Moving into the promotion and management side of boxing, Kieran Farrell has signed fighters up and put on a number shows aiming for a big 2018.
With his new approach in question, Farrell addressed his experience as a promoter in an exclusive interview with WBN:
“Last year was my first solid year, I put my foot in the water 2016 and put three shows together when I got licensed and it went well, I lost on one show and made on two shows and like I say it felt like we knew what we were doing,” Farrell told World Boxing News.
“Obviously signing more and more fighters, we were just throwing shows together left right and centre.”
The eight shows that Farrell put on in 2017 appeared to be too many.
“To be honest, I put too many out there, I made really good money on a couple of them but then I lost it all but I lost more than I gained.
“I’m a family man, this is the only business I have, my promotions, my gym, my management – that is my business, so its got to work for me.
“Other promoters have got big businesses behind them and money behind them where I don’t have anything like that.
“I’m plain and simple, Kieran Farrell from Heywood, done my boxing career and I’ve gone into boxing management, promotions and training fighters and its got to work for me.”
Farrell revealed where he got his influence to change his shows from, by adding: “This year we had a meeting with one of my sponsors and a really good influence on my life, he’s always been there and he goes ‘why don’t you go for quality rather than quantity’.
“That’s exactly what I was thinking, I probably just needed someone to say it to me as well, we’re going to do five or six shows this year. There’s no other way around it not working.”
Regarding his shows, Farrell explained the glamour of boxing that he wants to give to his fighters.
“I don’t just want to put on a small hall show on, I want to give the fighters all the razzmatazz of a big show, public workouts, social media workouts, interviews I want all of that.
“The thing is I know how important it is for a fighter’s name to be out there, if you keep reading about a fighter and the name keeps coming up then them people have a look.”
Social media has introduced people to the sport of boxing and gets conversations started, Farrell reflected on the importance of incorporating the two.
“I think its so important especially with social media these days being so big. That’s what we’re trying to do, we put an announcement video up and within six days we got over 5,000 views on social media.
“That in itself goes to show how if 1 in every 100 people bought a ticket – we would have sold 50 tickets there.”
Farrell also expressed his excitement for the future as he looks to explore new and different techniques.
“I’m trying to do different things as a promoter but I want to get my lads names out there and make them into something.
“It’s something you’ve got to do, they’re out there working hard in the gym but its changed now as a promoter because I never had any of this when I was boxing.”
During one part of his career, Farrell signed with Dave Coldwell promotions and finds inspiration from his former mentor’s past promotional efforts:
“Dave Coldwell when he started promoting me I was like 12/13 fights in and he got me an area title shot and the fight with Crolla, I was buzzing and I think when Dave did the promoting; he really did go for it like I am trying to go for it.
“He had the Coldwell TV app, some big sponsorships on board and put some big fights together and that’s what I want to do, that’s the way I see it going just like Dave Coldwell did and look at him now, he’s doing well!”
Chandler Waller is a staff writer for World Boxing News. Follow Chandler on Twitter @ChandlerWaller
