IN a forgotten time, fighters had to feed off scraps for publicity. Limited opportunities, especially in the UK, gave the vast majority of boxers nowhere to go to get their name and story out into the public domain.
Outside of the long-running trade magazine Boxing News and a few scribes who worked for the numerous tabloids that filled the newsagent’s shelves, a mention in the written press was considered something akin to the Holy Grail.
The late Colin Hart was, at one time, the most powerful print journalist in the country. Dubbed the ‘Voice of Boxing’, a few words from Hart in his chosen tabloid added much to the profile of a fighter.
Column inches were beyond scarce. Hence, the importance and value of being featured. In that old-fashioned time, promoters and managers would lobby Hart and his contemporaries to write some ‘copy’ about their fighters.
But things are very different now in the digital age. There are endless social media platforms, YouTube boxing-specific outlets, and a never-ending supply of websites, albeit of varying quality and standards. Getting some semblance of publicity for yourself or your fighter has never been easier, or more accurately, it should be.
Some fighters get it. They see the opportunities and benefits of self-promotion. Sadly, too many don’t, especially on the female side of the sport. I’ve never understood why promoters and managers don’t do more to promote their fighters.
Why don’t they offer their talent—and I don’t just mean the carefully selected ‘house’ fighters who they often primarily focus on—to the multitude of media outlets that are out there?
Surely, a promoter should actually promote. Surely, a manager should try and open up a few more doors for the fighters that they manage. How many promoters or managers actually contact those media outlets? Some undoubtedly do. Many, I suspect, don’t. Build relationships. Build their fighters.
When so many of the media outlets are seemingly chasing the same repetitive and tired content, they might appreciate having something completely different to work with. If not, they should.
But equally, a fighter should take control of their own careers. They only get one chance. One career. For a promoter and a manager, the money wheel just keeps on turning. In simple terms, they have more than one chance. A fighter doesn’t.
One of the fighters who does get it is Ebanie Bridges. Largely unknown in 2020, the Australian took to social media to change all that. Many didn’t like her methods. But it worked. Some of her fellow fighters may not have liked what she did, and there were plenty who voiced their displeasure at the attention Bridges got around that time, but they could still have learned from her. Some did. Many didn’t, and instead, they chose to ‘suffer’ in silence.
Mikaela Mayer is another fighter who understands the importance of putting herself out there. As she says herself, Mayer has a mouth on her, and she uses it very effectively. Very few fighters know how to sell a fight better than Mikaela Mayer. She finds a hook and doesn’t let go. Sandy Ryan would most certainly vouch for that.
Mayer and Bridges are just two examples, with differing methods, of fighters who have benefited from doing the hard graft and long hours of the interview merry-go-round. They have been greatly rewarded for the investment of their time.
Claressa Shields and Caroline Dubois are two more fighters who use the multitude of different platforms extremely well. They make noise, and they make headlines. Fighters further down the food chain could learn a thing or two from the likes of Mayer, Bridges, Shields, and Dubois.
While personally, I largely get the interviews I chase, there is still that element of frustration and annoyance when multiple messages go by without even a hint of a reply. Usually, from fighters who desperately need some semblance of publicity.
There are times when I have begrudgingly just walked away and moved on. But the very same fighters then bemoan on social media about a lack of opportunities or needing sponsorship. Sometimes you have to, and can help yourselves. To commercialise others, you have to commercialise yourself first. You have to have something to sell. Build yourself a platform. Everyone has a story to tell. Tell it.
I have lost count of how many times I have researched for an interview and found virtually nothing online about that fighter. Times have undoubtedly moved on. Not everyone has moved with them.
Maybe it’s a case of the people around those fighters educating them. Or it could be that those fighters could just educate themselves on the importance of getting their name out there. It’s really not that hard, or at least, it shouldn’t be.
