Sports

Michael Venom Page: It’s less financially lucrative to be a black fighter


I genuinely feel if I was a white fighter with the same talents, I would have more support and money.

I’ve never come across open racism from a fight fan. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a fan shout anything racist at me. I think you’d have to be brave to do that at a London fight night. But, I do think black fighters are treated differently.

Do I think any promoters I know are racist? It’s not that. I think it’s less financially lucrative to be a black fighter than a white All-American or Irish kid.

MVP is Bellator’s biggest British star (Picture: Bellator)

As a promoter you understand a black fighter is not going to have the same amount of people willing to spend money on seeing him fight. Unfortunately in the UK, the black community do not invest financially to support you, they will be 100 per cent behind you in every way, but wouldn’t buy tickets.

I even feel if I was from another country I would have more support. The UK like to support you when you’ve fallen, the underdog is king here. As an English fighter, it’s hard for me to get any promotion. As a black English fighter it’s even harder. Culture is part of politics and politics is part of sport.

MVP won ten world championships as a kickboxer (Picture: Bellator)

There’d be more people and companies willing to invest in me if I wasn’t black. But again, I don’t see that as racist. Money talks and backing the white guy is more lucrative than the black fighter.

It’s difficult, but I try not to pay attention to that. I’ll keep banging on the doors. For me, having that mentality is better than complaining about it.

You only need to listen to the likes of Paul Pogba, Raheem Sterling and Romelu Lukaku talk and know football isn’t doing enough to tackle racism. I think the only way to make any headway with racism in football stands is to have punishments that will affect your team.

Sterling has suffered repeated racist abuse as a footballer (Picture: Getty)

Only then will it affect the fans. There’s no easy fix, especially with social media, but there’s way more that can be done. It’s the same issues again and again. This has been going on forever, no one should be shocked, but people should be moved to act.

I don’t think it’s all down to black players to speak up and try and inspire change, but I do think they want to. It’s their choice to speak up and it does make a difference. Colin Kaepernick has shown how the action of one individual can affect the many.

It affects you, as players, so 100 per cent they should want to speak up. For the football federation and the FA, it doesn’t affect them. None of them are black, they’ll just wait for it to blow over. It’s at the bottom of the list. We have to make it important for everybody, not just those affected.

Tickets for Bellator Dublin are on sale now through Ticketmaster.ie and Bellator.com, as well as the 3Arena box office.

MORE: Michael Venom Page: Letting Alexis Sanchez leave was crazy and Anthony Joshua needs to respect Andy Ruiz Jr





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