By Matteo Alderson
Part One:
In Iraq, Saddam Hussein has been removed from power and now different groups are fighting to fill the vacuum. There is a similar situation in the world of boxing. The sports two most powerful promoters, Don King and Bob Arum are both in their 70’s, on the verge of retirement, and as a result a large number of people are trying to break into the promotional side of the sport in anticipation of the financial opportunities that their imminent departures will bring. Golden Boy Promotions, Main Events, DiBella Entertainment, Square Ring, Cedric Kushner, Duva Boxing, Goosen-Tutor, and Gary Shaw are all trying to establish their companies and firmly entrench themselves into the market so that they will be able to contend for the mantel as the Sports premiere promotional outfit.
Boxing is a tough business and there have already been quite a few causalities in this war to fill the anticipated void that will be left by Arum and King. American Presents and SRL boxing have already thrown in the towel and closed their doors. Both companies had a lot of capital, television contracts, and prior experience in the industry. Matt Tinley, the founder of America Presents was the Grandnephew of Colorado Cable-Television millionaire Billy Daniels, who once had been involved with the career of former heavyweight contender Ron Lyle. Tinley also had earlier success managing Ireland’s 1992 Olympic Silver Medallist Wayne McCullough.
In fact Tinley had wisely used his expertise of television markets to set up a lucrative payday for Wayne when he challenged the WBC bantamweight title in Japan. Shortly after his initial success with the Pocket Rocket, Tinley developed bigger aspirations and soon he elicited the financial backing of his relative Billy Daniels and started the promotional firm America Presents. To start up Tinley immediately hired Dan Goosen as President and used his professional as well as familial ties to the television industry to successfully broker a long-term contract with Fox Sports to regularly televise fights. The company, America Presents, tried to sign every free agent world-class fighter they could. They signed Hopkins, the Ruelas brothers, Michael Nunn, David Reid, William Guthrie, and a slew of other world-class boxers. The problem was that Tinley was so intent on making an immediate impact in the industry that early on he readily accepted the fact that the company was going to lose money during it’s initial stages. This is fine and part of the natural business model, but the problem was that he spent money way too freely. He gave a lot of fighters large signing bonuses when a lot of them were already washed up. The company started up in 1996 and by 1998 a number of its fighters had lost big fights. In 1997 Wayne McCullough lost a decision to WBC 122-pound champ Daniel Zaragoza and in 98 Michael Nunn lost in his title bid for the WBC Light-Heavyweight Championship. That same year William Guthrie was upset by Reggie Johnson and Rafael Ruelas was beaten to a pulp by Kostya Tszyu. Also, Gabe Ruelas was knocked out by tough journeyman John (The Beast) Brown.
There was still hope for the company, at the time their darling, David Reid was still undefeated and on the cusp of winning a world title in the lucrative 154 pound division and the company was betting it’s own success on David’s to the extent that Tinley and Goosen neglected then future middleweight great Bernard Hopkins. They thought Hopkins was an old Alphabet titlist at the end of his career and just signed him to eventually match him with their young Olympic stud. This led to litigation and a bitter split between America Presents and Hopkins.
After a string of failures the company reloaded their guns and in 99 and 2000 made some significant investments. They signed Mike Tyson to a short-term promotional contract, they gave David Tua a seven-figure signing bonus, and also inked a deal with the young Hector Camacho Junior. Things only got worse. David Reid lost to Felix Trinidad and it became obvious that David’s droopy left eye was going hinder his career and prevent him from reaching his potential. The Nevada State Athletic Commission made it clear after the Orlin Norris debacle that they didn’t want Tyson fighting in Vegas for a while, Tua got fat and was lackadaisical in losing a decision to Lennox Lewis, and Hector Camacho Jr. lost any incredibility that he had in the sport when he quit against Jess James Leija in the summer of 2001. After all of these failures, the company finally went bankrupt in 2002, leaving a trail of unpaid bills and unfulfilled promises. Reportedly, the Estate of Billy Daniels is trying to sue Matt Tinley for using funds from the deceased Colorado businessman’s estate.
More recently Sugar Ray Leonard Boxing has closed it doors. Ray says it’s so he can devote his time to the upcoming reality television series, The Contender. Since Oscar De La Hoya and Fox have tainted the whole concept of a reality boxing television program by delivering a product so awful and of so poor quality with The Next Great Champ, The Contender doesn’t seem to have much of a chance even though it’s probably a superior program. Obviously SRL boxing is closing because it was having some financial problems. When Leonard opened up SRL boxing with Bjorn Rebney, he was greeted with a lot of fanfare. Everybody loves Ray and the boxing fraternity was quick to welcome his company with open arms and ESPN gave the company some guaranteed dates even before it had a stable of fighters. The company used its connections, name recognition and television contract with ESPN to entice fighters into signing. Still the company wasn’t successful and never really was able to develop or sign a superstar. Some of their more promising fighters didn’t pan out. The company’s champion, Diosbelys Hurtado, was stopped by Vivian Harris, Juan Carlos Gomez was recently knocked out in the first round, and Joe Mesi’s tenure with SRL ended in litigation.
When ESPN2 cut it’s programming licensing fees and ESPN boxing guy Bob Yalen was terminated due to a sexual scandal that involved programming dates and sexual favors, Ray saw that his advantageous relationship with ESPN was coming to an end, and realized that if his company couldn’t make it with revenue from a television contract that it was going to have a hard time succeeding with out one. So Ray decided to call it quits. He invested a significant amount of time and money and decided to call it a day before accumulating the type of debt that could detrimentally impact his lifestyle. Sugar Ray should really stay away from the business side of the sport because he’s really not good at it. Years ago as a manager/consultant he helped guide the careers of Andrew Maynard, Shawn O’Sullivan, and Quincy Taylor to failure.
TO BE CONTINUED ON JANUARY 25
INSIDE INFO ON MAIN EVENTS, GOLDEN BOY PROMOTIONS, AND THE SPORT’S OTHER TOP PROMOTIONAL FIRMS
