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So You Want To Be A Fight Promoter? Learn From The Best At The Inaugural “Fight Promoter University”
In the world of boxing, anyone with ambition and some money can – at least on paper – become a promoter. But without the proper know-how, these fledgling promoters more often than not end up with empty halls, uncompetitive fights, and enough red ink to supply a small nation.
Long time Southern California boxing promoter Roy Englebrecht, one of most successful practitioners in the sport, saw this happening with increasing frequency, and it was not only hurting the individual promoters, but the sport itself. So in an unprecedented move, he decided to form FIGHT PROMOTER UNIVERSITY, an intensive three-day course, starting on February 22nd in Irvine, California, and featuring 15 guest speakers, where upon completion of their studies at FPU, current and future fight promoters will earn their MBA degree.
“Lawyers go to law school, umpires go to umpires school, Doctors go to medical school, so doesn’t it make sense that fight promoters should go to promoters school?” asked Englebrecht. “Now they can.” “And with the tremendous growth that both boxing and mixed martial arts are experiencing, FPU will help to insure these new boxing and MMA promoters have the success they desire.”
For the first time in the history of combative sports, anyone who has very dreamed of being the next Don King or Bob Arum will finally have a place to go to learn the craft of fight promotions. This MBA (Master of Boxing Administration) certificate that students will earn won’t replace an MBA from Harvard, but will go a long ways in insuring that the sports of boxing, mixed martial arts and kickboxing, will now have qualified persons promoting these sports, insuring that they will have every opportunity to be successful, and not lose tens of thousands of dollars as so many other inexperienced fight promoters have done in the past.
And who better to be the founder of the first ever Fight Promoter University than Roy Englebrecht. All Englebrecht has done in his 20 plus years in boxing is own and promote one of the most successful club shows in boxing history. His “Battle In The Ballroom’ series at the Irvine Marriott in Southern California, which begins its 22nd straight year in 2006, is the longest running boxing series at one location in the sport’s history. The “Battle In The Ballroom’, also nicknamed “The Biggest Little Boxing Show in America” and “Yuppie Boxing”, has never lost money on any show in its 21 years, and in 2005 sold out every one its six shows in the 1,410 seat Grand Ballroom. What makes this success story even more remarkable is that it has been accomplished without television – a concept unheard of in today’s boxing business. Englebrecht also developed the Fight Night concept seven years ago, which has become a success at San Jose’s HP Pavilion, Sacramento’s ARCO Arena, and at the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim.
And if that isn’t enough to establish Englebrecht’s credibility, the accomplishment that he is most proud of, and one that no one else in boxing has ever done before, is selling his boxing promotions company not once, but twice. While many boxing promoters are lucky to even stay in business for more than a few shows or years, Englebrecht has made his boxing business such a successful model that when Oscar De La Hoya decided to get into the boxing promotions business in 2001, he acquired Roy Englebrecht Promotions and formed Golden Boy Promotions, giving Englebrecht a three year contract to serve as it’s COO and teach the Golden Boy staff the boxing promotions business.
“Boxing has been very good to me and my family,” stated Englebrecht, “and I would be remiss if I didn’t want to give something back to the sport. I want everyone to experience the success that I have had, and Fight Promoter University is that first step. Pretty much everything that 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. I even hope a number of former boxers and MMA fighters, who are thinking about making the transition from fighting to promoting, take advantage of this opportunity to learn the business.”
The inaugural session of Fight Promoter University will kick off on Wednesday morning, February 22nd in Southern California, with a curriculum that will touch on nearly every aspect of the fight promotions business – from matchmaking to venue leases, from ring announcing to between fight promotions, from database marketing to season seat pricing, from budgeting a show to writing a show pro forma, and from working with State Boxing Commissions to working with casinos. The curriculum that will be taught by the FPU guest speakers will be completely compatible with all combative sports…boxing, mixed martial arts, K-1, and kickboxing.
The extensive three-day course will feature fifteen guest speakers from the fight industry, including Nevada Boxing Czar Marc Ratner, who will deliver the Keynote Address at the Opening Session, Top Rank’s head matchmaker Bruce Trampler, “The First Lady of Boxing” Jackie Kallen, to Hall of Fame promoter Bob Arum who has been invited to deliver the Commencement Address at the graduation ceremony.
What makes this first Fight Promoter University even more unique, is that attendees will also get a chance to put what they are learning in the classroom and put it into action in a fight arena, as FPU will be held in conjunction with the February 23rd Irvine Marriott Battle In The Ballroom pro boxing show. FPU attendees will actually get to learn, observe, and practice how a boxing show is setup and run, and will even get hands-on experience working as ushers, ticket sellers, ticket takers, Ring Card Girl attendants, glove men, and locker room supervisors.
This is not the first sports related school that Englebrecht has started. In 1985 he founded Sportscaster Camps of America, and over the past 21 years has trained nearly 2,300 future sportscasters, including Entertainment Tonight’s Marc Steines, ESPN’s Heather Rowe and Rick Waltz, ABC’s David Norrie, and FSN’s Mike Lamb and Shireen Saski, among others.
The tuition cost for attending Fight Promoter University to be held at the Irvine Marriott, in Irvine, California, will be $1,995, and this fee will cover all instruction, a FPU Notebook, all meals, FPU credential, hotel parking, FPU Golf Shirt, and the Fight Promoter University MBA Certificate of Graduation. Interested persons can learn more about FPU and register online, at www.fightpromoteruniversity.com. For further questions, please contact Roy Englebrecht at 949-760-3131 or email him at boxing77@aol.com.
