SEEING your dad have a fight is a surreal experience.
Watching the man of the house throw punches with someone causes an emotional firework to go off inside you. For the Neilson family it was life as they knew it.
Two of Eddie Neilson’s last three fights came against Joe Bugner and Frank Bruno in 1982 and 1983. The former was the wrong side of 30 and had already shared the ring with Muhammad Ali, twice, and Joe Frazier. The latter was just 21 years old, only 13 fights into his career and was knocking people out for fun.
Boxing has been the lifeblood of the Neilson family for generations. Eddie’s son Mark has gone from watching his father at the Royal Albert Hall to lacing the gloves up himself to becoming a successful promoter on the small hall circuit who now has lofty ambitions.
Neilson recalls the heady times for his father who was featured in newspapers and how that would benefit his teenage son at school.
“It was a bit cool. It helped to get the girls, for sure. It’s like dad’s the manager of a big football team.
“I remember being at them fights. I remember dad being on the front page of the paper. Embarrassing moments as well. I think it was HTV, as they were called then, the sort of southwest news channel. They’d come and do interviews at the house. And I’d have to put on my best clothes on.
“We’d be sat there doing like a mock Sunday lunch or something like that. Some photos and an interview. And I was like, ‘Dad, do I have to wear a tie? I don’t wear a tie for Sunday lunch.’ ‘Put a bloody tie on’”.
At six years old Mark was in an amateur gym. Five years later he had his first fight and got a trophy from Miss Swindon. His grandfather was treasurer of the local club. Boxing was everywhere. It was natural.
“So my dad was sort of born in 1950. I was born in 68. So they were like kids with kids,” Neilson recalls.
“When I was in the gym, dad was late 20s. He was still young. It’s just what we did. There was no other sport. We were just boxing. There was never going to be anything else. There was no other reason for it. You don’t have a conversation about it. It just happens.”
Neilson moved through the levels at amateur level and got to a quarter-final stage of an NABC (National Championship). Then came schoolboy competitions and junior ABAs.
“That was about my level, really. Never really good,” he admits.
“So I got to about 17, and then came booze and girls, and cigarettes, and whatever. And that was that.”
Boxing never left Neilson’s life, however, but his involvement grew significantly from the early 2000s. His father organised a charity boxing show – before the rise of White Collar Boxing – which raised around £30,000.
In 2007, Eddie laced the gloves up once again for another charity show. Another £40,000 was raised. Mark began helping out behind the scenes giving him an insight into what it takes and the work involved. More charity boxing shows followed with thousands more raised over the years.
The last took place in 2014 but by then Mark was having ideas for the future and considering a move on to the professional circuit. Then on June 10, 2016, armed with his professional licence, Neilson along with Errol Johnson put together a five fight card at Grange Leisure Centre in Swindon. Local girl Kelly Morgan fought in an eight-rounder for the WBC Silver Female middleweight belt and there were four prospects – Ryan Martin, Luke Watkins, Akeem-Ennis Brown and debutant Des Newton – also on the bill.
“And then it sort of went from there,” Neilson says. “One or two shows over the year. It’s tough to start with because we don’t have any boxers. We’re working with everyone else’s boxers. We lost loads of money.
“But in the sort of licensed white collar, if you want to call it, we could have put on a show the following week. My phone book was full up with all those boxers. Then in the professionals you start with a blank piece of paper. So you don’t know how it works. You don’t know how the pay works.
“We worked with Keith Mayo, a local promoter. And Errol Johnson actually helped us a lot. He helped us a lot in the early days with advice and getting set up and how to do it. And making sure we didn’t get our pants pulled down. We lost a few quid but we still put on good shows and built from there.
“Fast forward to now, I think we’re doing 15 this year. We’re like the busiest promoters at York Hall. There’s just us and [Steve] Goodwin, I think.”
While any IBO title is looked down on by many it is still a significant prize on a small hall show. Such was the case on January 27 this year when Quaise Khademi lost in his bid to win the vacant super-flyweight version against South Africa’s Jackson Chauke. That kicked off Neilson Boxing’s 2024. And, on September 7, former Olympic Gold medallist Tony Yoka appeared on their show at Swindon’s Regent Circus as the Frenchman continues to claw away at keeping his career alive.
