When Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions launched nearly a decade ago, their goal was to clean up boxing and grow the sport to new heights, of course turning a profit was also on the East Los Angeles native’s mind.
Looking back, Golden Boy Promotions is clearly a major player in a sport that is ripe with squabbling between rival promoters, broadcast networks, and other key players. Oscar De La Hoya’s vision has not come to frutition and is now unable to make the biggest events in the sport.
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From Marco Antonio Barrera, to Bernard Hopkins, to Juan Manuel Marquez, and De La Hoya himself, Golden Boy Promotions has never been a developer of talent – but instead the New York Yankees of boxing – cherry picking ready made free agents from rival promoters.
But the tables have turned, as Juan Manuel Marquez walked away from Golden Boy Promotions this week and signed a five million dollar contract to fight Manny Pacquiao in November on a card put together by Top Rank Promotions.
Marquez’s decision to fight Pacquiao, highlights Golden Boy’s new reality; a clear inability to develop marquee events that are economically significant. Advertisement
In Marquez’s contract with Golden Boy, there was a clause which allowed Golden Boy to match any offer presented by a rival promoter at the contract’s termination. Golden Boy Promotions reportedly did not even offer Marquez an offer, and if they did, they best they could put together was a pay per view bout between Marquez and a fighter with no pay per view or drawing power – Victor Ortiz.
A quick look at Golden Boy Promotion’s roster shows no fighter with drawing power, thus economic power. Golden Boy’s stable is littered with solid young fighters who have not been developed into draws cable of selling pay per views or tickets.
Golden Boy was once known for organizing events that sold millions of pay per view buys and generated millions of dollars in revenue. These events also brought in millions of dollars in corporate sponsorship..
Now Golden Boy is forced to market a bout like Erik Morales vs. Marcos Maidana as pay per view worthy events, a long call from events such as Floyd Mayweather Junior vs. Oscar De La Hoya, or Mayweather vs. Ricky Hatton.
The next several months should be interesting at 626 Wilshire Blvd., as a sense of urgency in creating a new series of bonafide boxing stars is crucial to the Golden Boy Promotion’s future.
