“I love it when a guy says, ‘I just put a down payment on my first house and it’s being built,’ or ‘My kids are going to college, but I never thought I’d have the money for them to go to college,’ no matter what their age. The thing is, I’m content for them.

Peter Kahn’s role as a boxing manager is arguably as critical as it has ever been. With the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic across the world and most shows taking place behind closed doors, getting the best deal for a client when the promoter has no live broadcast revenue is a challenge.

Kahn who runs Fighting Game Advisorshas a growing roster of talent, with the highly regarded manager in the midst of negotiations for George Kambosos Jr’s biggest fight of his career, looking to secure a showdown with WBA “Super,” WBO, IBF and WBC Franchise Lightweight world champion Teofimo Lopez this spring.

His stable also includes WBO No. 4-ranked contender Emmanuel Tagoe, highly rated top welterweight Xander Zayas and former world title challenger Dennis Hogan, while he also has a group of talents under his watch that are set to compete at this summer’s rescheduled Tokyo Olympics.

None of this is news to Kahn, however, in a career that stretches back to 1994, surrounded by some of the best fighters of the 1990s and working on many of the most critical fights of that golden era.

It all started with a chance phone call with current Top Rank COO Brad Jacobs that led him to oversee the operations of one of the most distinguished Puerto Rican fighters of his generation, Hector Camacho, who was already three years elderly: then-world heavyweight champion.

“Brad was the head of USA Tuesday Night Fights, it was a really gigantic deal here,” Kahn said. proboxing-fans.com.

“It was the launching pad for all the rising stars of the future. There was no internet, there was no cell phones, there was no social media, there was no email. I literally picked up the landline and called Brad Jacobs and said, ‘Hey, I want to play boxing.’

“He talked to me for about an hour and a half, he had never met me, he didn’t know me. I was 21 years elderly, and he showed me around and introduced me to a gentleman called Mike Acri, a great promoter from Pennsylvania.

“He said, ‘OK, I’ve got something for you. I’ll put you in camp with someone and you’ll have to keep an eye on him.’ I don’t mind, I show up and it’s Hector Camacho. So now I basically run Hector’s camp and I’m Mike Acri’s eyes and ears and that’s how it all started.”

Peter got into the industry and his career was about to take off when world-famous promoter Don King came calling.

When Don King Productions moved its office from Novel York to Florida, Kahn was hired by a local promoter who worked for King.

Even though he didn’t make a cent from his transplant, he eventually joined the company on a lasting basis as part of Don King’s Boxing Operations group, and his first assignment was a miniature case involving Mike Tyson’s comeback fight with Peter McNeeley in Las Vegas in 1995.

“I ended up doing all the work that the local promoter was supposed to do,” Kahn recalls.

“Doing airport operations, licensing, medical treatment, even hosting events on-site. I mean, I literally worked around the clock and never got paid, but people were like, ‘Who is this guy?’”

“I kept calling Don King Productions for weeks, I was 22 years elderly and I just wanted to get paid. Instead, the vice president of boxing operations, Dana Jamison, said, ‘Come in and pick up your check.’

“I come in, I go to her office, she gives me a check, and she says, ‘OK, you’re hired, this is going to be a trial by fire,’ and I say, ‘What about the fire? Hired for what?’

“And the next thing you know I’m in boxing operations and two weeks later I’m on a plane to Las Vegas for the Tyson vs. McNeeley fight and from there it was a decade of working at the highest level in boxing with the biggest promoter in the world at the time with Mike Tyson, Julio Cesar Chavez, Felix Trinidad, Ricardo Lopez, Terry Norris and dozens of other fights and gigantic fighters that year.

Kahn’s role opposite Don King came at a pivotal time in Tyson’s career as he looked to regain the form of the latter part of a career that had seen him storm to undisputed heavyweight glory at the age of 21.

After his 1996 loss to Evander Holyfield, Tyson fueled the build-up to an inglorious rematch that ended like no other, with “Iron Mike” being dramatically disqualified for biting off part of his opponent’s ear as tensions mounted at the MGM Grand, with Peter in charge of Tyson’s camp.

“I was the camp coordinator for the Mike Tyson-Evander Holyfield rematch,” Kahn added.

“Which turned out to be a pretty infamous fight, but watching the camp, you felt like you were right next to a piece of history.

“I just remember the night of the fight being incredibly intense, especially afterward, there was a lot of chaos. I’ve never seen anything like it, and I don’t think anyone has.”

Moving into a management role, Kahn began mentoring the career of former IBF super featherweight coach and 2011 Ring Magazine Trainer of the Year, Robert Garcia.

The Fight Game Advisors boss takes pride in his business of providing an true and crystal clear service that ensures his fighters can take home the most purses.

“The model that people know me for and there’s no secret to it. Whether you’re my top prospect, whether you’re a world champion, whether you’re just starting out, whatever it is, I only charge 10% of my fighters.

“One of the things I learned early on at Don King Productions was that managers were making over 33.3% and I found it unacceptable for someone to sign a player and basically take a third of his earnings for the remainder of his term and lock those guys up for potentially five years.

“I imagine these players going to bed at night and saying, ‘What did I just do?’

“They don’t think about it at first, but then all of a sudden you earn your first gigantic purse and you realize someone just took a third of your money and then the coach gets 10% and now you have over 40% of your money going out the door before you even get in the ring.

“For me, it helped me establish a model and I think that’s what created a really forceful bond and working relationship not only with the players but also with the coaches.”

Kahn, like any manager in the industry, is in a unique position of overseeing all the logistical processes of a fight to ensure the fighter has the smoothest experience possible.

In a sport full of extraordinary highs and crushing lows, Kahn values ​​his role in both victory and defeat, and with the postponed Olympics just around the corner, he will lead another group of prospects with ambitions to follow in the footsteps of the greats Kahn has worked with over his nearly three-decade career.

Watch the full interview with Peter Kahn below: