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MATCHMAKER appreciation...in my book I have a section called YOU MIGHT BE A FIGHTER IF...and I have all these examples of things fighters know...I added a couple here and there for people other than boxers...thought you guys might like this one...
You might be a matchmaker... if you know that being one means you hold one of the most frustrating jobs in all of boxing! People often think being a matchmaker is as simple as calling two guys and asking them if they want to fight. If they both agree to it then it's a done deal, right? Trust me, I know from experience it isn't that simple.
Over the years I have made the matches for dozens of amateur shows and tournaments and that was certainly frustrating enough but nothing even close to what I went through my one and only time putting together a pro show. It was back in the mid-1990's and I was paid five hundred dollars to put together a six bout local show. "No problem," I thought to myself. "Easy money."
It is almost a guarantee that the card you start out with is not he exact one that will take place on fight night. There is always someone who gets injured in training, comes in seven pounds heavier than he was supposed to at the weigh-in, is missing a required medical exam that was supposed to be done within five days of the fight, has a former manager/trainer/promoter who has an injunction to either stop him from fighting or has his purse attached if he does go through with it. You find yourself on the phone for what seems like hours every day (and night, even well past midnight) straightening out everything from purse negotiations to disputes over the contracted weight.
Put it this way: The job was miserable enough for me that I told the person who hired me for it that, "I don't care what you want to pay me in the future to be a matchmaker again. It's not enough. Don't even bother asking next time."
You might be a matchmaker... if you know that being one means you hold one of the most frustrating jobs in all of boxing! People often think being a matchmaker is as simple as calling two guys and asking them if they want to fight. If they both agree to it then it's a done deal, right? Trust me, I know from experience it isn't that simple.
Over the years I have made the matches for dozens of amateur shows and tournaments and that was certainly frustrating enough but nothing even close to what I went through my one and only time putting together a pro show. It was back in the mid-1990's and I was paid five hundred dollars to put together a six bout local show. "No problem," I thought to myself. "Easy money."
It is almost a guarantee that the card you start out with is not he exact one that will take place on fight night. There is always someone who gets injured in training, comes in seven pounds heavier than he was supposed to at the weigh-in, is missing a required medical exam that was supposed to be done within five days of the fight, has a former manager/trainer/promoter who has an injunction to either stop him from fighting or has his purse attached if he does go through with it. You find yourself on the phone for what seems like hours every day (and night, even well past midnight) straightening out everything from purse negotiations to disputes over the contracted weight.
Put it this way: The job was miserable enough for me that I told the person who hired me for it that, "I don't care what you want to pay me in the future to be a matchmaker again. It's not enough. Don't even bother asking next time."
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