We have too many promoters in the UK trying to make it big. Small hall promoters are fine. They put on local shows for local fighters and thus deliver a valuable service. However, the pond is not big enough for those wishing to put on the big cards in big the venues. This is because TV dates are scarce and the mass-audience appeal is not what it used to be. The X Factor and Britain's Got Talent give ITV the 20 million viewers that Benn and Eubank once pulled in. In fact, they achieve this in an age of much more choice. Having said that, when terrestrial TV does broadcast live boxing the viewing figures are very encouraging. Yet the stations do not give boxing their full backing. The sport is seen as a novelty. Yes fans will flock to shows and fill venues, but this takes a special show. The forthcoming War of the Roses event is a promotional dream. It has all the ingredients for a successful show. In fact, homecoming shows are very important. They give fighters great exposure as well as being a financial success. Joe Calzaghes shows at the Millennium Stadium were fantastic occasions. Nathan Cleverlys Homecoming' against Tommy Karpency will be equally as special. With the lack of TV dates financially successful shows are very important. PPV fights are a good source of revenue. However, fans in the UK are not very receptive to PPV events. Therefore BoxNation was set up to create more TV events at a very reasonable cost. But yet again boxing fans are disappointed with the service. It is difficult please the masses. This is why fledgling promoters like Dave Coldwell should to be more careful. Dave had no business bidding for Bellew/McIntosh. When he got the fight he didn't know what to do. There was no TV deal, no real cash investment, and no publicity beast. Eddie Hearn and SKY had to come in and rescue Mr Coldwell. It could have been a disaster. Indeed Hearn has been a breath of fresh air for boxing. However, he is in a very privileged position. Eddie can safely gamble with Matchroom's monopoly board. Barry Hearn is the banker and Sky Sports provide him with Mayfair, Park Lane and several hotels. Although Eddie's own talents have not gone unnoticed. People will argue that healthy competition is vital for the sport. They are correct. However, it is now becoming overcrowded and chaotic. This all really started about 12 years ago when fighters began to form their own companies. The first being Audley Harrison's A-Force promotions. Since then many others have followed suit, all with varying success. Calzaghe tried and failed; Hayemaker didn't go anywhere and Khan Promotions only look after Amir's interests. Only Hatton Promotions seem to be pushing on. So it is best that we have a small group of promoters all getting along and delivering the best fights. Loyalty is hard to come by in this business. Fighters ditch promoters in search of pastures new. Although the grass is not always greener on the other side. It takes a lot of hard work to make fights. Too many promoters make life difficult for each other. Guys like Dave Coldwell are good servants to the sport. However, they should train and manager fighters. Leave the promotion to tough, ruthless buggers who have that little bit extra.
Hayemaker Promotion was set up for the purpose of David paying himself his entire purse instead of a percentage to a man in a suit, I'm not sure he was intending it for longterm success
Coldwell was rescued? More like he sounded out people at Sky to see if they'd be interested, and then asked Eddie about the possibility of using some of his fighters for the undercard. Given that fighters need work, I'm sure they were bang up for it.
This The op is talking nonsense,Coldwell made a bid for the fight and won which he is entitled to do and the fighters will get their money and Sky will hopefuly have a good fight everyone is a winner except fwank who should of made a higher bid.The op needs to look at the scene, Bellew is a happy chappy.Who knows where Coldwell will be in 5 years time but he deserves his chance to show what he can do.This Genius guy has blatenly got an agenda
You'll find that almost any great endeavour starts with somebody trying something that could turn out to be a disaster. It's risk and reward. Don't you think it says something for Mr Coldwell that he took on this challenge and so far has done a damn good job of making sure it isn't a disaster? I don't see why you would think that it's a rescue package that SKY and Eddie want to work with him. From all accounts Dave Coldwell is a stand up guy and it's a mutually beneficial deal as far as most people see.
To be fair to 'the Genius' I think he does raise an interesting point about if we have too many promoters
All the promoters have access to finance. The problem is they are competing against each other. I'm sure Dennis Hobson has more money than Spencer.
why? what is interesting about it? if we have few promoters, then they will all work in their own best interest. competition should be encouraged.
Because for example if Fury and Price were promoted by the same person then that is a much safer fight to make for the promoter because they end up with the winner either way. In the last year we got Mitchell-Murray, Bellew-Cleverly, Price-McDermott etc. at least partially because they were promoted by the same person. The more promoters we have, the more the talent pool is splintered and promoters have one or two meal tickets to live off.
