Boxing has evolved into a global enterprise, with fighters building careers that span the United States, the UK, the Middle East, Africa, and beyond within a single year. In an open letter to the sport's next generation of international talent, Amer Abdallah, President of MF Pro Boxing and Global Boxing Advisor, draws on more than three decades of experience as an undefeated professional kickboxer, manager, promoter, and executive to argue that understanding the business side of boxing is no longer optional for fighters seeking lasting success.
Abdallah's perspective is rooted in his own unusual path. 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 as both fighter and promoter shaped his conviction that athletes must engage with the contracts, sanctioning bodies, and promotional structures that determine whether a fight happens on fair terms. "A fighter who understands the business behind the fight has more control over his own career," Abdallah said. "That understanding does not come from one conversation. It comes from paying attention long before you need it. I've always said this is a business disguised as a sport, and that remains true in every facet of a fighter's career."
The letter stresses that representation must be built for the long run rather than a single payday. Abdallah points to his work managing three-division world champion Badou Jack, as well as relationships across the careers of Mike Tyson, Roy Jones Jr., Viddal Riley, KSI, Nico Ali Walsh, and Caleb Plant, as evidence that sustained planning is what makes a career. "A single fight can change a career," he said. "But the relationships and the planning around it are what make the next ten fights possible." He notes that young fighters often sign the first offer they see without considering whether it aligns with their five-year goals, recalling that he earned just $250 in his own professional debut. His advice: a manager's job is not to get a fighter a fight, but to get a fighter a career.
Boxing's center of gravity has shifted toward the Middle East, and Abdallah has worked on major 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. He cautions that these markets are not simply 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."
Abdallah's message distills into three habits he says matter more than talent alone: learn the business of boxing as distinct from the sport itself; carefully choose representation built around a full career and the fighter's ultimate goals; and question everything. He also emphasizes that nothing replaces discipline and focus in the gym between fights. For a rising generation navigating an increasingly global and complex sport, the letter serves as a reminder that the fight behind the fight, the business, may ultimately determine how far talent can go.
