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Barry McGuigan launches £5,000,000 boxer investment scheme


Former featherweight world champion Barry McGuigan has launched an intriguing fighter investment scheme, giving fans and businesses the opportunity to invest in fighters.

The Cyclone Promotions boss has set up the Boxing Advantage Company (BAC) which he hopes will raise big funs and big returns on boxers

McGuigan is hoping to secure £5,000,000 investment to help Cyclone Promotions to build a stable of world champions.

The funds will be used to research, sign, and nurture talented fighters, with the Clones Cyclone hoping to develop a team of 15 top boxers.

Those fighters will then be promoted by Cyclone and trained by Shane McGuigan in London.

The people who invest initially will then secure a cut of the career earnings of the punchers whom they have invested in. This cut would be from income generated by sponsorships and appearances rather than fight purses.

The minimum contribution is £5,000 and the perks of being involved include VIP tickets to Cyclone shows.

As well as Cyclone and the McGuigans, Harvey Shulman and Rupert Phillips will be involved as directors of the fund.

“It’s a tough business but I believe we have the alchemy to turn the rough metal into gold,” the Mail quoted McGuigan as saying in a meeting with potential investors last month.

“I believe myself and my son Shane are the best at detecting who the talented kids are. I don’t want to waste time on someone who is not going to make it.

“You had Audley Harrison, who won the Olympic gold medal. I would not have signed him and I would not have paid that money. Not because I didn’t think he was a good boxer, simply because with those big padded gloves and the headguard whether he could take a bang on the chin.”

“I’m not looking for people going for the British title, Commonwealth title or European title level. I’m not interested in that, I want to make world champions.”

Boxers managed by Cyclone and trained by Shane McGuigan include Josh Taylor, Lee McGregor, and Chantelle Cameron – while WBA super middleweight champion is trained by McGuigan.

McGregor, Cameron, and Malik Zinad are the initial fighters featured in the fund.

The Irish outfit used to guide the careers of numerous Irish boxers and ran shows here but have become an increasingly absent part of the scene in Ireland recently – this, despite pledges in late 2015 and early 2017 that they would be signing fighters and running shows on the island.

The cancellation of Carl Frampton v Andreas Gutierrez at the SSE Odyssey Arena last Summer means that the last Cyclone Promotions promotion on these shores was way back in November 2015.

In the months which followed this, Cyclones last two remaining Irish fighters – with there being five at one stage – left the outfit. These fighters, Frampton and Conrad Cummings, were also trained by Shane McGuigan.

The pair have since relocated to Jamie Moore’s VIP Gym in Astley and Frampton, who is involved in an ongoing legal battle with the McGuigans, is now promoted by Frank Warren.

Photo Credit: Ricardo Guglielminotti – The Fighting Irish (@ThefIish)

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