By Rick Reeno
BoxingScene.com has heard through multiple sources that negotiations have restarted to finalize a fight between WBA junior welterweight champion Amir Khan and challenger Paulie Malignaggi for May 15 on HBO. Last week, the two sides hit a major issue on the money. Malignaggi's manager Josh Dubin believes the fight with Khan will happen.
"I think the fight will happen," Dubin said to BoxingScene.com late Sunday night.
As previously reported, Khan's promotional agreement with Golden Boy guarantees him a minimum of over $1 million dollars per fight on American television. Khan's deal with Golden Boy is for three fights. The high minimum, which according to multiple sources is $1.25 million, created a major issue when it came to negotiating the financial terms for a Malignaggi fight.
Based on the word going around last week, HBO was only offering a license fee of $1.5 million for the main event. If Khan is getting a minimum of $1.25 million, then it only leaves $250K of the license fee for Malignaggi. What fighter with any kind of name value would accept $250K when the guy on the other end is unknown to American public and receiving nearly the entire license fee.
You can't blame Golden Boy for promising Khan such a high minimum. And you can't blame Khan for jumping on the money. But the real problem is the unfair playing field that HBO's output deal with Golden Boy Promotions is creating. As part of the output deal, HBO makes a commitment to Golden Boy to buy a given number of fights for a given number of dates.
Because Golden Boy has a number of televised dates secured on the network, they have the ability to present such a high minimum to a fighter like Khan. No other American promoter, whether it's Top Rank, Gary Shaw, Dan Goossen or whoever, would have been able to present such a high minimum to a fighter like Khan, who is unknown to the American public.
Where would any of those promoters make a profit on Khan with such a high minimum? The output deal gives Golden Boy the security, and the power, to make such an offer because HBO's license fee will pay for it. Without secured HBO dates in the bag, no other promoter would have the capability to make such an offer because it would leave them in the probable position of digging into their own pockets to pay that minimum at a loss.
Because of the above mentioned factors, several promoters have become angry with HBO. Most of them are blaming the network for creating the situation and it's hard to argue with some of their points.
More than one major promoter has unleashed some anger in HBO's direction over Khan's seven-figure minimum - because there are fights being negotiated where boxers are being put in position to earn less than Khan. And some of these boxers are head and shoulders above Khan in the name recognition department when it comes to the American public.
