“BOXING ESTABLISHMENT” PICKED YOUR POCKET
Al Haymon
San Francisco, CA– The sport of boxing has been missing from the TV Guide of the American masses for almost a quarter century. While there are a plethora of reasons why boxing could not get on Network TV, the bottom line is the “Boxing Establishment,” which can easily be described as the games’s top 2% greatly flourished in a time when it’s audience was significantly shrinking.
NO NETWORK TV “INTENTIONAL” BY ARUM, ET AL?
Stop scratching your head and I’ll take you down the road of greed that kept the sport from Network TV and why people like promoters Bob Arum, Don King, et al, really didn’t care whether they had Network TV or not because they were pocketing millions on Pay Per View.
ARUM DIDN’T GET BOXING BACK ON FREE TV
Again, if you’re making hundreds of millions of dollars serving a minuscule percentage of the US population, why would Arum and company need to reach out to the masses? They didn’t need to and apparently didn’t want to put boxing on Network TV because “the boxing establishment” was getting fatter than the late Cedric Kushner in the 1980s sans any Network or free TV.
HAYMON & ARUM HAVE BITTER DIFFERENCES
Al Haymon and Bob Arum are Harvard graduates. That is where the comparisons stop. Haymon is a Black entrepreneur who made money promoting musical acts. Arum is a White ex-US Attorney General and admitted Felon who made his money in boxing and wedlock.
CROCODILE TEARS REPLACED BY TEARS OF JOY/GREED
Bob Arum
When Network TV pulled out, Arum whined but then took his act to HBO and eventually Pay Per View. The fact that events were being purchased by venues (hotels, casinos, stadiums) and airing on HBO/HBO PPV or their Showtime counterparts, essentially eliminated most of the work of the promoter as the venue takes care of the live gate and the Network handles the advertising and marketing.
PROMOTER ROLE ALMOST ELIMINATED
What has occurred is that HBO, Showtime, these are today’s real promoters in boxing. All Arum and his co-horts do is deliver the fighters, much like mailmen with bags of pugilistic talent, bringing them to addresses like 1100 Ave. of The Americas, the HBO offices in NYC.
AL HAYMON HAS “BOXING ESTABLISHMENT” REELING
The aforementioned Al Haymon and his group, Premier Boxing Champions have aired four shows on NBC, three on CBS I believe, Spike TV and a number of other cable and television entities. For those of you with just a VHF dial, that means you’ve been able to watch world class boxing sans having to do anything outside of adjusting your rabbit ears.
OSCAR FILES $300 MILLION SUIT VS “BIG AL”
This week in Los Angeles, Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions filed a $300 million suit against Al Haymon and company alleging violation of the Ali Act. Richard Schaeffer, Oscar’s brain in business and ex-CEO, has a NON Performance clause and cannot return to boxing until August. This in my opinion has Bob Arum’s fingerprints all over it.
“ESTABLISHMENT” BANDING TOGETHER TO KILL HAYMON
The Assn. of Boxing Commissions, the Federal agency that governs boxing on a national scale, has asked Attorney General Loretta Lynch to consider prosecuting Al Haymon for violation of the Muhammad Ali Boxing Act, the first and only time in the agency’s history (I believe) that they have referred anything to the US Justice Dept. since their 1996 conception.
BRIEF SYNOPSIS OF BOXER PAYCHECK
Haymon runs Premier Boxing Champions, a firm that has hundreds of millions of dollars invested in it, some Yankee money, some British. The fact that he is also an “advisor” to well over 100 boxers, this has the “Boxing Establishment” crying “foul.” They want the biggest piece of the pie, then the fighter gets his cut before the manager’s 33%, trainer 10%, cut-man 2%, all before taxes. Haymon takes a flat 10%, in addition to paying fighters more money by far than anybody else today.
“BOXING ESTABLISHMENT” WANTS TO “GO BACKWARDS”
Although, “power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely,” it is Arum, boxing’s most successful promoter who has had the “absolute power” for decades and with that power didn’t put boxing on Free TV because he is making too much money NOT doing so.
TIME TO “REVISE” MUHAMMAD ALI ACT?
I’m not going to belabor the fact that the Assn. of Boxing Commissions has limited powers as Senator Harry Reid, on behalf of his Nevada constituents helped make both the “Ali Act & the ABC,” the semi-impotent bodies of work they are. Word has it was Reid who stripped away a lot of the law’s enforcement teeth.
LARRY MERCHANT HOPES HAYMON PLAN WORKS
One member of boxing’s elite, albeit retired, the former HBO Godfather Larry Merchant said on Ring Talk that he hopes, “Haymon is successful in bringing boxing back” to the masses.
ALI ACT PROBE WILL NOT SAVE ESTABLISHMENT
The people that control boxing are losing grip, if they have not yet lost it and they are looking to the Federal Government to restore their power and run the savior of boxing, at least in 2015, Al Haymon out of the game! Al Haymon is smart enough to address these “Ali Act” issues, thus he will not be thwarted by “The Establishment.”
Pedro Fernandez
Note: Mr. Fernandez is an award-winning writer, TV commentator, radio talk show host, former San Francisco Policeman and four-time Golden Gloves champion. Comments regarding this submission can be left below under the advertising.
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BOXING REBIRTH ON FREE TV THREATENED