Final bell tolls for BoxRec News

All good things come to an end, they say. On this occasion, the good thing is BoxRec News.

Current editor, Danny Wright, is no longer able to continue in the role due to a change in personal circumstances and a decision has been taken to close the news site.

We saw the need for a good and independent news site in 2009 and the visitor numbers proved this to be true.

In 2009, I’d been editor of Britishboxing.net for around six years. I’d built a good, little site with a decent roster of writers. Anyone who has tried to do that knows how difficult it is, especially when you can’t pay people. For reasons too tiresome to go into I left there and, predictably, the site imploded shortly after. This was because, when it comes down to it, running a news site is bloody hard work, unrelenting, and, in the case of Britishboxing.net, totally unpaid. Unsurprisingly, finding someone willing and capable of doing this is not easy.

However, back then I was still afflicted with both boxing and writing bugs (I have neither now, only one of which I regret losing). So, I approached BoxRec to see if he fancied having a punt on a news site. After all, we had done good numbers at BBN and I had a portable set of high-quality writers who were, I thankfully discovered, loyal to me rather than the previous site.

Apparently (the technical side of things is not my forte) one can quite easily set up a website. But anyone who thinks it happened overnight doesn’t know how BoxRec operates. It likes to do things right – this is undoubtedly reflected in the decision to close the news site. BoxRec put a lot of effort into the site for which I was, and am, very grateful.

Anyway, once BoxRec News began it quickly established a readership and, I’d like to think, published some good work. The proper job I was in at the time allowed me the flexibility to take calls from ludicrously self-deluded promoters and managers within office hours, or to bang up a (heavily edited, because they are almost always shite) press release about Fighter X (5-2, 0 KOs) saying he has earned the right to fight for the world title against King Kong and that he was going to spark him clean aht in the first minute. His promoter Barry Bollocks had told him so, you see.

However, a change of job in 2013 meant that those days were over and I had to move on. The only suitable candidate I could recommend to take over the role of editor was Danny Wright. He works in journalism, has an excellent grasp of web technicalities, had written for the site for some time, and is even less amenable to accepting nonsense than I am. The latter quality is probably the rarest in boxing writing.

How the site looked, its functionality and design was never top of my list, partly because I didn’t know what I didn’t know (and, frankly, I’m still content not to in this regard). But Danny knew better and had lots of plans for the site’s development. Unfortunately, his change of circumstances has meant that his ambitious vision won’t be fulfilled on this occasion.

I’d like to offer my sincere thanks (and I’m sure I can speak for Danny too) to all of those writers and photographers who have made their own contributions to the site over the past five years – some of them running into tens of thousands of words, or hundreds of images. If you take an hour to look at some of the archive, you will see that all boxing life is there. Thanks too to the advertisers who helped keep the site going.

The first two messages I’ve had from contributors (Tony Mayger and Phil Lindsay, as it happens) were not questions about what would happen to their work, or requests for contact details for other sites, or anything else reflecting self-interest. They both offered help if it were needed. This has perhaps been the best thing about the hours (too, too many) I have put into boxing websites over the years – making the acquaintance of some really lovely people.

I didn’t really want to mention any names in case it puts other contributors’ noses out of joint, but I’ll just have to risk it. Danny himself can be proud of what he has done, of course. He’d definitely like me to thank the site’s main snapper, Bernard Miller. Particular credit must go to Jon Briggs, who has submitted more than 100 ‘Debutant Watch’ pieces on lads that I can guarantee would have been so happy for the publicity they would have struggled to get anywhere else. A biased, editorial mention from me for Nelson Stanley – I don’t know of a more interesting, clever, funnier, individual voice in boxing writing. Last here, but first in almost every other respect is Eric Armit. I don’t know a single writer who knows more about the sport than he does, or who works harder.

It’s only a website, I know. But, for a while, it was one that was very well-respected in the trade – and anyone who has been involved in such a venture will tell you that that doesn’t happen without integrity and a lot of hard work.

If you’re still reading, thanks for that – and for all the support you have shown to BoxRec News over the years.

Read the original article on news.boxrec.com