Charlie Sutton: The Price of the Home Corner

Charlie Sutton: The Price of the Home Corner

Charlie Sutton gets the biggest opportunity of her professional career on Saturday night at the Vertu Motors Arena in Newcastle. Sutton takes on the former amateur star and now unbeaten super-lightweight prospect Hannah Robinson in a double-title fight. Sutton and Robinson will clash with both the Commonwealth Silver and IBF European super-lightweight titles on the line. A pivotal fight for both.

For Sutton, she will be in the away corner. Free from the extreme pressure of having to sell enough tickets. There are still certain responsibilities, but not the worries and the stress that you might not fight if you can’t sell enough tickets to stay on the show. “It’s so hard to sell tickets,” Sutton admits. “You have to have such a big following to be able to make it easier to sell tickets.”

There are costs to be met for the fighter in the home corner. Sanctioning fees. Promotional costs. The cost of the opponent. Something that the 22-year-old is all too well aware of. “The opponents always seem to be really expensive,” Sutton tells me. “And it seems mainly in women’s boxing that you are more likely to have to get an opponent from another country. So, it makes it even more expensive. That’s why boxers need the help of sponsors and their supporters. The most annoying part about having to sell enough tickets and paying for your opponent is that if you don’t sell enough tickets, then the money comes out of your pay. However, it is nice fighting in your home town and getting everyone to come and support you, as it’s easier to travel and get to the venue.”

Even when she is in that all-important home corner, Sutton is one of the lucky ones. “I never worry about how many tickets I sell,” Sutton says. “I have a family member who gets on everyone’s case and tries to sell as many as they can for me and deals with that part. So, I don’t really ever have to worry. As a result, my training is always focused, as I have a team that helps with different departments.”

The price of being in the home corner is an interesting debate. Is it really worth it? Even if you can sell enough tickets to fight, can you sell enough to get paid yourself? They are two very different things. In the away corner, you get paid. Far too many times in the home corner, you don’t.