A farm at it?s height of cultivation is a truly beautiful thing. At an apple orchard, the trees are densely covered with perfectly matured and ripened fruits. It is a time in a farmer?s life when he actually gets to reap the rewards of his back breaking work throughout the year (think May 6). As he cultivates his fruits to sell to the public, he focuses on devising a strategy to obtain the most amount of money for each bushel of apples. He comes up with a marketing plan that allows him to sell his bushels for four times the amount he?s been receiving in recent years.
The farmer is now rejoicing and concocting ways to further increase his income based on his already successful marketing plan. The only problem is that the farmer?s focus which was once based on guaranteeing his customers that they were receiving the best apples around for the lowest possible price, is now based on maximizing his own profit regardless of customer loyalty, retention, and sustainability. Several months pass by as the farmer spends weeks upon weeks devising more elaborate and complex marketing strategies. All the while he?s forgetting that in order to produce next year?s crop, the preparation needs to take place well ahead of time in terms of the field rotations and seeding.
Now the farmer is stuck with a mult-million dollar marketing scheme but without the crops to implement that plan.
Are you still with me?
This year has undoubtedly been a financially lucrative one for Golden Boy Promotions. With the blockbuster that was De la Hoya-Mayweather, it pretty much solidified the profitability of the company for 2007. While this year is sure to end with a strong finish for the young promotional firm, I begin to think out loud about the future. When I say ?future?, I?m referring to ten or even twenty years down the road.
The starting place for all boxers is the gym. Without boxing gyms and more importantly accessible and affordable boxing gyms, there can be no start for a fighter just as a successful farms needs special preparation for their seeds to sprout. Sure there are thousands of people with their garage setups involving punching bags, speed bags, and maybe even a makeshift ring. Unfortunately there is just no substitute for a boxing sanctuary where flaws will be corrected with willing sparring partners to test those corrections out on.
The idea that I propose has to do with creating a non-profit division of Golden Boy Promotions that sets up world-class boxing gyms in major cities throughout the United States. This would not only aid GBP in cultivating talent thoughout the states but also giving the future generation?s De la Hoya?s and Dawson?s an outlet to express their fistic desires.
As it is right now, major metropolitan cities are severely lacking when it comes to reputable boxing gyms. My colleague Ricardo Lois, who?s based out of the Los Angeles area, works with youths and recently divulged a promising young talent that wanted to try his hand at the sweet science.
Ricardo stated, ?There weren?t any boxing gyms around his area for me to refer him to. There was no way that this young kid could get his parents to drive him 30 to 45 minutes on a regular basis to go train. I told him he?d probably be better off trying his hand at another sport. It was a bit depressing to say the least and then I proceeded to drink two liters of Tang and eat eight slices of pepperoni pizza.?
Sometimes lending a helping hand starts from the ground up. While you might want to give that person laying on the sidewalk a mansion with a car, the first step is getting that person upright and walking. Without the ability to stand, they?ll probably be doing the same thing inside that mansion you gave them? finding a corner to sleep in.
Obviously the most important aspect of a boxing gym is the knowledge within it and more specifically the trainers. You can have the best equipment around but without the teacher to show these youths the fundamentals of the sweet science, it?s all a waste. Finding good trainers to lead the next movement is not an easy task but it?s necessary to bring American boxing back to the fore-front of US sports. Maybe training people to become trainers is something that GBP needs to play a more pivotal role in.
Freddie Roach is known for his concise style of training and his ability to say more with less words. Perhaps an active apprentice program involving Freddie as well as the numerous other top-notch trainers in boxing could help in spreading the knowledge among potential trainers.
Sure I?m just thinking out loud and expressing some rather absurd and amusing ideas to you boxingconfidential.com readers. I?m just relaying what I see in my area and it?s the fact that for every boxing gym around, there are at least 10 or 12 MMA gyms with more continuously sprouting up. It?s been well documented that when fans are able to actively participate in a sport, they are much more likely to become hardcore fanatics of that outlet and actually appreciate the subtle nuances of it.
How can boxing in America cultivate its next crop of talent when the outlets for the sweet science are so far and few between especially in major metropolitan areas?
Just something to think about?
