There has been a lot of discussion about the current health of boxing with camps seemingly split between it’s never been better or it’s in a crisis.
These kinds of debates are not new in boxing, but Manchester coach Joe Gallagher is confident in the sport’s present position.
Gallagher, who has battled back from a Stage 4 cancer diagnosis, has been busy with fighters at all levels of the sport. Some of his boxers are fighting on off-TV cards at smaller venues while others are main-eventing big events.
“Some of them are TV shows, some of them are small-hall shows,” said the Manchester coach. “I find it hard to say small hall because it’s a boxing show, and sometimes these small-hall shows have bigger attendances than TV shows, but when you look at the York Hall, and like the shows like Pat Barrett and Kevin Maree do up here [in the north of England] at times, and Steve Wood, they’re rammed out, whether it be at Bolton or at Bowlers or the Oldham Leisure Centre, they get good crowds in, like 1,500 or 2,000, and that’s really good.
“I’ve seen something about small-hall boxing and British boxing struggling, well, the finger was half-pointed to Saudi, and I’ve got to say that’s wrong.”
Gallagher sees the value in stacking cards with what the general public would view as multiple main events.
“It’s nothing to do with Saudi boxing, and I understand what they’re saying, ‘Oh, that there’s five headline acts together, and one [the shows] of them could be [a main event on a separate card],’ but that's no different than what we’ve had in the past, when Frank [Warren]’s done Magnificent Seven, or Famous Five shows.
“They’re all headline acts in their own right, but it made a great card,” Gallagher said. Eddie Hearn did a great card in Liverpool years ago, with [Tony] Bellew, [Nathan] Cleverley, and Frankie Gavin, Kevin Mitchell, Scott Quigg. So, I think what Saudi’s doing is giving us the fights that we’re not seeing [without their investment], and I doubt we ever would have seen if it wouldn’t have been for His Excellency [Turki Alalshikh], and Sela, and Riyadh Season coming in and doing that. We wouldn’t have seen them fights.”
Instead, Gallagher believes the cost of living in the UK is hurting the sport rather than the Saudi investment.
“I think what’s happened, what’s killing small-hall boxing is the government, and what they’re taxing people, and the cost of living, that bit of money that used to be a little bit free in the household, to go to a boxing show isn’t there no more. Everyone’s a bit tighter with the pennies, with the pounds, because they don’t have that luxury, and then when you are going to go to a small-hall show, obviously the [British Boxing] Board [of Control], obviously the pricing of the doctors, the ambulances, the venue hire, the seats, the medics, the opponents, the journeymen are wanting crazy money now as well, and the emphasis is on the fighters to sell tickets. Then the pricing of them tickets has got to be a little bit higher to help to cover the cost of the show, and people just don’t have the money in the budget to pay for that no more, and that’s where it’s going wrong. It’s very easy to say, ‘Oh you’re blaming Turki,’ or, ‘You’re blaming this.’ No, they’re delivering the fights. They’re delivering the big events. I’ll give an example: Joe Parker versus Fabio Wardley [who box later this month]. I don’t know how that’s doing, that’s a stand-alone. Is it going to do 20,000 at the O2? I don’t know, we’ll see on the night. But I feel that’s the type of fight that’s on its own, but could easily be in a 5v5, or the Magnificent Seven.
“I’ll give you another example: Callum Smith versus [Joshua] Buatsi [who fought on a deep Saudi undercard]. Who can honestly put their hand on their heart, and say that that fight would have sold out the O2, or the Manchester Arena? If you’re a fighter and you're a decent ticket seller, I’ve got a couple of them, so I’m quite lucky, with Mikie Tallon, Clark Smith, that can pay for themselves, their opponent and their promoter, but there’s other kids out there, that have to still work in the day.
“Macaulay McGowan’s one. He’s on a building site, still going out to sell tickets. Now Macaulay McGowan’s last fight was against Abbas Baraou, who’s now world champion, do you understand? And now Macaulay’s having to come back now, get involved in a six-rounder [which he won last weekend], and go again. And it’s very hard for him. But it’s the costs of everything that’s gone up, and fighters that are fighting, and some are fighting, and paying their opponent, then after they’ve paid the opponent, they’ve got no money left, and they’re fighting for free, and that’s how it is. The tickets, the venues, everything’s getting dearer and dearer and dearer. But the source of income and wage isn’t matching [the inflation].”
Gallagher thinks that the Saudi money has only aided the sport during what would have been more trying times for more people.
“Would we have seen Canelo Crawford without the Saudis? No. Would we have seen Beterbiev-Bivol? No. Would we have seen Fury-Usyk? No. You tell me five must-see fights that we must see, yet three years ago we could list 10 off. That wouldn’t happen. I bet you’re struggling to pick five must-see fights that we have to see now, because he [Alalshikh]’s done them all. We’ve nearly done them all.
“When you go back a few years ago, you could go through the featherweights, the lightweights, the light-welterweights, De La Hoya, Trinidad, then you move up to the middleweights and you want their fights, Hopkins and that, and then the light heavyweights, Jones and Tarver, and the heavyweights, Lewis, Klitschko… there were big fights.”
Of course, everything has changed, not just in the global economy but in boxing. The most popular boxers and not the best boxers, and the fighters who sell the most or have the biggest audiences.
“Carl Froch-Jake Paul would mostly generate more money than a lot of these proper boxing fights,” Gallagher admitted. “And that’s the way it’s going. You’ve got Misfits, you’ve got bareknuckle boxing – which James DeGale got involved in – so there’s huge competition and I think there’s lots of eyeballs on it at the minute.
“There’s a lot of changes in the sport and it’s good. It’s good to have competition.”
Tris Dixon covered his first amateur boxing fight in 1996. The former editor of Boxing News, he has written for a number of international publications and newspapers, including GQ and Men’s Health, and is a board member for the Ringside Charitable Trust and the Ring of Brotherhood. He has been a broadcaster for TNT Sports and hosts the popular “Boxing Life Stories” podcast. Dixon is a British Boxing Hall of Famer, an International Boxing Hall of Fame elector, a BWAA award winner, and is the author of five boxing books, including “Damage: The Untold Story of Brain Trauma in Boxing” (shortlisted for the William Hill Sportsbook of the Year), “Warrior: A Champion’s Search for His Identity” (shortlisted for the Sunday Times International Sportsbook of the Year) and “The Road to Nowhere: A Journey Through Boxing’s Wastelands.” You can reach him @trisdixon on X and Instagram.
