In the end, it didn't need government funding either! Although Martin Snedden, CEO of promoters Duco (as reported in the media) was bullish about whether the announcement yesterday justified the call of the Government to not fund the fight:
"That's rubbish. When we started out on this commercial route only 35 days ago we had no commercial contracts in place. We didn't know what would happen. We trusted our loyal sponsors and supporters but we were asking a lot of them... but we've hit a threshold in terms of risk assessment where we are saying that we're prepared to go for this."Their initial threshold might well have included government funding as a buffer of sorts, but even without government funding, they've decided to make a go of it with private funding. Kudos for going for it despite the risk, but that's the nature of private enterprise - you'd be doing pretty well if your business was a sure thing.
Now that it is confirmed, expect it to cost New Zealanders to enjoy a piece of the action. Duco have already said that it won't be available to view at rock bottom prices.
Duco are a shrewd bunch of people who know their boxing and know how to run a fight night. This will likely be their biggest opportunity to make something of Joseph Parker's title ambitions in this country. If he wins, he may well seek bigger opportunities that the market in this country may be unable to support. (I won't think about if he loses - except to say that David Tua was still a popular fighter in this country after his title fight loss to Lennox Lewis and his fight with Shane Cameron was the biggest fight in this country prior to what will go down on December 10, 2016.)
As a boxing fan, I am right behind Parker in his goal to win the title. As to whether that will extend to parting with any of my scarce income ... let's wait and see.
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