Latest news with #promoter
The Sun
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Sun
Huge US pop star devastated as she cancels massive gig that was ‘months in the making'
A HUGE US pop star has been left devastated as she cancelled a massive gig that was 'months in the making.' Grammy-nominated singer Halsey took to Instagram to share a statement with her fans. 3 3 It read: 'I'm heartbroken to share that the show in Istanbul won't be happening. 'There were logistical limitations that presented themselves recently, making it impossible to move forward in a way that would deliver the show - and the safe, fun experience - you deserve.' Halsey's statement went on: 'Myself, my team and the local promoter have been so excited about this incredible international experience for months. 'I had big plans for this concert and I wouldn't be making this statement if we hadn't tried every option to give you the experience you deserve.' The singer ended her statement by writing: 'I love performing in Turkiye and it's very important to me to come back in the future and do it right. 'Refunds will be available at point of purchase.' Halsey's fans took to X to share their disappointment after news of the cancelled gig. One person wrote: 'I am so disappointed, sorry but kinda half of the europe fandom booked trips to Istanbul to see the ONE fucking show that was planned for our whole continent and even after rescheduling you just cancel and leave us behind again.' A second added: 'We had to rebook tickets and spend double the amount of money to go to the new date, and now that's cancelled?? I'm sure people would love to just hear halsey sing even if it's not For my last trick.' A third echoed: 'Canceling the Istanbul concert exactly two weeks before the show, when everyone had already bought their hotel and flight tickets, was one of the most unprofessional things you've done in your career. You could have done a simple show and respect us.' But the star had a lot of support from her fans too, as one person said: 'guys, cancellations are going to happen and i'm sure halsey already feels bad enough. she gave yall a two week notice be thankful for that and not it being a few days before. yall act so entitled sometimes and i hate it, h is only human too.' Another wrote: 'hot take?? do fans not understand that halsey wouldn't put out this message unless she absolutely had to? yall don't think it hurts her to not play this show? fan safety is very impt when putting on a show. ofc you're allowed to be sad but @'ing h and anthony isn't the move tbh.' Last year, Halsey said she is lucky to be alive and hinted that she has been diagnosed with lupus and leukaemia. She told fans: 'Long story short, I'm lucky to be alive,' before tagging in charities that support people living with lupus and leukaemia. Speaking in a video she posted online, Halsey said: 'I told myself I'm giving myself two more years to be sick. 'When I'm 30, I'm having a rebirth and I'm not going to be sick. 'I'm going to look super hot and have lots of energy and get to redo my twenties and thirties.' 3
The Independent
06-08-2025
- Business
- The Independent
Who is Nakisa Bidarian? Meet the man behind Jake Paul and a career that has changed boxing
First things first: do not call Nakisa Bidarian ' Jake Paul 's manager', and do not call him a liar. These, according to the 47-year-old, are two of the biggest misconceptions around a man who has gone from a warring Iran to the UK, Los Angeles, Toronto, Dubai, Wall Street, the UFC, and Most Valuable Promotions, the boxing company he founded with YouTube star Paul – his business partner, not managee. Bidarian, clearly, lived many lives before his current one. Child refugee, investment banker, financial adviser. Now he is a promoter, one of the closest associates to boxing's most notorious disruptor, Paul. Bidarian is the man behind the 28-year-old 'Problem Child'. But once, he was a boy born in Iran and raised around the world. 'My family fled the country because of the Iraq war,' he tells The Independent. 