What does a promoter do exactly...?

See Eddie Hearn, Dana White & Vince McMahon for details.

 

Uh...he promotes.

Duh.

 

He puts up the money

 

Promoters make sure the fighters keep putting money in their pockets, while they sit back and get rich!

 

Marinate.

 

Not everyone is charming

 

Obviously to promote a fighter. Not every fighter has charisma and the immediate media savvy that most have to learn and even if you are someone like Naseem Hamed or Chris Eubank you still need a promoter to put you on their cards, usually on the undercard of bigger names to give you exposure to the boxing fans. Sure you have social media to expose yourself to fans but you can't fight on social media, fact is what happens in the ring is more important than anything a fighter does in the media. Shannon Briggs made a lot of noise with his let's go champ persona when trying to secure a big fight at heavyweight but without a promoter who was well connected he could never maneuver himself into a big fight. A promoter has sway with sanctioning bodies can push you up their rankings, get you minor title shots that can lead to world titles.

You can be someone like Campbell Hatton and have the name recognition through his father and the built in fan base through that and the Man City fans but he didn't decide to turn pro being promoted by his father's small promotional outfit he signed with Matchroom to give him a bigger platform to launch his career. He had damn documentary aired on TV before he even turned pro he couldn't of done that without Matchroom's connections.

A good promoter guides and shapes a fighters career. Has the connections via TV/Streaming networks to push his fighters to give them exposure. He also works for his fighters interests when negotiating possible fights on his fighters behalf. Like when Goosen ensured Andre Ward didn't have to fight overseas during the Super Six. A good promoter will also protect a fighter at times which is often the bad side of the game like when Newman swerved Lewis. It tainted Bowe's legacy to some degree but it ensured he kept the titles and earned Bowe more in the long run.

Now obviously there are many terrible promoters who simply use fighters to line their own pockets and as pawns to control divisions to protect other fighters in their stables. But promoters do serve a purpose and the good ones do provide a useful service to their fighters. Unfortunately the good ones are rare.

 

The lromoter has the connections today especially for non established fighters.

Obviously a Canelo or Crawford can work freelance but Conor Benn cant.

 

Oh my gosh where do I begin. I think a list is in order.

1. Arranges the fight
2. Hires the staff to run the event
3. Books the venue
4. Arranges the press conferences, weigh in, open workouts etc.
5. Decides purse spilts
6. Promotes the fight

and they probably also do more stuff I don’t know about

 

Promoters use the standard minimal risk maximum reward strategy with fighters. This involves a lot of cherrypicking, cardstacking and what is essentially scamming the public

 

Short answer is this. There are all kinds of promoters. Concert, rodeo, etc etc.

 

You aren’t necessarily wrong though. A fighter like Floyd or Canelo, maybe even Fury or Joshua have the bank roll that they probably do not need a promoter. They can book a venue, sign a few fighters to fight on the card including themselves and make a decent return. The problem is do they want to deal with all of that?