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

It's fair to say as a boxing manager or promoter you really need to sell the product you are promoting unless of course you have a prodigious talent that can sell themselves.Probably the greatest single deal made IMO by Jack Kearns who I have posted about earlier & his 'deal' with the good folk of Shelby that bankrupted a town.

A man who was fantastic at making the illusion of a fighter having a lot more ability than what the fighter possessed was Jack Hurley who trained,managed & also promoted fighters he had a eye for a deal & made his fighters that he managed plenty of money.

He didn't come cheap though & many baulked at his mandatory 50% cut of a fighters purse he certainly never missed an opportunity to hype his fighters & also making sure they were getting market value.He did a great job with Billy Petrolle who never a world champion amassed a small fortune & retired during the great depression ($200k) ring earnings invested in businesses.Hurley had marketed him as a native American Indian & dressed him that way causing great interest the gimmick worked Petrolle as the name may sound was an Italian American.

He turned his hand to promoting at the Chicago Coliseum very successful he was in that field also he promoted the Chicago meeting of Tony Zale & Rocky Graziano.It was a record indoor take of $422,000 at the time he had a sixth sense of always making money he was adept at working the journalist's for his own end in a day where the written press could make or break you.

The best illusion he was able to get away with was his promotion of the 1957 Heavyweight title fight between Floyd Patterson & 1956 Olympic gold medallist Pete Rademacher.He knew he had to pitch Rademacher in quickly who went on to show his limitations with a pro record of 15-7-1 & sell this fight to his friends in the press he did.

The sell being anyone watching,attending or listening to the fight would be witnessing history of that he was telling the truth because never before or since has a professional fighter made his debut in a world title fight.The fact Rademacher suffered six knockdowns in a 6 round beating was a moot point.Rademacher actually had Patterson who certainly wasn't blessed with a very good chin down in the 2nd round.

When questioned after he was quick to make the point 'you nearly witnessed history tonight boys...just as I promised'.Rademacher was also stopped early in his second pro fight yes Mr.Hurley certainly knew how & when to sell a fight.

Just to add as well the fight against Rademacher drew 16,000 & a record at the time for the Midwest of $243,000 brilliant promoting .

 

I also knew that side, use to love sitting down with Him at shows or coming back from a few foreign trips, it was always a laugh. If ever I needed to get to a Football game at Wembley, Mick or Jarvis would sort it. My gripe was they thought the Fighters worked for them, not the other way round.

 

That is a fair assessment of how British boxing worked guys my age would remember Sportsnight on BBC1 used to show the odd live fight or highlights from Wembley conference centre.

Unless you were working alongside Duff/Astaire it was a closed shop TV wise until ITV started showing fights on midweek sport special again many recorded with a few live.No option really exposure wise.

Scrap your call on the fighters working for them was how it was then unfortunately little or no options & they knew it so well.

Amazing to tell the younger fight fans in the UK the radio was where I listened to so many great fight's Hagler Hearns & Honeyghan Curry spring to mind & we are talking early 80's.

 

Scrap, here's something you might like, as Mickey was heading to the dressing room to see how Owens was doing, he was robbed of $4000 by a lucky pickpocket who hit the jackpot. Did you ever hear mention of Johnny Bos? He is the one who sent all the US guys over there.
Jarvis his partner bought about 20 1980 Ring Record Books from me he was here with Mickey at the time of the Owen's fight. In fact I have an autograph of Lupe Pintor, who signed my 1980 Record Book, he signed it with the date of the fight in the dressing room before the fight. I then went into Owens' dressing room and he signed the book also, as they were getting ready to wrap his hands. I still have that Record book. From what I have read Owens was a good kid. I hope he got paid, that to me was a bad call by Mickey, it was a hardened man vs a boy.

 

I heard 10,000. . Micky made a few bad calls, if the Press mentioned it, they would be banned from the Shows . Owens was well liked.

