EXCELLENT article on Non-Moneymaking fighters who still get PAID big by HBO

I gave Steve Kim shit for the Margo-Pac lovefest he was spewing the other day on twitter.

But he wrote a good article on guys like Andre Berto and Paul Williams, fighters who cant draw for shit but still get paid 7 figures from HBO.


Its a long article so i wont copy and paste it. But it is a good informative read.

http://www.maxboxing.com/news/main-lead/so-is-a-tulip-worth-more-than-a-berto

Ali, you got on Cotto a lil bit for not wanting to fight Berto. I always stated that if Arum told Cotto to fight Berto, that Cotto would. This basically proves my point. This is Arum speaking.

"Because, I mean, you get a kid like Andre Berto and Lou DiBella called me up and he said, ’How much do you think HBO would pay for a [Miguel] Cotto-Berto fight?’ I said, ’How much do you think?’ He said, ’About three million.’ I said, ’What does your guy want to do the fight?’ He said, ’About $1.8 million.’

"I said, ’Are you f**kin’ nuts?! Your guy can’t sell a ticket,’ Arum recalled. “It’s a totally artificial market. This reminds me of the tulips. Do you remember the tulips? Where they were selling tulips for unbelievable money; there was a market being made in tulips and suddenly, one day people said, ’What, are we crazy? They’re tulip bulbs!’ and the market collapsed overnight."

Some numbers from the article.

Berto-Quintana sold 972 tickets, generating $105,759 in revenue. Berto still got paid 1.5 million.

Williams-Cintron sold 2,422 tickets, generating $135,640 in revenue. Williams srtill made 7 figures for the fight.

Al Haymon definitely knows how to make money for his fighters.

al haymon and the boys will soon find out that hbo showtime and company are starting to wake up...the resent turn downs of great offers by the fighters is delivering a wake up call...watch next year.

Nice article, thanks!

I believe if my memory isn't failing, that Dougie Fisher, has said before that Kim had been the one that first called Margarito, the Tijuana tornado, and eventually it stuck. So I believe he has had a personal connection with that fighter and that probably plays alot into his decision to believe that margarito didn't know about his plaster wraps.

1 thing

take every "insider insight" from Bob Arum with a thousand grains of salt

This was a great post. A lot of foreshadowing.

SlickMoneyXL wrote:

Ali, you got on Cotto a lil bit for not wanting to fight Berto. I always stated that if Arum told Cotto to fight Berto, that Cotto would. This basically proves my point. This is Arum speaking.

"Because, I mean, you get a kid like Andre Berto and Lou DiBella called me up and he said, ’How much do you think HBO would pay for a [Miguel] Cotto-Berto fight?’ I said, ’How much do you think?’ He said, ’About three million.’ I said, ’What does your guy want to do the fight?’ He said, ’About $1.8 million.’

"I said, ’Are you f**kin’ nuts?! Your guy can’t sell a ticket,’ Arum recalled. “It’s a totally artificial market. This reminds me of the tulips. Do you remember the tulips? Where they were selling tulips for unbelievable money; there was a market being made in tulips and suddenly, one day people said, ’What, are we crazy? They’re tulip bulbs!’ and the market collapsed overnight."

I take back what I said, Berto seems to be developing into a greedy little punk.

Ali_1748 wrote:

SlickMoneyXL wrote:

Ali, you got on Cotto a lil bit for not wanting to fight Berto. I always stated that if Arum told Cotto to fight Berto, that Cotto would. This basically proves my point. This is Arum speaking.

"Because, I mean, you get a kid like Andre Berto and Lou DiBella called me up and he said, ’How much do you think HBO would pay for a [Miguel] Cotto-Berto fight?’ I said, ’How much do you think?’ He said, ’About three million.’ I said, ’What does your guy want to do the fight?’ He said, ’About $1.8 million.’

"I said, ’Are you f**kin’ nuts?! Your guy can’t sell a ticket,’ Arum recalled. “It’s a totally artificial market. This reminds me of the tulips. Do you remember the tulips? Where they were selling tulips for unbelievable money; there was a market being made in tulips and suddenly, one day people said, ’What, are we crazy? They’re tulip bulbs!’ and the market collapsed overnight."

I take back what I said, Berto seems to be developing into a greedy little punk.

gotta love Ali's passion. At least he's consistant!!! LOL!

LOL!