By Jake Donovan

As is supposed to be the case with anything related to the Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) movement, the big news that came out of Brooklyn, New York on Wednesday, January 18 was supposed to be all about the boxers involved in said announcement.

Instead, a press conference held to reveal the long-awaited showdown between unbeaten welterweights Keith Thurman and Danny Garcia ultimately gave way to the profanity-laced, racist and homophobic rants of a hot-headed trainer who can't seem to get out of the way of a microphone or his own public ego.

Angel Garcia's maniacal rant has been rightly vilified by the boxing media, with every major outlet calling for the immediate removal of the Philadelphia-based trainer from the forthcoming March 4 event at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. The venue also played host to the aforementioned press conference and said incident.

On this occasion, the media did its job in calling attention to a despicable act. Because the event was streamed live in addition to updates coming from reporters onsite, you’d like to believe that details of the occurrence would have been documented regardless of the offending party.

Unfortunately, history – in particular, the past couple of years up to and including present time – suggest otherwise.

Conveniently lost in the shuffle over the past couple of weeks is the latest development in the ongoing $300 million lawsuit filed by Golden Boy Promotions against Haymon and his enterprise in 2015. The matter is due to go to trial beginning March 14 at the U.S. District Court in the Central District of California.

In previous months and years, developments as they occurred have been immediately reported by various outlets. The main motivation, perhaps, was the fact that it was seen as means to get full disclosure on all matters Haymon, by and large an extremely private person who almost never speaks to the press.

It can only explain why so few in the media even batted an eyelash over the latest development. The assigned March 14 court date should provide means for a major news story to those who were quick to attack the topic in the past. However on this round, the latest findings cast Golden Boy in a negative light.

To date, the only journalist to fully expose the matter was BloodyElbow.com analytics and business writer Paul Gift – aptly surnamed, given his extraordinary knack for bringing you inside a courtroom or business meeting through his words. His January 13 investigative report exposed the efforts made by Golden Boy Promotions to have excluded from the case a chain of 15 e-mails exchanged between veteran publicist Ramiro Gonzalez and boxing writer Hesiquio Balderas, the bulk of which discusses the latter’s articles on Haymon’s movements in the industry as well as how to rally more English-speaking websites (naming this site and FightNews.com as hopeful targets) for the cause. 

In no fewer than two replies refer to Haymon as “Black Hitler” and another where – upon reviewing a story link submitted by Gonzalez – insists that his own “article goes deeper into what that n****r (referring to Haymon) is doing.”

According to court documents – of which a copy has been obtained by BoxingScene.com - additional email exchanges were introduced to the motion hearing, involving participation from several Golden Boy employees including company founder Oscar de la Hoya.  Included among the lot was a plan discussed between Golden Boy and an outside agency hired on retainer, to:

- highlight instances where Haymon-advised fighters failed a drug test, including but not limited to intentionally yet anonymously leaking said results to select media members;

- leverage in its favor an at-the-time active investigation into Haymon’s alleged practice of venue squatting;

- launch a “high-level public affairs campaign to encourage and force the Commission and other California law enforcement entities to actively investigate Al Haymon and Premier Boxing Champions.”

The last of the aforementioned operatives was known as the “California Strategy”, with plans to (taken directly from the court documents):

- Identify key California legislators and Chairs of key Committees with jurisdiction over promoters and boxing;

- Set-up private dinners/meetings with Oscar De La Hoya and Top Rank executives to outline the issue and problem affecting California;

- Once (Golden Boy has) a champion or champions for our issue, have an informational hearing with Oscar testifying (this will generate a lot of buzz and media attention);

- At the same… organize legislative letters and constituent letters urging the California Attorney General and the Boxing Commission to look into the illegal and anti-competitive actions of Premier Boxing Champions and Al Haymon; and

- Organize press and media around these events.

As the plaintiff, Golden Boy’s contention (through its legal team) was that the defendant’s (Haymon and his companies) goal in introducing the 15 emails was “solely for the purpose of seeking to impute Mr. Balderas’ inflammatory comments to Golden Boy, and thereby inflame the passions of the jury.”