 

OMG, wonder how much Mickey and Jarvis whacked up? Scrap do you know if Owens and his father knew what they were getting into fighting Pintor?
Do you know who worked Owens' corner?

 

Sorry no idea.

 

Dick Owen his Dad was certainly in the corner.

Dick fell out with Dai Gardner who used to train Owen in the aftermarth of the tragedy they never spoke again.Gardner was certainly involved in the management side of Owen.

 

Always remember the superfight that i had waited years to see both fighters past their peak but still a fight the boxing world had talked about for years.

SRL V Marvin Hagler 06/04/87 it's the last time i watched my favourite fighter in operation as you are all aware of the result no doubt Hagler dropping a split decision.
It was a fight that the result is still discussed about from time to time.

I thought Hagler won the fight 115-113 Filippo's card being about right but boxing being what it is we all see fights differently Moretti having it the same way for SRL fine margins.You take your pick & the tightness of some of the rounds even as a fan it could of gone either way.I make no excuse you can certainly call me biased!

What about the third card well Jose-Juan Guerra had it 118-110 a card that was ridiculed at the time even Angelo Dundee (SRL trainer) called it a joke.Hagler always disputes he lost adamant he should of won questions were raised big time allegations of corruption etc.

Let you into a big reason why Hagler may of lost on the cards actually stem back to the night he destroyed Alan Minter at wembley the Petronelli's his management team rightly upset about his treatment in England.The fact he couldn't celebrate the title win as all champions should they from that night on didn't have much love for anything the UK had to offer.

In making the fight against SRL Moretti & Filippo brought no objection from either camp the original third appointed judge did.Harry Gibbs from England was on the original panel no objection from the SRL team the Petronelli's adamant they didn't want Gibbs & suggested a Mexican instead.The agreed third official Mr.Guerra both sides settled on how they wish they could of turned back the clock.

This is a forgotten fact that British fight fans of that era forget & i doubt our friends in the States know of.Harry Gibbs was asked to score the fight for British TV not on the TV panel it was tape delay here but in the studio away from the influence of other's.Well guess what he had Hagler winning the fight must of stuck in the Petronelli's throat let alone Hagler's.It certainly did with this UK based Hagler fan how those arguments i have had over the years could of been so different let alone a legend's legacy.

 

Hello Demspey1234,

Could you please give me an indication of how much a decent amateur boxer with approximately 25 fights (23 wins), could earn for his very first professional fight?

And how much will he earn nett, after all expenses i.e. manager, promoter etc... (How much willl there be left for him)?

And how much could he earn after 10 straight victories?

I know these are silly questions and hard to answer, but perhaps you can give me an estimation ? And is there a huge difference between American and European starters?

 

For anybody without a major promoter the pay scale can dip as low as $600 to a high of around $1200, for a four rd fight. a major amateur with good credentials $2500 to $3500 for a 4rd fight the elite guys like Olympians can get more. I had a guy who got a minimum of $25,000 for a 4rd, that's rare. The weight division also can dictate your pay.
Depends on what your manager is charging you. A manager can get 33 1/3%, a trainer 10%, try to get the trainer to pay the cutman 1%, and the asst from his 10%. I get 10%, I don't take anything for the first two years and sometimes the third year also. The trainer gets 10% and he shares with the asst trainers could be an S&C guy if needed. Sometimes a trainer and or an S&C guy wants the fighter to sign a contract, sorry to say it's not a good idea.
With a manager taking 33% and the trainer getting 10% they are taking 43% of a fighters purse. I believe that's too high my guys pay 20% after the 2nd or 3rd year. The manager that takes the 33 1/3%, is also in for paying 33% of the expenses and putting money into your career.

