Hauser: HBO and the State of Boxing - Part II

http://www.maxboxing.com/news/promo-lead/hbo-and-the-state-of-boxing--part-two1

Covers the relationship between GBP and HBO and their output deal that expires the end of 2011

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When Jay Larkin was in charge of Showtime’s boxing program, he instituted a policy that encouraged contracts for one fight at a time rather than multi-fight deals. He called the policy “great fights, no rights.” Golden Boy’s output deal with HBO could have been called “great rights, no fights.” In effect, HBO said to Golden Boy, “Don’t tell us what the fights are. Surprise us.”

Asked about the output deal, Schaefer says, “If you have the talent, you get the dates."

But another way of looking at it is, “If you have the dates, you get the talent.”

HBO’s output deal with Golden Boy wasn’t based on fighters that Golden Boy had. It was based on fighters that Golden Boy was expected to sign in the future because it now had financial backing from the network and could tell fighters, “Sign with us. We can put you on HBO.”

Kathy Duva on their deal

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A refrain that rival promoters say they often hear from Davis is, “We don’t have any open dates. Why don’t you talk with Golden Boy.”

There was no room at the inn for Zab Judah until Kathy Duva of Main Events (Judah’s promoter) went to Richard Schaefer. HBO then agreed to televise Judah vs. Lucas Matthysse from the Prudential Center in Newark on November 6th, but insisted that it be paired with Robert Guerrero against Vincente Escobar. Matthysse, Guerrero, and Escobar are all Golden Boy fighters.

“Look at the undercard for Judah-Matthysse,” Duva says. “I wanted to work with Russell Peltz and put Mike Jones in the co-feature against another top welterweight. Mike is from Philadelphia. He’s undefeated and has a big fan following. It would have given him a foothold in the Prudential Center and established him as a future opponent for Andre Berto. But Golden Boy had the date; so instead, we’re stuck with two Mexican-Americans from California fighting in New Jersey in the first TV fight of the night. They’ll sell no tickets and the crowd won’t care.”

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“HBO and Golden Boy are destroying the farm system,” adds Kathy Duva. “Most promoters are afraid to put money into the long term development of a fighter, because they don’t want to develop a fighter and lose him. HBO decides it’s interested in somebody. Kery or someone else at HBO tells Golden Boy that it’s interested in the fighter. Then Golden Boy offers the fighter a big signing bonus and high purse minimums because they know they’ll get dates for him on HBO. It happened to us and it happens to other promoters all the time. Golden Boy has been in business for years and, even with everything it gets from HBO, it still hasn’t developed a star of its own. Its main attractions have all been developed by someone else. But you get to a certain point and you almost have to look for a one-shot pay-off with your fighter instead of building him for the future because you’re afraid that Golden Boy will come in with HBO’s money and steal him.”

“They’re partners,” Duva continues. “That’s what Richard Schaefer says. ‘We’re partners with HBO.’ Bob Arum didn’t make them his partner. I didn’t; Don King didn’t. When Golden Boy came in; that was when this started happening.”

Good for the fighters short term, bad for the fighters long term. Always bad for the fans. Someone has to stand up to Golden Boy. This is essentially what Al Haymon seems to be doing as well.

If the fighters continue to lose their fan base then there will be no money to pay them.

+1 HB