'My older brother had the potential of being drafted into the military at age 12; they were sending kids to walk over landmines.' At that time, Bidarian's mother prioritised morals over money. 'She didn't take any money from my father, because he wasn't a good man. And because she was 18 and supposed to go to college, my grandad didn't agree with the marriage. He said: 'If this doesn't work out, don't come to me.' Thirteen years later, she didn't. She got a job at a shoe store and a donut shop.' She kept customers on their feet and got her family back on its own. In this period, they moved to the UK, US, and Canada, with Bidarian working in management consulting before heading to Wall Street as a graduate. However, he found he did not enjoy life in New York City. 'I like money,' he says, 'but I'm not a hustler. It felt like everyone there was hustling.' Some around Bidarian scoffed at his decision to move back to Dubai, where he briefly lived as a teenager, but a job at Morgan Stanley led him to the Fertitta brothers – Frank and Lorenzo, then-owners of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Through a transaction facilitated by Mubadala, where Bidarian was working, Abu Dhabi acquired 10 per cent of the UFC in 2010. 'I'd never heard of the UFC,' says Bidarian. Six months later, he was asked to meet the Fertittas and explore setting up a new investment fund, targeting entertainment assets. The fund was to be based in Las Vegas and headed by Bidarian. Ultimately, Abu Dhabi pulled out of the opportunity, but the Fertitta brothers wished to keep working with Bidarian. 'I knew s*** all about MMA, but I think that was attractive to Lorenzo.' Bidarian became the UFC's Chief Strategy Officer in 2012 and worked on Ronda Rousey and Conor McGregor's contracts. 'I'm sure Dana [White, UFC president] thought: 'Head of strategy? He knows nothing about the sport.'' But Bidarian went from CSO to Chief Financial Officer, playing a vital role in the 2016 sale of the UFC to Endeavor. In the aftermath, Bidarian had a revelation: 'Without the Fertittas, it wouldn't be the same there. Me and Dana were not seeing eye to eye.' Eventually, however, Bidarian found himself seeing eye to eye with Paul – coincidentally, someone with whom White also does not see eye to eye. Still, the connection was not instant. In 2019, a friend asked Bidarian to meet Paul, then aged 22. 'I knew what a YouTuber was, but I didn't know who Jake was. That day, he told me: 'I wanna act, invest, rap, box.' That wasn't attractive to me. I told my guy, 'I know nothing about boxing.'' But? 'It was clear Jake was different.' So, Bidarian helped Paul negotiate a fight with fellow YouTuber AnEsonGib, vastly improving upon the $500,000 offer Paul had received. Soon, though, there was friction. 'He posted some videos attacking Conor and Dana,' Bidarian recalls. 'I called him and said: 'Man, I know these guys. This is a bad look for me.' Conor was a friend. 'He's like: 'Tell them I'm a crazy f***ing kid! Who cares?' He had some people call Conor's people, offer like $10m to fight, and I asked Jake: 'Who are these people? You know I know Conor.' I basically said: 'Nice knowing you, I wish you the best. By the way, you're not even that focused on boxing.' He'd put out a rap video. It didn't make sense for me.' Bidarian and Paul next crossed paths in 2020, when the former was asked to help Triller with their broadcast of Mike Tyson vs Roy Jones Jr. Bidarian, as executive producer, identified a lack of pull for a younger generation. He reached out to Paul. And he made an intriguing offer: $500,000 for an undercard fight but without knowing what the opportunity was, then $10m for a follow-up bout. His logic was that if Paul knew he was fighting before Tyson, he would demand more money, which Bidarian did not have budget approval for. Paul ultimately agreed, and each party delivered; Paul knocked out NBA veteran Nate Robinson, and Bidarian got Paul $11.2m for his next fight, with ex-MMA champion Ben Askren. White in fact said he would bet $1m on an Askren win, only for Paul to score a first-round KO. And Askren is tied to Bidarian's qualms with White. 