The Curse of the Promoter

Had a thought a little earlier when reading the Calzaghe thread and since thoughts are generally rare for me I thoughts I would share it.

Boxing is obviously a very hard business and in order to get the best fights it helps to be with the best promoters, especially at the time Calzaghe was coming through.

How hard would a career be if you were with a bad promoter?

I guess a good place to look for that is Froch, 23 fights and a title before most people knew he was. The reason people then started taking an interest was due to the fact he was involved in a very new format as far as boxing was concerned with the Super Six (and he was the guy who kept calling Joe out). There are many promoters out there and generally we only really know about 3-4 of them and generally 2-3 of those promoters we think of as clueless.

The other side would be someone like Frank (prior to Hearn taking all his sky slots) who could get you the fights and make you famous.

From a boxers viewpoint who do you want to guide your career? Someone who will have you fighting in small venues for little money or the one person who can get you a path to a title and get you the exposure you need to make a decent career?

Most people would obviously prefer the latter. So if he is your choice how much loyalty do you show this man? After all, he has got you a title, made you enough money to be comfortable, to me this would be a difficult person to break away from. I would feel that I owed it to them to stay loyal.

Then from the promoters side, how many times would you like the boxer you started working with only for them to change when they have money and then ignore all you have done for them and start promoting themselves. Must be very frustrating and make it difficult to trust them.

Or on the other side you really like one of the boxers you have signed and then you see them getting badly beat up by an opponent, it would again make it a tough business to be involved with. You would start to get less emotionally involved yet this would again be hard to do as it is human nature to like and dislike people we meet in life.

For me it seems we can be a little black and white in our thinking when it comes to boxing but I'm not sure these thoughts we have would be thought of in the same way as someone on either side of the business.

A bad promoter trumps no promoter.

These days, in America at least, you need Al Haymon as 'advisor' to get a fight. I'd go with hime solely if i was an American. In this country Hearn dominates, thank God. Hatton, Frank and that lot are patchwork promoters. At best.

This seems rather similar to a thread I wrote yesterday....

JabMachineMK2 wrote:This seems rather similar to a thread I wrote yesterday....

Have just read your now and it seems that we are going in slightly different directions with our topics to me, unless I have written mine so badly the context I was trying to get to has been a little lost.

Your thoughts seem to have a little more substance to them and are closer related to the current younger crop coming through due to changes in the business.

Mine was more looking at things from both perspectives and closer to the Calzaghe decisions to stick with Frank.

Very weird that we were both thinking about promoters though and in ways that can be expressed without swear words.

I see the differences mate - just think that its a little close to the subject matter, but nevermind, I won't derail the thread because it is well written and such, although interjections from that loser Davide aren't helping my decision to post anything.

From a boxers viewpoint, I'd want someone who was going to match me well against people that would test me, rather than pad my record - for a decent amount of money. Nothing extortionate, enough to make me get the thirst and appreciate it. I'd want guidance, I'd want everything taken out of my hands other than fighting. The training and boxer selection to be down to my trainer and the hiring of the halls and costs etc to be at the promoters doorstep.

If a promoter can help a young fighter avoid all of the politics, get the matches that grow a fighter rather than pad him and create undeserved hype then he's worthy of loyalty if said fighter is good enough to come through the tests.

Afterwards, once a fighter has made it, you have to show them a degree of loyalty in my eyes, build a stable that strengthens them - so for instance in Froch's case, if Hearn was able to secure Groves and Degale aswell as some other good SMW's - then he'd be able to grow the division from a patriotic standpoint, they'd be sparring with each other while being able to break through certain barriers, such as matching each other, holding strong carded and well visited events etc.

I think the agent/promoter's curse is that people don't mind paying a percentage cut when the purse is small... When the numbers get bigger the resentment comes.. Which us a little unfair on the promoter but I guess they need to show some flexibility.

Frank gets a lot of stick from a fan's perspective for the dross he serves up, but from a fighter's perspective you can argue he protects them and earns them a few quid before feeding them to the lions. It's a win win for the fighter and promoter and a win win lose if you add the fans into the mix.

I've cleaned this thread up.

Good article Huw, certainly begs a few questions that if Calzaghe had been with Eddie Hearn in todays fights, would he have been as protected?

hampo171 wrote:I've cleaned this thread up.

Good article Huw, certainly begs a few questions that if Calzaghe had been with Eddie Hearn in todays fights, would he have been as protected?

Would have been interesting.

Calzaghe didn't have the personality to sell himself and he was obviously very skilled, think Hearn would have thrown him in against some tougher challenges but the way I see it is that without a title he would have been very difficult to match.

What fighter would want to fight someone like Calzaghe, southpaw, good handspeed, solid chin and good engine. Without a title he is a huge risk for anyone.

What other fights could he have had?

RJJ and Hopkins both campaigning at the higher weight at the time so it probably wouldn't have been fights with those guys until the latter stage of his career. Think Hearn would have agreed to send him to Germany to fight Ottke and at the time I can only see him getting a points loss and being avoided for a rematch.

I know Calzaghe gets a huge amount of stick (some deserved) but I'm not sure there was any other way to have progressed his career as a promoter other than the way Warren did (and it really hurts to give Warren any credit!).