Elite boxing is flush with cash. When you look at
boxing, it's red hot. Socially, boxing is huge. Huge. Top boxers are among the highest
paid athletes in the world. Some could earn tens of millions
of pounds for a single fight, whatever the outcome. With the Saudi
arrangement, it's really going to be the best
fighting the best. But this is one sport
where turning pro doesn't always bring big bucks. They still need to work to
be able to fund their life. Not many reached that pinnacle. You can be as talented
as you want to be, but if you're not getting
yourself out there, it's hard. And making it as a
boxer is about much more than winning in the ring. A lot of boxing is pretty
much the Wild West. It's a blood sport. It's a prize fighting. Sometimes, pedigree
and past results aren't the be all and end all.

This gym in Sheffield is home to the team of boxers set to compete for Great Britain in the biggest tournament on the amateur boxing calendar. Around the world, boxers are using programs like this as a springboard to potentially lucrative professional careers. I do have aspirations of turning professional, and an Olympic medal really changes that. There's no denying it. Your stocks rise considerably if you win an Olympic medal, slash win an Olympic gold medal. So there would be a lot of interest in me. My name is Lewis Richardson. I'm a Team GB boxer, and I'm off to Paris '24 Olympics. I've got onto the GB boxing team, and I been on six years now, and it's been it's been a hell of a journey and one that I'm very, very grateful for. You have to earn your way onto the program. And I just feel like, from a natural sort of progression point of view in amateur boxing, Team GB is the greatest.

thing you can achieve. I feel like the Olympic games is
the pinnacle of amateur boxing, and very few people reach that,
and I've reached that now. I'd love to achieve big things
in the professional ranks, become financially secure. It's a business, a
professional side, so I'd like to have some
financial security from it, and also, yeah,
win major titles. Currently, we have
about 50 boxers. It's normal for us
to have a surplus. A lot of boxers that leave
after an Olympic cycle will turn professional. Robert McCracken, performance
director for GB Boxing. The programme is really designed
to give boxers an opportunity at GB Boxing to go to the
Olympic games and have the possibility of travelling
the world and learning and being supported and fulfilling
your potential, really, in amateur boxing. Lewis has a good shot at
becoming an Olympic champion, but even that doesn't
guarantee a well-paid living.

as a professional fighter. In the UK, there are around
1,100 active licensed professional boxers, but less
than 10 per cent of those are making a full-time
living from the sport. Boxing is the only
sport that I know of where professional status
is not really professional because you're not being paid. It's not truly professional
until you reach TV level. My name is Steve Goodwin. I'm a professional
boxing manager looking after over 70
UK boxers that also does some promotional events. The glitz and glamour
shows of TVs that you see is a minuscule part of
the boxing industry. Small-hall boxing
accounts for probably in the region of 95 per
cent of all boxing shows that take place in the UK. Small-hall boxing is basically
boxing without any TV revenue or external revenue. The only revenue you get
from small-hall boxing is from ticket
sales at the door.

Turning pro isn't complicated. Fighters have to pass
a medical evaluation and have amateur
fighting experience. Giant arenas and
big pay cheques are open to anyone with a
professional licence. But almost all pro boxers
fight their battles in town halls, leisure
centres, and nightclubs around the country. When a fighter starts
off on the small hall, to me it's no different
than an electrician that goes out and makes the coffee
and does all the little bits and learns his trade and
gets paid very little and he's an apprentice and
he's learning his trade. With boxing, to me,
everybody, I say to them all: you're all serving
your apprenticeship. And what we're trying to find
here is, are you good enough? Because many of them aren't. With no cash coming in from TV
deals, which provide the largest income stream at the big shows,
the opportunity to make money

is slim, and the responsibility
for selling tickets is on the fighters. So you can earn money
out of small hall, but you have to be a big ticket
seller to earn that money. I always say to a boxer
when they come to me, your job isn't fighting. You have two jobs. You have to fight and
be a good fighter, but you have to market yourself. One without the
other is no good. If you're a good fighter,
but you can't sell tickets, you really shouldn't bother. Doing a show, for example,
at York Hall in London, will cost you around £20,000
without paying any boxers at all. So anybody that's crazy enough
to promote a show starts off minus £20,000. The venue may be £4,500. Security may be
£2,500 to £3,000. Four doctors will
cost you £2,400. Two ambulances, £1,300.

