I’m talking about the fights where a 4-0 prospect fights a journeyman who’s had 100 losses and everyone is absolutely certain what the result will be before the opening bell rings!
Readers have been saying there are too many fights like this and they need to be removed from the magazine or better still, removed from boxing altogether.
I know exactly how they feel. That’s why I set up BKB™!
I got fed up of going to pro gloved boxing shows and knowing the result.
Too many times it felt the result was predetermined. There are journeymen out there who will tell you winning is bad for business. Promoters are looking for opponents who will lose to their ticket sellers.
In any other sport that would be unacceptable, but in pro gloved boxing it seems to be how the business works.
BKB™ is very different.
We only want 50-50 fights on our shows and ticket sales prove that we are doing something right.
I would say that one third of our tickets are sold to casual fans. That is, fans who don’t go to support one fighter. They see that BKB™ have a show coming up and want a ticket, sometimes without knowing who is even on the show.
That happens because they know BKB™ shows are a guaranteed good night out.
They know they will see 50-50 fights from start to finish.
We have lost fighters because we insist on matching them tough, but that’s the way we run out business and that’s why the O2 Arena will be full for BKB 28 a week on Saturday and millions more will be tuning in around the world.
The top-of-the-bill fight features a pair of former successful gloved boxers.
Jimmy Sweeney represented Ireland as an amateur, but with few pro shows in Ireland, he was lost to boxing before BKB™ came along, while Barrie Jones was a top pro.
Barrie was the victim of poor scoring more than once and got sick of the pro boxing business.
He prefers the honesty of BKB™ where the best man always wins.
Until next week
Joe Smith-Brown