ONE of the most obscure jobs I did while working as a world heavyweight champion's media manager was to coach the boxer in question for Millwall FC starting at the age of 11 before appearing on the now defunct Sky Sports programme. Soccer AM in 2010.
Along with the starting 11 players, player names and positions, I will also give them the name of the manager, the results of the last three games, remind them of their place in the league and what could be achieved in that season. It is then that we can both be sure that during the few minutes of a program devoted to discussing football, not fighting, the boxer's response will not be embarrassing or suggest that he does not really support Millwall, or, for that matter, care about football at all.
It was, you see, like most things in high-level sports, an exercise in deception and trickery. Take it off and, along with the football club, you have all the power to get your nation and make money, financially, from the built-in fans who are ready to follow you up and down the country to watch you fight. Make it wrong, however, which was always dangerous when you appeared Soccer AM with complete knowledge of football, and you may find yourself a joke or, worse, called a charlatan; snake oil salesman.
As it turned out, the presenters' sensitivity and foresight ensured that, for this boxer, it was never really a problem. Time after time, in fact, the boxer appeared on the show and announced that he was a Millwall fan all the while repeating the name “Neil Harris” as if it was not the name of a midfielder but a man who had kidnapped his child. He survived, in other words, he became very famous in the show. There were even Millwall fans from time to time in his battles, although nowhere near enough to justify their presence.
Others, who are more sincere, are more successful. Ricky Hatton, for example, had a lot of Manchester City fans who followed him in Las Vegas and recently we saw the box of cruiserweight Chris Billam-Smith and he won at the home of his beloved AFC Bournemouth, who he supported since he was a boy. Indeed, because of that relationship, Billam-Smith has become one of the amazing success stories in British boxing, his rise is reminiscent of a time when real ticket sellers were not just a common place but also products of the local community and often connected in some way. at the nearest football club.
Billam-Smith's next fight, by the way, will once again see the ring placed in the middle of a football pitch, although this time in south London rather than the south coast. Meanwhile, his opponent will be Richard Riakporhe, a man from south London, who will be fighting for Billam-Smith's WBO cruiserweight belt at Selhurst Park and he is doing this as a fan of Crystal Palace. He, like Billam-Smith, is human the original fan, too, you see, and when you talk about the Palace it doesn't need to be informed. If you doubt it, consider the response Riakporhe gave when, on Sky Sports this week, he was asked to name two Palace players who he felt would be the best boxers. His answer: “Joachim Andersen or Daniel Muñoz.” Suffice it to say, this was the only answer a true Palace fan could give and Billam-Smith, likewise, is a man whose love for Bournemouth not only started his boxing career but sometimes seems stronger than his love for boxing.
Riakporhe (L) and Billam-Smith (R) at work five years ago (Dan Istitene/Getty Images)
This, then, is not a trick done in Riakporhe and Billam-Smith. Their love for football is instead genuine and something they, like boxers, are defined by at this stage in their careers. For Billam-Smith, his biggest night came home, when he won his world title at his favorite football ground, and in Riakporhe the sound of “Glad All Over” could be heard more than one of his stroke wins and, on June 15, he won. he gets the chance to win the world title in front of the Palace fans at Selhurst Park.
Without this support, the two cruiserweights may find it very difficult to (a) find fights and (b) find consistency in an unfamiliar division. But that's the thing about football discrimination: not only is it different, but if done right, it can give boxers a kind of credibility they don't get in their sport.
Only the wise see this. Others, in all their ambition and arrogance, aim too high and too wide and always fail. They directed the world without focusing on the club, or the community, thinking that the only way to succeed is to be known to the largest number of people possible.
However, this is where they go wrong. Many, in fact, have confused numbers on social media with numbers on the gate, or the number of subscribers or pay per view purchases, and now they have trouble understanding why these two do not match. But here's the reason: in a lawless world, where many things are free if you know where to look, you shouldn't rely too much on getting the profit of a war, or a fighter, but buy from your audience their loyalty, their trust. , and, finally, their generosity.
Some boxers, it's true, will go on social media day after day trying to make a name for themselves and their fights and yet, come fight night, you see them in the ring, empty seats. Why? Because, although these boxers have cultivated a certain kind of audience, the audience they have cultivated is one that never ends on the Internet; that is, the kind who might watch the fight but do so at home, on laptops or phones, via illegal streaming. Choose to mix with that kind of crowd and that's the price you'll pay in the end. On the other hand, touch the grass, as they say, and set foot in the real world and there is a very high chance that your personality – the truth personality – actually connecting with real, living, breathing people who may, you never know, actually part with real money to watch you fight. It even happens that one day you find yourself walking on the grass of a football field surrounded by stands full of fans, and at that moment you know you have scored a goal.
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