By Jake Donovan
With news of TGB Promotions securing the rights to promote the featherweight title fight between Lee Selby and Eric Hunter came the working theory of staging the bout in the United Kingdom.
The concept was confirmed by Eddie Hearn, whose Matchroom Boxing serves as Selby’s local promoter and has designs of loading up an April 9 show in London, headed by Charles Martin’s heavyweight title defense versus unbeaten rising star Anthony Joshua.
Such a move makes sense, as Selby hails from Wales and has spent his entire pro career in the UK up to and including his title-winning effort over Evgeny Gradovich last May. Where viewpoints differ, however, is how his career has since played out.
Selby’s first title defense also served as his stateside debut, outpointing former three-division champ Fernando Montiel last October in Glendale, Arizona. The move followed his signing with adviser Al Haymon, appearing as a headliner on Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) on ESPN.
With two fights comprising of his 2015 campaign and six months between ring appearances – assuming Selby lands on the April 9 show – his UK supporters would like to see an improvement in that regard. The “concern” is not just limited to Selby, but all of Hearn’s fighters who’ve signed with Haymon over the past year.
“I think with these guys who have moved to America, so to speak, it’s working for some but not working for others,” Hearn told BoxingScene.com’s Declan Taylor on Wednesday. “Obviously the money is good but you look at Lee Selby for example and he won the title on May 30 and it has nearly been a year and he’s boxed once. I feel like it has really slowed his progress down.
“His value over here has dropped but in America it might have increased, I don’t know. But it’s quite difficult now to get these guys on the bill on the purses that they’re reportedly getting. But they are not boxing often enough - James is the same - he’s boxed once in a year nearly. I’d like to see them box three or four times in a year and I would like to see Lee Selby box in Wales, in Cardiff. When we took him to Barry on the open-top bus parade and down the seafront, he was a superstar down there. But the momentum has fallen, and it’s the same with James.” DeGale did in fact fight twice in 2015, May winning the super middleweight title against Andre Dirrell, November defending it against Lucian Bute.
While any promoter should want to maximize exposure for his fighters, there a few contradictions that are worth noting.
Selby’s title win over Gradovich came six months after his Oct. ’14 title elimination win over Joel Brunker. While the title victory was on a big show in London, he was also forced to fight for press coverage with two other title fights – Kell Brook in a 6th round knockout of Frankie Gavin, as well as Kevin Mitchell’s heartbreaking stoppage loss to Jorge Linares.
It was a different story for his first defense, where he was the headlining A-side attraction.
“Lee Selby came over and in his first fight (in the United States) took on a Mexican legend in Fernando Montiel,” notes TGB Promotions’ Tom Brown, who promoted the Oct. ’15 show and also represented Selby in the recent purse bid that will land the Welshman a payday of more than $250,000 for a fight otherwise not on anyone’s radar.
“That’s tremendous exposure for your first title defense and in a market where he wasn’t really known prior to that.”
It seems the two promoters both have Selby’s best interest at heart. In fact, Brown went into the purse bid hearing of the knowledge that even in securing the rights, the fight could wind up on another promoter’s show.
As Martin and Selby are both advised by Haymon, placing them on the same card is a logical move. It’s among the many subjects Brown plans to discuss with Hearn as potential business partners once both are able to clear out present business at hand.
Each are involved in separate shows this weekend, though whose main events both carry Showtime-televised coverage. TGB Promotions promoted the Showtime-televised doubleheader from the Honda Center in Anaheim, California. Headlining the show, Leo Santa Cruz defends his featherweight title for the first time as he faces Kiko Martinez, while super bantamweight titlist Julio Ceja and Daniel Ruiz meet in a rematch of their thriller last August.
On the other side of the Atlantic, Scott Quigg and Carl Frampton square off in a long-awaited super bantamweight title unification bout in Manchester, England. The event will air live on Sky Box Office in the UK as well as on SHO Extreme in the United States, with Showtime to rebroadcast during its aforementioned card later Saturday evening.
The grudge match between Frampton and Quigg was finally made after both titlists scored separate wins on the same day – and at roughly the same time - in different parts of the world last July. Quigg stopped Kiko Martinez in two rounds at home in Manchester, while Frampton recovered from a pair of opening round knockdowns to otherwise dominate Alejandro Gonzalez Jr. in El Paso, Texas, marking his first appearance in the United States.
