Comments Thread For: Arum: Haymon Only Promoter Who Won't Work With Others

[Butch.McRae]

I can think of 120 million (annually) reasons why PBC fighters need to fight through their respective platforms.

This is nothing but sour g****s here.

Arum is salty because, in the end, he lost the arms race.

[-DSG-]

Never trust a ***!

[MEXfistology]

Thats because al haymon is not a promoter, jackazss . hes an advisor , and he also worked on this fight behind the scenes because amir khan is under his stable

[Butch.McRae]

Gayman and PBC have the biggest roster in boxing, yet we're mostly getting bs fights, still to this day! Remember when pbc first launched? They had a few good fights and A LOT of garbage ones? Seems like some things never change. At least theyre not on bounce tv anymore, smfh

You're joking right? The PBC calendar has been much more entertaining than any of the other US companies. The only person in boxing who stacks up is Matchroom, for their UK business only (the US operation has been trashy).

[Butch.McRae]

Thats because al haymon is not a promoter, jackazss . hes an advisor , and he also worked on this fight behind the scenes because amir khan is under his stable

This is an underrated point. People forget to realize that Haymon's power is enhanced by guys like Lou and Goosen (his brother now), who have gotten much richer thanks to Haymon's business moves. (And a long list of the other regional promoters)

They're basically making risk free money now. Arum/Top Rank's structure doesn't allow him to share the wealth in that way.

[marvin douglas]

Never trust a ***!

Get that racist crap out of here.

[marvin douglas]

Thats because al haymon is not a promoter, jackazss . hes an advisor , and he also worked on this fight behind the scenes because amir khan is under his stable

Haymon is actually registered as manager in California and nevada.

Bobby is a promoter, but acts like a manager. That's why Floyd left him. Bob wants to control everything.

[boxingitis]

PBC is OK, nothing special.

[-DSG-]

Get that racist crap out of here.

Could've sworn it was a religion.

[Bronx2245]

Maybe if Arum and De La Hoya had not sued Haymon, and tried to destroy him in the courts, he would be more cooperative, like when he let Molina and Diaz fight Crawford on HBO?

January 9, 2019:

A Booming, Divided Boxing Business in 2019
ESPN
Steve Kim

With an increasing number of networks and online platforms investing millions in boxing, the business of the sport has never been so robust and vibrant. It's also never been as divided as it is at this very moment...

"And today, I think you have much more of a two-league system, some might say three-league system, but we'll see if that third league -- and I'm talking about DAZN -- is going to go. But right now, you really do have the PBC league and you have the ESPN league, and in a way it's good because what ESPN is doing for the sport has elevated the sport. They're not just dipping their toes in the water, they've really jumped in headfirst, and I think that has elevated the sport," said Schaefer, whose company is one of the outfits that serves as one of the official promoters for bouts under the PBC banner, which was created by Al Haymon...

"[Haymon] has really been the trailblazer. Love him or hate him, he really helped to elevate the sport, bringing [an] ESPN in, bringing a Fox in," Schaefer told ESPN.com in late December...

Every major broadcast entity that is now involved in boxing is currently aligned with a promoter. They are now, in essence, tied together at the hip. By signing with a Top Rank, for instance, you are basically signing on with ESPN. Currently there is an arms race of sorts as rival factions look to strengthen their own stables and their programming lineup.

But Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Sports believes that while boxing is ''definitely booming," he also has his concerns.

"I just think it's spiraling a little bit out of control in the U.S., whereby fighters have been overpaid, in my opinion. ... Actually, forget my opinion -- the numbers tell you that they've been overpaid, and I don't know where it ends."

Hearn isn't averse to pointing fingers at himself.

"Everyone's trying to keep up; we're overpaying," he said. "ESPN's overpaying fighters, Haymon's overpaying fighters and some of the fighters just aren't worth what the numbers say they are. So it's a war of attrition right now. We saw this a few years ago with the PBC. I remember because I was on the other end of it. We felt the shockwaves in the U.K., with the PBC coming in and offering large amounts of money to fighters, world-class fighters, of which there were many, and we had to step up our game."

That was in 2015. In 2018, explained Hearn, "it's kind of like the reverse now, where DAZN is coming in and spending a lot of money and PBC has had to up their game and go back to paying at the levels [they were at] before..."

Every network has the services of at least one marquee boxer, and with the investment they've made in that boxer, they will obviously frown upon them performing on any other stage but their own. Exclusive deals that have tied down boxers to a specific network have been around for years, and this isn't a new dynamic. What's new is that there are now more players involved, jockeying for their place in the pecking order.

"We've been around long enough to know the politics will always stop certain fights from happening when there's cross-network politics. So when you're talking about in the past, it was no different with HBO and Showtime. Now it might be DAZN, ESPN or ESPN+ or Fox," said Hearn, who in the past has been willing to do co-promotions, though that was before his association with DAZN.

"I do like to think that we have a reputation for making more fights with other promoters than anybody else," he continued. "But of course, everybody's strategy is the same: Deliver the biggest names and the biggest fights to your platform, your broadcaster. It's not just that one's nasty or vindictive, that's just the name of the game. If I've got Oleksandr Usyk or Anthony Joshua and I'm putting him on ESPN, well, what's the point in DAZN being with us and giving us a budget if we can't deliver our big names to their platform..."

Arum says he is more than willing to start negotiating a Crawford-Spence bout with the potential of a big-money figure in play.

"Absolutely, there's no problem at all," he said. "No problem at all, and we have a template of how to do it, which goes back to the Pacquiao-Mayweather fight."

But is the other side as willing?

"I don't know who the other side is anymore, really," said a frustrated Arum, taking a not-so-veiled shot at the reclusive Haymon. "I think [Stephen] Espinoza [the head of Showtime Sports] would be willing. I think the people at Fox would be willing, they share other sports, football and so forth. But again, Haymon, marches to his own tune to God knows what."

Schaefer counters that when it comes to that particular fight, Crawford will have to wait in line.

"The fact is, these fighters have options within their own universes, within their own league," he points out, bringing up the names of Keith Thurman and Shawn Porter as viable welterweight options for Spence in the near future. "And as long as these options exist, I think these options are going to be exhausted..."

Ultimately, there is a stark reality to the current marketplace. Promoters aren't just worried about protecting their boxers, but also protecting their broadcast partners.

"This is just the business, it will mean that certain fights are difficult to make," explained Hearn, who is under pressure himself to make a Joshua-Wilder fight sooner rather than later.

"If Golovkin comes to DAZN, I'm sure we'll get Canelo against Golovkin III," Hearn continued. "If he doesn't, then we'll probably never see that fight. So that would be a shame. Will you ever see Lomachenko against Mikey Garcia? I very much doubt it. It's a fight I'd love to see. Will you see Errol Spence against Terence Crawford? I very much doubt it. That's another fight I'd love to see."

That sound you hear? It's the collective groaning of boxing fans across the world.

"It's not that anyone's really trying to scuff up the sport or be difficult, it's just their jobs," Hearn went on to say. "Haymon's got to deliver for Showtime and Fox, I've got to deliver for DAZN, Bob's got to deliver for ESPN.

"So they won't move their talent, nor will we."

http://www.espn.com/boxing/story/_/i...-business-2019