Hire of the ring, £700. You've then got any production
that you put in, a DJ, the people working the corners,
the costs of printing tickets, etc., etc., etc.... They then try and recoup
that by ticket sales. And the promoter might
say to them, right, you need to sell 50 or 60
tickets at £50 a ticket. And then if you go
over the 50-60 tickets, then the next so many tickets
you can keep as your money. I've known fighters
that have ended up fighting but not
selling enough tickets and putting their own
money in to fight. It's a tough time
for some of them. A tough time. When you turn pro,
everything has to be on point learning the
business of the game, getting your social
media on point. So it's not just the
fight that people see. There's so much before. They just see the
glitz and the glam.

but people don't see the
tears, or the driving, or being exhausted, or the money that's
gone into it, or the money that you're getting paid. They just see the highlights. For pro boxers, the
big financial rewards come when they sign up
with major promoters and broadcasters, but the
need to generate sales isn't just for
small-hall boxing. You're not supposed to
turn professional and be driving around in a Rolls-Royce
with silver cutlery, you know? There's supposed to
be that struggle. And I like that, for a fighter,
to experience that struggle when they start off, because
when they get to the top, they'll remember that journey. Eddie Hearn, world's biggest
and greatest boxing promoter, chairman also of
Matchroom Sport. My job is to tell a
story, to tell a story to fight fans to engage
them in the fighter.

and make them excited
about the event. And that's really the job of
a promoter, to sell tickets, to drive viewership, to
create narrative and interest in the event that
you're putting on. When you talk about arena
revenue particularly, it really depends
what market you're in. Some markets, like
the UK market, we rely on pure revenue, so
ticket sales, TV revenue, commercial sponsorship. When you go to international
venues, sometimes Vegas is an example
where a casino might say: we're going to
pay you a site fee for bringing your event to us. Particularly in
Saudi Arabia, you know that's almost a government
position, it's saying: look, we want to drive
tourism to Saudi. We want to create
awareness for our country. So we're going to use
sport as a vehicle to showcase that to the world. The ticket revenue for a Saudi
event is quite small in relation.

to a UK event, but it's
subsidised by the government site or tourism fee. When we go to Saudi and
say, it doesn't matter how many tickets we
sell. Obviously, we want to make sure it's
as busy as possible, but we've already effectively
received the revenue to do the show. So we much prefer, really,
to receive the site fees from the venues and the
tourism departments. But the UK, you know,
it's good fun, as well. Boxing is a business, and a
lot of people forget that. You can be as talented
as you want to be, but if you're not pushing
yourself or getting yourself out there on your own,
without your promoter, you know it's a lot difficult
to kind of be seen, you know? Ticket sales, getting fans,
publicity, interviews, anything that you can do to get
yourself out there and raise your profile all
lead you in good

stead for that bigger prize money. My name is Shannon Ryan. I am 27 years old, and I am a professional boxer. I did my homework before I turned pro. I learnt about the business side of it in my own time, just little things from getting a logo done and knowing about management. Where does the money go when you do get paid from fights? So I was very fortunate enough to be kind of picked up by Anthony Joshua's company, 258. The next part of that was you now need a promoter. Where do we go? And that's obviously where your management gets involved to kind of look at who wants you on their platform. And that's when I did start off with Sky Sports with Boxxer, and I had four fights with them. So I was working at the O2 store in Watford, and I was an assistant manager. That's when it did become really hard.

I would open the shop. I would have to close the
shop, and then go straight to training. So I was always
a little bit late, and my coach would always have
a go at me, but I had no choice. When you love
something and you're passionate about something,
you'll get it done no matter how tired you are. March 2022, I had
my debut in London. After that, I had
to go back to work. That's when I was like, I can't. I can't do this. So prior to that, you know, I
did send O2 an email from myself and took the
initiative, because I knew that if I was going to
go the full way with boxing, I needed the financial
backing to be able to do so. So O2, there was a bit
of push to begin with, and then they said, yeah,
we will partner with you. I think I stayed for about four
weeks, handed in my notice.

and I've been flying ever since. But if it wasn't for O2
financially backing me, I don't think, one, I would
have improved as fast as I have. And two, I would
still be working. Instead of trying
out for Team GB, Shannon secured a
management team, which helped her get noticed by
promoters after she turned pro. But signing TV and
sponsorship deals is only the start
of the process. When a fighter
starts their career, obviously the key is activity. So you're starting off
in six-round fights. You want to be fighting five,
six, seven times a year. A fighter will receive
a purse for those. Obviously, that's a
much smaller purse than when you're fighting
in championship fights, but you are fighting
more regularly. Commercially, they'll
also rely on sponsorship. People don't realise that a
fighter's expenses are quite considerable as well.

