Promoter Gary Shaw isn?t one to back down from anyone and he took particular umbrage over comments made about him from veteran matchmaker and booking agent Don Majeski in this article: CLICK HERE. We here at Maxboxing consider ourselves to be an equal opportunity website and we gladly gave the Shaw-riff the forum to respond.
As expected, he came out firing.
“Don Majeski,” said Shaw, “what am I going to say? He?s a bottom feeder. So if you give him action and you pay him, then he?s on your side. But his accusations are all wrong. He should become a promoter and see how well he does here in the United States.”
Shaw believes that promoting in America is a much different animal than doing so in other jurisdictions. “Yeah, absolutely; there are only two fighters today who really draw in the United States or two-and-a-half, with Pacquiao, Mayweather and Cotto. Other than that, there are no draws. There?s nobody drawing any people in.”
OK, forget the feud between the two; the bigger issue is- why does this vacuum exist over here?
According to the promoter, “What?s great about the United States is we have everything. So what cuts for you cuts against you. I mean, I don?t know; we must have 120 or 150 television stations, between cable and networks. And you go over to Europe or some of these other countries and they have 12 stations or 14 stations. There?s nothing like you have here. We have pro football franchises; we have NBA. We have Major League Baseball; we have the NHL. We have soccer. There are just so many outlets for so much to do here in the United States- not even mentioning Nintendo, XBox and everything like that.
“And the last thing is, the United States is just not as nationalistic,? Shaw added. ?Nobody gives a damn. You don?t see anybody driving around with American flags unless it?s 9-11. You go over to these other countries and they got the Puerto Rican flags flying, the Argentinean, the Colombian, the English and German flags. They?re nationalistic countries. They all care when their fighters fight. They are all there and they care for them. It?s just not the same way in the United States.”
Driven by a sizable Polish population, Tomasz Adamek has become a bona fide draw at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, and many fighters of Mexican and Puerto Rican lineage in America have enjoyed box-office success on both coasts. So Shaw?s theory has credence; unless a fighter has ethnic or national pull, getting people through the turnstiles is difficult.
According to Shaw, the problems are multilayered.
“We lost all our heavyweights,” he continued. “There?s a famous saying, ?As the heavyweights go, so goes boxing.? We no longer have a heavyweight here in the United States. There is no Tyson, no Holyfield, no Bowe, anymore. So it?s driven by the smaller guys now and it?s just tough.”
Then there is the issue of the freebie culture, which, Shaw insists, has hindered the ability to sell tickets.
“When you ?paper? a whole house, after awhile- and I believe that?s what?s happening in Las Vegas- and that?s why Las Vegas can?t draw anymore,” he opined. “They?ve papered so many houses; who wants to buy a ticket? You know that if you wait long enough, you?ll either get two-for-one or you?ll get a free ticket or whatever. And that?s all over. The worst thing we ever did was start ?papering.? They immediately said to everybody, ?Don?t buy because you?ll get a free ticket.? It?s just like Christmas time; there are so many sales, nobody pays full price.”
On the flipside, for events where you have a demand for tickets- the prime seats are basically impossible to purchase at face value.
“It?s the wrong thing. You have enough trouble selling tickets without giving the brokers all the first and second row,” said Shaw, “and there are some promoters- and I don?t want to make accusations; they know who they are- that immediately draw the tickets out of the box-office and the next thing is, you go online to StubHub and there they are, right there to be had for double or triple the price. It?s wrong.
“But today, it?s very difficult selling tickets.”
TV KILLED THE BOXING STAR
While some flatlanders believe that the proliferation of sanctioning bodies is the main culprit for boxing?s decline and that going back to a one-belt system is the solution to cure all its ills, I?ve maintained for awhile that once the promoters abandoned the networks for the pot at the end of the rainbow that was the premium cable license fee, that was REALLY the beginning of the decline of the American market.
Fighters earned more money for fighting on smaller platforms and, just as importantly, began to fight less every year. And as the years have gone on, they have become just as much managers (and, in some cases, ?promoters?) and have inflated values of their own self-worth. And it hasn?t helped that HBO is now a de facto promoter.