'Part of what confuses me is that Dana never liked Ben,' Bidarian claims, suggesting White's dislike of Paul trumped his dislike of Askren. In a bid to help Askren, per Bidarian, White connected the wrestler with legendary boxing coach Freddie Roach and gave him full access to UFC's training facilities. White's efforts were in vain. 'More importantly,' though, 'Jake realised boxing was his saviour – the path for discipline and giving back.' Bidarian and Paul formally partnered in 2021. 'From day one, he said: 'This is my new manager.' I said: 'Don't call me that! You don't need me as a manager,'' Bidarian says, circling back to the start of this article. 'Marcos Guerrero manages Jake's life. I'm Jake's adviser.' Bidarian identified the opportunity for a boxing promotion 'anchored' by Paul, but not named after the YouTuber. 'It's good for ego, but no big fighter will stay with you long-term.' Paul coined Most Valuable Promotions (MVP), and the pair established three priorities: to be fighter-first, focus on young athletes, and position women's boxers as equal to men. On the final point, Bidarian references his experience with Rousey, the face of the UFC before McGregor. Bidarian and Paul made a women's fight the co-main event for one of Jake's bouts, and 'people in boxing laughed. 'You have girls as your co-main?' We said: ' Women, yeah.'' They identified seven-weight champion Amanda Serrano as a key signing, now as much a face of MVP as Paul is, and whose deal has given way to numerous big-name women's signings recently. Bidarian told Serrano: ''I promise, I'll make you $1m in one year.' Her manager laughed, but Amanda always says, 'Nakisa lied; it only took nine months!'' He and Paul helped Serrano and Katie Taylor earn the first seven-figure paydays in women's boxing in 2022. This July, Taylor and Serrano completed an iconic trilogy. I have to ask what gives Bidarian the confidence to make these financial promises. 'It's nothing to do with my capabilities,' he replies. 'It's to do with that fighter, and if they do their job. Then you add my business acumen, what I think is possible if the right product is packaged properly.' Speaking of packaging a product properly... I also have to ask whether Paul's emphasis on fighter pay is just good PR. Bidarian counters: 'When I first walked into his house in 2019, one of the first things he said was: 'I want to start a fighters' union, fighters aren't paid well enough.' It wasn't to counter-balance hate, it was deeply genuine.' Bidarian now faces his own share of hate, but: 'You can't let opinions bother you, especially if you're attached to Jake. The biggest false claim on social media is that I'm a liar. Anyone who knows me knows the integrity of what we say is critical. When I first started with Jake, he'd post fabricated stuff for a reaction – but not anymore. Once you lie, and it becomes clear you've lied, you've lost all credibility. I look for the stat that makes sense for our story; I don't look for the negative.' Plus, 'I don't say Jake's the greatest fighter in the world; I say he's an unbelievable entertainer, putting on fights where you don't know the outcome.' Bidarian cites polls, which suggested that most fans believed a 58-year-old Tyson would beat Paul in their controversial, underwhelming, but seismic clash in November – a fight seen by 60m households on Netflix, won by Paul on points. 'I didn't know who would win, I was nervous,' says Bidarian. 'People say: 'You sold us a bad fight.' I didn't sell you anything, except reality. Odds tell you Jake's fights are generally closer than most high-level fights, in terms of outcomes that oddsmakers look at.' Bidarian's wording has me wondering whether he's looking for the stats that best suit his story. Still, you have to wonder what odds he'd have been given for forging the career he has, back when he was a young boy fleeing Iran.