It's an expensive sport. Fight night earnings vary
massively from boxer to boxer. Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk
will have shared a prize pot running well into the
tens of millions of pounds from their bout in
Riyadh this year. But for many, earnings are
in the thousands of pounds, even with commercial and
sponsorship deals included. So you don't get paid
until after the fight. When you have your
first fight, you don't have any
money from boxing. So that's where, for
example, for myself, is where the sponsors
come in, because you have to pay for your
strength and conditioning, your nutritionist, your coach, and management.
You pay after the fight a certain percentage. But then you've got your travel. You've got your
sparring partners, if they need to be paid, if
they're travelling down from anywhere. You've got your food,
which is very expensive.

To eat healthy is expensive. So all of that at
the start of camp. And then, yeah, once
you've finished your fight, you then pay your coach. You pay your management. And then is there
enough left over? You've got to save it. The transition from
amateur to pro, it will be different,
especially if I'm in a very new environment where
I've got to build my team. I think the stability that being
on the programme offers you. You have APA funding, so
national lottery funding, which, although many argue,
it's not a lot, but the support you
get from the programme, the money, and the finances you
save and don't have to spend is second to none. Medical expenses, travel
expenses, food expenses: so much money that you
don't have to worry about. You know, as athletes, we
train every day, twice a day, Monday to Saturday. So it is pivotal that you do
get that rest and recovery.

That's why I take my hats off to anyone still working whilst boxing, because it's hard. For some boxers, the cycle of working, training, recovery, and self-promotion is their reality. Despite the financial struggle some professional boxers face, the sport itself is enjoying the buzz from the influx of Saudi money and a growing fan base, particularly among young people. The value of sports rights as a whole continues to increase at a rapid rate, and that's really driven by demand. I mean, if you have new broadcasters entering the market that are willing to invest, be aggressive, and acquire sports TV rights, the price of those rights will continue to grow. And we've seen that in boxing. What the broadcasters like is the interaction of fans in terms of conversation, opinion, arguments, build-up. Boxing's not just about the night.

It's about the build-up,
the confrontations at press conferences,
the debates before and after,
watching them train. And I think broadcasters like
that because it is a very interactive sport. Now, with the
numbers continuing to increase. Matchroom has handled some of
the sport's most profitable bouts in recent history. A single fight can earn
a promoter and the boxers they represent
millions of pounds. There's no resume
for this sport. It is a commercial sport. And it is a little bit
of showbiz as well. So we need something
different from that fighter. We need that swag. Now, it doesn't just mean that
we pick a random fighter out of a gym. Every fighter has
to have pedigree. We're talking about ABA, which
is national championships, getting in the GB
team up in Sheffield, the performance centre,
fighting in the world amateur championships, the
European championships.

and particularly the Olympic games. If you do that, and you win medals in the Olympics, your profile already exists to a point where actually it's a natural progression to the professional ranks. When you're young, you're naive. You just see the top. Not many people get there. My aspiration is to get to the top grade, to be world champion, definitely be world champion. There's not many that have become Olympic and world champion. Anthony Joshua was one of them, James Degale. Lauren Price, also, who's on the squad now, who trains here also, she's one of them. So, yeah, it's a small group. My name is Galal Yafai, and I'm a professional boxer, a former Team GB boxer. My accolades are Commonwealth champion, European medallist twice, and my biggest achievement, Olympic gold medal. I'm in a fortunate position, winning the Olympic gold.

I think that's put me
in unbelievable stead. I don't mean to
blow my own trumpet, but not many people win
Olympic gold for Great Britain and in the world. So it's a small group,
and I'm glad to be in it. But I've got to keep
going, promoting myself. I've got to do that. I've got to keep
winning, mainly. I've got to keep looking good. Hopefully that carries on. Off the back of his successful
career with Team GB, Galal signed with
a major promoter and is now earning enough to
continue boxing full time. It's a lot tougher as a pro. You're pretty much on your own. I have to watch what I
eat, what I do, where I go. It's all around boxing. Boxing is my life. I have nothing else. It's how I earn my money. It's what I think about
all day, every day.

