Boxing promoter Nestor Tobias walks us in his shoes, while explaining that being in this business is not a Sunday picnic as many think.
Promoter, trainer and manager are all titles associated with you. What exactly do you do?
I am a boxing coach. I also manage boxers by getting them fights, locally and internationally. I also promote boxers by getting them resources through sponsors and so on. At the academy we currently have a consistent sponsor, MTC, and having them on board has been very helpful. In the past we had sponsors like Telecom and Nampower who also assisted us a lot, but there was no commitment on paper. Hitman [Paulus Moses] had a direct sponsorship from Nampower and a lot of other boxers benefited from this because they landed undercard fights whenever Hitman is boxing.
What does MTC do for the academy as part of the sponsorship?
Under the current agreement MTC give us N$2.5 million per annum. The money is actually for promotion so that the sponsor also gets something out of the deal. So it’s not just about training in the gym but to promote the top boxers. In return we sell their brand both locally and internationally. It’s a great thing because people like Tim Ekandjo help us a lot with their input as individuals. He’s a wise man.
When did you start this boxing business and how tough was it to sustain it financially?
I am a born sportsman. I became an amateur boxer in 1980 and I was inspired by watching movies about Muhammad Ali and those by Bruce Lee. I grew up in Tsumeb and I was involved in many sport codes including karate, which I used as a defence mechanism against white boys who tried to bully us during those days. As a professional boxer, I was promoted in South Africa and held most of my professional fights there. When I retired from fighting, I decided to invest my knowledge in boxing. Funding has always been an issue in Namibian boxing. I bought a few gloves and government gave us a building to train from, and we are still using the same building. There was no single professional fighter in the country at the time, but we had guys like Rambo Antindi and Sigfried Kaperu who were fighting. There were a few boxing promoters registered in the country but they were mostly inactive because of lack of money. So I started the academy in 2000 and I decided also to start promoting. I applied for a licence to promote from the Boxing Control Board and I also got a licence to manage boxers. My first fight as a promoter was in 2001 but it was difficult because there were no funds. The main attraction of that event was Rambo Antindi with a guy from Zimbabwe for the WBA Pan-African welterweight title, which Rambo won. I am happy because I paved the way for many other promoters in the country to follow suit. I laid the foundation and I am proud of it.
Boxers such as Tyson Uushona are not from your stable yet you are their promoter. What exactly does being a promoter mean?
There’s a difference between promotion and training. I promote all boxers in the country, but with regard to training I only deal with guys in my gym. Tyson is a big name, I am both his manager and his promoter. But he is trained by Nashilongo. A promoter is the guy that puts up the fight for boxers and finds the resources so that the fight can take place. I talk to TV people, corporate entities and government to mobilise for resources. You work towards getting a good international rating for the boxer and get him the right opponents. When I approach sponsors, it’s not about me owning a gym. Owning a gym doesn’t give the sponsor anything in return. In the early days it was difficult because I did not have known boxers with whose name I could secure sponsorship. Today it’s a lot easier because I have Paulus Ambunda, Paulus Hitman, Tyson Uushona, Vikapita Meroro, Prince Naidjala. A promoter takes boxers to the top internationally. Being a top promoter is like being a head of state. You put the country on the map.
In your 14 years of running the Sunshine Academy, you’ve managed to produce national, African and world champions. How have you changed your boxers’ economic lives?
When I started, there was no single guy in my gym with a car. I started with guys like Paulus Moses and others. I’ve made most of them champions and if you visit our gym today, there’s hardly any parking space available. Yes, most of them have jobs elsewhere but what we do here is also employment on its own. They are able to help their families and even villages where some of them come from. These kids are not the same as they were before they became champions. Some of them have bought houses from the money they make from boxing.
I’d imagine that you’ve also made good money from this business …
That’s true. I invest a lot in this and when boxers succeed , there’s a percentage for me in their earnings, especially when they fight internationally. But it’s not only me alone that’s benefiting. I have coaches, and I am running an office. I have 11 people working for me. On the day of any boxing event, we employ up to 400 people.
Some years ago, people complained that you guys make good money but still got N$4.5 million from government to host a world title defence match for Paulus Moses. How do you answer to that?
It’s all about understanding. People are sometimes desperate, or even jealous. Hitman flew the Namibian flag in Japan where he won the world title for the first time. Look at the recent fight between Floyd Mayweather and Canelo Alvarez, which – with 1.6 billion viewers worldwide – was the most watched sporting event in world history. Hitman, when he went to Japan, did not go to participate. He went there to win. He won and everyone was happy. The Japanese guy, when we invited him for the fight, said he doesn’t even know where Namibia is.
So we are marketing Namibia through boxing. In boxing, a title is not there to keep. You fight for it within nine months or it will be taken away by the sanctioning body. To defend the title requires money that’s why we approached government to request financial assistance. What government did was good for the nation and we have followed the procedures. There was no crime committed. Instead of complaining, Namibians must actually implore government to invest more money in sport.
People also charged that MTC’s sponsorship of your academy smacks of favouritism. They felt the money should have been shared among all recognised academies …
MTC didn’t come to us. We went to them and presented a plan. In fact we wanted more from them but they could not agree to our original submission in its entirety. All those people that are complaining, where were they all along? They came into business after our academy proved that this can be done. Just like we showed them the way into boxing, we are also prepared to show them how to secure sponsorships. A small nation like ours must work together, not fight each other. We are more experienced and are ready to help those that are still new in this business. People must understand that the N$2.5 million from MTC is obviously good support, but to host a world title fight would require not less than N$5 million. Many of my guys are ranked highly and might fight soon for world titles.
Paulus Ambunda won a world title in March last year and lost it in August. Boxing pundits felt that you rushed the title defence and that you should take the blame for him losing the title five months after winning it …
It was not rushed. Everything we do is planned. You look at a lot of factors. The aim is not to win a title and sit on it. The aim is to keep busy and make money in the process. You look at the offer and the opponent. We can’t wait for the WBO to call us and ask when are we defending the title. There are also rules and regulations.
Ambunda won that title as a mandatory challenger. Having a mandatory challenger is difficult because it could be someone you were not prepared to fight. It’s always good to go for voluntary challengers because there you have the benefit of choosing who you fancy. That’s what we did and the fact that Ambunda lost is just part of sport.