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The business of promoting boxing matches is much like the sport itself. Things happen so quickly, from the early planning stages to the night the bell is rung, that if you’re not careful, the promoter could be laid out on the canvas as well.
“As a businessman, you don’t want to blow $30,000 in one night,” said Paco Damian, who has promoted fights in San Francisco, Redwood City, Salinas, Fairfield and Sacramento.
“But it can happen very easily. You spend $60,000 for a small show or $100,000 for a televised one. But on a small show, if things get away from you, you can make only $30,000 in ticket revenues. You’ll be out of business soon.”
Damian targets popular local fighters, and along with his longtime mentor/promoter Don Chargin, he’s putting on a card Saturday at Cache Creek Casino Resort in Brooks (Yolo County). Undefeated featherweight Tino Avila (20-0), from Fairfield, is fighting the 10-round headliner against Prosper Ankrah of Ghana (24-7).
As far as I am concerned, I will fight anyone who wants to fight me,” Avila said.
Damian and Chargin think Avila has a title shot in his future, and “you have a responsibility to develop him, and put someone across from him that he is going to learn something from fighting him.
“You don’t learn anything from a one- or two-round knockout.”
Ankrah has been in a lot of tough fights.
“I was hesitant at first, because I didn’t know anything about him,” Manuel Avila said. “But we trust Paco, we watched some video, and we are excited about the fight.”
As one might guess, finding a tough fighter from Ghana wasn’t easy for Damian.
“To me, as a matchmaker, it’s all about the styles of the fighters,” Damian said. “I am a huge fan of good fights, and that helps me as a promoter. That’s why I do research, and don’t listen to people who call me and say they have a fighter for one of my cards.
Thanks to 10-plus years of working for and with Chargin, Damian has a network of gym owners and managers throughout the country and in Mexico on whom he relies to “build an exciting card, top to bottom.”
There are six fights on the Saturday card, and the third bout will feature light heavyweight Ryan “Rhino” Bourland (9-1) from Vallejo in a six-round fight against Gilberto Rubio (6-2) from Tijuana.
Bourland, 28, has come a long way from “just walking forward and bullying people” in the ring, the fighter said. In fact, he is even teaching kids’ boxing classes in Benicia.
He won his last fight at Cache Creek in October, and there is a reason he is back on this card, besides his attacking style. Bourland meets his ticket-selling quota, a key part of local boxers’ responsibilities.
“They need you to sell tickets,” Bourland said. “That gets you back on cards. Man, I have to hustle. … Facebook, Instagram, at the gym, reminding people I have a fight coming up and they should open up their wallets.”
Damian gives fighters only small allotments of tickets at a time. Like almost every promoter, he has been burned by promises.
“Managers will say anything to get on a card,” he said. “They tell you they can easily sell 200 tickets and then give you back 150 the day before the fight.”
Damian has to stay on top of things and get the best deals he can from the boxing venue and the fighters, down to the security officers and ambulance drivers on duty on fight night. (You need two ambulances ready on site, in case one fighter is sent to the hospital and the backup is needed.)
It’s the little things on a boxing card, no matter how big it is. Like always having a driver.
“The worst thing is a fighter or a manager sitting in an airport for two or three hours,” Damian said. “That’s horrible. I also make sure to give the driver the per diem for the fighters, so that when she takes them to the hotel, they have some money.”
Damian then has to make sure the fighters’ medicals check out, recommend local officials to reduce costs, and find a couple of ring-card girls.
“I just love everything that has to do with it,” said Damian, a former cook and current restaurant and building owner.
Damian is from Cotija, Mexico, and fell in love with the sport when a former luchador, or wrestler, would take kids and from the neighborhood and show them the ropes.
“To be honest with you, what I have since learned is that he didn’t really know what he was talking about,” Damian said. “But I started watching ‘Friday Night Fights’ with my dad, and I fell in love with the sport.”
