By Rick Reeno
For the last few weeks, BoxingScene.com has heard rumblings of a historic summit in the sport. This coming Monday, July 20th, nearly every promoter in the United States, or an appoainted representative, will gather at the Roosevelt Hotel in Manhattan for a meeting of the boxing minds. All of the big promotional firms will be represented, including Warriors Boxing, Golden Boy Promotions, Top Rank, Gary Shaw, Lou DiBella Ent., Goossen-Tutor, Don King and many, many more. At least 40 or more promotional companies are expected to attend.
From speaking with dozens of promoters over the last few weeks, I've been told that everyone is meeting to discuss some of the ongoing problems in the sport, and hopefully find some agreed upon solutions as a group.
Several industry figures have compared this meeting to the famous "Apalachin Meeting" held on November 14, 1957. That historic gathering was a carefully planned summit by the American Mafia, held at the home of mobster Joseph "Joe the Barber" Barbara in Apalachin, New York. At least 100 mafia crime bosses from the United States, Canada and Italy were in attendance. The meeting turned into a huge disaster when the home was raided by law enforcement. Over 60 bosses were captured and later indicted for their involvement in organized crime.
The “Apalachin Meeting” of 2009 will have several agendas on tap. Some of the agendas are being closely guarded, while others I’ve been able to dig up. One issue at hand has to do with the promotional contracts for the fighters. Different promoters have different types of contracts and many of them would like to see a universal format in place to prevent ongoing problems and future disputes with fighters.
Another issue has to do with television networks constantly going around the promoters and directly dealing with the managers/advisors of the fighters. There will be some talk about the different promotional firms working together to attract more sponsors to the sport.
These types of meetings are very common in other professional sports like baseball, basketball and football. Depending on the success of next week’s meeting, I hear the plan is to have at least a yearly meeting between the promoters to discuss various issues within the sport.
There is a lot of speculation over some of the major issues that everyone in attendance will plan to discuss. One issue being speculated upon, although not confirmed, is the battle between boxing and mixed martial arts.
Will the promotional rivals actually unite as a group to combat the threat of MMA? One issue I’ve heard some promoters raise is the use of 4-ounce gloves by fighters in the UFC. Boxers up to 147-pounds are required to use 8-ounce gloves, and 10-ounce gloves are required for those above the welterweight limit. Promoters are not looking for boxers to have smaller gloves, but they would like to see mixed martial artists wear bigger gloves.
I’m curious if some of the existing promotional rivalries will explode during this summit. What happens when a particular party brings up their inability to land television dates on a particular network like Showtime, HBO or ESPN? What happens when a party complains about another party poaching their talent? There are some very interesting angles to ponder.