Frampton’s win aired live as a Saturday afternoon edition (Central Time Zone) of PBC on CBS, as well as on terrestrial network ITV during primetime in the United Kingdom.
“Carl and his fans got the best of both worlds with that fight,” Brown believes. “In addition to introducing his brand to the U.S. market, his fans back home get to see him in primetime. That was his last fight, same with Quigg. Seven months later, they are on a major UK PPV as the lead.”
“The fight was built up properly, and isn’t at all diminished because they’ve been inactive during that time. In a perfect world, you want your fighters to be as active as possible. But look at that fight – Frampton benefitted greatly from venturing into a new market. That’s where the PBC has helped these fighters. His fight was telecast in prime-time in the UK while being shown in a great afternoon slot in the U.S.”
Two more examples are Jamie McDonnell and James DeGale, both of whom posted their biggest career wins on American soil.
DeGale landed a seven-figure payday for his stateside debut, a 12-round win over Andre Dirrell to win the vacant super middleweight title last May, becoming the first-ever Olympic Gold medalist from Great Britain to capture a world title in the pro ranks. Similar to Frampton’s stateside adventure, DeGale’s career-best win came on a free-to-air U.S. broadcast that also aired live in primetime overseas.
Six months later, he headlined live on Showtime, scoring a decision win over former champ Lucian Bute. The pair of wins further pushed the belief that – upon Andre Ward moving up to light heavyweight – DeGale has emerged as the best super middleweight in the world, after not even being in the conversation prior to 2015.
McDonnell was a two-time bantamweight titlist, but was viewed as a sacrificial lamb in being served to previously unbeaten Tomoki Kameda in their CBS-televised headliner last May in Hidalgo, Texas. Instead, the gutsy Brit climbed off the deck to pull out a close – and perhaps debatable – decision win to officially announce his rival as a top bantamweight.
He repeated the feat four months later, returning to Texas – this time in Corpus Christi – to hand Kameda his second consecutive loss on a Sunday afternoon telecast preceding the NFL season.
“A guy like Jamie McDonnell, he wins both fights in United States, both of which could have easily gone against him,” said Brown. “Both of the Kameda fights were in primetime (in the UK). You can’t ask for better exposure in those situations, especially in the lower weight classes like 118 and 122, as was the case with McDonnell in those fights and Selby getting a big name fighter like Montiel for his first time out.
“DeGale wins his world title in a bout telecast in prime-time in the UK and then goes on to defeat a legend in Bute so he truly benefitted greatly from the exposure the PBC gave him.”
It perhaps remains to be seen if the fighters under Hearn’s wing loses their footing in the UK market. There could be a legitimate concern on his part, although the fighters he’s referenced – while known at home – weren’t exactly filling up stadiums on their own. Nevertheless, he’s content with what has worked for him through the years and seems anxious to go back to the way things were.
“I just feel like we need to make a decision on whether we focus solely on America or we decide to remain important and active in the UK market,” said Hearn. “If you’re not, you’re going to get overtaken by other fighters who are flying: Anthony Joshua, Scott Quigg, Anthony Crolla, Chris Eubank Junior, George Groves. You’re never safe in boxing as a boxer in terms of being ‘the one’ because there are always other fighters in big fights who are leap-frogging you.
“Some fighters are moving forwards and some are moving backwards and if you continue to move backwards you might as well give up in that market. There is nothing wrong with those guys boxing in America I just think the distance they’ve lost in the UK market, we need to get that back and the only way we can do that is by getting it back very soon.”
Brown sympathizes with his British counterpart, but looks at the matter from a global perspective. “On Saturday alone, we have Leo Santa Cruz, the Frampton-Quigg fight, Ceja-Ruiz II. Abner Mares was supposed to fight Montiel on March 12, but that fight will happen soon. Then you have Lee Selby (versus Hunter). And Gary Russell Jr. is one of the very best featherweights in the world.
“All of these fights are around the same weight class and happening close enough in time to where we can mix and match the winners and the losers. There are a lot of great fights to be made with all of these guys. That intrigue, that level of interest comes from expanding their fan base and maximizing their exposure, which is being provided by their coming to the United States to fight.”
Jake Donovan is the managing editor of BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox
