A milestone in boxing: Bettina
Palle's 25 years as a promoter
November 8, 2024
(NOV 8) When former IBF
world champion Sarah Mahfoud (14-2) steps into the ring against
Danila Ramos (13-3) on November 29, 2024, at Frederiksberg
Hallerne in Copenhagen, it will be more than just a high-stakes
world title eliminator between WBO’s top two featherweights.
The event will also mark a milestone, celebrating Bettina
Palle's 25 influential years as a boxing promoter.
Bettina Palle (born December 15, 1964) is one of the most
successful female promoters and managers in the boxing industry.
She currently oversees Danish Fight Night, the premier boxing
promotion in Denmark.
Based in Denmark, a small country with a population of only six
million, she has produced an impressive number of boxing
champions, including legitimate world and European titleholders
in both men’s and women’s boxing.
Alongside her father, legendary boxing promoter and matchmaker
Mogens Palle (1934–2022), she is also recognized as a pioneer of
women’s boxing on the European continent.
She has promoted more than 15 world title bouts in Denmark
across the four major organizations (WBA, WBC, IBF, and WBO) and
11 European title bouts under the European Boxing Union, which
governs Europe’s most prestigious continental title.
Additionally, her fighters have participated in numerous title
bouts organized by other promoters abroad.
In 2001, she and her father promoted a major 14-bout event at
Copenhagen’s national soccer stadium, where Mike Tyson defeated
Brian Nielsen in one of Denmark’s largest sporting events. She
also played a key role in the 2007 Joe Calzaghe vs. Mikkel
Kessler super middleweight unification bout in Cardiff, Wales,
which attracted 50,000 fans and aired on TV in 70 countries.
As the daughter of Mogens Palle, who was inducted into the
International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2008 after keeping
professional boxing in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden a live for
over half a century by promoting numerous European and world
champions, she was basically born into the sport of boxing.
While still a teenager, she first assisted her father with
practical tasks, including arranging travel for foreign fighters
coming to Denmark. She occasionally even traveled to other
countries with fresh plane tickets for last-minute
substitutes—before such logistics could be handled
electronically.
In her professional life, she trained as a travel agency clerk
and worked for several years with the airlines Pan Am, Iberia
and Varig. She also spent time in England and Spain, including
15 months in Madrid studying Spanish, and became fluent in
multiple languages, a skill that has proven invaluable in
negotiations with international boxing promoters and
federations.
She formally became part of her father’s boxing promotion in
1992, after Mogens Palle, the sole boxing promoter in Denmark,
suffered from heart problems. It was a time with large
television contracts and a string of European and world
champions from Denmark. Over time, Bettina gained influence and
started advocating for women’s boxing, despite initial public
skepticism. Known for introducing innovative concepts, Bettina
and Mogens ultimately presented Denmark’s first professional
women’s fight at the Cirkusbygningen in Copenhagen, soon after
authorities approved public women’s matches.
This historic event in 1995
featured Norway’s Helga (Snowcat) Risøy and Canada’s Diana Dutra
competing for the super-lightweight world championship of WIBF,
which was at that time the major sanctioning body of women’s
boxing. Barbara Buttrick, considered a pioneer of women's
professional boxing, presented the belt to the winner, and the
televised event, featuring heavyweight main event Brian Nielsen
vs. Tony Tubbs, achieved high ratings on several TV platforms
across Scandinavia.
In 1996, another female title fight featured Helga Risøy against
France's Sandra Geiger. Geiger won and the very same year she
faced Jane Couch, who later became the first licensed female
boxer in the United Kingdom in 1998. At that time, unable to
have licensed fights in her home country, Jane Couch traveled to
Denmark and won her first title in Copenhagen by out-pointing
Sandra Geiger in a brutal, hard-fought contest, earning a
standing ovation from the audience in K.B. Hallen. These three
female title fights inspired Bettina and Mogens Palle to develop
and promote their own Scandinavian female fighters (Sengul
Ocukcu, Frida Wahlberg, Anita Christensen etc.) during a time
when women’s boxing was still evolving.
In 1998, Bettina Palle made a bold move, earning her own manager
and promoter licenses and quickly signing her first fighters:
trailblazing female boxer Sengul Ocokcu and 19-year-old Mikkel
Kessler, a future world champion who would make his powerful
debut that very year.
After Mogens Palle survived a heart attack in 1998, his fragile
health led to the decision for Bettina to take over as the main
promoter while Mogens focused on his strengths as a matchmaker.
At the same time, Bettina Palle became one of the pioneers among
female boxing promoters, because there was already only one
other registered active female boxing promoter in Europe. At the
beginning of the 2000s, there were still only three on the
European continent.
