I recently did a bit of research on this and it made me poses a few questions. I found an explanation on a website for a semi pro promotional company. On it they explained that semi pro fills the gap between pro and amateur allowing pro's/amateurs that dont get enough fights/enough money to compete more regularly and to earn more and for older fighters often 35-50 sometimes older to compete competitively. Fighters on such shows can stand to make anywhere from 20-50% of the amount of tickets they sell. I am told this is possible as semi pro shwos have "less expenses" than a proffesional promotion. At first i wondered how can their cost be any less? Venue, ring seating etc must be the same though sanctioning fees obviously dont need to be paid. This leads me to believe that the costs that are cut are those of doctors, pro refs security and other more crucial and necessary things needed to ensure the safest possible fight. Despite this reservation there seems to be a fairly big market for these shows and are able to attract crowds that rival many pro shows. They supposedly fill a void between ams and pros with many pro fighters/ former pros becoming involved in such fights. Surely these shows should be stopped altogether as they are a medical liability as they involve older fighters or pro boxing should move to fill the void to allow for safer promotions and to recapture the audiences these shows are attracting Anybody have any opinions/ attended one of these shows. What is the difference between these EBF shows and white collar boxing?
Here's some footage of pro boxer Patrick Mendy fighting on a WCBC card: [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8YWyt5ByNQ[/ame] As you can see the shows do bring in a decent crowd, but as you say I would rather them have a lot more safety precautions (the fighters health is the most important thing) and if there is a lack of security then you never know how much things could get out of hand. Mendy was wearing a head guard, but I am guessing that he had a fight lined up so he couldn't risk getting cut. I think head guards would be a good thing for all of the fighters to wear, but I don't see that being approved. It's a nice little money earner for people (especially pro's who find it hard to get a fight and it's the only source of income they have), but personally I don't like white collar boxing. Edit: Just looked on the EBF site and got this quote: If they have that those precautions in place then you can't really argue about the safety of the fighters. Still, I think the EBF is the most established of the white collar boxing outfits, so I don't know what the safety precautions are for other smaller outfits.
It seems to me though if that is the caseand there is obvioulsy a demand to watch these fighters fight why arent the small hall promoters moving in to fill this gap the money is there instead we have these unlicensed semi pro affairs which seem more dangerous. Why are these fighters unable ot get pro fights but can pick up a few bob fighting at these sort of shows?
me mate fought in the olympia at the end of march it was an EBF Show he sold quiet a lot of tickets and made about 5 ton out of it quiet decent hes doing another show a joint promotion EBF & White Collar On The 8th May In The Olympia Again
It could come down to a few things I guess. It seems like the big time promoters (Warren, Maloney, Hearn etc.) are only interested in putting TV shows on now, which means they have at best 1-2 shows every month. Maybe they don't see it as being that profitable putting on small hall shows and is just another thing to worry about. Hatton promotions seems to be the exception to this and they're putting on some small hall shows (although they do use the internet as a place to earn extra money by putting PPV's on and selling copies of the shows). VIP promotions, Dave Coldwell, Spencer Fearon, Goodwin promotions etc. are helping to provide fighters with fights on their small hall shows as well. Then fighters could be avoided for certain reasons. Take Patrick Mendy for example, he has a average looking 5-4 record but if you look closer at it, he has never been stopped, has beat unbeaten prospects and has only lost to unbeaten fighters whilst never letting them have it all their own way. In his last fight he lost a controversial decision to Kenny Anderson, yet that could prove to have proved more harm than good. Average looking record + being a pretty decent operator = perfect recipe for an avoided fighter. The fighter could also be hard to promote due to their background. Maybe they're from abroad, have early career losses, don't have an expressive personality, not that talented etc. Yassine El Maachi found it very hard to get fights until he got some exposure on ITV4 and was subsequently given a lucrative deal by Goodwin promotions. He was lucky because he has a likeable personality and an effective, crowd pleasing style, yet some fighters just don't get those sort of breaks or have the ability. Also, due to the amount of fighters in this country it's impossible for them all to get regular fights and a promoter will have his own stable of fighters, which again will lead to very few opportunites for those looking in from the outside as 50% of the card is already filled before other 'free' fighters are considered. The influx of Latvian's who will fight for peanuts is also cutting down on a fighters opportunity of getting on to cards.
he sold around 80 tickets last time not sure how many he has sold for this one as of yer he has had about 10 amaetur fights
Good post Kos i think you might have hit the nail on thehead htere with the Latvians driving the price down for competetive journeymen etc. Why should somebody who isnt marketable be any different to market at an EBF show they arent going to sell any tickets. Seems that maybe the decline of boxing in the country has led to this sub culture of semi pro shows where some of the people competing would in fact just be fighting on shows around the country but with the decline in the number of shows/opportnities they are forced to look elsewhere. The older/completely inexperienced fighters however should not be passed to fight on such shows
