Looks Like Mikey Garcia Will Be First Zuffa Boxing Fighter Signed

[Clegg]

Glaser is claiming Mikey is signing without Haymon's consent or advice apparently. Glaser been a lil all over the place lately doe so who knows how legit this is.

From the desk of Rick Glaser. Anyone know how legit this is? ���� pic.twitter.com/Z6h5eUk8cZ

— Raging Babe (@RagingBabe) May 3, 2018

Yeah I stopped following Glaser after a while. He posted some interesting stuff but his dislike of Haymon comes across too often. He name drops him just to complain regularly but then claims to be a reliable source of anything Haymon-related.

[Jubei]

Does that mean Mikey will avoid Loma even longer and keep fighting B class dudes?

[lanker rom]

ringstar sports

Just spoke with @danawhite and he said he’s closing in on a deal with @MikeyGarcia He said plans for Zuffa Boxing are moving forward.

— Kevin Iole (@KevinI) May 3, 2018

Thoughts, opinions?

I told y'all mfers PBC is gonna get plundered this year between Zuffa & Hearn coming to the states. Go look at the free agent boxers out there. There aren't any worth a damn EXCEPT Haymon guys who are affiliated with PBC.

Why are there two different ringstar sports? one is Richard schaefers and then there is another one?

[lanker rom]

What was the arrangement between Mikey and Schaefer? Was that just a 1-2 fight deal?

It's always looked like the right promoter could come into boxing and improve a lot of things and dominate, but it just seems a huge task that would take years. Looking at what others have done, PBC went with building a large stable, looking towards network TV, whereas Roc went with signing the biggest stars they could even if it mean over-paying them like with Ward and Cotto and looking toward big PPV fights. A lot of other differences between the two companies but could be Zuffa go closer to a RN approach based upon this news. Mikey is one of the smarter, play the game risk/reward businessman type of fighters and you'd have to pay him over the odds to get him on a long-term deal.

If they did a deal with Haymon, I'd be interested to see a set-up where there was a card every weekend, with one PPV a month. Kind of a cross between what WWE do and what UFC do. Not saying I wanna be paying more to watch but I do think having the best fight the best more often could involve more PPV cards even if not full price. Without some kind of Haymon partnership or just stealing a ton of his guys I don't see them having enough fighters to have a UFC model of regular meaningful cards. One of the advantages of the UFC is they've built the brand in a way that it's bigger than the fighters but that couldn't be done in boxing with 5-6 cards per year (not sure it can be done anyway or that they'll try to, but hypothetically).

If they are going alone then it's a crowded market and so you either do what Hearn has done and just try build things gradually, don't go silly on huge purses or sign every single talented fighter you can but just get established in the market and try and have more fighters/cards each year as a longer-term plan. That to me makes the most sense, no guarantee it'll work for Hearn but just seems sensible. Difference between Hearn and RN to me is that RN were too ambitious, paid too much and then after a while decided to stop pumping money in. Signing Mikey makes me wonder if that happens here but still too early to say. Maybe they expect profit straight away or maybe they're happy to lose money for 3 years if they feel the company is building in the right way long-term. If Mikey beats Loma in late 2018 then in 2019 he's one of the stars of the sport, could be a smart investment. But if I had to guess I'd say Zuffa Boxing no longer exists in 5 years time.

first off great points!!! but I don't think wme-img would enter into the BOXING business without a plan/goal. After all a lot of execs were sort of put out of boxing for a while now. If Endeavor wants to get in now its for a reason. I believe haymons pbc did a lot the dirty work. Because he took a lot of risk in the beginning that no one else would have taken now they are seeing where they could make ends meet with boxing. Anyway yesterday someone alluded to me that zuffa would have the same role that golden boy would have had IDK what that is but if you guys do that's great. I personally believe that the plan is to have the multiple Promoters operate like NWA wrestling and give them all a different areas to promote in while haymon boxing is still manager and the big promoters like Zuffa and maybe Matchroom buy a steak in PBC (the tv arm) and get network deals for pbc fighters

[Scipio2009]

having UFC buy into the PBC would incentivize fox to have to pay for pbc and shows built around it to build stars and create a wider fan base

Why would that move FOX when the UFC is already moving their content elsewhere and the ESPN move (with ESPN+ being a possible way for UFC to monetize their other non-PPV content better)?

[Scipio2009]

Answer the question when Jacobs was on PBC and Lou was his sham promoter who had the say in who he was fighting Lou or Haymon? Now that he is signed with Hearn who has say in his fights Hearn or Haymon? It's a FACT Haymon's role has been greatly diminished because he is no longer the defactor promoter for Jacobs. Hearn doesn't need any permission from haymon to make fights he chooses. Whether Jacobs wants to still retain haymon in a lesser role to just look over contracts for fights Hearn makes is on him and irrelevant to my point. Hearn is in full control of Jacobs career now NOT Haymon.

Haymon is still Jacobs' manager (along with Connolly), and HBO still calls the shot on the TV date.

What can Hearn do without the yes from Haymon/Connolly and the yes from HBO?

You're drastically overstating the amount of control that Hearn picked up with Jacobs, lol.

[MrRolltide91]

Interesting....

[lanker rom]

Why would that move FOX when the UFC is already moving their content elsewhere and the ESPN move (with ESPN+ being a possible way for UFC to monetize their other non-PPV content better)?

UFC hasn't confirmed a move away from FOX. Plus its not a great move for the UFC to put cards on ESPN+ if you weigh the pros and cons Millions of less viewers vs however much ESPN is willing to give them to put cards there

[lanker rom]

does anyone know why there are two ringstar boxing/sports promotions?

[Scipio2009]

UFC hasn't confirmed a move away from FOX. Plus its not a great move for the UFC to put cards on ESPN+ if you weigh the pros and cons Millions of less viewers vs however much ESPN is willing to give them to put cards there

I'm not confirming a move away from FOX either, I'm just following the rumors and extrapolating out.

Regardless of the audience numbers, ESPN is supposedly getting up to 15 shows for ESPN+, UFC is cutting their PPV count in half, and ESPN is basically paying UFC $10m a show (math is fuzzy, but I think that'd be about what they'd get on a 400k PPV buys event).

With the $4b owed on the UFC, what's to stop WME-IMG, if ESPN ends up liking the deal, from moving the entire package over? 4 events on ABC (or at least options for 4 events on ABC), ESPN carries the weign-ins/gives weigh-in coverage for the UFC's 6 PPVs, and you end up with 25-30 UFC cards on ESPN+, with UFC Fight Pass keeping the outside MMA shows and whatever UFC events that ESPN doesn't want. Could even make TUF-type show exclusive to ESPN+.

ESPN pays $350m-$400m per year for the deal; ESPN+ becomes the defacto home of the UFC, and UFC fans are left with needing to have ESPN+ to continue following the UFC. No real idea how big the MMA audience generally is, but a million folk picking up the app gets you $50m to start with before advertising comes into the picture, on ESPN and ESPN+.