BOXING FEELING THE “BITE” OF UFC & NO DON KING?
Don King
San Francisco, CA– Boxing official Jake Hall sent me a list he had received from Tim Lueckenhoff, he of the Assn. of Boxing Commissions and Missouri Athletic Commission fame. Lueckenhoff’s numbers were telling. California had 90 shows in 2013, compared to 130 in 2012 and 129 in 2011.
THE “ANYTHING GOES” LONE STAR STATE
Texas upped their shows from 60 in 2012 to 65 in 2013. New York had 48 cards in 2013, compared to 40 in 2012. Oregon had NO shows according to the report. Ex-Oregon Athletic Commission head William Bruce Anderson, whom I exposed in a series of articles as a guy that had not been in his office for months at a time by “call forwarding” phone calls to his house, Anderson was making $90 grand in the early 90s, yet he had forced both wrestling and boxing completely out of the state.
ARIZONA SINCE MCKINN’S CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE WAS SHUTTERED!
There were many years that Arizona had a good number of shows. Not in 2013 as they tallied 8, same as 2012. When the jailed Top Rank promoter Peter McKinn was running shows with impunity, fake medical records, they had over 20 circa 2006. Alaska hasn’t had a card since 2006, where they had 1. Colorado showed a slight uptick from 14 in 2012 to 17 last year.
THOSE CALIFORNIA NUMBERS SAY A LOT!
Florida had 28 shows in 2013 compared to 25 in 2012. New Jersey had 20 last year, 25 on 2012. California is the real barometer here as the country’s busiest Commission dropped from 130 as I said in 2012 to 90 last year. That is the most telling number and indicates, at least to me, that the UFC is making an impact on boxing.
Pedro Fernandez