V2 Magazine Needs You: 2013 Boxing Awards - Promoter Of The Year

Time to stand up and applaud someone who many people despise about the boxing world...that's right folks, our penultimate award is for those pesky promoters. They have been subject to many debates on the forum this year and will continue to do so next. Whilst all have their faults I would like to know who you think has been the best promoter this year.

Who has put on the best cards, who has guided their talent the best....are there any small time guys who deserve a mention? Let me know below who you think has been best for business when it comes to boxing this year.

Dennis Hobson.

Golden Boy Promotions, followed by Matchroom Sports in my view.

Golden put on some seriously good cards for Showtime this year, the likes of Garcia/Matthysse, Trout/Lara, Trout/Alvarez, Maidana/Broner, Maidana/Lopez, Lara/Angulo and the list goes on.

Matchroom had 12 british world title fights this year, and put on some very good cards, the card that was at the end of the year everyone ripped to pieces, then all of a sudden shock horror, it turned out to be a very enjoyable night of boxing with a terrific fight to end things in Purdy Vs. Bundu. Also Froch Vs. Groves and bringing Kessler over to London was great.

Easy when you've got the big TV deals, though.

Hobson landing McDonnell and Hall title shots on home turf was truly outstanding work.

Easier, absolutely, not easy. Boxing is being brung back to the forefront by Matchroom in this country, people are actually starting to pay attention to boxing yet again, and ratings on Sky are climbing, giving Eddie more dates.

Same with Golden Boy the ratings are going through the roof on Showtime with the cards that are being put on.

Not downplaying Hobsons achievements mind you.

AlexHuckerby wrote:Easier, absolutely, not easy. Boxing is being brung back to the forefront by Matchroom in this country, people are actually starting to pay attention to boxing yet again, and ratings on Sky are climbing, giving Eddie more dates.

Same with Golden Boy the ratings are going through the roof on Showtime with the cards that are being put on.

Do you have stats confirming that?

I believe British boxing was better before the Hearn monopoly - when Sky called the shots and promoters had to work together - pitting their best fighters against one another to get TV dates. I like Hearn but the Sky-BoxNation divide is as unhelpful as the HBO/Showtime one.

AlexHuckerby wrote:Not downplaying Hobsons achievements mind you.

That's real promoting - he worked miracles this year.

Dave Coldwell, Dennis Hobson and all the other "smaller" promoters deserve a lot of credit, however Goldenboy have been a class apart from the rest this year for me.

Sky never called the shots and the ratings weren't good enough to keep boxing going every week, which is the reason Sky dropped everyone else. There simply wasn't a demand for it. I remember great domestic fights like Jamie Moore Vs. Matthew Macklin getting put in small leisure centre's, Hearn would have had that in a good sized arena.

Agree with BoxNation and Sky divide, however more and more fights are being put together with a lot more fights going to purse bids, of course big fights like Cleverly/Bellew are going to struggle to be played out but its the world we have to live in.

AlexHuckerby wrote:Sky never called the shots and the ratings weren't good enough to keep boxing going every week, which is the reason Sky dropped everyone else. There simply wasn't a demand for it. I remember great domestic fights like Jamie Moore Vs. Matthew Macklin getting put in small leisure centre's, Hearn would have had that in a good sized arena.

Agree with BoxNation and Sky divide, however more and more fights are being put together with a lot more fights going to purse bids, of course big fights like Cleverly/Bellew are going to struggle to be played out but its the world we have to live in.

Sky did indeed call the shots in 2011 backed by the BBBofC. Sky's reduced coverage was influenced by a pair of disastrous PPV outings for David Haye that heaped criticism upon the network.

Sky's ratings for the Saturday and Friday night fights were dipping under 100,000 viewers, the product coming from the promoters wasn't good enough. Haye's fights didn't help!

It's the reason Warren left to start up BoxNation - he didn't want to be dictated to by Sky.

Also, Moore vs Rhodes wouldn't have sold out a bigger venue. I was there. Rhodes was seen as damaged goods at that point - his performance was surprising.

The reason was money, his last card of the Sky contract lost him a lot of money, Murray Vs. Mitchell and a big undercard needed PPV type money to actually record him a profit, he saw an opportunity with BoxNation, he wasn't going to have a chance to make the money he needed with Sky not allowing him to put any more shows on PPV after they cancelled it after Haye's debacle and Warren not really having a headliner meant that he could no longer put on his "Magnificent 7" type shows on anymore.

AlexHuckerby wrote:The reason was money, his last card of the Sky contract lost him a lot of money, Murray Vs. Mitchell and a big undercard needed PPV type money to actually record him a profit, he saw an opportunity with BoxNation, he wasn't going to have a chance to make the money he needed with Sky not allowing him to put any more shows on PPV after they cancelled it after Haye's debacle and Warren not really having a headliner meant that he could no longer put on his "Magnificent 7" type shows on anymore.

That's what I said. Sky demanded a decent product and reduced his dates. He didn't like being dictated to and so buggered off. That model (network insisting on decent fights) was better than what we have now.

Yeah, so erm... Good conversation then. Haha.