GoldenMike Incurs Huge Loss

Despite staging the historic world boxing championship night in Accra last month, GoldenMike Promotions Syndicate has revealed that the financial cost of the enterprise fell far above gate returns.

GoldenMike officials say they spent about GH¢80,000 on sanctioning fees, boxers’ purses, travel expenses for officials and general arrangements for the July 31 ‘Night of Champions’ bill at the Ohene Djan Stadium, but raked in just GH¢12,200 at the gates.

Michael Tetteh, chief executive of the boxing promotion outfit, told Graphic Sports that the financial deficit in the venture would, however, not tamper with their commitment to salvaging and improving boxing at the local level.

“It has been a difficult exercise, but we have not thought about quitting,” he said in an interview.

“The motivation is not the immediate financial returns. If our efforts can land more Ghanaians world titles

On that Saturday night in Accra, GoldenMike’s effort won Ghana three world titles, with Braimah ‘Bukom Banku’ Kamoko, Joshua ‘Bukom Tsatsu’ Okine and Albert Mensah winning the World Professional Boxing Federation (WPBF) light-heavyweight, welterweight and super-lightweight titles respectively.

Banku stopped Argentine Hector Velazco in the 10th round, while Okine won a unanimous points verdict against Uzbekistani Muhammed Abdulaev. Mensah also won a unanimous points verdict against Russia’s Karen Tevosiyan.

Mr Tetteh, who was appointed the WPBF vice president for Africa on that night, said sponsorship from corporate institutions had become very necessary to encourage local promoters in their efforts to sustain the local sport.

“It’s quite difficult to do it without sponsorship,” he said.

By the contract terms between the promoter and the three boxers, GoldenMike has a stake in the purses of the boxers. And following their new standing in world boxing, all three could land shots at titles under the more popular sanctioning bodies, namely the World Boxing Council (WBC), World Boxing Association (WBA) or the International Boxing Federation (IBF) from which GoldenMike could recoup some of its investment in the promotions.

Local boxing promotion in Ghana has slumped, with shows hardly organised in recent times. Indeed, the July 31 bill was just the third in the country in 2010, with GoldenMike staging one of the previous two events.

“I don’t know of any local promoter who has ever broken even at boxing shows,” said Michael Tetteh who added that “but the overall growth of boxing in Ghana is our major concern”.