Believe it or not, yours truly was once almost a boxing big shot. Well?kinda, sorta, anyway.
A few years back, a boxing-loving restaurateur was about to come into some money and decided to become a boxing businessman. With a group of investors at his side, the guy began to establish the foundations for the first ever big-time TV boxing network. And they pegged me as an early-stages consultant for the project, helping set up a business model that would work within the realities of the sport.
I had done some hush-hush boxing-related consulting in the past and was on retainer from a professional gambler to help sniff out potential skullduggery and/or flipping of scripts, so I wasn?t completely blindsided by the offer of this gig. The same dogged unwillingness to be part of a boxing media good ol? boys club that had burned professional bridges and cost me writing gigs, actually got me a few side jobs here and there.
Anyway, while the idea of a dedicated TV boxing network was nothing new, I like to think that our approach was a novel stab at something not only profitable for investors, but also good for the long-term health of the sport.
Essentially, the goal was to create an ESPN-quality boxing network, integrating all of the sport?s major promoters (or as many as possible) as share-holding partners, with each promoter holding a piece of the business.
So, while Golden Boy, for example, would be able to broadcast their own fights (and profit from those fights), they?d also have a stake in seeing Top Rank or DiBella succeed (and vice versa, of course).
The operating model would?ve forced cooperation between promoters and test the veracity of the old axiom about rising tides lifting all boats. In other words, it would?ve been to everyone?s benefit that the biggest, best fights got made, regardless of each fighter?s particular business ties. It would?ve flat-out killed, at least to a great degree, the handcuffing business policies that keep some of the biggest fights from getting made. There would be no more promoter vs. promoter wars or network vs. network squabbles. Big-time boxing would all be in one place, under one umbrella, maintained by business interests that, in order to deliver maximum profit, would require a degree of working together.
Of course, I was never under the impression that untangling business ties and smoothing over underlying bad blood would be easy. But the hope was that smart boxing people with a long-term interest in building the sport and turning a sustainable profit would be able to work their way into pulling in the same direction.
Under absolute best-case-scenario conditions, we could even see talent trades between promoters as well as cross-promotional shows where, again, everyone would benefit as partners in the business. So, for example, if Top Rank really wanted to get Terence Crawford into the thick of the welterweight mix, he could reach across the aisle and negotiate with Haymon Boxing for Danny Garcia and then, in turn, Haymon could maybe ask for Bryant Jennings from Top Rank as an opponent for Deontay Wilder. Multi-promoter deals could be worked out so that each promoter gets the fights that their guys need.
And, again, since everyone would get a piece of the other guys? successes through the success of the network, there?d be less of a need to hoard stars and keep them isolated behind exclusive network deals, fighting hand-picked lesser opposition as a way to protect promoter interests.
In the long run, this spirit of cooperation would even filter down to judging and officiating, eliminating dubious house fighter/money fighter favoritism because, basically, there?d finally be more money in doing things right than in keeping burgeoning stars protected. Boxing would be nudged towards comporting itself like a ?real? sport.
I was working on this project right up until I stopped getting paid and the main man stopped answering my emails. Before things officially died, though, we had a name, a logo, and a promo reel video. We also had feelers out for equipment, along with proposed staff hirings, fleshed-out programming ideas, preliminary pitches to possible partners, and a clear philosophy on how things should be run, hammered out over the course of months via online and on-the-phone meetings. There was even an offer to fly me out of my Central Mexico mountain hideaway and put me up in a nice California office-apartment.
Although I never got any real, substantive answer about why things fell apart, I suspect that money played a part (as it always does) as well as a great (and fully justified) outsider?s fear upon lifting the lid on the boxing business and seeing just how hopelessly jumbled it truly is. I guess, for a well-meaning fan with fight game aspirations, the potential loss of money stemming from efforts to reach promoters buried in carny-style BS was too much. I definitely understand that.
But the idea was good and it was one that would?ve benefited the sport as a whole. It?s not something that can be revisited any time soon, however. The US boxing scene has already been divvied up in three or four parts and most of the sport?s talent is stuck behind network deals that make them exclusive ?content.?
Maybe, someday, someone will get brave enough to dive in and do something similar. I?d be happy with that?even if I won?t be drawing a paycheck from the concept anymore.
