BOXING: In Search of the Domestic Promoter

In recent years there have finally been some positive developments in the development of sports in Ukraine. The target-oriented program, Physical Education Makes a Healthy Nation, approved by the President of Ukraine, and the most recent laws create a solid legislative basis for the progress of mass athletics, the foundation of success in big-time sports. This, however, raises a question as old as the hills: how will we implement what has been drawn up? The Soviet-period system of athletic training no longer meets contemporary requirements. What, among other things, hampers progress in this sphere is the shortage of international experience, vivid testimony to which is the current situation in Ukrainian professional boxing.

The assessment of achievements in this sport by the nation’s media which extol the “world- class” matches held in Ukraine and the performance of our athletes abroad is, to put it mildly, overstated. No doubt, the successes of the Klychko brothers have raised the image of our professional boxing, but if you make a sober assessment of the overall picture, you will see that Ukrainian boxing is still beset with many problems.

Why do our best boxers sooner or later go to foreign boxing organizations and clubs? Why, for example, can we not organize and conduct really spectacular bouts with the participation of the world boxing stars, although we are fully capable of doing so? Ukraine was always a boxing country even in the times when professional boxing did not exist here. Suffice it to recall such world-famous names as Savchenko, Karpov, Klimanov, Kachanovsky, Yahubkin, Lukstin, Zasypko, and many, many others.

We asked Andriy Stiehantsov, president of the Union of Professional Boxing of Ukraine, a prominent boxing promoter who has worked not only in Ukraine but also abroad, to comment on the general state of affairs in this sport. His own experience of a boxing promoter and a fresh look at the professional boxing life in Ukraine deserve serious attention. The expert considers that the cause of the crisis, especially felt on the professional level of this sport, should be sought in the imperfect system of its organization.

“Nowhere in today’s world do federations conduct matches of professional boxers. In Ukraine, this is common, although this practice runs counter to the generally accepted world rules,” says he. “What underlies the crisis in Ukrainian professional boxing is the complete absence of full-time promoters, i.e., people in charge of organizing bouts. This scarcity or, to be more exact, undesirability of them for some figures in Ukraine can only be explained by the monopolization of professional boxing. There are about ten hyped boxers today, but where are other fighters, coaches, promoters, managers, and matchmakers?

It would be erroneous to claim that nothing is happening in the sphere of Ukrainian boxing. The past few years have seen a series of fights, but only in the non-prestigious versions of IBA, IBO, IBC, and WBF. Kyiv even hosted a European IBF congress. But all this is only window dressing, not only useless but even harmful for boxing. Let us recall that, while the European IBF congress was being held in Kyiv, IBF itself was plagued with a long series of scandalous accusations of corruption and rating-list trading, for which the president of that organization, Robert Lee, was forced out of office. And Benedetto Montela, IBF representative in Europe, who presided over at that congress, is, objectively, a figure without any weight in boxing world. Influential boxing federations also ignored the congress. Conversely, some figures boldly announced this was an event to be proud of because it confirms this country’s high standing and importance in the boxing world. In reality, this farce only demonstrated our provincialism and non-professionalism once again.”

Mr. Stiehantsov believes the wheel of the world system of professional boxing is rotating at the expense of the television companies which contract professional boxing fights, promoters who directly organize the fights, and federations which control refereeing, in-fight medical care, determine the ranking of athletes, and so on, i.e., are in charge of the “sports,” not commercial, part of fights.

Unfortunately, the absence of a stratum of promoters or, to be more exact, the incomplete organic structure of professional boxing, makes our country unattractive in the sphere of this sport. Moreover, unlike other countries, Ukraine does not have a unified boxing organization. There are several professional boxing federations which consider themselves the best one and, to confirm this, compete in organizing supposedly world-class fights. All this raises still more mistrust in the “civilized” boxing world.

“In order to change the professional boxing situation even a little, one must take a number of concrete steps: first, to pay far more attention to conducting regional rating-list bouts which do not need large capital investments. Only when these bouts become of the required quality will we be able to hold fights of a higher level. Secondly, to work constantly to raise the level of Ukrainian championship fights, to popularize this title instead of hyping up some dubious world- class bouts. We should not repeat the situation in kick boxing, where they ‘minted’ hundreds of ‘champions of the world and Europe’ (although there also are some true professional fighters among them). Thirdly, we should invest money only in international and world-level fights if they bring tangible benefit to Ukrainian sports and athletes. Only after this can we expect the development of normal boxing promotion, and only this will call forth a large number of boxers, managers, promoters, and matchmakers. A proper system would begin to crystallize, with its own infrastructure, involving thousands of specialists now unable to find application for their skills. All this would raise the quality and competitiveness of Ukrainian boxing.

“Besides, one must have agreements along with clear and transparent relationships with the amateur association in order to forestall any kinds of conflicts and misunderstandings, and pursue, by concerted effort, an effective policy of promoting boxing in Ukraine.”

After working abroad for quite some time, Mr. Stiehantsov returned to Ukraine and is now organizing the nation’s first congress to unify all the professional boxing organizations in Ukraine and work out a common strategy and tactics for more coherent action to promote the further development of not only professional boxing but Ukrainian boxing in general.