Recently I spent most of the month of December 2016 and all of Christmas in Las Vegas in the States, and a lot of questions I got asked when over there from people in boxing involved things like:
“What are they doing over in the UK that is selling boxing events out so well?”
While this is a difficult question to answer, I genuinely think a lot of why the British boxing market has gone from strength to strength like it has in recent years is to do with how it has been promoted.
Fighters are often promoted in their hometowns first to build up a fan base (that will then travel in a lot of cases) and there is more focus on actually selling tickets in the UK, whereas more of a ‘comp’ culture existed over the years in some of the casinos in the US, where oftentimes promoters were not motivated as much by gate receipts due to large amounts of TV money that was available from the likes of HBO and Showtime.
This has changed a bit in recent years though and US promoters seem to be upping their games, particularly with the gigantic success of the UFC who sold for a whopping $4 billion dollars in 2016.
One promoter in the UK, love him or hate him, that has contributed to the success of UK boxing is Eddie Hearn.
Granted, people may have different opinions about him as a person, but it’s hard to deny the success he’s had and the standard he’s raised in pro boxing in the UK.
His passion this week at a press conference for Badou Jack vs James DeGale won over a lot people in New York, exhibiting a fair bit of passion and stealing the show by promoting the proverbial ‘s***’ out of things as they say.
Can’t knock the passion:
(Hat tip and credit: IFL YouTube)