“All the fighters now,” said Shaw, in a frustrated tone, “think that they?re worth $2 million and up or whatever but they don?t sell any tickets. See, our whole sport is upside down. What it should be is they should be paid on the percentage of tickets that they would actually sell, the people that they draw in. If they can?t draw, then they get paid accordingly. If they can draw, they?re deserving of the money. A guy like Pacquiao is absolutely deserving of the money he gets. He draws the fans but, right now, there?s only one Pacquiao and one Cotto, so it?s very difficult.”
There used to be an era when fighters? market value was indeed predicated on their ability to put asses in seats. Now, it?s determined by a network executive, who may or may not always put aside his biases or agendas. Shaw himself benefits from this system, admittedly. His client, junior welterweight titlist Tim Bradley, who has problems filling up a 2,000 seat theater near his home of Palm Springs, made around $750,000 for his last bout versus welterweight Luis Abregu and will make over a million bucks for his outing with co-titleholder Devon Alexander in Pontiac, Michigan in late January. Junior middleweight titleholder Sergiy Dzinziruk could be making around $850,000 to face middleweight champ Sergio Martinez on March 12th, after one fight on U.S. soil that took place in a small room at the Chumash Casino.
Some might accuse him of hypocrisy but Shaw is playing by the rules of the system that is currently in place. The price tags on this fight were set by HBO.
As boxers began to rely on network license fees as a semi-annual annuity, they began to perform less and less. It?s hard to market and promote anything you see every seven or eight months. If boxers were compensated as they were in the past (based largely on gate receipts) and they could no longer count on getting paid seven-figures for boxing in front of 1,500 people in a half-empty casino ballroom, you?d see them more often.
“Fighters should get paid for what they can actually draw and I don?t know the mechanism, how we go back to that. But that certainly should be where it?s at. So the fighters need to fight more; they need to be on TV more and they need to be able to sell tickets,” said Shaw, who began his run in the promotional end of things in 1999 with Main Events. He believes this is biggest shift in the paradigm since he?s been on this side of the fence. “To me, the most damaging change is that the purses are now out-of-whack, what fighters are demanding to fight. So the fact is, if you look at what Hagler, Leonard and all those guys used to get and what the fighters are asking today, it?s just not commensurate with what they can draw.
“So that?s one of the big changes. I think there are a lot of people to blame for where we are today; I don?t know if there has ever been as much of a lack of cooperation between the promoters,” he continued. “I think the other thing that has hurt [boxing] terribly is [Bob] Arum and what he?s now trying to do with just fighting his own fighters against each other. I honestly believe that?s hurting boxing badly.”
Geez, amidst all this doom and gloom, is there any hope?
“Look,” said Shaw,” I?m the eternal optimist and I believe in good karma. So I believe that, yes, there is hope and that we can put good fights together and we can draw. But I?m telling you, it?s very difficult. A good test will be January 29th to see what we can draw for Devon Alexander and Tim Bradley in Detroit. Detroit?s a fight town; we?re going to Pontiac, Michigan to the Silverdome and, hopefully, we?re going to draw. But look, I get the real numbers so I know what the fighters are drawing in California and all over in Las Vegas.
“Right now, there?s nobody drawing. The state of boxing is in trouble, as far as arenas go.”
NEW YEARS FLURRIES
Speaking of that show at the Silverdome, in what will be a pretty good fight, Tim Coleman will face Vernon Paris…Yusaf Mack and Otis Griffin will square off in an IBF light heavyweight elimination bout on Jan. 7th at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Minneapolis…Our condolences to legendary trainer, Angelo Dundee, on the passing of his beloved wife of 58 years, Helen…Don?t know if I brought this up before (honestly, I forgot) but don?t Saul Alvarez and Clippers rookie sensation, Blake Griffin, look an awful lot alike?…My News Years resolution is to lose three or four pounds in 2011…I can be reached at [email protected] and I tweet at www.twitter.com/stevemaxboxing. We also have a Facebook fan page at www.facebook.com/MaxBoxing.
