Did Mikey shot himself in the foot by leaving Top Rank?

[Thraxox]

And wasted how many years in his prime battling Arum in the courts instead of getting active and getting paydays in fights and raising his profile.

Where do you think Mikey is now had he not left top rank? With Lomachenko staying in top rank he is getting 7 figure paydays while Mikey is below him.

[Ray*]

Nah lol, he is in the best position ever for him.

[Thraxox]

Nah lol, he is in the best position ever for him.

How so? He is not getting seven figure paydays like Lomachenko and he is not getting Crawford anytime soon, he is not in any big fights like he claims to be after top rank, but rather having fights like Lipinets.

[Ray*]

How so? He is not getting seven figure paydays like Lomachenko and he is not getting Crawford anytime soon, he is not in any big fights like he claims to be after top rank, but rather having fights like Lipinets.

He can fight anyone he wants outside of Top rank. He is a free man, that is priceless.

[elfag]

Thurman and spence are too big for him but those are available now.

leaving arum is usually a good move.

There was no real guarantee arum wouldve made the crawford fight.

he could fight someone like danny garcia next and get paid decent im sure. actually theres no guarantee he would have gotten anything as big as the broner fight if he was with arum still.

[sunny31]

And wasted how many years in his prime battling Arum in the courts instead of getting active and getting paydays in fights and raising his profile.

Where do you think Mikey is now had he not left top rank? With Lomachenko staying in top rank he is getting 7 figure paydays while Mikey is below him.

Time will tell. If I had to guess, I would say it will work out for him financially in the end. Plus he just made 7 figures in his last fight, and you know what? He didn't have to give 25 or 28% (whatever it is nowadays) to Top Rank.

[Lester Tutor]

Time will tell. If I had to guess, I would say it will work out for him financially in the end. Plus he just made 7 figures in his last fight, and you know what? He didn't have to give 25 or 28% (whatever it is nowadays) to Top Rank.

This. Although Bob is the king of having fighters wanting to leave his company and end their contracts. Of course non-disclosure with boxers not telling the public details for earnings... but Haymon gets criticized for "over paying." That contradiction proves the flop from Arum and contractual ways, cause Top Rank fans claim Arum is the best employer, as the OP insinuating....then again...this alt was a notorious #48 fan...

#was

[artfuL_]

Totally.

At the least, he should have fought bums to finish of his contract and move his career more quickly.

He was definitely poorly managed.

[Dip_Slide]

Totally.

At the least, he should have fought bums to finish of his contract and move his career more quickly.

He was definitely poorly managed.

Well as soon as Bob Arum senses that you want to do that he stops giving you fights or he gets you robbed when you least expected against one of his upcoming fighters, that's how this guy operates. Plus normally when stuff like this happens fighters expect it not to last longer than 6 months maybe a year at most. So they wait and after a year they realized ok if I pull out of court and stay with Bob then I lost that year on nothing so they choose to go all the way. These rest years can be very beneficial for a fighter especially if the fighter doesn't have bad habits outside of the ring, these 2 years can prolong a fighter's career by 2 year or even more, fighters also come back with more motivation when the money starts to run out and they feel like they wanna prove they're the best again, which is exactly the case with Mikey.

I think Mikey did the right thing and it's paying out very well right now, he already made some good money in his 2-3 come back fights and now has the potential to make some really big paydays on the Haymon side.

[The Big Dunn]

Mikey made the right move IMO. It's clear Arum is going to pick Loma over him. Probably Crawford too.

If you are Mikey, do you want to be like Cotto and have your promoter put you in fights with another guy he promotes where you have to come in a couple pounds less to defend your belt? I would say no.

If you are Mikey, do you want to watch another guy get the premium dates even though he can barely sell out 5,000 seat arenas? No.

Short term, Mikey would have benefited from the ESPN airtime. Long term, if he wins fights, I think he made the best decision.