Paulie Malignaggi spoke passionately this week at the launch of a new boxing format he is involved in called Ultimate Boxxer, a similar concept to Prize Fighter but a brand that does not tie fighters to them contractually – so they do not compete with promoters or managers whatsoever.
In fact, other promoters who may have trouble moving their younger prospects can use the platform and event to let their young fighters box on and then go back to their own shows straight afterwards.
Ultimate Boxxer has received hugely positive reviews since it’s launch yesterday and really seems to be some different in terms of attracting more young fans to watch boxing than might not normally do so.
An exciting, fast-fighting format for its first show on April 28th in Manchester will see eight undefeated welterweights do battle in EventCity in Manchester.
Through the organisers’ background in entertainment and music – they are looking to give prospect fighters more of a genuine opportunity early on to get some solid fights under the belt while not having to worry about selling tickets.
In theory, this will help the larger promoters who will be able to sign more prospects as a new avenue outside of the Olympics.
An almost next step for talented fighters who believe they can be the best when they turn pro, but as is so often the case in boxing, might not have the opportunity or platform to stake this claim early on in their professional tenure.
Speaking on what Ultimate Boxxer will do, former world champion Paulie Malignaggi said:
“When I started listening (to the idea) I sort of said, okay, how do we attract the younger generation to boxing? That’s always the key, right. The youth generation seems to watch a lot of mixed martial arts, they do watch some boxing – but how do we keep this youth generation to our sport?
He added:
“One of the ways means it makes it accessible to them. Accessible means internet. UniLad brought a great platform for us and Ben (Shalom) brought that to the table through Facebook and UniLad. When I thought about that I started to think that this is the way that these young modern kids are really starting to view things. It’s not so much television, not that television is going to go away completely, but you want to have it accessible to the way young mind think.”
Malignaggi continued:
“Young mind, they are distracted because there’s Instagram, there’s Facebook, there’s Twitter – they are gung ho about technology so you’ve got to give them something that they understand while making it hip and young. How do you do that? Bring in the music acts, bring in the internet and what not.”
An exciting new platform indeed, roll on the first event.