Haymon’s legal team countered that “[t]he Balderas [e-]mails were an aspect of a public relations smear campaign that Golden Boy launched in mid-2015 to spread negative stories about Defendant Alan Haymon and Haymon[-]managed fighters. Defendants have and continue to maintain that this lawsuit, the related arbitration, and the press surrounding them is part of that same smear campaign.”

In essence, the argument made by Haymon’s side is that it has been Golden Boy’s unwillingness to do business with the advisor following their nasty split and subsequent settlement in 2004, and not the other way around.

Gift’s January 13 story exposed some of the details while highlighting other trial matters. It was further discussed on the January 16 edition of the popular boxing podcast “The Morning Punch-In Show with RB and Jae”, run by marketing strategist Michelle “Raging Babe” Rosado and BlackSportsOnline.com reporter Jeandra “Jae” LeBeauf) and with that particular segment featuring Gift as a guest to further dissect his story and the court case in particular.

Other than websites that have previously published Balderas’ work scrubbing its timeline clean, it has otherwise been radio silence from the boxing media.

Rather than digging in and following up on a court case that many outlets have previously tracked, focus was instead shifted toward recently occurred and upcoming major fights as well as other developments.

Making the rounds in the way of Golden Boy-related news was the recent signing of former Olympic Gold medalist and world titlist Yuriorkis Gamboa. Also generating headlines was company’s enthusiastic announcement of a new ESPN2 boxing series “Golden Boy Boxing on ESPN”, set to launch March 23.

A calendar of the active dates in queue for 2017 was released, along with the promise of 42 fight cards to come of the deal. Notable among the announced dates was the various nights on which the shows take place – Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.

This detail wasn’t scrutinized by the media but rather celebrated as a fresh new series which means more boxing for fight-starved fans. The approach was correct; however, the same benefit of the doubt was never granted toward PBC’s current series on ESPN’s flagship station, a deal that came at the expense of axing the long-running ESPN2 Friday Night Fight series.

PBC on ESPN started out strong, featuring in its first three telecasts Thurman (who scored a stoppage win over faded former titlist Luis Collazo in the July ’15 series debut), Garcia (who mirrored Thurman’s achievement in breaking down and stopping former two-division titlist Paul Malignaggi in Aug. ’15) and a 2015 Fight of the Year contender that saw Leo Santa Cruz score a 12-round points win over Abner Mares.

All three installments aired in primetime on Saturday evenings. Subsequent episodes have aired on various nights of the week and offered a wide range in quality (or lack thereof) in its main events, running from mid-week title fights to prospect-level matchups that comprised of its second season which aired last summer on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.

Similar complaints were made in absent themes from its series on various other networks – NBC, CBS, Bounce TV, Fox, FS1, NBC Sports Network and Spike TV.

It didn’t take long for the bloom to come off the rose, although an argument could be made that the majority of the industry never gave the PBC movement a fair shake to begin with. Its very first installment – which aired on March 7, 2015 live in primetime on NBC – was carefully scrutinized by various media members, focusing less on the in-ring action and more so on how few authentic commercials ran during the two-hour telecast which peaked at 4 million viewers.

As the quality of main events dipped along with the ratings, a mass celebration took place among naysayers in the absence of genuine concern that the stateside boxing scene as a whole was waning in popularity. Only recently has American cable giant HBO come under fire for failing to provide its boxing audience with high-level content on a consistent basis.

It has been forgiven that the network has suffered from massive budget cuts, a crisis that was only momentarily averted in 2015 thanks to the massive profit that came from the sport’s most lucrative event in history.

The joint venture between HBO and Showtime to present the long-awaited pound-for-pound showdown between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao (in which Mayweather won a painfully dull 12-round decision in their May ’15 Pay-Per-View headliner) destroyed box-office records. From such proceeds, HBO was able to generate additional funds for the second half of its 2015 boxing calendar.

It meant not only being able to offer more content to its subscribers, but not having to lose stride and worry about having to tap into Haymon’s PBC movement in order to fill its roster, given the network four-year (and counting) ban on any of his fighters (at least being featured as the A-side). The 2015 boxing season was a memorable one for HBO, particularly a 1st half schedule that saw boxing stars Gennady Golovkin, Wladimir Klitschko, Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez and Miguel Cotto all appear live on its flagship station.