The Independent
05-08-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Ryan Garcia reignites feud with Oscar De La Hoya as he reveals future plans
Ryan Garcia has hit out at promoter Oscar De La Hoya, describing the former six-division world champion as 'disrespectful' and 'offensive'. 'King Ry' also stated that his partnership with Golden Boy Promotions would come to an end after his next fight, a relationship first formed in 2016. A rocky period in 2019 was smoothed over with a new contract, but Garcia's most recent comments suggest that there is no way back between fighter and promoter. Garcia told The Ring: 'I've always tried to mend the relationship and be the bigger person. I've said in the past that families fight, and always put it aside. 'But it's really hard to deal with a promoter who's really involved with himself. He loves the attention, still, even at his age. It just never works with his fighters, especially the ones who are the stars. You saw what happened with him and Canelo Alvarez. 'He causes a division in people, and he doesn't know how to keep a good relationship. He likes to air people's business and do things that a promoter shouldn't. He's always been coming at me. There's always riff-raff. I don't care that he posted the screenshot because I know my worth.' The screenshot Garcia refers to was shared in a social media post by De La Hoya. At the end of June, De La Hoya posted a screenshot of a private conversation with Garcia, where his client sent an abusive text message. Unfortunately Ryan Garcia is having another episode. Ten days ago he's talking about God and finding his path, then tonight he sends me this rant while watching his fellow Golden Boy fighters win. Bipolar disorder is very serious and I hope he gets the help he needs. — Oscar De La Hoya (@OscarDeLaHoya) June 29, 2025 De La Hoya told his followers: 'Unfortunately Ryan Garcia is having another episode. Ten days ago he's talking about God and finding his path, then tonight he sends me this rant while watching his fellow Golden Boy fighters win. Bipolar disorder is very serious and I hope he gets the help he needs.' Whilst Garcia said that he was nonplussed about De La Hoya sharing private messages, he complained that his promoter was preventing him from facing Rolly Romero in a rematch. Having missed a year out due to a drugs ban, Garcia was shocked upon his return to the ring by Romero in May. At the end of July Romero was named full champion by the World Boxing Association (WBA) at welterweight, raising the stakes of a potential rematch between the pair. He continued: 'After the Romero fight, they gave me the worst offer you can ever imagine. It was a bulls*** offer. And then Oscar tried to take my rematch with Rolly and give it to Raul Curiel. I've been trying to get the Rolly rematch, and now you want to give it to another fighter? 'It's a slap in the face, and it keeps happening over and over again. It's disrespectful. There is no loyalty. It's offensive, and they show me their true colours every time. I don't want to be a part of a team like that, and that's just the truth.' Rather than simply call out his promoter, Garcia went on to question's De La Hoya's business acumen. He added: 'Why is he hating on the only guy who's making him money? ' Gervonta Davis and I made $100 million in our fight. Who is the other fighter from Golden Boy who is a star? They don't have any. I am not being rude because I respect my fellow fighters. It's just the truth. Canelo told me back in the day, and I should have listened.' 'Oscar has no trust or belief in me. Great fighters lose, and they come back, rebuild and get better. Look at all the times he lost and came back. He was still the Golden Boy, and I was rooting for him. That's what the sport is all about. 'Oscar doesn't respect me. I don't think he ever thought I was a good fighter, but frankly, I don't care. I have one more fight left with him, and that's it. If they can build another star, great. I want to move on.' DAZN is the home of combat sports, broadcasting over 185 fights a year from the world's best promoters, including Matchroom, Queensberry, Golden Boy, Misfits, PFL, BKFC, GLORY and more. An Annual Saver subscription is a one-off cost of £119.99 / $224.99 (for 12 months access), that's just 64p / $1.21 per fight. There is also a Monthly Flex Pass option (cancel any time) at £24.99 / $29.99 per month. A subscription includes weekly magazine shows, comprehensive fight library, exclusive interviews, behind-the-scenes documentaries, and podcasts and vodcasts.
Daily Mail
04-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
BREAKING NEWS Usher CANCELS Australia tour: Fans heartbroken as singer's shows 'will no longer be proceeding'
Usher has cancelled his upcoming Australia tour scheduled for November and December. Fans we left heartbroken on Friday to find an email from Ticketek announcing the string of shows Down Under will no go ahead, with no explanation why. 'The promoter of USHER's Australian Tour regrets to advise that the scheduled November/December shows, will no longer be proceeding,' the email read. 'All purchased tickets will receive a full refund.
CBC
24-06-2025
- Sport
- CBC
World's best beach volleyball players to return to Montreal for summer pro tour
About 15,000 fans attended the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour in 2023, when it first came to the city. It was taken off the schedule in 2024 but is back with a new promoter.
