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By Mitch Abramson - Nearly two weeks ago, Roc Nation Sports, the agency founded by Jay Z, announced its presence to the boxing world with the authority of a jackhammer.
It was a two-pronged blitz:
A day after revealing its existence on Aug. 18, the company’s new boxing front man, David Itskowitch, trekked to Puerto Rico, armed with a check.
His mission: to win a purse bid at WBO headquarters in San Juan for the rights to promote the middleweight title clash between Peter Quillin and challenger Matt Korobov.
Itskowitch easily outbid the second highest offer of $1.2 million by Golden Boy, which handles Quillin. Itskowitch ponied up $1,904,840.
And with one fell swoop, Roc Nation Sports made headlines and stole the boxing news cycle for several days as people tried to make sense of what was happening.
Here was a new player in boxing, overbidding for a title fight even though it didn’t have rights to either of the boxers involved.
But that was beside the point.
The move was more about buzz, chatter, conjecture, word on the street, etc. than it was about providing a sound business model.
“It’s rare that a promoter can come out of the gate and announce that they exist and win a purse bid within the same day,” Itskowitch said in a phone interview with BoxingScene.com. “We understand that we don’t have any future rights for any of the fighters but this is our coming out party.” [Click Here To Read More]
It was a two-pronged blitz:
A day after revealing its existence on Aug. 18, the company’s new boxing front man, David Itskowitch, trekked to Puerto Rico, armed with a check.
His mission: to win a purse bid at WBO headquarters in San Juan for the rights to promote the middleweight title clash between Peter Quillin and challenger Matt Korobov.
Itskowitch easily outbid the second highest offer of $1.2 million by Golden Boy, which handles Quillin. Itskowitch ponied up $1,904,840.
And with one fell swoop, Roc Nation Sports made headlines and stole the boxing news cycle for several days as people tried to make sense of what was happening.
Here was a new player in boxing, overbidding for a title fight even though it didn’t have rights to either of the boxers involved.
But that was beside the point.
The move was more about buzz, chatter, conjecture, word on the street, etc. than it was about providing a sound business model.
“It’s rare that a promoter can come out of the gate and announce that they exist and win a purse bid within the same day,” Itskowitch said in a phone interview with BoxingScene.com. “We understand that we don’t have any future rights for any of the fighters but this is our coming out party.” [Click Here To Read More]
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