Golovkin also appeared on HBO in the second half of its 2015 schedule before making his PPV debut later that year. The results weren’t spectacular, but a financial boom came of the Nov. ’15 collaboration that saw Alvarez edge Cotto to win the World middleweight title. The event generated 930,000 PPV units sold, which remains by far the best selling PPV show in the post-Mayweather-Pacquiao era.

Somehow lost in the media scrutiny was the fact that HBO’s schedule took a cliff dive in 2016, both in terms of quantity and quality. Too much attention was being paid to the PBC schedule running thin in its number of shows, along with glaring cuts in main event significance and production value. The bells and whistles that came with season one – including the “Wall of Thunder” from where boxers would appear en route to celebrated ring walks.

Efforts to focus solely on the fights didn’t play well, as ratings took a nosedive with the exception of two widely celebrated events: Thurman’s 12-round win over Shawn Porter last June, airing live on CBS in the network’s first primetime telecast since 1978; and rising welterweight Errol Spence scoring a stoppage win over Leonard Bundu in a strategically placed NBC main event that immediately trailed the Gold medal round of the 2016 Rio Olympics men’s basketball competition.

The latter event produced an average of well over 5 million viewers, making it the most watched live boxing event this decade.

As only boxing can do, any efforts to capitalize on the newfound momentum were completely squandered. PBC’s only surrounding events were low budget prospect shows on ESPN, followed by the announcement of all but going cold for the rest of 2016.

The move also affected American cable outlet Showtime, which has tried in vain to put its best foot forward in the way of quality boxing content. An aggressive summer schedule was pushed out, producing several great moments as well as the 2016 Fighter of the Year in Carl Frampton.

What was missing, sadly, was the viewership to go with its efforts. U.S. boxing fans have become conditioned to believe that HBO isn’t just the biggest but the only game in town. Showtime managed to close the gap beginning in 2012 and more so once it snagged Mayweather from HBO in 2013.

That momentum was killed in 2014, in part due to the massive implosion within Golden Boy including the forced resignation of longtime CEO Richard Schaefer and its previously mentioned fallout and subsequent lawsuit with Haymon. As Golden Boy took what was left of its stable – including Alvarez and future Hall of Famer Bernard Hopkins – back across the street to HBO, Showtime became dependent on what was provided by Haymon and the promoters with whom he chose to do business.

Sadly, the cable outlet threatened to become the odd-man out during PBC’s “Free Boxing For All” campaign in 2015. A pair of significant cards finally came about late in the year – a super middleweight clash between titlist James DeGale and former champ Lucian Bute, and a December 5, 2015 middleweight showdown between Brooklyn-based boxers Daniel Jacobs and Peter Quillin.

Both matchups were embraced by boxing fans in public discussion as quality headliners. Viewership sadly suggested otherwise, with ratings hitting rock bottom.

Things didn’t improve much in 2016, with Deontay Wilder’s highlight-reel knockout win over Artur Szpilka last January serving as the most-viewed Showtime event on the year. The show drew barely more than 500,000 viewers, less than half of the audience that Wilder was able to pull in for his title-winning effort over Bermane Stiverne exactly one year prior.

Also not helping Showtime’s cause in 2016 was going dark from Frampton’s over Santa Cruz through the rest of the year save for one Showtime Championship Boxing telecast on December 10 and a spattering of ShoBox events in between.

This fact was not lost on the boxing media, nor was the gutting of PBC’s 4th quarter schedule as its handlers instead chose to regroup and reload for a strong season three in 2017. Inconsistent scheduling, erratic matchmaking and failure to live up to its own lofty standards made the PBC movement an easy target, and in fairness much of the criticism well-warranted.

But never at the expense of turning a blind eye to racism and comparisons to history’s worst offender of Genocide.

Meanwhile, HBO, in effect, was able to hide in plain sight. Constantly brought to the forefront was the statistical fact of remaining the industry leader in terms of viewership while diverting attention from the fact that said numbers had dramatically declined from previous years.

Long gone are the days where the network’s list of Top 10 watched telecasts is loaded with events landing well north of 1 million viewers. To show how far viewership has fallen as well as concern for quality programming, the highest rated cable telecast of 2016 was Gennady Golovkin’s gross mismatch with untested and unheralded Dominic Wade last April.

HBO was able to add to its fourth quarter schedule, presenting three post-Thanksgiving telecasts on its flagship station. None of the three managed to resonate with viewers, nor did any of its five PPV telecasts of the year with the exception of Alvarez’ 6th round knockout of Amir Khan. The Mexican superstar’s knockout win over Liam Smith topped a September 17 PPV event, with nary a single primetime boxing event offered by HBO leading into its next PPV show on November 19. Andre Ward bested Sergey Kovalev in a widely disputed split decision win, atop a show that barely caused a ripple at the box office.

As Showtime announced its strong 1st quarter schedule for 2017 – accompanied by a fresh batch of PBC events airing on Fox, FS1, Bounce TV, Spike TV and Showtime-affiliated CBS – HBO has stumbled out the gate. Its first offering of the year comes this weekend, on a night in direct competition with a far superior card on Showtime featuring the rematch between Frampton and Santa Cruz, supported by Dejan Zlaticinan putting his unbeaten record and lightweight title on the line versus undefeated former two-division champ Mikey Garcia.

On the HBO side comes a boxing-friendly doubleheader featuring Francisco Vargas and Takashi Miura in separate bouts.  The two joined forces for the 2015 Fight of the Year, in which Vargas survived a knockdown, a swollen eye and a hailstorm of punishment to rally and stop Miura in the 9th round of their instant classic in Nov. ’15. The bout easily stole the show from the Alvarez-Cotto main event, with Vargas adding another entry to his catalog in fighting to a 12-round draw with fellow Fight of the Year regular Orlando Salido last June.

For a while, this weekend’s card was the only one on the schedule for HBO while announcing three PPV telecasts in the first five months of the year – February 25 (Cotto vs. James Kirkland, both of whom are coming off of losses to Alvarez as well as year-plus long layoffs), March 18 (Golovkin vs. Jacobs) and May 6 (Alvarez vs. Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.).

Only recently has a second confirmed date been announced for HBO’s flagship station, as David Lemieux will square off with Curtis Stevens in a Boxing After Dark main event. The matchup has been largely embraced as a fan-friendly affair, while some have pointed out that it’s hardly main event worthy in the tradition of the BAD series, along with the fact that just two non-PPV dates are on the books for the first quarter of the year.

By the time it reaches that point, Showtime will have presented (barring injury) three far superior telecasts along with the March 4 Thurman-Garcia affair on its parent network, free-to-air CBS in primetime. The PBC movement as a whole will have also offered shows on Spike TV, FS1 and Bounce TV.

The latter of the three – which airs February 10 – features gym stablemates Robert Easter Jr. and Rau’Shee Warren in separate title defenses. In the main event, Easter Jr. defends his lightweight title versus overmatched Luis Cruz in what is largely a hometown showcase with the card taking place in his native Toledo, Ohio. Several in the boxing public have criticized the show as not living up to the standard once promised by PBC handlers, complaining that its best efforts are still coming on premium cable (Showtime) which contradicts the originally launched “Free Boxing 4 All” campaign.

Objectively, the February 10 Bounce TV telecast (for which this scribe serves as the researcher and evening’s unofficial scorer) barely pales in comparison to what’s presently on HBO’s schedule.

Gone are the days, however, where investigative reporters such as Thomas Hauser would dig in and rightly criticize the self-proclaimed Network of Champions for failing to satisfy the appetite of its boxing subscribers. Those days ended once he was reportedly brought on as a “boxing consultant” although no evidence exists that any more has been done than the network simply purchasing his silence, his efforts in recent years instead shifted towards the wrongdoings of anything Haymon-related.

The boxing fraternity being what it is in present time, many have instead chosen to follow in step rather than serve as free thinkers. Somewhere along the way, writers have chosen to take up the cause of the promoter rather than the athlete. The theory is that such favors lend itself to the opportunity of being first in line for breaking news stories, greater access and any other perks that come with serving as a scribe in a promoter or network executive’s good graces.

Or maybe such entities simply lack any members perceived as Black Hitler-acting n****rs that warrant such criticism.

Twitter: @JakeNDaBox_v2