Sports promoter goes for knockout

by Celia Barnes

Krzysztof Zbarski doesn't like being in the spotlight. He leaves that up to the boxers he promotes.
In an industry synonymous with big names and even bigger egos, such coyness is unusual but Zbarski said he's just trying to protect his reputation.
"In Poland, when you tell someone that you are … a professional boxing promoter, professional boxing makes people think of bad people, the underground, girls in the ring almost naked and dirty money maybe," Zbarski explained. " … So it's better to keep quiet. You know what I mean? Just do your job."And another point is that I think Poland is not the place to be popular," he added ominously. "It will kill you. I don't like to be known."
But Zbarski is getting known. The disheveled, dark-haired 29-year-old is the owner of Polish Boxing Promotion (PBP). Like the name suggests, PBP is one of this country's highest-profile professional boxing promotion companies.
Recently, the International Boxing Organization named PBP "New Promoter of the Year 2000." And just last week, two of his stars - World Boxing Federation light welterweight women's world champ Agnieszka Rylik, and the undefeated heavyweight, Albert Sosnowski - fended off opponents in a bout that was broadcast in 54 countries on pay-TV channel Eurosports, on TVP in Poland.It's the first of many pro fights Zbarski will be involved with this year - either wearing his organizing/promoter hat, or as the exclusive agent of a large number of boxers from Central and Eastern Europe.
"Really the biggest problem I have sometimes," Zbarski said, "is that my promotional capabilities are bigger than my tools - my fighters - are."
For a long time, it looked like professional boxing was down for the count in Poland. While amateur boxing has always flourished here, boxers under communism were restricted from taking part in international pro fights. Defection to the West was the only option, as middleweight Dariusz Michalczewski did in the late 1980s. Michalczewski went on to become the first Polish boxer to win a world title, although he was fighting for his adopted home in Germany.While those restrictions have lifted, the main obstacle in Poland continues to be a lack of funds to attract big-name fighters.
In 1998, Zbarski established PBP. He was inspired by a number of professional bouts that were organized in Poland around this time - in particular, the defeat of two-time world heavyweight champ Tim Witherspoon by U.S.-based Andrew Golota who is known in Poland by his original name, Andrzej Gołota.
"When I saw the fight, I thought this is my stuff," said Zbarski, a sociology graduate and public relations postgraduate.
Through business contacts, Zbarski had already become firm friends with London-based Barry Hearn, the executive chairman of Matchroom Sport - a major sports promoter, creator and marketing company that packages televised sports events for major broadcasters such as Sky, Canal+, Star, Fox and ESPN.
Introductions to other top promoters - such as America's Top Rank Inc. and Germany's Fight Production - followed. With these big-name partners, PBP quickly started promoting big-name Polish boxing bouts that were broadcast not only in Poland on the now-defunct digital Wizja Sports channel, but across the Netherlands, Hungary, Austria, America, Asia and Australia.Broadcast rights usually mean big bucks, but Zbarski won't speak dollars. What he will say is that international coverage always helps the sport grow.
"For Polish professional boxing, this means promotion, recognition, credibility and a knowledge of Polish boxing," he said.
One thing it hasn't meant in Poland is sponsorship, but Zbarski is happy that the name PBP is now known well enough to attract a "stable" of nearly 30 fighters - not only from across Central and Eastern Europe. His fighters include the 22-year-old Polish heavyweight Sosnowski, Hungarian Mihaly Kotai - "We call him KO-tai because he's got a huge punch," Zbarski said - and the undefeated women's champion Rylik.
The promoter's problem is being able to organize fights for his boxers with equally matched opponents. It has to be a bout that will whip up a frenzy of media and spectator interest, earn high ratings for the broadcasters and leave the audience satisfied that it was a fair fight. Zbarski found out what it is like to be on the receiving end of angry spectators when his heavyweight "baby boy," Sosnowski, was defeated in March 2001 at the WBC World Youth Championship. "The opponent caught Sosnowski with a perfect uppercut straight to the chin and my kid went down and everyone was ready to kill him afterward," he said. ""You are nothing." "You are finished." "You are over-promoted." Know what I mean"" Since then, Sosnowski has gone on to win four consecutive fights. "I don"t listen to the media," Zbarski said. "I just do my job and build Sosnowski up slowly again " I have spent plenty of time, plenty of money and organized plenty of engagements and I vowed myself to build him up and I do my stuff because that's the professional way of doing business." Part of Zbarski's program for his fighters includes international training - and it doesn"t come cheap. A one-month visit for Sosnowski and Kotai to train in New York's famous Gleason's Gym " where many world famous boxers have trained " including accommodation, sparring partners, and food ("which is very expensive for these guys"), cost Zbarski around $20,000. But money is continuing to flow into PBP in the form of new broadcast rights in Hungary. With the recent closure in Poland of Wizja Sports, which had a contract to broadcast PBP's bouts, this new work has clearly come at a good time. United Pan-Europe Communications (UPC), which owns Wizja and Hungary's Sport1 channel, has broadcast contracts with Matchroom Sport and now that UPC has decided to focus on boxing in Hungary, Zbarski is their man in Budapest. "I have looked for Hungarian talent and I have found them and I have paid a big price for my Hungarian prospects," Zbarski said, who has found 10 Hungarian fighters and set up a gym there. "For me, it doesn"t matter if UPC buys a television outlet in Macedonia. If they pay the right money, I will get on a plane and find them the Macedonian fighters there to do a show." It hasn"t been so easy further east of Poland. In Ukraine, Zbarski was interested in promoting local fighter Roman Dzuman on Ukrainian TV but a deal could not be made. "In Ukraine, TV is not independent," he said. "There is no one who stands as a guard of the commercial interests of television," Zbarski said.