It's given me the
life that I have now. I live comfortably. I live. I'm happy. I can do things that I
probably couldn't have done before through boxing. Boxing has been able to ride the
wave of rising global interest in combat sports,
boosted by the arrival of influential social
media stars on the scene. But the sport's fragmented,
often chaotic federation structure means boxers also
need the right connections if they want a shot at those
title fights and the big money. A lot of boxing is pretty
much the Wild West. It's pretty much who knows
who, who can pull the strings. It's not like the Premier League,
where they go through a process. The best are picked. The others are dropped. This has got so many more
bits to who gets picked and who gets chosen and
who gets the big fights. It is really not
that straightforward. And I always say it is not the
most talented fighters that

get to the top. Sometimes it's
the best managed fighters that get to the top. So you definitely lose a
lot of talent along the way. The money comes in and
it gets higher, is when your kind of value goes up. You keep winning. You do the necessary
stuff within the ring. If you're not winning, you're
then going to go backwards. It's like snakes and ladders. But then again, it's how do you
raise your profile on your own? So social media
is a pivotal part. Let's say you didn't
have your social media and you were just
a talented boxer. You will, of
course, get to where you need to get to, world
title, all the belts. But it's how much is your
value gone up within that? The attitude of the big
promoters has changed. It is really about the money
that fighters can generate now. If a fighter who is not a big
ticket seller, who's with TV,

loses they bin him
off straight away. They've just got
to keep winning. Just got to keep winning. It's just easier to keep winning
if you are a big ticket seller, because they will put more
things in your favour. It's really like that. It's just harder for you if
you're not generating them cash. I think the business model
of boxing is in a good place. I think when you open up
the revenues to a fighter, if they're not
commercially a success, they won't receive
the amount of money that they perceive
to be correct. If you are a superstar
and drive huge numbers, that is where you will get your
maximum pay from that structure. The problem comes is when
someone's actually very good but doesn't have the
commercial value with sponsors, with driving viewership and
pay per view, with putting bums on seats in venues. And that's the
hardest conversation, because someone
might be outstanding.

but if they're not driving
revenue to the show, how do they warrant
the major purses? They can push, but
something's got to click between the fighter and
the fan base to get them there. And it doesn't always work. The number of fighters eager
to take a chance on turning professional continues to grow. I believe that the
way boxing is going is that a lot of fighters that
will be headlining UK TV shows will now be moving on to
the Saudi shows, which means that there will be a
shortage of high-quality fights in the UK, which is going to
mean that everybody is going to uplift, and a lot of fighters
that are on the small hall apprentice level are going to
be given more opportunities. So I actually do believe that
the future is looking more bright for the people,
the apprentices, to get bigger chances
in their careers. We're seeing now, more and more
investment from other countries.

to bring major boxing
events to their country or their territory. Obviously, Saudi is the
most famous of that. But we stage events
throughout Mexico, Monaco... Australia is another market
where the government or state government will invest to
bring boxing specifically to their territory
because it's a hot sport, and they know that
the eyes of the world will be watching when
there's a major fight. Time. But whether all the new
money coming into the sport will be felt in the lower
ranks is yet to be seen. In the last few years, there's
more chances for boxers to become financially secure. In my day, 30 years
ago, there'd probably be three or four boxers that
were doing financially well. Everyone else was
probably just getting by. That's changed, I think,
with the broadcasters and the profile of boxing. You see more people coming
through and being successful. So there's opportunities
for everybody now.

Obviously, you've got social
media platforms and whatever. But there is good opportunities. Some people ask why
boxers do what they do. People hope they're going to
be in that half a per cent, and they have a dream. So they pursue that dream. That's why they do it. It's a dream. My end goal is to
have my freedom. I feel like boxing
allows me to be free. You know, I am training
every day, twice a day. But it's something that
I love and I enjoy doing. I do believe and I will
become the undisputed champion in the super flyweight
division, and I just want to be the best in the game. Hopefully earn some good
money, win some titles, and, most importantly,
get out of the game safe and, yeah, enjoy the rest
of my life with my family.

Boxing: the fight to make a living from turning pro | FT Scoreboard

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