Taking the Punches by Mike Edwards

Author:Mike Edwards
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2020-06-26T00:00:00+00:00

CHINA

On my two trips to China, I was surprised to find so many people able to converse in English. The well-educated people I was dealing with made my job a lot easier. Professional boxing in China is growing rapidly and has a lot of finance to make it happen. But it is not an easy place to promote boxing for a lot of reasons.

As it happened, the promoter I was dealing with had a big advantage over others in the business because his wife, who was his co-promoter, was the daughter of a local politician. This came in very handy indeed as dropping his name seemed to get things moving.

As an example, when our party was required to move from one province to another to attend the major sponsor’s press conference, written permission had to be given. No problem when you knew the right political people.

This was a massive promotion, and we arrived in the country 10 days early to help with the publicity. The fight night was to be held at a venue that seated 10,000, but because of the Chinese Communist Party’s aversion to large gatherings, only 4000 tickets were to be issued. It didn’t seem to bother anyone and at one publicity event we assembled in an outdoor stadium that was packed with thousands of people. All my boxers, along with the opposition and officials up on the stage, were introduced to the crowd.

After the formal introductions, it was time for the rest of the entertainment. There was a group of about 150 young girls, and each was asked to perform on stage individually. Some of them danced, others sang and a lot just recited poetry, all for the privilege of being a ring girl on the night of the show. From the huge pool of talent on show, just three were to be chosen.

Why was the ring-girl job such an attraction? I guess it was the allure of being on television, because the boxing was to be televised live throughout China. That’s a hell of a lot of exposure given the TV audience across China was expected to be more than a billion people.

My only disappointment when visiting China was that although my accommodation was always fine, the food didn’t suit my tastes. Everything seemed to have ginger in it, and I hate ginger. I basically ate nothing but boiled eggs and rice the entire trip.

In fact, on one occasion when I was a guest of some local dignitaries, I had to excuse myself from the table so that I could be taken back to the hotel. Others in our group relished all the local food, snakes and all. Not me – all I wanted to do was get the hell out of there.

The guy who drove me back to the hotel spoke very little English. He was on the phone and all I could make out was that he was making an appointment to take me to the hospital. It was not necessary, so I somehow convinced him just to take me back to the hotel.

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