Written by Gillian Armstrong
2006-03-03

The inaugural session of Fight Promoter University took place this past week at the Irvine Marriott in Irvine, California. Run by Southern California boxing promoter Roy Englebrecht, the course, the first of its kind, was created to teach would be fight promoters the basics of the business.

Roy Englebrecht has been a club fight promoter in Southern California for over 20 years. His “Battle in the Ballroom” fight show is the longest running boxing series at one location in the sport’s history. His philosophy is that he wants to teach everything he has learned in his career to new promoters who are interested in starting their own shows across the United States and Canada.

Says Englebrecht, “Pretty much everything I have learned and experienced over the past 21 years will be presented over this three day course, because I don’t want current and future fight promoters to continue to make the mistakes so many people have made in the past” And he delivered on this promise. The course covered everything. Starting with the basic costs of putting on a fight, and ending with a lecture he called “selling the sizzle”; Englebrecht divided the course into one hour segments, each with its own expert guest speaker.

The speakers were big names in the boxing world. Mark Ratner, the Executive Director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission was the keynote speaker. As one of the most reputable officials in the business, in charge of the biggest boxing market in the country, he gave the class what he called a “promoter’s checklist” which provided a general overview of every detail you would need to put on a fight. He was a bit rushed, as he had to fly back to Las Vegas for the Vargas – Mosely weigh in but was nonetheless an impressive presence.

He was followed by Executives from the HP Pavilion, a large venue in San Jose, California who spoke on the topics of marketing, ticketing and booking for large venues.

Steve Springer, the featured boxing writer for the Los Angeles Times and Fred Sternburg, one of boxing’s premier publicists, did a dual lecture on publicity and sports writing in the boxing world which was highly entertaining. Note to readers: it really is all about creating the buzz, Sternburg was the one responsible for the recent buzz created around the supposed “Manila Ice” punch that was Manny Pacquiao’s secret weapon for his first fight with Eric Morales. Turns out, it was all a publicity stunt. Even HBO’s Larry Merchant believed it, according to Sternburg. Jackie Kallen, the first female boxing manager, and a trailblazer for women in the sport, was one of the highlights of the course. Her topic, along with Tom Loeffler of K2 Promotions (the Klitschko Brothers promotional company) was the relationship between managers and promoters. Speaking frankly on the challenges of being a manager, she talked about taking fighters from club fights to the arenas of Las Vegas, and how, as a manager, you almost need a degree in psychology. She stressed the importance of working together in the business, saying that she wished she had had someone to learn from when she was starting out. It was interesting to note that she had a young prospect in the “Battle in the Ballroom” event the same night.

Englebrecht also covered the brave new world of promoting mixed martial arts, which was recently legalized in California. Turi Altavilla, the VP Production of Pride, lectured passionately on the merits of the cage versus the ring, which had the MMA enthusiasts buzzing. On a more serious note, Armando Garcia, an Executive Officer of the California State Athletic Commission, shared his concerns about the current unorganized and unregulated state of the sport.

The most high profile speaker in my opinion was Bruce Trampler, the head matchmaker for Top Rank, who described his job as “… Enticing a series of people to agree to hit each other on the head on a certain night for a certain amount of money.” Trampler exudes the aura of a perfect boxing insider. He has been in the business for over 30 years and you get the sense that he has been a part of boxing history on more than one occasion. He thrilled the class with behind the scenes observations and anecdotes about some of the world-class fighters that Top Rank has promoted over the years, including some speculation on the future of the best pound for pound fighter in world right now, Floyd Mayweather Jr.

And then there was the commencement speaker, whose identity was kept a secret until the last minute, an example of the Englebrecht “sizzle”. It turned out to be Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini. He seemed thrilled to be at the podium as the guest of honour, and was animated as he gave this advice to the first graduating class. “If you came here with any common sense, you will lose it quickly.” Good advice as far as I can tell for someone trying to get into the crazy, convoluted and complicated world of boxing. The genius of the course (for both the students and Englebrecht, as it turned out) was that the second day of the course was opening night of the “Battle in the Ballroom” season. In addition to working at the weigh-in the previous night, students were required to work at the event as ushers, ring card girl attendants (which turned out to be a big hit with the men in the class), glove men, and accompanying the fighters on their ring walks. By doing that, Englebrecht gave us all a sense of why his events are so successful. We saw what it takes to organize and execute a live professional club show.

He also saved a lot of money on labour.

The class was made up of 33 people from the United States and Canada. They were a varied bunch, ranging from a husband and wife team from West Virginia who already had a successful promotions company, to a college student studying sports management, to a former assistant trainer for Winky Wright, to a representative for Manny Pacquiao’s new promotional company who was sent down by Pacman to learn the ropes. The thing that everyone had in common, regardless of background or experience, was an incredible dedication to and enthusiasm for the fight game, whether it was boxing or mixed martial arts.

There were two Canadians in the course. We both remarked on the fact that some of the issues specific to Canada weren’t really addressed, as the course caters to the American market. The details on State Athletic Commissions and requirements for physicals, insurance, doctors, referees, immigration and the like were not specifically outlined for Canada.

What the course did do was give everyone a true helping of that American can-do attitude. Everyone who graduated (and we all passed) really believed that anything was possible. In fact, Englebrecht stressed the importance of the dream. That was number one on his 10 Steps to Live By list, which kicked off the curriculum. Number two was do not be talked out of it, and number three was believe in your dream. You’ll have to take the course to get the other seven, but I will assure you that Englebrecht really embodied the passion that boxing brings out in people. He had more energy than a field full of California windmills, there were times when I actually thought he might take off flying. Canadians need a little more of his pragmatic, glass half full type of talk. It might help make boxing the vibrant, important thrilling sport that it deserves to be in this county.