The first sole Bettina Palle event took place on October of 1999
and featured future WBA world champion Johnny Bredahl winning a
European bantamweight title match against Paul Lloyd, followed
by a series of title events in subsequent years. Throughout the
1990s and 2000s, Denmark emerged as a significant force in
European boxing, with Danish and Scandinavian fighters from the
Palle stable simultaneously holding European title belts in
three different weight classes on two occasions.
Among the most popular fighters who captivated nationwide
audiences and drew high TV ratings were heavyweight Brian
Nielsen, super middleweights Mikkel Kessler, Mads Larsen, and
Rudy Markussen, welterweights Thomas Damgaard and Frank Olsen,
and featherweight Spend Abazi.
Anita Christensen became the most successful and popular Danish
female fighter of the new century, winning the WBA and WBC world
bantamweight titles from 2006 to 2008. Prior to that, in 2004,
she participated in one of the most exciting women’s contests in
Denmark, winning a controversial split decision against Ada (The
Ace) Velez in a matchup of BoxRec’s top two ranked
bantamweights.
Danish boxing probably peaked in the 2000’s when Johnny Bredahl
and later Mikkel Kessler emerged as world champions and won a
string of big fights in Denmark. These were the very great years
for Bettina Palle, who significantly contributed to the stable's
success. In 2002, she traveled to Venezuela, where the World
Boxing Association was based, to negotiate Johnny Bredahl's
title match against Eidy Moya, which Bredahl won spectacularly
in Copenhagen at the Falconer Centre. Johnny Bredahl
successfully defended his title three times on shows promoted by
Bettina Palle.
The ambitious promoter was also instrumental in negotiating
Brian Nielsen's match against boxing icon Mike Tyson the
previous year, and she played a key role when Mogens Palle
expertly positioned Mikkel Kessler for his historic World
Championship bout against Joe Calzaghe in Cardiff, Wales in
2007. The Palle family took significant risks but ultimately hit
the jackpot for both themselves and the boxers involved.
Before the historic event in Wales, Mikkel Kessler had already
claimed the WBA super middleweight title and went on to unify
the WBA and WBC belts with a stunning knockout of Markus Beyer
at a huge Bettina Palle–promoted event in Parken Stadium.
Before his rise to the main events, Mikkel Kessler was carefully
nurtured, developing his skills under the shelter of the top
fighters and building his career from the ground up. He was
given time to mature, refine his unique style, and gain
experience by facing opponents with a variety of fighting
styles, preparing him thoroughly for the challenges ahead.
However, when Kessler decided to leave Team Palle in 2009 to
sign with German powerhouse Sauerland Event, it seemed like the
Palle boxing legacy might be coming to an end. Both Bettina and
Mogens Palle took an extended break, leaving Sauerland to
dominate the Danish boxing scene. But only for a while.
At the age of 81, Mogens Palle made a surprising comeback as a
promoter in 2015, teaming up with former fighter Brian Nielsen
to establish Danish Fight Night promotion. Supported by Bettina
Palle they managed to produce a new world champion, Sarah
Mahfoud, and a European champion, Enock Poulsen, reclaiming the
position as the leading promoter in Danish boxing.
As age and cancer began to take their toll on Mogens, Bettina
Palle decided to return to the sport full time. After Mogens
passed away in August 2022, she ultimately chose to continue the
business, guiding the careers of the boxers and staging a new
series of boxing events in Denmark. She announced her intention
to honor her father’s legacy while forging her own path.
The first Bettina Palle show without her father took place in
2023, headlined by Sarah Mahfoud, and was followed by five major
events at the Royal Arena in Copenhagen. Two of these events
featured unified WBC/WBO bantamweight champion Dina Thorslund
defending her titles against Seren Cetin and Mary Romero.
Clearly, female boxing is a priority for Bettina Palle, who is
also contemplating the organization of an all-female boxing
event in the future, alongside her regular upcoming events.
Soon to be 60, the seasoned promoter has no plans to retire. Her
upcoming show at Frederiksberg Hallerne will feature former
world champion Sarah Mahfoud against Danila Ramos, along with
new talents in the "Tomorrow’s Champions" lineup. Highlights
include undefeated cruiserweight Hamza Hussein (7-0) facing
Italian Osvaldo Finizio (5-0); super middleweight prospect
Oliver Zaren (14-0); heavyweights Mathias Hansen (5-0) and
debuting Nikolay Piddubnyy; welterweight Victor Ramon (3-0); U19
World Championship bronze medalist Sofie Rosshaug (1-0); and pro
debutant featherweight Frederik Lundgaard Jensen, a 10-time
Danish and 8-time Nordic amateur champion.
