I am a boxing manager: if you have questions about the boxing biz, ask!

I would go around to the various gyms and ck out their equipment, ask about the wt of the bag get one to fit you. I would think a good quality heavy bag will last forever if you are the only one using it.
Just curious where are you from?

 

A Manager's nightmare: This just happened


Former WBC super flyweight champion Sylvester Lopez just fought in Mexico to say he got screwed is putting it mildly.
Lopez is a Philipino, who happens to have a well known manager,in "Bebot" Elorde, they accepted and fought a fight in Mexico but not only did he lose the fight to a local hero, but he didnt get paid for the fight. Add to that the local didnt make the agreed upon weight and didnt even try to make the weight and Lopez had to also put up with a partial ref.
They couldn't find the promoter, who happens to be very well known in Mexico, so they left Mexico with no money, arriving in L.A they had to wait 48 hours for a connecting flight to Manila.

They finally got to eat on the flight to Japan, jeez they had to wait 48hours then endure a flight to Japan which has to be at least 10hours or more.

I am sure the manager did his job, in getting the fighter ready and getting him a decent purse. The manager dropped the ball when he didnt check out who he was doing business with. The manager should have checked out the booker, the guy who offered them the fight and the promoter.

 

This is a great example why you need to have your own attorney to look things over and protect your rights. Every promotional I have seen has a clause that states, that you have the right to an attorney and even some that advise you to get an attorney. In most cases this is not done, fighters and some managers just look at the numbers, of what they will get as far as purses. A good attorney or manager would have had Louis's back apparently nobody did. It's sad really, look at a broke Holyfield and Tyson to see that it's still going on. Protect yourself read and think before you sign anything and above all if you can afford it get a pitball(attorney) that will oversee anything that you do just having an attorney would have saved Louis alot of grief.

 

Was asked "How do you find a good trainer and gym?". All I can say is it's a hit and miss type thing. But that's not an answer, here is what I would do.
First acquaint yourself with the gyms and trainers in your area.
I will pass on a bit of advice from Lou Duva, "Keep your "flipping" mouth shut and your "flipping eyes and ears open",
Go to the gym watch what's going on.
Get a feel for what's going on.
Try to zero in on things you like and things you might not.
Inspite of what Mr Duva says, ya gotta ask questions, talk to the fighters.
Remember don't just go to one or two gyms, if there only two gyms then compare them with your mental list. If you are the dainty type and cant stand odors or might find the windows a bit smudged then you might be missing something, in other words don't judge a gym on it's spotlessness and cleanliness. The rattiest gyms sometimes have the best trainers. For example 'The Romanza Gym', in Mexico City. have Roaches crawling up and down as if they run the place. The gym is not as big as you would think its a good size. The rooms are connected by a small hallway, which contains an office. One room is for warming up and doing floor exercises out fitted with the latest weight lifting equipment, a broom stick with gallon cans filled with cement on each end, and a "least class" bathroom, pity the fool who goes in there, if after you finish your business you look for toilet paper, fergetboutit, and if there is then it's most likely in a trash can, filled to the brim with gravy coated tissue if you know what I mean, something to do with cesspools. In the other room, is the Ring which is situated in a corner of the room. There are three heavy bags and a couple of speed bags nothing fancy, the bags are facing a wall and on the other side is the ring which almost fills the room, on one side it is about two feet from a window and about two feet from the wall on the other side. It should give you an idea of the size of the gym and the rooms. Between the wall where the heavy bags are and the ring is a space about four feet wide, on the wall across from the the window is the shower. There is no dressing room for you modest types, the ring apron is where you sit to change and dry off. The gloves for those who don't have any gloves, have been in use since the Pancho Villa days. This gym for those who don't know is owned and operated by HOF trainer Nacho Beristain, and many hall of famer's and future ATG and HOF'r's, like Ricardo Finito Lopez, Juan Manuel Marquez, and various others, so, don't judge a book by it's cover dig a little find who and what fits you. If you can go to shows and watch the corner work, do they work well together? What kind of trainers are they? Do they yell and berate a guy, are they the cool calm guy while giving instructions? Some fighters don't respond well to yelling, others do find out which is you. Ck their credentials and the trainers fighters that should tell you a lot. Hope this was helpful, most important thing is educate yourself by doing research DONT SETTLE if you don't have to.

