When I had my first gig, I was 18 in January in 2007. My first gig that I got paid, I was playing for 10 people in a 250 people capacity venue. The promoter wanted to book me because he liked my music. I played a couple of songs that made people dance. To me, that rush has always stayed the same.
In a Ponzi scheme, a promoter pays back his initial investors with money he has raised from new investors. Eventually, the promoter can no longer find enough new investors to pay off the people who have already put up money, and the scheme collapses.
I didn't grasp the basic principle of being a promoter, which was: Put on music but also generate an income. I was on the dole most of the time.
I heard there was a debate about fighting teammates, and if a fight should happen because the fans or promoter wants it, I will fight a teammate, but family is ridiculous.
A lot of comedians, when they have a bad gig, will blame everything but themselves. They'll blame the crowd, or the room was wrong, it had a weird vibe, or the promoter promoted a weird atmosphere.
We used to work with a promoter in Italy who used to book for shows with nine hour drives in between, so we got a new promoter.
I was offered the Kovalev fight in 2018 but my manager and promoter agreed it wasn't the right time for me to be challenging for a world title then. I needed a few more tuneup fights, learning fights, and I'm fine with that.
What I would say about Barney Eastwood is that when our relationship worked, it worked extremely well. He had a lot of strengths as a promoter and a manager.
I think every promoter's job is to pump their athletes up. Like, you see, Dana White did it all the time with branding people: all of a sudden, they're the best thing since sliced bread, just because that's the promoter's job.
One minute we can be in a small club, the next minute we can be in a coliseum, and the next minute we can be in a small auditorium. It varies, depending on the promoter, the budget, and the travelling distance.
