What a tangled web! How does boxing work in Australia or anywhere for that matter? There is no definitive answer, there are no wrongs or rights and nothing is clear cut.

So here I go and I'm going to try and explain Professional Boxing and how it works or doesn't work.

Australia and especially Victoria is riding a high at the moment with the amount of promotions being held. The tricky thing is that there are fewer Professional boxers. The active Professional boxing promoters in Melbourne are Brian Amatruder who holds around 3 shows per year at the docklands, Louie Karika who holds shows at various venues in the Northen Suburbs roughly 4 times a year, Peter Maniatis who holds 3 shows a year at the Malvern Town Hall, Keith Ellis, who has put on around 2 to 3 shows in the Sunshine area recently (but has been putting shows on and off over the years) and lastly but not least, myself  through Fighter Factory Promotions, holding 5 to 6 shows per year, mainly at Ferntree Gully's Knox Netball Centre -- known as "Fort Knox" for the Fight Nights-- in Eastern Suburbs of Melbourne. There has been a new promoter named Fighting Bulls Promotions and has put on a show at the Darebin Sports and Leisure Centre, with an upcoming show on December the 6th.

When the subject of boxing and boxing promotions comes up in general conversations with your average layperson, a question that always comes up is "Why doesn't the promoters all work with each other?" This is where its simple but complicated. Every promoter in Melbourne and for that matter, Australia has their boxer(s) that they are trying to promote. Each promoter wants the best for the one or two boxers that they're looking after, so why would they work with another promoter who has different ideas with the managing of their fighter. So in other words, although in a perfect world it would be easier all 'round to work with each other, realistically it never works because when you do the sums there is money to be made, but it isn't enough for the amount of trouble you have to go through for it.

What is common is that a fighter that has a bit of a name will fight on a promoter's card and get paid 'X' amount, but after a while that fighter with his people will try and go out on their own and do their own show. This is usually so that they can make more money from each promotion as well as make (or at least try to make) their own mark in boxing. Who can blame them, as the new promoter is just looking out for his friend or protege's interest. Whether or not the promoter makes money is like rolling dice and seeing what number comes up and if indeed they make money, the trick is to continually repeat this success, with each subsequent promotion being a new one starting from scratch.

As stated before there are fewer Professional boxers and every promotion has to obviously have boxers and opponents which is the reason a promoter's airline bill gets bigger. By having to bring in boxers either from Interstate, or overseas.
What also gets quite expensive is that there are so many Regional titles going around currently, which all have their sanctioning fees and we spend the money in the hope that it gets our fighters a crack at the big time.

It's a tough game both inside and outside the ring and most promoters go to alot of work and effort to promote shows and their boxers without financial rewards.

I personally take my hat off to anyone who has been in the sport for a long time promoting, because they aren't in it for the money and in different times have kept the sport alive which also keeps fighters' dreams alive.
There have been many promoters coming and going but the longest serving promoter who has been putting shows for as long as I was boxing is Keith Ellis. He definitely puts the shows on to give young fighters a chance. The only other promoter that has continued to put on more than a handful of shows before having a short disappearance is Peter Maniatis. Then there is my Fighter Factory Promotions which will be having our 49th show at Fort Knox on November 28th and our big 50th show on the 27th of February, 2009 at the same venue.

Well, there you have it, a quick summary of boxing and its promoters in Victoria. Hopefully I helped it to be a little clearer but boxing promotions are plentiful at the moment, and maybe the perception and image of boxing needs to be worked on a little, but we all continue to plod on.