok , all our lads won on Sunday but the fights were not too bad including the top of the bill which was very even before Alex broke Harveys rib.The Econimdes and jon kay fights were very good and there were 3 debutants Walsh/Collins/Hornsby who had very good workouts .

Most people enjoyed it , sorry you did not.

steve wood

STEVE WOOD wrote:Hi Carlos ,

Agrre with a lot of things stated above and you are right , we do match our kids to win - im an idiot loosing money and hair on these shows but would soon have non if my lads all got beat. We try and step them up a bit fight by fight but it is not that easygetting the matches we want., these kids are not Olympians or ABA champions.

Ok , all our lads won on Sunday but the fights were not too bad including the top of the bill which was very even before Alex broke Harveys rib.The Econimdes and jon kay fights were very good and there were 3 debutants Walsh/Collins/Hornsby who had very good workouts .

Most people enjoyed it , sorry you did not.

steve wood

didnt attend the show but im pretty sure the fights were of better quality than the show i attended on friday and that show had tv backing, the sport would be in a lot worse state if we didnt have the smal hall shows while are the bloodline of the sport :!:

STEVE WOOD wrote:
Most people enjoyed it , sorry you did not.

steve wood

don't worry about it Steve I don't think he was there.

stujones wrote:Don't mean to have a pop at VIP promotions - they don't have much TV backing so they were catering for a different audience - in small venues where the main crowd seemed to be family members coming to see their fighter win.

Exactly- professional small hall boxing has reached the same level as amateur dramatics- 99% of the crowd are friends and family.

This isn't a criticism of a boxer, promoter or matchmaker.

Something "root and branch" needs to be done, though, for boxing to have a wider appeal.


It's not just boxing- a lot of professional live entertainment (acting, drama, concerts, sports etc) relies on funding and grants to make it economical. Either that, or use amateur performers/sportmen who of course don't need paying. Few bands can make a living unless they are fornicating "tribute bands."


I think part of it is just that people don't "go out to a show/event" as much as in the past (including boxing, but not just boxing.)

Shame. :(

STEVE WOOD wrote:Hi Carlos ,

Agrre with a lot of things stated above and you are right , we do match our kids to win - im an idiot loosing money and hair on these shows but would soon have non if my lads all got beat. We try and step them up a bit fight by fight but it is not that easygetting the matches we want., these kids are not Olympians or ABA champions.

Ok , all our lads won on Sunday but the fights were not too bad including the top of the bill which was very even before Alex broke Harveys rib.The Econimdes and jon kay fights were very good and there were 3 debutants Walsh/Collins/Hornsby who had very good workouts .

Most people enjoyed it , sorry you did not.

steve wood

I am noticing another huge difference in the tv/small hall show events, and thats in the reaction of the promoter to criticism. Fair play to you Steve!

I think in these times when people have to pick & what bills we choose then surely people will go for the best bill with even (as possible) fights.
Ok I appreciate that it is impossible to put even money fights on, as to build up the home fighters record, but ultimately these journeymen just fiddle about as they have fights next week so obviously the product isnt going to be good.
I for one was looking forward to Matvienko V Gumati, but when Omar went out & got replaced by someone not in the same league & i saw the mismatches my money stayed in my pocket.

fantastic show as always from vip great value for money £30 great sunday afternoon out

I really enjoyed Sundays show and was even saying to my friends during the fights that they were all well matched and to comment if you have not been is less than unfair. Even the journeymen such as Thorpe gave a good showing and kept the fights entertaining. So for me on that note no qualms of the quality of the fights whatsoever!

I dont agree totally with the friends and family thing - I see the point as Im Matvienkos pal and watch all his fights, I do however watch all the fights on those bills and thats because Im a boxing fan whilst also a friend and I think thats the case for alot of boxers (theyre friends are usually fight fans also). If I see a fighter I like on these shows I will also follow them on seperate shows and watch their careers build. There are some 'fans' however who turn up in droves to watch their man fight 4 or 6 rounds shouting 'knock his head off' 'hit him' and other shite, before vacating the venue totally which does affect the atmosphere of the smaller shows and I just find it frustrating and pointless. Unfortunately I dont think theres a complete solution to that problem.

But to complain about Sundays bill for me is baffling. Was a great show, and very much enjoyed, Thank you Steve.

30 quid for an 11 bout show including a 10 rounder is cheap

oh, and well done Matt too :)

Was the fight filmed at all? Was a lovely bodyshot. Any chance of being able to purchase a copy if thats the case?

Coco wrote:30 quid for an 11 bout show including a 10 rounder is cheap

But do people want to sit through that many bouts?

I'm not meaning this in a nasty way, but say a 5 or 6 bout show for £20? I'd probably prefere that.

whicker wrote:

Coco wrote:30 quid for an 11 bout show including a 10 rounder is cheap

But do people want to sit through that many bouts?

I'm not meaning this in a nasty way, but say a 5 or 6 bout show for £20? I'd probably prefere that.

having stayed up till 6am watching Pacman...i was a little annoyed for selfish reasons that my mates werent on till 10th & 11th on the bill as i was knackered

but... it was a good bill..and most of the fights were competitive regardless of there records... time flew

Attended the Bolton show and have to congratulate Steve and his VIP team for a quality show.

As with most shows their was a mixture of good and bad fights but overall their was some cracking action.

Jon Kays fight , the Paul Economides fight, and Austen Hornsbys debut were all cracking affairs.

some good knockouts too.

Overall excellent value for the money charged

standing8 wrote:HEAR HEAR!

SACK THE MATCHMAKER!

aint the matchmaker who decides who fights who......reasonable show on sunday ,just a shame the gumati matvienko fight fell through