Smaller promoters uneasy under shadow of looming Golden Boy
Promoters Lou Dibella and Gary Shaw, never hush about conspiracies-that-be in the boxing world, have responded to comments made by Golden Boy CEO Oscar De la Hoya.
De la Hoya recently spoke with Ben Grossman of Broadcasting and Cable and said, essentially, that his promotional company is out to rule the boxing world to the exclusion of their competitors. The “Golden
Boy” himself accused veteran promoters Don King and Bob Arum of having a chokehold on the sport for too long and vowed to try to change the game.
Changing the game for De la Hoya would mean squashing competition. It would mean goodbye to smaller promoters like Lou Dibella and Gary Shaw.
Golden Boy’s last big card, featuring “Sugar” Shane Mosley and Sergio Mora, was called “Celebrate and Dominate.” Perhaps their next card will be called: “who should we put out of business now?”
Dibella spoke about Golden Boy’s intentions, saying casually: "Frankly, I don't see any news in this. That's been the approach of Golden Boy for some time and they have been aided by some co-conspirators.
My response is that this (model) is something we've been seeing in action for some time, nothing new to it at all."
While Dibella wasn’t surprised, he still isn’t prepared for a full-on Golden Boy onslaught. Lacking the resources and sway financial capital has bought Golden Boy, Dibella seems to assume a fatalistic
matter on the news, that one day it’ll simply all just go up in flames.
Shaw fumed and showed more life, saying after reading De la Hoya’s interview online he expects the former fighter to hire Ultimate Fighting Championships president Dana White so boxing can be run like
the UFC. Then he expects him to meet with HBO and discuss together how the two companies can avoid an antitrust lawsuit.
As it stands Golden Boy has an “output” deal with the broadcasting company that insures they are favoured with the broadcasting company above all competition. This translates into Golden Boy fighters
receiving, contractually, a majority of broadcasted airtime. Other promoters such as Dibella and Shaw have roundly criticized this business practice.
De la Hoya recently said Golden Boy is on schedule to become a lifestyle brand, promoting clothing lines and high-end cologne. De la Hoya is also a part-owner of the Major League Soccer club, the Houston
Dynamo, and was recently given the green light to build a new stadium in Houston for the team. Oh, and did we mention Golden Boy owns the rights to the Ring Magazine, and effectively their titles?
Evidently the question is if or when De la Hoya is going to take over the world.
But whereas for De la Hoya revision and revolution in the boxing world is a question of cleaning it up, you can be sure for others it wouldn’t be cleaning up so much as cleaning up shop.
Shaw was quick to point out that ultimately De la Hoya will seek to usurp the place of major networks and broadcast Golden Boy events himself, similar to the UFC platform.
"That, again, is the UFC model to have their own platform to telecast the events," Shaw reminded. "I've been telling (HBO Sports president) Ross Greenburg this for a year or so. They don't think they
need an HBO, they want to eliminate HBO and do their own platform. That's why I don't understand HBO paying for fights like (Shane) Mosley and (Sergio) Mora."
The future of professional boxing? One house, one team, one station?
As far as Shaw’s own future as a promoter goes, he joked with all-too-present anxiety: “I'll just dust off my resume, I guess, and go see Oscar. Maybe Oscar can give me a job."
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