"how much will he earn nett, after all expenses i.e. manager, promoter etc... (How much willl there be left for him)?
To make it easy we will say the fighter is getting $1000
the 10 % trainer gets 100 off the top the 900 that is left is split 33% for manager and 66% for the fighter.
The manager(33%) gets $297.
The fighter gets about $603 out of a $1000 purse. After about 10 fights depends on whether you are a ticket seller.
A fighter I just signed who has no promotional deal made his pro debut, his purse was $1000 plus Ticket sales which came out to another $800 for himself. I knew the kid was popular so I could do that. There are promoters out there who will make you pay your own purse by making the fighter sell tickets. This is a rough idea of what it is.
After 10 fights you could be in a better position to get a better deal with a promoter if you maintain the "0", or you prove to be a ticket seller.
I cant help you in comparing purses between overseas and the US I don't really know what a newbie gets. I hope I covered all your points if not ask me again.

 

M I really enjoyed this cos I didn't know the UK side with Gibbs. Did yo'all catch the two brutal slugfests Saturday? Giovanni Segura and Tyson Marquez, Tyson was ko'd in a brutal fight and went to the hospital. In New York, Mike Perez and Magomed Abdusalamov, 18-0, 18ko's. Abdusalamov lost a brutal give and take fight. That fight has ended Abdusalamov's career, cos he to is in the hospital, they just removed part of his skull to relieve the swelling. Since both fighters landed in the hospital, I started looking at both fighter as if I was the manager.
Would I have taken it? Was the opportunity too good to pass up? In the case of Tyson Marquez his situation involved dehydration. Which meant he was having problems with weight. Did the weight problems just pop up, I think not. Did team Marquez, say? "we can make 112 and it's a good opportunity, we beat Segura and the doors will fly open". That seems to be the case never thinking past the money and the supposed opportunity.
For Abdusalamov well his team thought they had superman 18-0, 18ko's once he threw his best punches and Perez was still there and worse he was punching back with accurate punches. Abdusalamov, knows one thing punch the guy hard in the head, after that he is clueless. Knowing Perez is more boxer than puncher I don't know if I would have jumped to fight Perez. Abdusalamov had more balls then defense and paid the price hopefully not the the ultimate price.

 

Watched Perez v Abdusalamov have seen plenty of Perez first time watching the Russian had heard a lot about him.They took Perez lightly lack of activity was why they fancied the fight overlooking Perez has seriously good counterpunching skills & picks his shot's so well.Schooled in his craft against a fighter that had never gone further than 5 it was a step up for Abdusalamov again he looked a fighter with no plan b.To be hit with that many punches straight down the middle exposes basic technical flaws that his run of easy k.o wins has afforded him & his team.


Obviously hope he recovers bad news.Abdusalamov even in his bright spots in the fight I was thinking the lack of basic defense,open guard,lack of head movement he just believed he would walk through Perez.It seems to be happening a lot recent years fighters being fed opponents to make them look good believing their own hype neglecting the skills you hope they would have had that got them to that position in the first place?It's far too tough a sport not to.

 

Just read Abdusalamov had a stroke went in to get his hand checked as thought it was broken.Got paid $40k for the fight but now the medical bills are mounting up.

I know the USA doesn't have free healthcare like we do here but I am surprised the promoter doesn't have to cover injury via insurance for putting on a show?
I also hope HBO do the right thing & put their hands in their pockets & donate.

The fight really reminded me of the Lebedev fight (which ended up a NC Jones failed drug test) in that the fighter's corner or ref should of stepped in way before the end 7th onwards IMO.

 

M you are correct the promoter has to have insurance coverage for the show and for the fighters. From what I know the promoters have to post a bond for each show. There is even insurance in case of cancelation or postponement. We don't have health care like you in the UK, it really is a shame that on top of what Abdusalamov's family is going through they now have to worry about his medical bills. The promoter should have had insurance for the fighters, I bet they had insurance in case they get sued. In every show I have been in the doctor gives you an insurance form if you are injured. Abdusalamov got 40k and now is liable for his medical which will be way over what he got paid makes me wonder how much his promoter got paid. This is wrong, wrong wrong the promoters and HBO should take over the medical expenses.