Boxing champion Danny Green has eye on Goldfields for future promotions

Former champion professional boxer Danny Green will keep the Goldfields in his sights when planning future boxing promotions in Australia.

Green spoke to the Kalgoorlie Miner about working in the promotions space and the elusiveness of the sport’s X-factor when he was in town as the guest speaker for Epiroc’s annual Kalgoorlie Corporate Golf Day on September 16.

The retired athlete, who previously held three WBA titles, said he believed the people of Kalgoorlie-Boulder had a strong interest in boxing, and pondered scoping out the town for future promotions.

Green said looking to Kalgoorlie-Boulder as somewhere to promote fights “could be a possibility” — particularly given one of his former trainers, Angelo Hyder, did just that in 2014.

Hyder brought a team of boxers, including State cruiserweight champion Ben Page, to the Goldfields in 2014 to compete in a professional boxing program put on by Mark Thompson for Superior Promotions at the Brookman Street Stadium.

Goldfields-based headline fighter Oscar Siale squared off against Page over 10 rounds for the WBA Asia Pacific title, with Page getting the unanimous nod at the final bell.

Danny Green’s Green Machine Promotions actively promotes fights across the country, and has been involved in three of the biggest fights in pay per view in Australian boxing history.

“I’ve just been so busy of late that I’m not sure what the talent pool is like here,” Green said.

“I would be very surprised if the whole town didn’t come and support a fight though.

“And that’s what makes it exciting to be a promoter and to be a fighter — if there’s a big crowd there all geed up to see you do your thing than it’s exciting.

“It doesn’t matter if the crowds 500 or 5000, if it’s a good crowd that’s itching to see some good fights and see some good action — then definitely.”

Green said new promoters were doing well, although he believed they relied too heavily on social media platforms.

“Yeah, they’re going well, but we did it back in the day with limited resources and we killed it because we knew what we were doing,” he said.

“It was different back then. We didn’t have social media and YouTube to help us out.

“YouTube was a thing you watched every now and then but now it’s like a whole channel.

“I’m still promoting some shows, I’ll dip my toes in the water every now and then when the right fight comes up — it’s in my blood.

“I will definitely promote again. It just depends where and when.

“I’m actually looking at doing something in Perth, maybe in the near future.

“It just depends on getting the right fighters, that the crowd are going to get behind.

“The fighters that the crowd don’t get behind doesn’t mean that they’re not good fighters but you just need fighters who attract crowds.

“They have a certain X-factor. Yeah, I don’t know what that is. No one does — it’s like any sport or any business — some leaders of industry have the X-factor that sets them apart but you can’t actually put your finger on what it is they possess — it’s the same for fighters.”