02-24-2015, 01:36 PM
Super 8 has made a point of putting on evenly matched fights where the winners are difficult to pick and upsets are frequent. You only need to look at the last 2 shows is evidence of that with the Aloua vs McCracken bout a prime example, also look at Meehan vs Cameron, pretty much each fight in the tournament was evenly contested.
We expect this show will be the same with young up and comers given the chance to perform against more experienced opponents and prove they belong at this level.
For those that do perform we've made a point of providing opportunities to further their career. (Soi is a good example of that, challenging McCracken for his titles and world ranking).
Although managing a fighter through the early stages of his career (as opposed to the Last Man Standing Tournament or Main event title match ups) does mean selecting the right opponents, our preference is for bouts where young prospects are giving away experience and fighting rugged opponents as opposed to tomato can's.
Hemi Ahio's bout against the then undefeated 4-0 Will Quarrie is a good example as is Willis Meehan's fight with Will, who is a Cameron and Tua sparring partner with a long amatuer background. Ahio on this show will ideally be fighting an opponent with more experience again - hopefully he continues to impress.
In other words a challenging fight where the opponent believes he can win and the prospect either learns through adversity or falls by the wayside. We believe more in the old school model of developing through well matched bouts where the prospect learns and develops rather than bowling over a bunch of easy beats. You may have the odd set back, but you well develop a better equipped fighter in the long term when they hit the world stage.
Regarding Reece, he's a great prospect who we were looking forward to seeing on the show, however in any commercial arrangement both parties need to agree to terms. When this doesn't happen, either party has the right to walk away. Those terms include, purses, future planning, opponent agreement and a shared vision of how a fighter's career moves forward.
If for example a fighter is asking for an extremely high purse and expecting an opponent which doesn't match the purse (remembering a fighter is only as valuable as the tickets he or the match up can sell and the PPV he can generate) then there will be an impasse as both parties have to agree on relative worth. Fighters, Managers and promoters need to be realistic and act in good faith.
Reece is a freelancer and remains welcome to fight on a SUPER 8 card, provided the two parties can agree on terms for one off bouts.
Regarding 50/50 match ups - your example of Berridge wasn't on a Televised Super 8 event, from memory they were tiny shows at the Auckland ABA some years ago.
You may well be right regarding the Lepikhin bout, it wasn't hard to find out information about him and he was in camp for 6 weeks in the US prior to the bout, so it wasn't the right fight for Berridge at that stage of his career. But each promoter and fighter / trainer has to do their research and agree to terms which I imagine was done in this bout. And as we were not the promoters its not really our place to speculate.
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On charity bouts, with boxing being a niche sport in NZ and only having 4 million or so people, commercially these make some sense to deliver boxing to a more mainstream audience. In turn that raises the profile for boxing and gives more opportunities for professionals to ply their trade on televised cards and in turn grow their career and profile. It's a far better option than fighting for $100 a round in a pub or taking short notice fights against more experience opponents in australia.
Being pragmatic about it - it's a better alternative than what NZ has had on offer previously. There are more opportunities than ever before with two strong promoters putting on large scale shows.
Regarding Betham vs Hollioake - - Hollioake called Betham out, he's had 8 MMA bouts with 7 wins and a draw and 3 pro boxing bouts for two wins, so compared to Monty's previous bout it's a far better match up. Monty's clearly the favorite, but Hollioake can bang and boxes well, he's also not going to freeze up when he gets hit for the first time with 10 oz gloves, so it should be an entertaining bout.
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We are happy to work with local promoters as we are doing in Christchurch with Justin Wallace. I am happy to take a call from any promoter or fighter. +61421001766
We expect this show will be the same with young up and comers given the chance to perform against more experienced opponents and prove they belong at this level.
For those that do perform we've made a point of providing opportunities to further their career. (Soi is a good example of that, challenging McCracken for his titles and world ranking).
Although managing a fighter through the early stages of his career (as opposed to the Last Man Standing Tournament or Main event title match ups) does mean selecting the right opponents, our preference is for bouts where young prospects are giving away experience and fighting rugged opponents as opposed to tomato can's.
Hemi Ahio's bout against the then undefeated 4-0 Will Quarrie is a good example as is Willis Meehan's fight with Will, who is a Cameron and Tua sparring partner with a long amatuer background. Ahio on this show will ideally be fighting an opponent with more experience again - hopefully he continues to impress.
In other words a challenging fight where the opponent believes he can win and the prospect either learns through adversity or falls by the wayside. We believe more in the old school model of developing through well matched bouts where the prospect learns and develops rather than bowling over a bunch of easy beats. You may have the odd set back, but you well develop a better equipped fighter in the long term when they hit the world stage.
Regarding Reece, he's a great prospect who we were looking forward to seeing on the show, however in any commercial arrangement both parties need to agree to terms. When this doesn't happen, either party has the right to walk away. Those terms include, purses, future planning, opponent agreement and a shared vision of how a fighter's career moves forward.
If for example a fighter is asking for an extremely high purse and expecting an opponent which doesn't match the purse (remembering a fighter is only as valuable as the tickets he or the match up can sell and the PPV he can generate) then there will be an impasse as both parties have to agree on relative worth. Fighters, Managers and promoters need to be realistic and act in good faith.
Reece is a freelancer and remains welcome to fight on a SUPER 8 card, provided the two parties can agree on terms for one off bouts.
Regarding 50/50 match ups - your example of Berridge wasn't on a Televised Super 8 event, from memory they were tiny shows at the Auckland ABA some years ago.
You may well be right regarding the Lepikhin bout, it wasn't hard to find out information about him and he was in camp for 6 weeks in the US prior to the bout, so it wasn't the right fight for Berridge at that stage of his career. But each promoter and fighter / trainer has to do their research and agree to terms which I imagine was done in this bout. And as we were not the promoters its not really our place to speculate.
===
On charity bouts, with boxing being a niche sport in NZ and only having 4 million or so people, commercially these make some sense to deliver boxing to a more mainstream audience. In turn that raises the profile for boxing and gives more opportunities for professionals to ply their trade on televised cards and in turn grow their career and profile. It's a far better option than fighting for $100 a round in a pub or taking short notice fights against more experience opponents in australia.
Being pragmatic about it - it's a better alternative than what NZ has had on offer previously. There are more opportunities than ever before with two strong promoters putting on large scale shows.
Regarding Betham vs Hollioake - - Hollioake called Betham out, he's had 8 MMA bouts with 7 wins and a draw and 3 pro boxing bouts for two wins, so compared to Monty's previous bout it's a far better match up. Monty's clearly the favorite, but Hollioake can bang and boxes well, he's also not going to freeze up when he gets hit for the first time with 10 oz gloves, so it should be an entertaining bout.
===
We are happy to work with local promoters as we are doing in Christchurch with Justin Wallace. I am happy to take a call from any promoter or fighter. +61421001766