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As he scanned a three-quarters-empty Liacouras Center in the respected fight town of Philadelphia last month, it struck Bob Arum like one of those thunderous blows Artur Beterbiev delivered to Oleksandr Gvozdyk in their light heavyweight unification fight that night: Why was he restricting business only to American venues?
After all, Top Rank presided over a roster of talent strewn from global destinations. Arum says his promotion, in hopes of utilizing this, now plans to have at least 10 of the 30 cards in the next year take place outside the U.S.
Beyond keeping Mexico’s WBO super bantamweight champion Emanuel Navarrete in his home country on Dec. 7 for a title defense in the city of Padua, Arum has already struck a lucrative site deal to take two-belt light welterweight champion Jose Ramirez to China on Feb. 2.
Should Northern Ireland’s Carl Frampton defeat Tyler McCreary on Saturday night in Las Vegas, Arum said he plans to take Frampton to Belfast for a spring opportunity to become a three-division champion against WBO super featherweight belt-holder Jamel Herring.
And South Africa, maligned by an*ongoing corruption and bribery scandal*within its ruling African National Congress, has sought to stem the negativity by staging a championship fight that would drive tourism and uplift the country’s flagging confidence, Arum said. One option to fight there in 2020? Unbeaten welterweight champion Terence Crawford, should he win his mandatory defense against Egidijus Kavaliauskas at Madison Square Garden on Dec 14.
At recent stops in Los Angeles, Reno, Nevada and the Philadelphia card, Top Rank has taken financial hits. The L.A. card, headlined by Navarrete at the new Banc of California Stadium, was trounced in attendance by a competing UFC card in Anaheim. Reno fans were unmoved by the featherweight title meeting between New Jersey’s victorious Shakur Stevenson and Southern California’s Joet Gonzalez.
At Beterbiev-Gvozdyk in Philadelphia, a fight between a Russian and Ukrainian, only 2,000 tickets held by the 3,200 in attendance were paid for, Arum said.
Top Rank’s chief financial officer has tracked event costs and found that — before fighter purses are paid — each of Top Rank’s 30 main stops for ESPN cards is resulting in a cost of $500,000 to $700,000 for talent, accommodations, travel, arena rent, publicity and other event needs. After looking at the live gates, “maybe, if we’re lucky, we average $200,000,” Arum said.
“But now you can go over overseas. And if they’re giving you $1.5 million or $2 million to do the event, that swings everything around from a negative because the fighters’ costs remain the same. When I go to China and get X (amount) and they comp all the rooms and the travel, instead of being upside down $500,000, I’m plus that and more.”
Among the other fights Arum is eyeing to take outside the U.S. are Stevenson’s first featherweight title defense, a unification against England’s Josh Warrington in the U.K. and Beterbiev’s next light heavyweight defense.
Arum is pushing to place Beterbiev in Russia or Chechnya. He says of the tickets sold for his fighter’s bout with Gvozdyk in Philadelphia, 80 percent were to Ukrainians in the area.
It might prompt a package deal, considering Arum’s Ukrainian three-belt lightweight champion Vasiliy Lomachenko is awaiting the Dec. 14 winner between IBF champion Richard Commey and unbeaten challenger Teofimo Lopez for a full four-belt unification meeting in the first half of 2020.
“That fight will be worth a ****load of money in the Middle East or Eastern Europe!” Arum exclaimed.
Asked where he’ll actually place that bout given its magnitude and Lomachenko’s ability to draw significant crowds in New York and Los Angeles, Arum doubled down.
“Wherever I get the money!”
After all, Top Rank presided over a roster of talent strewn from global destinations. Arum says his promotion, in hopes of utilizing this, now plans to have at least 10 of the 30 cards in the next year take place outside the U.S.
Beyond keeping Mexico’s WBO super bantamweight champion Emanuel Navarrete in his home country on Dec. 7 for a title defense in the city of Padua, Arum has already struck a lucrative site deal to take two-belt light welterweight champion Jose Ramirez to China on Feb. 2.
Should Northern Ireland’s Carl Frampton defeat Tyler McCreary on Saturday night in Las Vegas, Arum said he plans to take Frampton to Belfast for a spring opportunity to become a three-division champion against WBO super featherweight belt-holder Jamel Herring.
And South Africa, maligned by an*ongoing corruption and bribery scandal*within its ruling African National Congress, has sought to stem the negativity by staging a championship fight that would drive tourism and uplift the country’s flagging confidence, Arum said. One option to fight there in 2020? Unbeaten welterweight champion Terence Crawford, should he win his mandatory defense against Egidijus Kavaliauskas at Madison Square Garden on Dec 14.
At recent stops in Los Angeles, Reno, Nevada and the Philadelphia card, Top Rank has taken financial hits. The L.A. card, headlined by Navarrete at the new Banc of California Stadium, was trounced in attendance by a competing UFC card in Anaheim. Reno fans were unmoved by the featherweight title meeting between New Jersey’s victorious Shakur Stevenson and Southern California’s Joet Gonzalez.
At Beterbiev-Gvozdyk in Philadelphia, a fight between a Russian and Ukrainian, only 2,000 tickets held by the 3,200 in attendance were paid for, Arum said.
Top Rank’s chief financial officer has tracked event costs and found that — before fighter purses are paid — each of Top Rank’s 30 main stops for ESPN cards is resulting in a cost of $500,000 to $700,000 for talent, accommodations, travel, arena rent, publicity and other event needs. After looking at the live gates, “maybe, if we’re lucky, we average $200,000,” Arum said.
“But now you can go over overseas. And if they’re giving you $1.5 million or $2 million to do the event, that swings everything around from a negative because the fighters’ costs remain the same. When I go to China and get X (amount) and they comp all the rooms and the travel, instead of being upside down $500,000, I’m plus that and more.”
Among the other fights Arum is eyeing to take outside the U.S. are Stevenson’s first featherweight title defense, a unification against England’s Josh Warrington in the U.K. and Beterbiev’s next light heavyweight defense.
Arum is pushing to place Beterbiev in Russia or Chechnya. He says of the tickets sold for his fighter’s bout with Gvozdyk in Philadelphia, 80 percent were to Ukrainians in the area.
It might prompt a package deal, considering Arum’s Ukrainian three-belt lightweight champion Vasiliy Lomachenko is awaiting the Dec. 14 winner between IBF champion Richard Commey and unbeaten challenger Teofimo Lopez for a full four-belt unification meeting in the first half of 2020.
“That fight will be worth a ****load of money in the Middle East or Eastern Europe!” Arum exclaimed.
Asked where he’ll actually place that bout given its magnitude and Lomachenko’s ability to draw significant crowds in New York and Los Angeles, Arum doubled down.
“Wherever I get the money!”
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