Small hall boxing’s been cursed by social media - Hull

Anthony Hull with his fighter, former Midlands champ Ishmael Ellis

ANTHONY Hull, driving force behind Stirchley’s busy D&A gym, has a name for the pains that small hall boxing suffers from. Social media.

It has become a curse says the 40-year-old trainer whose stable of fighters include Tyler Christopher, Elliott Sowe, Sam Pikire and Ishmael Ellis.

In an age when a boxer’s ability to sell tickets is of paramount importance, it has turned too many into ineffective keyboard salesman, insists Hull.

But he also believes house fighters are under too much pressure to flog tickets: “I want my fighters concentrating on training and fighting, not selling tickets. It’s getting beyond a joke.”

Light-middle Tyler Christopher, who travelled to Birmingham from Bermuda to pursue a boxing career, has seen his progress slowed by the lack of a local following. He’s unbeaten and talented, but no box office draw.

“He sells 30 to 40 tickets,” said Hull. “We did put him in for a title fight in October, but that got put back. I’ve told him, we may have to take some chances in the ring because keeping ready all the time is just going to burn you out.”

Footage of contests on facebook or YouTube – some live, some posted by fans only minutes after the event – have hit attendances hard, he pointed out.

And that is happening as the cost of staging shows steadily increase.

“Social media!” declared Hull, a former amateur boxer and mixed martial artist. “There’s nothing social about it at all.”

A new approach is desperately needed by all involved in the grass-roots game. The West Midlands’ promoters need to combine their resources and jointly organise shows.

“The game is not healthy at all,” Hull said. “A fighter has to sell tickets and, in my day, you did that by putting up a poster in a chippie, picking up the phone or stepping out and networking, meeting people.

“Today, you have boxers who put up one post on social media and expect that to work. They’re not doing it face to face, they’re not pushing it. We had to do that because there was no social media.

“There are (social media) clips of boxers doing padwork and it makes no difference whatsoever. Half the people who click on to them are just being nosey, they’re not going to buy a ticket. A fighter has to be a face in the community.

Hull…”nothing social about social media”

“I put on (unlicenced) shows at the Tower Ballroom and we had 3,000 people. That was through doing things the old-fashioned way.

“Today, promoters are spending money on shows with special effects, but the fighters aren’t pushing them enough.

“Too many people are streaming fights and putting them on Facebook. If that’s happening, why attend a show?

Sweeping changes have to be made if small hall boxing is to flourish.

“Say you have 15 promoters in the West Midlands,” said Hull. “Why not get them to work together for a super-show? That’s what I’d do.

“I believe in trying to work with everybody, I don’t talk back to people. If everyone stops the ego and works together we can do so much better.”

He also thinks more should be done to lure businesses into backing the sport. To that end, Hull would like to see shows staged that are primarily events where firms advertise their products, with boxing bouts in the background: business seminars with blood and bruises, if you like.

The boxing would play second fiddle to networking between companies. “Boxing in the background while companies advertise their company,” he explained.

Local firms DO give local boxers vital financial help through sponsorship, but those offers of support are not always channelled wisely, said Hull. “If I had a sponsor, I’d say, ‘please pay for my training, but can you also sell 20 tickets’.”

Hull soldiers on, but admits: “A lot of the time I do think, ‘what’s the point?’