How does Neilson sum up his eight years as a professional boxing promoter?
“Huge learning curve,” he replies.
“What you find in boxing is there’s some really good people. And there’s a lot of people who aren’t really good people. And they say if you swim the sharks, you’re going to get bitten. We got bitten because we didn’t know.
“Lots of people dip into boxing. They lose a lot of money, get their pants pulled, and they leave boxing. But fortunately, I’ve got businesses. I’m a businessman. So I know how to run a financial model. I know how to make it work. A lot of boxing promoters have got day jobs. A mechanic might be running a garage and they’ve got their head under a bonnet all day. Then they put on a show on a Saturday. Fair play to them for doing that.
“I’ve got boxing in my blood but I’m a businessman as well. And not many people have got it in both camps. We can relate and talk to the boxers and also understand the businesses of it. So it’s like a huge learning curve. We don’t make money on all our shows but it’s not about the money for me.
“It’s about the businesses as well. But I just want to get there. I just want to get in and put the show on and make sure the show’s right. Never cut any corners. Even if you do lose a main event – the big ticket-seller two weeks before – we don’t cancel it. You just take a hit because all the undercard fighters still need to fight.
“I manage 37 of my own boxers. So lots of my shows now have got my boxers on. I’ve got more control of the show. So rather than relying on all these other managers – who pull their guy off because they’ve got another offer for another £20 somewhere else, or a title shot or whatever – I’m building my own boxers. And I’ve got the platform to build them on. So I can have development cards and I can have bigger cards with title fights on.”
Neilson carries a competitive edge as all promoters do. He wants to win, he wants to succeed in his business but speaks fondly of his employees and wants to reward them as well when he can. He speaks of always learning lessons, always wanting to improve and, if something goes wrong, knowing exactly what happened to prevent it from doing so again. It all sounds obvious but boxing consumes lives and with a 101 things to do it would be easy to miss something.
“Problems are going to happen,” he says. “I’ve had a boxer fail a medical on the day because he had a cold sore. And then the fight’s pulled.
“I’m still learning lessons. Who you can deal with and who you can’t. I’m still learning that some people’s words and handshakes mean bugger all. Boxing, like I say, you swim with sharks sometimes you’re going to get bitten. But that same shark ain’t going to bite me twice.”
The end game for any boxing promoter is a TV deal. Neilson is no different and is adamant he would do a good job. Eighty per cent of 2025 is already planned for Neilson Boxing but that is with the current budget they have. An increase in that, he believes, would see their product soar to new heights.
“Give me Channel 5. Give me that budget. You give me that budget. I can put on 10 times better shows,” he vows.
“My shows are better than that with 10 per cent of the budget.”
“It’s a TV contract,” he continues. “That’s the main thing. DAZN didn’t exist until five years ago.
“There’s YouTube and Amazon Prime and Netflix and all that sort of stuff. I do some brilliant shows. Some are just all right, to be fair. Some are really good. But give me a big budget… crikey.
“We just keep going, keep trying to improve, keep building, keep growing. Signing more boxers, building the brand, and being ready for any opportunity. And when the door opens, you go through it.”
Neilson believes that from a fan’s perspective boxing is at its strongest right now.
The addition of Riyadh Season allows for all-star cards with good matchmaking, huge fights and purses. But, like many, Neilson sees more than just one main event on cards in Riyadh or at Wembley Stadium as was the case on September 21.
Four of the five fights were headline attractions in their own right and ones which could have filled indoor venues of various sizes across the UK. Buatsi-Hutchinson, Cacace-Warrington, Kelly-Davis and Sheeraz-Denny could have done solid business in London, Leeds, Newcastle and Birmingham. Instead, those four potential dates are rolled into one which is having a detrimental impact on boxing in the UK.
“Those would have had undercards with local fighters developing,” Neilson says.
“We’ve got to be careful that it won’t run out of steam. They’re doing all their wish lists now, but what’s the next wish list once all these ones are done? We’ve got to be careful.
“We’re at a very interesting time. There could be opportunity, because more money might drop down to the grassroots. More broadcasters might come into the mix as well. Interesting times.”
