Boxing's next generation of international talent is being urged to treat the sport as a business before they ever step through the ropes, according to an open letter from Amer Abdallah, President of MF Pro Boxing and a Global Boxing Advisor. The letter, addressed to fighters, managers and young promoters, argues that careers now move through the United States, the UK, the Middle East and Africa within a single year, and that the fighters who understand the contracts, sanctioning bodies and promotional structures behind each bout will control more of their own futures.
Abdallah speaks from both sides of that divide. He promoted his own fights through Lace Up Promotions while still competing, retiring in 2018 with an 18-0 record and a WKA Cruiserweight World Championship. That dual experience, he writes, shaped his view that "this is a business disguised as a sport." His point is that a fighter who understands the business behind the fight has more control over his own career, and that such understanding comes from paying attention long before it is needed. The warning matters because young fighters routinely sign the first offer placed in front of them without asking whether it fits where they want to be in five years. Abdallah's own professional debut earned him $250, a figure that underscores how little leverage an unprepared fighter holds.
His argument extends to representation. Abdallah cites his work managing three-division world champion Badou Jack as an example of representation built for the long run rather than a single payday, and points to relationships across the careers of Nico Ali Walsh, Mike Tyson, Roy Jones Jr., Viddal Riley, KSI and Caleb Plant. "A single fight can change a career," Abdallah said. "But the relationships and the planning around it are what make the next ten fights possible." His advice to young fighters is blunt: a manager's job is not to get you a fight, but to get you a career and guide you through it.
The letter also addresses the sport's shifting center of gravity toward the Middle East. Abdallah has worked on major boxing initiatives in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Jordan, Libya and the UAE, including an executive role with Skill Challenge Entertainment during a period of rapid growth for the sport in the region. That experience taught him that these markets are not an extension of American boxing with a different backdrop; they have their own expectations, stakeholders and pace. "Opportunity in a new market goes to the people who understand how that market actually works," he said, "not to the people who assume throwing money at it will build it."
For fighters, managers and promoters eyeing international expansion, the implications are practical. Abdallah's three prescribed habits are to learn the business of boxing as distinct from the sport, to choose representation built around a full career, and to question everything, while keeping discipline in the gym between fights. As boxing's money and marquee events increasingly flow through the Gulf and other emerging markets, the letter suggests that preparation, rather than talent alone, will determine who benefits from the sport's global reach.
