Boxing promoters who fail to organise tournaments are living on borrowed time if the words of a forthright Gayton McKenzie, the Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture, are to be believed.
Addressing the now-concluded two-day boxing convention at the East London International Convention Centre (ICC) on Friday, McKenzie made it clear that those who are in possession of a promoter’s licences will lose them if they don’t act fast.
“Some of you promoters are going to lose licences. Don’t blame the staff, blame the minister because you are a promoter in name, raising funds on behalf of boxers and you don’t tell them that you are getting money,” McKenzie said.
“You’ve never staged a fight. I want a clause to be very clear that says any promoter if you don’t put up two fights at the end of the year, you can’t be a promoter. These changes are going to come. If the fighter fights, the trainer gets paid, the promoter gets paid.”
And McKenzie concluded: “If I get reshuffled, I will become a promoter, I’m telling you. I have seen an opportunity. I want to promote you promoters who can’t promote.”
It is an open secret that some promoters end up not staging tournaments in a financial year while others wait for the government grant, which helps them stage shows. – Monwabisi Jimlongo