This is the fifth card that Damian and Chargin have put on, in association with Golden Boy Promotions, at Cache Creek, which holds about 800 fans. The past two shows have been sold out, and Damian is excited about Cache Creek’s plans to build a 2,200-seat arena.
http://www.sfchronicle.com/sports/ar...witter-premium
“As a businessman, you don’t want to blow $30,000 in one night,” said Paco Damian, who has promoted fights in San Francisco, Redwood City, Salinas, Fairfield and Sacramento.
“But it can happen very easily. You spend $60,000 for a small show or $100,000 for a televised one. But on a small show, if things get away from you, you can make only $30,000 in ticket revenues. You’ll be out of business soon.”
Damian targets popular local fighters, and along with his longtime mentor/promoter Don Chargin, he’s putting on a card Saturday at Cache Creek Casino Resort in Brooks (Yolo County). Undefeated featherweight Tino Avila (20-0), from Fairfield, is fighting the 10-round headliner against Prosper Ankrah of Ghana (24-7).
As far as I am concerned, I will fight anyone who wants to fight me,” Avila said.
Damian and Chargin think Avila has a title shot in his future, and “you have a responsibility to develop him, and put someone across from him that he is going to learn something from fighting him.
“You don’t learn anything from a one- or two-round knockout.”
Ankrah has been in a lot of tough fights.
“I was hesitant at first, because I didn’t know anything about him,” Manuel Avila said. “But we trust Paco, we watched some video, and we are excited about the fight.”
As one might guess, finding a tough fighter from Ghana wasn’t easy for Damian.
“To me, as a matchmaker, it’s all about the styles of the fighters,” Damian said. “I am a huge fan of good fights, and that helps me as a promoter. That’s why I do research, and don’t listen to people who call me and say they have a fighter for one of my cards.
Thanks to 10-plus years of working for and with Chargin, Damian has a network of gym owners and managers throughout the country and in Mexico on whom he relies to “build an exciting card, top to bottom.”
There are six fights on the Saturday card, and the third bout will feature light heavyweight Ryan “Rhino” Bourland (9-1) from Vallejo in a six-round fight against Gilberto Rubio (6-2) from Tijuana.
Bourland, 28, has come a long way from “just walking forward and bullying people” in the ring, the fighter said. In fact, he is even teaching kids’ boxing classes in Benicia.
He won his last fight at Cache Creek in October, and there is a reason he is back on this card, besides his attacking style. Bourland meets his ticket-selling quota, a key part of local boxers’ responsibilities.
“They need you to sell tickets,” Bourland said. “That gets you back on cards. Man, I have to hustle. … Facebook, Instagram, at the gym, reminding people I have a fight coming up and they should open up their wallets.”
Damian gives fighters only small allotments of tickets at a time. Like almost every promoter, he has been burned by promises.
“Managers will say anything to get on a card,” he said. “They tell you they can easily sell 200 tickets and then give you back 150 the day before the fight.”
Damian has to stay on top of things and get the best deals he can from the boxing venue and the fighters, down to the security officers and ambulance drivers on duty on fight night. (You need two ambulances ready on site, in case one fighter is sent to the hospital and the backup is needed.)
It’s the little things on a boxing card, no matter how big it is. Like always having a driver.
“The worst thing is a fighter or a manager sitting in an airport for two or three hours,” Damian said. “That’s horrible. I also make sure to give the driver the per diem for the fighters, so that when she takes them to the hotel, they have some money.”
Damian then has to make sure the fighters’ medicals check out, recommend local officials to reduce costs, and find a couple of ring-card girls.
“I just love everything that has to do with it,” said Damian, a former cook and current restaurant and building owner.
Damian is from Cotija, Mexico, and fell in love with the sport when a former luchador, or wrestler, would take kids and from the neighborhood and show them the ropes.
“To be honest with you, what I have since learned is that he didn’t really know what he was talking about,” Damian said. “But I started watching ‘Friday Night Fights’ with my dad, and I fell in love with the sport.”
This is the fifth card that Damian and Chargin have put on, in association with Golden Boy Promotions, at Cache Creek, which holds about 800 fans. The past two shows have been sold out, and Damian is excited about Cache Creek’s plans to build a 2,200-seat arena.
http://www.sfchronicle.com/sports/ar...witter-premium
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