Amer Abdallah, President of MF Pro Boxing and a Global Boxing Advisor, has issued an open letter to boxing’s next generation of international talent, arguing that the sport’s global expansion has made business literacy a non-negotiable career skill. The letter, addressed to fighters, managers, and young promoters, draws on Abdallah’s more than three decades in combat sports as an undefeated professional kickboxer and later as a manager, promoter, and executive across the United States, the UK, the Middle East, and Africa. Its central warning is that fighters who train only for the opponent in front of them leave the contracts, sanctioning bodies, and promotional structures that determine their careers to chance.
Abdallah speaks from direct experience. He promoted his own fights through Lace Up Promotions while still competing, retiring in 2018 with an 18-0 record and a WKA Cruiserweight World Championship. That dual role, he said, shaped how he now advises athletes on the business side of the sport. “A fighter who understands the business behind the fight has more control over his own career,” Abdallah said. “That understanding does not come from one conversation. It comes from paying attention long before you need it. I’ve always said this is a business disguised as a sport, and that remains true in every facet of a fighter’s career.”
The letter also stresses that representation must outlast a single fight. Abdallah’s work managing three-division world champion Badou Jack, along with his relationships across the careers of Nico Ali Walsh, Mike Tyson, Roy Jones Jr., Viddal Riley, KSI, and Caleb Plant, informs his view that long-term planning matters more than any one payday. “A single fight can change a career,” he said. “But the relationships and the planning around it are what make the next ten fights possible.” Recalling that he earned $250 in his professional debut, Abdallah advises young fighters not to sign the first offer they see without asking whether it fits where they want to be in five years. A manager’s job, he argues, is not to get a fighter a fight but to build a career.
The implications extend beyond individual contracts. Boxing’s center of gravity has shifted toward the Middle East, and Abdallah has worked on major initiatives in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Jordan, Libya, and the UAE, including an executive role with Skill Challenge Entertainment during a period of rapid growth for the sport in the region. That experience taught him that new markets are not an extension of American boxing with a different backdrop; they have their own expectations, stakeholders, and pace. “Opportunity in a new market goes to the people who understand how that market actually works,” he said, “not to the people who assume throwing money at it will build it.” For a generation entering a sport that now moves across continents within a single year, Abdallah’s message is that preparation, discipline, and a willingness to question everything are what separate durable careers from brief ones.
