Hayemaker Promotions

Hayemaker Promotions is a promotional company operated by former WBA heavyweight and undisputed cruiserweight champion David Haye and boxing manager Adam Booth. The company held their first boxing promotional event in Sheffield on 20 September 2008.

Starting Up

On establishing the company, David Haye drew comparisons with Golden Boy Promotions when he said; "Golden Boy have taken over from Don King and Bob Arum and they've done it by empowering the fighters, putting control back in their hands and giving them the lion's share". Giving an insight into how the new promotional outfits would actually help fighters he added: "Promoting other fighters is not a money-making scheme for me, I make enough from my own fights, I don't need to take any money from six- to eight-rounders. Taking 15 or 20 grand from a British title fight doesn't mean anything to me, but that extra money means a hell of a lot to someone who's fighting for, say, 10 grand three times a year".^[1]

Haye and Booth signed up a number of fighters to their stable. Former WBU champion Derry Mathews signed having previously been with Sports Network,^[2] British light-middleweight champion Ryan Rhodes, and trainer Dave Coldwell joined as Head of Boxing.^[3]

The outfit also signed a number of up and coming young stars, including undefeated Liverpool lightweight John Watson,^[4] Sheffield prospect Josh Wale, ^[5] and former amateur champions George Groves and Michael Maguire.^[6][7] On 27 January 2009, Hayemaker announced the signing of Olympic heavyweight bronze medallist David Price.^[8]

Deal with Setanta

Hayemaker signed a deal on 27 May 2008 which would see ten promotions from the company broadcast on Setanta Sports. This would include the next four David Haye fights.^[9] The first promotion was held in Sheffield on 20 September 2008, and broadcast 4 live bouts which included the two-time British champion Ryan Rhodes defending his light-middleweight belt against Scotsman Jamie Coyle.^[10] The second promotion was held in London and featured David Haye against American Monte Barrett at heavyweight with Haye winning by knockout after 5 rounds.

Two more televised promotions followed before the subscription sports channel went bust in the UK on 23 June 2009.^[11] In Liverpool Tony Quigley claimed the British super-middleweight title with a win over Tony Dodson ^[12] as well as marking the professional debut of David Price. This was followed by a bill in Belfast topped by Martin Lindsay winning the British featherweight title against Scotland's Paul Appleby.

The loss of the television deal meant that opportunities for boxers signed to the stable became rarer and saw fighters like Derry Mathews and David Price split from the promoter.^[13] Others such as George Groves signed promotional deals with other promoters whilst continuing to be managed by the company.^[14]

Small hall shows

During the term of the deal with Setanta, Hayemaker also promoted a number of non-televised small hall shows in venues such as Rotherham, Sheffield and London's York Hall. They featured local fighters such as former Sheffield United player turned boxer Curtis Woodhouse who topped the bill at Rotherham's Consort Hotel on an two-fight dinner card,^[15] as well as at his former club's ground in Bramall Lane. George Groves topped the bill at the first Haymemaker promotion to be held at the York Hall.^[16]

References