 

I would take one exception to some of your advice in the early pages of the thread -- not that you were wrong exactly but just in hopes that someone doesn't get the wrong advice. While a college degree may not help someone wanting to get into the fight game as a manager, there is every reasonable chance that the person with the chance to go to college may not end up making a living in boxing. I hope anyone with a chance to get a college degree pursues it -- you can still learn about the fight game by hanging out at the local gym, going to fights on weekends, etc., and pick up that knowledge and make the proper contacts should you choose that path for your life, but get the college degree anyway. Wherever your life takes you, boxing or otherwise, that degree will probably give you a leg up. Very, very few people in boxing make a full-time living at it, and education will not in any way hurt your chances of making it in boxing, or in life.

Thank you, us boxing guys are like the US Marines, "Semper fi", I am passing on what was passed on to me, by some great people when I was coming up. In my day, as a snotnose pimply face 16yr old I got to meet and talk to some really great boxing guys. Freddy Brown, Whitey Bimstein, Muhammad Ali when he was Cassius Clay, Sugar Ray Robinson, Joe Louis, Jack Dempsey, Georgie Benton, Lou Duva, Angelo Dundee, and many others, there is a thing that connects us our love for a sport that most people consider just a sport of getting punched in the face. So I am happy to pass on any useful info to others.
I fully agree with you on getting a college degree, fighters have a lot of free time which they can choose to waste time or use the time to educate themselves.
Thank you again

 

SP I am going to try to answer your questions one by one.
1) You mentioned how selective the top promoters are. Obviously less than 10 percent (maybe less than 1 percent) of fighters turning pro do so with any kind of promotional contract. They, in most cases, if they stick with it, become opponents. So what is your advice to the average fighter who starts out with no promotional support?

Stay in the gym, work on your skills, spar with guys better then you, don't spar guys you have been sparring over and over again. Be ready to go at all times, you never know when you will get that call.
Many is the times a late substitute comes in and whips the star off even in world title fights. Let all the boxing people, matchmakers, and promoters know you are ready to fight, and if that opportunity does come grab it with both hands, be mentally prepared, this is your title fight and everything is on the line. A guy that fits as an example, is Emmanuel Augustus, he was always ready sure he lost but to only the really good ones in the second half of his career. His record is 38-34-6, he gave Floyd one of the toughest if not the toughest fight of his career. He fought all the time everywhere, he didn't come to lay down he came to fight, yeah he was a clown but he was entertaining.

 

2) Managers of such fighters, in many cases, buy fights for their fighters -- they contact a promoter who has a show, pay the promoter a fee to put their fighter on the show, pay their own fighter and pay the opponent. In many cases for someone at the club level, it's the only way they can keep their guy busy. Two questions -- do you ever do this, and if so, how do you manage it on a 10 percent margin?

I don't cos you just cant do it on the 10points. When you buy a spot on someone's show you might as well give the fighter the money cos he wont be facing anybody that poses any kind of danger beyond hurting his hand on the opponents head. The only good it does is that the fighter gets a small payday and adds a meaningless win on his record.

 

3) There's a lot of "fighters always get screwed by evil managers and promoters" sentiment out there. You've dealt with fighters and surely in some cases you have seen the other side. Can you share some stories about fighters who screwed themselves.

Yes sir I have experienced both sides of the fence. The worst are the fighters who cannot think for themselves and need their fathers, family or friends or a combination of all to tell the fighter how it should be, could be good. Yes I agree the fighter can and should seek advice. Only problem is the father, family and friends usually have absolutely no experience, or knowledge of boxing as a business. They go by boxrec, the internet, and books. My experience has been that newbies tend to want to re-invent the wheel, price themselves out, are unreasonable and impossible to deal with you have no idea, or they think too much of themselves, they tend to have a know it all attitude and you cant tell them anything.
screwed promoters,
Victor Ortiz comes to mind, he screwed Top Rank by declaring bankruptcy and going to Goldenboy. When you declare bankruptcy all contracts and most debts are canceled.
Top Rank went to court cos they had invested a lot of money in Ortiz, the result was that in his first fight with the golden ones, he was paid $125,000, and Top Rank got $150,000, he screwed the promoter and screwed himself. Bernard Hopkins screwed Promoter Lou Dibella, Dibella fought it and again the fighter got the s**t end of the stick and in both cases rightly so.

screwed managers?
Fighters who listen to know nothings, who tell the fighter I can get you more money, you should be champion, you need to fight this guy or that guy. They are paying you chump change and blah blah blah. The fighter says that's right, I should be getting more money, they are paying me chump change. It really is a mine field, if a manger tries to put a stop to it he is told that he is too controlling.


Obviously you may choose not to name the fighters involved, but as a manager I'm sure you've seen the other side -- where maybe you invested a lot of money in a guy and then he did you wrong. Or just guys who were impossible to deal with.

Fathers, family and friends who think they know are impossible to deal with. Think of this they all think they are helping the fighter and they mostly mean well, the ones that pay for it is the fighter.