David Higgins: How to make a World Heavyweight title fight
We are getting ready to rumble.
Anthony Joshua is fighting Joseph Parker at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff on March 31 with three of the four heavyweight title belts on the line.
David Higgins, left, with Joseph Parker
On this edition of Sport: Digital and Social, I speak to Parker’s promoter David Higgins about how he managed to engineer a lucrative unification bout for his fighter when the chances seemed remote. Also how technology helped and hindered in that process, the counterintuitive nature of boxing PR, how and when the ‘trainwreck’ a press conference, his plans to unnerve Joshua, how the fight will secure Parker’s future and how David Higgins got into the boxing business.
Topics:
1.35 David Higgins introduces himself
2.00 Parker’s background and the “dream on a whiteboard”
2.55 Why TeamParker have not “won the Lotto”
3.11 The timeline for Parker in the next few weeks
3.30 The unusual move of having a press conference calling for a fight
5.01 Fact-based v Trash talk in boxing PR
5.44 The "who’s dropped Joshua?" quiz
7.24 The three specific aims of the press conference
8.18 The perception problems from a poor Facebook presentation
11.02 The problems of putting a bounty for footage of anyone knocking down Parker
12.55 Deliberately “trainwrecking” a press conference to build a fight and make a contract stick
Video of David Higgins trainwrecking the press conference
16.15 The differing reactions from the English and the New Zealand media in relation to the tactic
17.26 The YouTube channels covering boxing who are scooping old-style new outlets and making a business
19.35 Predicting the rise of “renegade, guerrilla” outlets
20.56 Why boxing PR is counterintuitive - “you are belligerent, when they apologise”
21.00 The only boxer who verbally attacked Anthony Joshua at a pre-fight press conference
23.56 Crossing the line between stunts and publicity
27.04 Being criticised for tactics that have proved successful
27.34 How he got into boxing promoting. How he nearly went bankrupt once or twice. The “When We Were Kings” moment
31.14 How he set up New Zealand’s biggest pay-per-view event
32.34 Having only two fighters – both world champions – in their stable
35.13 Why they thought they had lost $1m and gone bankrupt until just before the event a record-breaking pay per view
35.52 Why boxing makes pay-per-view work and football cannot
39.21 The social good of boxing
41.12 Looking after Joseph Parker following his career. The patronising question of a boxer's future
43.35 Hughie Fury v Parker – the story of the first world heavyweight title fight to be streamed live on YouTube
45.30 Managing Joseph Parker’s social media channels
46.10 The future for Parker if he beats Joshua
